DD hates her uni course - advice please!

[debjud]

Four weeks into her course, DD is having a great social life at uni, is on sports teams and has joined a couple of other groups. Is having a great time - BUT - says she thinks she is on the wrong course, hates quite a lot of it (and likes some of it). - RG uni.

I have suggested to her that she speaks to her personal tutor within the dept, to see how the bits she hates fit into the the whole 3 (or 4) years to give her some perspective. But I also wondered if there was a course she could change onto and have suggested she looks into that too.

On the one hand, it is very early days. On the other hand, if she was to change (and was accepted), I suppose sooner rather than later would be preferable.

She has a history of this whenever there is change - when she started gcse's, A levels (changed A level at xmas in y12) and now this. However, she also ended up with 3 x A*'s so I suppose feels somewhat vindicated)

I think I was a bit short with her on the phone, because part of me thinks that while I am v pleased she's so happy with the rest of uni life, I'm also paying for accommodation - and it's not just for partying and cricket....

Would be v interested to hear from anyone else who has had the same situation, perhaps with older DC's

A course choice should depend on the interest and taste of a student. Your DD should be trained in what she is interested in. How difficult a portion might be, if she has immense interest in it , she can very well follow that topic. A guy in my neighborhood is now doing Renewable energy training course in Toronto ( www.cestarcollege.com/courses/ ) . I was hearing about this course for the first time when he told me about this. But he is very interested in the course and talks about it a lot. I am sure that he will succeed since he had chosen a field which he is interested in. So try to help her identify what her interest lies in. And help her to choose a uni course leading to that career. Thanks!

I changed courses after arriving at university, in fact I changed courses quite a bit in the first few weeks! Very expensive in text books it was. I applied for a joint degree in International Politics and Economics, but as I didn't have maths A level they made me do a maths course, plus everyone had to do a fairly basic Economics course (I did A level Economics so had covered most of the material) and I found that I was left with very little choice of interesting courses so I dropped the economics part of the degree and tried out quite a few things before finding the courses I enjoyed. I don't remember telling my parents very much at all!

I would also say, encourage her to find out if there is an easy change to be made sooner rather than later. If not, there is every chance things will change over the year but best to investigate all options. My daughter's at Uni of Birmingham and a fair few do drop out. A girl in my daughter's first year flat dropped out of Sociology just before the end of year exams, and if she had raised her concerns sooner, could possibly have transferred course but instead just stopped attending lectures and focused on the social events.

If she drops out early to start again next year, she will only owe a small proportion of the fee loan for this year, based on how long she was there.

Also, every student gets access to 4 years of funding to "allow for false starts". Although this means an extra £9,000, because of the cap on repayments and with the debt written off after 30 years, it will not necessarily mean a larger debt to repay. However, nobody can be sure what will happen if the student debt portfolio is sold off and the repayment terms changed, so it is hard to look into the future on student finance (v unsatisfactory) and also - will it affect her ability to finance a fourth year eg pgce? Don't know the answer but these are the sorts of finance issues she needs to check. Don't envy you.

IME engineering-type degrees that allow you to get a place without maths a-level are often disingenuous because the maths module they usually require students to do in the first year is effectively aimed at bringing the student's maths standard up to a-level-plus in one year. Which is all very well but the majority of people who have the capacity and interest in maths to do it at that level would have chosen to do it at a-level, and the people who arrive at uni without maths a-level are often aggrieved at quite how much maths expertise they are expected to accrue very quickly.

It's usually quite easy to change course, and definitely the sooner the better.

Well it was never meant to be an engineering degree at all - it's a Product Design degree - in some universities it's within the School of Art eg Edinburgh. But sounds like you might be right ......

Hmmmm ... I see your point there about the way the degree is placed, BUT in cases where degrees with the same name at different places can be vastly different in emphasis & curriculum it is the responsibility of the applicant to think about this -- look at the information, go to OPemn days etc, to learn about the emphasis of the degree in each particular institution.

A parallel example might be in something like music or drama: some universities offer a more vocational (conservatoire) training emphasising actual music playing. Others offer more theory and don't aim to produce graduate musicians (ie accomplished players of instruments).

My gardener did a product design course at an ex-poly -- it was far more engineering-oriented than a course in an art school might be.

can anyone help me? My son has told me he wants to leave uni but he is asking for my advice and he's in his first year! he's 20 and we had some teething issues as to whether he ever wanted to go to uni in the first place, but he has settled in so well and the change in him is a positive one(more mature) and he has signed up to live in a house with several friends for next year. Unfortunately one of his close friends has just dropped out and i think this has spurred him on but i don't know how troubled he's been as he says he feels he's letting us (his parents down) and appreciates all the support we've given him. I turns out he has missed some work and he feels the course is not interesting enough but the bottom line is he says he can't motivate himself. he was diagnosed with dyslexia at the point of taking his A-levels and needs more support but though he has the equipment he needs he docent have any extra support and he is loathe to own up to the fact he needs it. It takes him so long to complete essays etc.

Fairy I think you will get more replies if you start a new thread.