How easy is it to swap course in the first few weeks of UNI?

[tommycockles]

DD is having second thoughts.
She is due to start in just over a week. It's not nerves, it's been like this since she applied.
She never knew what she wanted to study so picked one of her A level subjects. She is an all rounder and got 3 As and offers from Russell groups. The place is at a Russell Uni.
No specific career plans.

She definitely, definitely wants to go to University. No doubts. Deferral not an option now as her accommodation has been paid for in full. And she is desperate for the whole uni experience.

It would be a sideways sort of swap like a humanities subject to another humanities. But different departments.
Not a total change like swapping physics for art.

I think she should at least try her chosen course.

Has anyone been in any sort of similar situation?

I started Uni 2017 and was only there for 8 weeks before I had to leave due to health issues. I thought about leaving for good until my tutor advised me that if the course wasnt right for me then I could change it. It wasnt the course, it was my health so in the end I took an interruption to study year and returned 2018. I think that your DD will be able to change course although im not sure about how it alk works. Sorry but hth x

It depends totally if there is space for her on the new course and if she meets the entry requirements. My advice would be to phone the Admissions Office in morning and ask them. It's not unusual for students to get a place on course X with a view to transferring to course Y following enrolment only to be sadly disappointed because the course was full and/or they didn't have the entry requirements. This happens more often than not at the sort of uni's you're talking about.

It's an awful lot of money to burn if she's not sure what she wants to study. Sounds like she's caught up with the idea of going to uni but has no clue why or to what end. I would see if you can get a refund on the accommodation and give her a year to do some proper research on what she wants to study and why.

"It's an awful lot of money to burn if she's not sure what she wants to study. Sounds like she's caught up with the idea of going to uni but has no clue why or to what end. I would see if you can get a refund on the accommodation and give her a year to do some proper research on what she wants to study and why."

I agree with this ^^
DD had a gap year because she had a wobble about the course (and the location of the university) she was going to go to. She had more time to consider her options, and after a second round of open days she had a better idea of what she wanted to do - not only at university, but after she graduates.

IMO just going to university to enjoy the experience is the wrong reason to go.

I think she’s been a bit daft to be honest with you. Who applies to uni with absolutely no thought?! ‘

‘Uni life’ is NOT what you see on the tv. It sounds to me like although she’s very intelligent (clearly), she’s immature and has gotten caught up in the fictional representation of what uni is like.

As it’s not a case of last minute nerves, this thought process should’ve come before she applied.

We have gone round in circles over the last two years. Which degree??
A gap year was ruled out because she has never had a career in mind. There's no basis to think a year off would help.
She's not immature. She just doesn't know what job she wants.
She's very bright and engaged and she can turn her hand to anything ( which is curse and a gift). She wants to go to uni to challenge herself academically as well as moving away from our small town.

I still think she should give her course a try.

Your post concerns me because if in the future she realises there is a degree she actually wants to do or needs to do for her career she will need to fund it herself and then she'll have twice the amount of student debt.

Has she considered other options like apprenticeships? Or just getting a job to start getting an idea of what she might want to do? Sorry, I just don't see the point in spending £££s on a degree she's not that interested in just so that she can move out of her home town. Uni is not the only way to challenge yourself intellectually, just one example is the excellent (and well paid) apprenticeships that GCHQ run.

She considered everything.
She was offered a really well paid job but turned it down as she knew long term it wasn't what she wanted to do. And she not motivated by money

She's just second guessing her chosen subject. The alternative is no better or worse than original.

Even as a small child she never had a favourite toy or a best friend or many preferences at all. Choosing GCSEs and A levels was tricky for her. Other than Latin, she was keen to get rid of that!

Lots of jobs just need a good degree as a starting point, subject often irrelevant, for example
graduate training schemes; even lawyers can start without a law degree at the beginning.

If you don't have a burning passion what are you supposed to do?
Better to study something than end up in a job at just 18 you don't want. Hopefully the uni experience buys some time and possibly inspires her.

I feel people are missing the point however well intentioned they may be.
She is virtually packed and ready!

We are looking for advice or experience on changing courses. She wants to go to university, that part is settled.

But thank you to everyone so far.

Well, I did give you advice about changing courses right at the start of the thread and that advice still stands - you need to phone the Admissions Team this morning.

My other advice comes from years of witnessing first hand what happens when kids are undecided about their course. It's far better to spend a few years in the real world finding your passion or even just what you're interested in than going to study something just for the sake of getting a random degree.

But if she's determined to go and money is no object then I wish her every success.

Of course she doesn't know what she wants to do, she's eighteen?! The majority that 'do' end up changing their mind as they grow up.
I'd stick with the original degree (it will be very different to A-Level and she might enjoy it). With regards to a job (unless she wants to do something directly related to the subject e.g. dentist from dentistry) then I wouldn't worry too much. I have a great graduate job which isn't remotely linked to my degree (a lot of graduate companies will just need a degree).

This may be a ridiculous suggestion, but could she just gate-crash a few lectures in the other potential course in the first couple of weeks as a kind of compare and contrast? It's not as if humanities has many lectures is it? Then she would have some real experience to go on if she were to request a change?

There doesn't seem to be any point swapping right now since she is still undecided.

My kids went to RG Unis and there were always a few people who changed courses. I'd be optimistic that your daughter will be able to especially for a humanities subject. I get the impression that Uni's will always try and help.
One of my kids friends switched a few times. 😅

I'd get her to phone and ask.

Can you say which Uni it is?

It is unlikely things will be set in stone from year 1 eg there are often shared modules across several courses and choice of options in year 2 and 3 sets degree title.
Take a look at the two course pages for any overlap as that might be reassuring. Dependss of course on how similar the other course is ie maybe not if swapping french for Spanish!

Previous poster is right, at my uni you can audit other courses eg attend without being committed to doing the exam and in later years there is a time period in which you can change modules after the semester starts (space permitting of course)

I changed course, but this was at the end of my first year. Both courses had the same core first year units and only differed by a couple of other units but they came under different departments, so I changed department. I would suggest as others have suggested that you contact the departmental admissions administrator for the subject she wants to move to ASAP. There may not, however, be space, so then she's have to decide whether to take a gap year.

Going back years ago you could change course straightaway as long as the course you wanted to do wasn't 'full' plus it may have depended on your grades.

I feel people are missing the point however well intentioned they may be.

As an academic of many years experience at RG universities, I'm afraid you're actually the one missing the point.

Your account of your DD rather makes my heart sink. University is hard work - far harder than A Levels, and it requires taking responsibility.

If your DD wants 'the university experience' and you are facilitating that, rather than asking her the hard questions, what do you bot think that is? Is there any experience of going to university in your family?

At the centre of 'the university experience' is the actual learning - the immersion in a discipline, the learning of subject content, and developing and applying critical thinking to that subject content, to develop an independence of thinking and an ability to go on to lifelong learning in a professional context.

Frankly, if a student came to me within the first couple of weeks of university to swap courses, without a sensible & authentic (not just made up "passion") reason for wanting to swap courses, I would recommend a year out. There are too many resources at stake - your DD's time, her loan, hers and your cash, the University place, and the University staff time to get her this far.

You may not like the responses you're getting to your question, but you should listen - at least to work out why you are so resistant to taking good advice.

Sorry OP, but to say she wants the 'university experience' is not good - she's going to end up with a large amount of debt and still no clear idea of what she wants to do!

See if you can get a refund on the accommodation and get her to take a year out. If she goes to Uni then she'll lose a year of her loan.

Frankly, if a student came to me within the first couple of weeks of university to swap courses, without a sensible & authentic (not just made up "passion") reason for wanting to swap courses, I would recommend a year out

It's presumably not up to you though?

Op, there's a lot of snippy judgemental bullshit on here. All you need to do is ring admissions and see if she can change course. If not, then you go from there.

Fwiw dds bf changed courses after a term and he is at Durham, they were totally helpful about it.

The point of uni is study not The Curse of The Experience (as we called it, shortened to The Experience).

I lost track of the number of students I'd see who would come to me in the first weeks or months and say they wanted to swap to something else, minimal digging would result in discussion about The Experience. I came to the conclusion a lot of students and possibly schools and their families are wrapped up in The Experience and so totally miss the point.

The point is to study, to gain qualification to get on in the world of work. Graduate schemes don't always specify a scheme but students need to show they're committed to a scheme via other study/extra curricular activities. Yes students can change their minds, I did.

So many, more than you'd imagine, drop out because of The Experience. To begin with its all very exciting and lots of clubs, new people etc but that wears off, quickly and students can find themselves far away and feeling totally lost.

What's so different about the other course? Where will that lead her? If the answers are don't know and don't know then she isn't ready.

Finally, It's not only about the cost, though that's a huge thing for many, it will effect her self esteem and possibly mental health doing a course her heart isn't in, ultimately effecting her grades, or darn causing her to drop out. Yes she can, if money no object, study again BUT it isn't as simple as just reapplying, she'd be asked what happened with her first course and likewise with employment.

I think you need to have a serious sit down and chat about this. Not The Experience. But The Reality. She's going to study not for the rest of it. It definitely sounds like she needs a year out to find herself and what she wants, no shame in that at all. I understand she's living somewhere small and has a form of cabin fever but again that can be a recipe for disaster as well as she may be romanticising living in a more populated area (everyone does that, grass is greener etc).

snippy judgemental bullshit

In my case it's experience and I'm trying to help the OP daughter avoid what I've seen others go through. We even had students end their lives because they'd no idea The Experience wasn't all uni was about.

IF the OP daughter knew what she wanted to do e.g chose English but decided she wanted to do history instead having been going back and forth between the two for two years and found a career she's interested in then fine but it simply doesn't read like that to me. Of course that might be the case. Just doesn't seem like it to me.

We even had students end their lives because they'd no idea The Experience wasn't all uni was about

Oh don't be absurd.

Universities pride themselves on 'the experience'

Join societies, join clubs, make friends, go to the pub with them.

It's spending three years stressing about getting a first and spending all your time alone in the library that can damage mental health.

It's presumably not up to you though?

It is if I'm the Director of Education for the Department/course into which the OP's DD wants to transfer. It's an academic decision at this point.

If there's room in the desired course
If the A Levels & any other pre-requisites are met

And everything Becca says. I've seen similar situations far too often.

If I ruled the world (cue Harry Secombe) no student would be permitted to go straight from school to university: they'd have to spend a year doing some sort of useful activity in the community - in a scheme of national civic service.

If there's room in the desired course, If the A Levels & any other pre-requisites are met

Yes which can be discovered with a simple phone call.

Presumably if the Ops dd got three As and has gained entry to Russell group uni in one humanities subject then she is qualified to do another humanities subject IF she has an A level in it.