• Question: Were you ever afraid that you picked the wrong subject at college or wrong degree at University?

    Asked by Helena Dixon on 13 Jun 2023.
    • Photo: Laura Thomas-Walters

      Laura Thomas-Walters answered on 13 Jun 2023:

      Sure! I started university doing Religious Studies. I soon realised I wasn’t passionate about the subject though, and really wanted to work with animals. I found a different course, Animal Science, and transferred to that instead.

    • Photo: Emma Spooner

      Emma Spooner answered on 14 Jun 2023:

      Yes, I found my degree really hard and I didn’t like all of the things I covered (e.g. I didn’t like organic chemistry, but I liked materials science). I finished, and discovered I could specialise more into the topics I did like afterwards. I might have had a better time picking a slightly different starting degree, but I think it’s also important to remember that a lot of science degrees are quite broad- if you like parts of it you can do more of those during the degree (by module picking) or afterwards (in work or further study). If you don’t like any of it, then maybe it is the wrong choice- in which case it’s always better to stop and rethink than to keep doing something you don’t enjoy.

    • Photo: Sharron Kenny

      Sharron Kenny answered on 14 Jun 2023:

      my undergraduate degree was biology – because it was my best subject but i realised just before graduation that if i wanted to stay local that i needed something more to find a science job. so i did a masters in forensic science and that added more chemistry into my background.

      there can be many ways to get to the same place. if i could change anything is these days big science companies now offer apprentice schemes or young scientist placements and this is something i would have definitely considered as they are paid for positions and instead of student debt when you graduate they pay for your degree at university

    • Photo: Amy Stockwell

      Amy Stockwell answered on 15 Jun 2023:

      I definitely had a few bad days where I had low confidence and thought that I was too stupid to be doing my degree.

      But I chose A-levels (physics, chemistry and maths) and a degree (Natural Sciences, specialised in chemistry) which I loved, because I found them so interesting. They are also the foundation for so many jobs becuase the information and skills can be applied to so many different topics, that I was never afraid that I was going to be constrained in finding a job.

    • Photo: Ferran Brosa Planella

      Ferran Brosa Planella answered on 15 Jun 2023:

      Yes! In the first two years I struggled, especially with the maths, and I thought I wasn’t good enough (spoiler alert, a few years later I got a PhD in Mathematics haha).

    • Photo: Alexander De Bruin

      Alexander De Bruin answered on 16 Jun 2023:

      I think I always knew that it was on broadly the right course, and I gradually got to discover what aspects I found most interesting and focus in on them. If I did go back and choose something else, I would probably have chosen Music.

    • Photo: Tom Price

      Tom Price answered on 21 Jun 2023:

      Yes, in my first and second years at university I really didn’t know if I picked the right course – it was too technical and too much paperwork. That changed when I took a year out to work at an engineering company during university and I realised that I really enjoyed practical applications of science and maths.

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