Collecting my degree.....

LegacyUser

I know this isn't that bad a situation compared to others, but still, I just want a little advice.

I have to collect my degree in a few weeks...

Im not too bothered about going up to college to collect it, becuase it's only an ordinary degree, and a fairly miserable one at that.

So in my opinion, I don't deserve a big sesiún and marquee and a big applause all that for arsing my way through college and not even finishing properly - I still have one year to go but i didn't get the required % for the 4th year. I could have appealed to the faculty head and the dean, and it would have worked, but I hated my course so I'm actually glad for it to be over.

But I did get enough % for an ordinary degree.

I will be surrounded by Phd's and Masters and people with full 4-year honors degrees, and i'll be there collecting my shytey ordinary degree. I'm bound to bump into people I know who have gotten their full degrees and I'm gonna have to be all cheery and wooooo!!!

It's nothing to be proud of and I think it will just depress me being there, pretending to be happy like everybody else - especially with family. They don't know I didn't get in to 4th year. They think I'm deferring my 4th year for two years, and collecting my ordinary degree just to have it on the wall, then continuing my education in a year or two.

So is it much of a big deal? Would you go? Does one REALLY need to attend the conferral to get the degree? what would you do? I'm well confused about what to do.

LegacyUser

just ring the college and ask them to post it out to you. i did, no hassle at all...

Knockoff Nige

This reminds me of collecting my Leaving cert. There was no website to check out your results then. I didnt get to college so I havent experienced colelcting a degree but I was really dreading collecting my leaving cert results. I knew I did crap. I knew others would be there asking to see them. I knew everyone I hung around with had A's all over the place. I was the chancer in school (regret it to this day). I passed my Leaving cert, when people asked I told them I passed and then asked them did they pass. Everyone seemed to be doing that too. Noone wanted to show off their results. That helped.

I would suggest going up to collect it as you're only not going out of fear. Conquering this type of fear will serve you better than any degree, higher or ordinary.

Oryx

If you dont want to go, dont go. Im sure your college will send it to you instead, if you ask.

And dont be so down on yourself, youve one degree more than me.

lukin

i_dunno wrote:

But I did get enough % for an ordinary degree.

Read that again. Think of all the people who tried to get any kind of a degree and failed. Don't be so hard on yourself. It's up to yourself if you want to got to the conferring or not but don't tell yourself it's because you don't deserve to go. That's nonsense.

Deadevil129

lukin wrote:

Read that again. Think of all the people who tried to get any kind of a degree and failed. Don't be so hard on yourself. It's up to yourself if you want to got to the conferring or not but don't tell yourself it's because you don't deserve to go. That's nonsense.

^^^ Seconded

I come from a family where everyone heads to university or college, no questions asked and are expected to come out with top marks in everything. So I presumed that everyone went to college and everyone progressed to do Masters and a PhD. It's only once I finished my leaving cert I actually copped on to how many people were scrabbling around trying to find a PLC that would take them, nevermind a college. You're damn lucky to be where you are, whatever degree you have.

leeroybrown

In my opinion, the real question you have to ask yourself is why you feel the need to lie to cover up something that happens to loads of people? You'll just end up having to tell them or put up with constant nagging about why you're not going back. Also, why are you so worked up about not doing well in something you obviously disliked and want to move on from?

As for the conferring, it's customary that all undergrads make it for two main reasons: 1) it's really for the family photo opportunities and 2) it is nice to get a formal conferring where you can get together with friends.

There will be plenty of other people being conferred who are unhappy with their results or are just glad to be out of the degree course.

The Sweeper

I didn't bother going to get my degree. I took a sabbatical three months shy of my final year, then took a full year off, then went back and actually got my degree (to the astonishment of various people.) I did a degree with modular marking so I had no final exams per se, I completed all my assignments and then had to go and do a term at a foreign university. I didn't have the money to do it at the time and so just stepped out of the main stream of my mates, all of whom did it, and got a job instead for 18 months.

I had done nothing in university except piss my talent up against the wall and fall out with my lecturers, so I didn't go to collect the paperwork. They posted it to me at a later date. I'm not entirely sure what my grade even was - a pass? A 2:2? I know it wasn't a 2:1!! It's not on the degree paperwork.

Trust me - it's like the leaving cert - a few years after you have it you can't figure out what all the fuss was about.

Dalfiatach

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Trust me - it's like the leaving cert - a few years after you have it you can't figure out what all the fuss was about.

Too true. I finished my degree a long time ago - 1994 - and in the interim I've worked in a load of different jobs in 4 different countries. I've probably done hundreds of job interviews. And not once - not once - has anybody asked anything about my degree. Which is just as well, cos I don't remember a damn thing from it

I only did the stupid thing because the family were so bloody proud. One of our clan at University! Yup, I was the first in the entire family to go to college. I spent 3 years doing the bare minimum of work and partying heroically, scammed a 2:2, went to the whole stupid ceremony and got dressed up and got the photos and all purely to keep the mammy happy, and promptly wiped the whole experience from memory and went off and worked in a completely different field instead.

Go, if the mammy is looking forward to it, and put a brave face on the day for her sake. If not, don't bother. Ignore any other gob****es there. What business is it of theirs anyway? It's over, you've got the magical piece of paper which gets you past the HR muppets to get job interviews. Without the Sacred Scroll on your CV, it goes right in the bin. That, my friend, is the sole purpose of a degree. Hardly anyone I know with a degree is actually working in the field they allegedly studied. Go find something to do that you enjoy and can earn a crust in, and put all this headwrecking worry - over something that in the grand scheme of things matters not at all - behind you.

justsomebloke

i_dunno wrote:

So is it much of a big deal?
Would you go?
Does one REALLY need to attend the conferral to get the degree?
what would you do?
I'm well confused about what to do.

no,
I did,
no,
as I said I went,
what do YOU want to do.

Trust me nobody really cares what you got. If you want to go, then go it's a simple as that. If you are happy with your result that is all that matters don't worry about living up to others expectations of others if you do you will never appreciate the achievements that you have made.

Now that all said the day itself is crap so I wouldn't be too pushed about it, the only reason I went was that I knew it would be the last time that I ever saw some of the people in college and wanted to go on the lash one last time with them

Vegeta

Hey don't worry if you went somewhere like UL where they actually print what type of a degree everyone in the class got in the conferring handbook, then there's no worries as everyone will know exactly what everyone else got.

Didn't go to my graduation (got a 1:1) and don't regret it at all. I was in America at the time and would only have gone to make my mam and dad happy.

aidan24326

You're being very negative. Even if it's 'only' an ordinary degree, that's one more ordinary degree than alot of people have, and won't do you any harm in the long run. Whether you go to the ceremony or not doesn't matter but why not go? Go there and collect the degree that you earned. You could maybe do an honours degree at some future time.

Dalfiatach wrote:

Too true. I finished my degree a long time ago - 1994 - and in the interim I've worked in a load of different jobs in 4 different countries. I've probably done hundreds of job interviews. And not once - not once - has anybody asked anything about my degree. Which is just as well, cos I don't remember a damn thing from it

Depends what you study though. A more practical degree like engineering would be more likely to see you end up working in that area, as opposed to something like a BA in history or philosophy where it's unlikely to lead to a career in anything unless you want to be a teacher. What did you study that interviewers couldn't even be bothered to ask you about it?

LegacyUser

If you don't turn up, you will be conferred "in absentia" and your degree parchment will be sent out by post to your home address. You can call beforehand to confirm if it worries.

watna

I only have an ordinary degree too (I got enough to get in to 4th year but hated it and knew i didn't want to work in the area my degree was in). I presume you're talking about Trinity here. I didn't care that it was only an ordinary degree. I was miserable for three years and I just I deserved a day to feel better about it. It's not like you feel like a retard or anything. When I got mine there was about 10 of us getting the ordinary degree and as it was all in Latin (in Trinity) we were just called ceteri candidati or something like that. Basically it means other candidates. They don't make you wear a dunce cap or point and laugh. I felt worse for the poor guy who got a third (they call you up in order of how good your degree is). He was the only one but then everyone clapped really really loudly. If you really don't want to go, don't (although in Trinity i think you have to have quite a good excuse to not be there) but don't be ashamed of yourself. I got an ordinary degree and I'm doing quite well for myself. I'm sure, you, like me just did the wrong course. I reccommend you do what i did, hold your head in the air and go and have a fun day. I went and got pissed with some mates and had a big dinner and celelbrated, not that I'd done well but that i was finished and could move on with my life.

p.s. in interviews, once you get passed a year or two the ordinary degree thing doesn't come up. Especially if you have a good reason for it and are confident in your reasons. You don't need to say you didn't get a high enough mark, say it wasn't for you and you wanted to move on.

dudara

Ask to be conferred 'in absentia'. No probs.

Red Hand

Didn't collect my cert and so they posted it out. Didn't want the fuss of pretending to be happy collecting it (hated college). However, my Mum forced me to go and collect my ordinary degree, more for her sake than mine (she was mad at me for avoiding the first ceremony and not bringing her).

Don't go if you don't want to. It was a waste of time for me (college was a waste of time for me).

dame

A girl I knew in college said a few times towards the end of final year that if she only got a 3rd there was no way she'd go to the ceremony cos she'd be too embarrassed and if she only got a 2.2 she'd think about it but probably still not go. Guess what, she got a 3rd. OP, people will respect you more if you just go and hold your head up. People will wonder why you don't go and if you don't have a good reason like being in Australia or someplace then people will put two and two together and say "Oh poor X, didn't want to come cos only got an ordinary/3rd/whatever." Just go, have a photo taken, say a few hellos and then you can head away again and go for dinner with your parents somewhere away from the rest of the crowd if you like. If you decide you're not going though you should let the college know so they're not calling out your name and waiting for you on the day, or you'll be getting concerned/nosy phone-calls from others in your class wondering if you're alright and why didn't you come.

chris85

to be honest OP, noone really cares what you get, the day of conferral is not about seeing what other people got, most people there are just happy enough to recieve their own degree.

So basically, go if you want to. IF you don't wanna go, its not a big deal. I'm in a course i like and accepted by ordinary degree last year and went to recieve my degree only because it was on day after holloween and we had a bet who would be too hungover to make it.

Don't let it get to you if you don't wanna go. And by the way, no degree is crap, some work needs to be put in to get it

Dalfiatach

aidan24326 wrote:

Depends what you study though. A more practical degree like engineering would be more likely to see you end up working in that area, as opposed to something like a BA in history or philosophy where it's unlikely to lead to a career in anything unless you want to be a teacher. What did you study that interviewers couldn't even be bothered to ask you about it?

Not that it matters, but Commerce actually....and for the first few years I was working in the insurance industry! Been in IT for the last decade though. And it simply never comes up. I always thought it odd, because in the beginning I was doing interviews for insurance jobs and a degree in Commerce was certainly relevant; and after that you'd think it would crop up even as just a "why did you switch to IT" question. But nope, it has never been mentioned in interviews. It amuses me cos I could simply be lying about having a degree at all on the CV, and nobody would ever have checked...and because if anyone ever does ask me about it it'll look like I was lying on the CV cos I don't remember a thing from those 3 years

Ciara22

Dont think I shouldve read this thread....I only got a 3rd too . Thought it was grand cos its still an honours degree but now Im just gonna be laughed at!!!