Switching course/degree

[KIRN]

Hi Mumsnet,
Asking on here as I am the only person in my family who was born and raised in the UK, as well as having attended uni, so I don’t really have anyone to ask for advice. I did a foundation course at a different university for entry into any humanities degree available within the same faculty of my foundation. I then transferred universities to study an English degree, however I did not complete English A Level (silly me, I know).

It is the end of first year now and honestly I’m not sure if I am interested enough to continue my course for the next two years to the best of my abolify. I haven’t found the content as interesting or engaging as I thought I wouldve found it. I thought second/ third year content was more interesting, so I’m wondering if first year was just the driest part of the degree. We had to start from Medieval Literature, and I prefer contemporary literature (which I did in an optional unit & was the only 1 out of 5 I enjoyed this year) meanwhile first year mandatory units has focused on older texts. Looking at the later years units, there seems to be opportunity to study things that I’m genuinely interested in, so I don’t know whether it was just because I had a difficult first year or if I’m on the wrong course. I’m also thinking about the potential extra costs, the fact I will be two years behind my agemates (watching them graduate meanwhile I’m still in first year), spending three years as a fresher (even though I switched unis and my first year wasn’t a degree) and whether I will face similar issues with a different course.

I regret not choosing my favourite subject in school which was History, even though I never did well in exams due to unmedicated disabilities & no accommodations for it.

I probably add that I had recently diagnosed disabilities which were unmedicated, which worsened my ability to complete assessments (my uni is aware of this). My goal is to proceed with a law conversion (which requires good grades) or to enter consulting (which also requires good grades), as my university is prestigious enough to enter the latter to welcome my humanities degree.

Sorry, this is just my night thoughts (which means this post wasn’t written to the best of my ability) & also probably me overthinking. Can someone offer advice? Thank you and have a good night!

Medieval literature put me off studying for a long time. It's understandable!

Stop overthinking and complete what you set out to do. Choose the most interesting modules for the rest of your course, then if you want to study history, law or other things later on, you can.

From someone who didn't stop overthinking, changed course, dropped out and never finished a degree!

First of all, congratulations on knuckling down and completing your foundation year.

Are you planning to stay at (say) Oxford or UCL or whichever university you went to after your foundation year? If so, have you spoken to them to establish if they would allow you to transfer courses? They will all have their own processes.

Have you had your prelims results yet & are they good enough to secure a place on a different course? Why do you think another humanities course would be any better? What have you done to check that you would be happy this time?

Get in touch with your Personal Academic Tutor and talk to them. They can advise on the module content of years 2 and 3 and also about potentially switching to another degree. They also can direct you to disability support at your university. Communicate, don't fret in silence. You won't be the first or last student to have doubts.

A lot of first year content is dry. However it is also an opportunity to explore genres you might not otherwise have chosen and may even enjoy. Look at the subsequent years’ options and focus on what you prefer. If you liked history for example, use reading around the texts to add context and detail to your essays. You are not limited to reading the text or author itself. Have a discussion with your personal tutor, is there a combined course or Liberal Arts you could swap onto? It depends on what you hope to achieve afterwards if continuing is worthwhile but Law is very competitive even with a good degree and conversion course,

If you don’t find it interesting in first year then I’m afraid it’s probably not for you on its own. I did literature at university and found lots of us pursued joint honours with another subject which reduces the amount of literary analysis required and the modules - so you could then do contemporary lit and something like creative writing or philosophy or history. Ask your university if there is the option to do this.

However if you want to do a law conversion I would think that something like philosophy would work well as it introduces critical thinking, ethics and structured reasoning.

If you're relying on student finance to fund your studies, you need to be careful how many times you swap around. SF funds the length of 1 course plus 1 gift year. If your foundation year was not integrated, you may have already used up your gift year. Even if it was you have had 2 years funding, so starting a new degree from Y1 means that you will probably have to fund all of that first year yourself (fees and maintenance), and possibly Y2 as well. Definitely check with SF before making any final decisions.

First of all I think you need to consider do you really want to be at uni or are you just on that path with encouragement from others?

Look to see if your uni offers a liberal arts degree - these are degrees where you can do a mixture of english, history and many other subjects. If they do they might allow you to transfer and pressumably some of the units you have done could count towards that degree.

Apologies if I'm confusing you with someone else, but you had always wanted to do law or history, so switching to English was quite a change.

You really do need to stick to something now, especially if your path through your A levels didn't run smoothly. Speaking to your current uni to establish if it's even feasible should be your first move.

Honestly, I also question whether I want to be at uni as well but I come from a low income household, & I see uni as a way to access networks (which I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t get into uni) into good careers (law & consulting) rather than a direct trade school.

I actually did transfer from a Liberal Arts degree but my unis Liberal Arts degree was so restricted due to the compulsory modules (which I hated) I thought I might’ve just done English alone.

Youre confusing me with someone else. I haven’t posted about always wanting to do law or history. English was actually my second favourite subject in school, hence why I chose it. I knew I wanted to study something else’s before a law conversion as law wasn’t something I was 100% set on. My path (through the entirety of school actually) wasn’t smooth because I wasn’t diagnosed and didn’t have medication. I did well in class but it wouldn’t show up in a heavily exam-based system, which let me down at the end of A Levels. My degree was mainly coursework based (which also made me choose it) which helped me passed with a high 2.2 (not that great I know).

Apologies, there are a lot of similarities with another poster who often turns up at this time of year & posts in the early hours.

Have you looked at all the compulsory and optional modules within your English degree? If the contemporary modules are the ones you enjoy, can you focus on those and weave in others which will challenge you? I'm not convinced that switching again will resolve the problem.

Building up interests in the wider university community such as the law society or debating might help you decide where to head with your career. You will need to put in a lot of work beyond your degree to secure a grad scheme place for either law or consulting, so another course would be yet another distraction.