Problems starting college.

Collisionman

Over the past 3 months I've had quite a difficult time personally and I wanted to discuss them here seen as it is sort of discret.

This all really started around three months ago when I got my leaving cert results. I was so wound up about what I was going to get over the summer, it really got to my head. I wasn't really active over the summer either and the whole thing really went to my head, it was on my mind everyday. I would surf the internet for days finding out the trend in CAO points and if they would go up or down in what courses I wanted to do.

I really had my heart set on studying law and to be honest I foolishly put law courses down for the first seven places on my CAO. I was dead sure that I was going to get one of them. I put three down for science as well but I didn't put much thought into them at all.

When it came to the day of the leaving cert results it turned out that I got 430 and I needed 455 for a particular law course. At that point I was quite devestated. I had been planning to go out with my friends that night but didn't. For the next couple of days I didn't leave the house. I thought I would have been able to get the points but didn't. I thought I had done enough study but obviously not enough. I got offered a physics course in college I'm not going to mention. This was my 9th course on my CAO.

I wanted to repeat the leaving cert so I could get more points but my parents told me I was better off doing the course. I hadn't put much thought into putting this course down. The main worries I had was that (a) it wouldn't be for me and (b) I wouldn't get a job out of it. I've really put my parents through grief in the past few months about leaving the course to repeat.

I've now started the course and I can't say this hasn't gottin' much better. I was really negative going into the course and didn't make much friends at all. I think there's only about two people I speak to sometimes, and I would only speak to them about twice a week when I got to see them. There can be days when I don't say a word. I really lost confidence lately and even when I was beginning secondaty school it took me about three years to get friendly with people. I don't think it's because I'm stuck up or anything, but the whole thing has really gone to my head.

The issue about dropping out of college keeps on coming to mind and repeating my leaving but my parents are totally against it and tell me to just get on with it. I keep on thinking if the course I'm doing is worthwhile or if there are other course that I would be better at that I got the points for.

It's gottin' to a point where I just need to state my problem.

Can anyone give me some advise?
Is there anyone else in my situation?

Thanks very much!

lazygal

OP, I could have been you.
I started a course I wasn't very enthusiastic about or interested in when my dream was to study law. Like you, I wanted to leave but talked to my tutor in college and stuck it out to get a great degree. Do you know that you can study law to be a solicitor after getting a degree in ANY subject, I know because I did it! Have a look at the law society website to see how you can get there. I studied law at night, didn't become a solicitor but worked in a legal field. In the end, i moved into a completely different area and became a teacher.
My point is, you can get to a career in law through many routes. If you have time at Christmas try and get a couple of days work experience in practice and see if its for you-you might be stressing you're missing out on a career you might not even like!
Also, go and talk to your tutor about how you're feeling or a student counselling service. Its SO common to feel like this about a course that isn't your first choice (at least half my class fell into my course by accident as it was a catch-all area with a wide range of subjects). If you still want to change, sit your parents down, show them that post and tell them this is not a spur of the moment decision. However, I would stick out your course till the end of the year, I learned all the options I had after Christmas and loved studying my subjects in the end.
Best of luck and remember many people end up in a career far removed from the pressure of leaving cert results-not one person I know is in the field they thought they'd be in!

avalon68

I would just say that a physics degree can lead to varied career opportunities after college.....you dont necessarily have to be a physicist. For instance, it involves a lot of maths, which could lead you into accounting etc if you enjoy maths. A lot of people dont get their first choice in the CAO, but your science degree can be used as a stepping stone to get to where you want to be. Talk to your lecturers about career options, go to the law department (if thats really what you want to do) and ask them about graduate courses and what you would need to do to be elligible for entry. There is more than one path into many careers.

Player_86

I can appreciate that you're in a tough position.

I just want to repeat the point made by a poster above. You will actually have far greater career options if you finish your science-based degree. I have a law degree, and it provides no great advantage to becoming a solicitor or barrister. Make sure to check out the Law Society website - all you need is a degree, any degree, to sit the entrance exams to Blackhall Place.

Also, it is extraordinarily difficult to secure a training contract to become a solicitor at the moment. If I was in your position, I would put the head down, study hard (but make sure to join plenty of clubs/societies on Refreshers Day if they have one of them in your college), and graduate in a few years with a science-based degree. Then, if you still want to do law, you can do one of the 1 year conversion courses or the FE 1 preparation courses and you're sorted.

One more thing - if you have any aspirations to go down the Investment Banking route, such as for Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley in London, they love Physics graduates, because the work can be quite maths-based. Look into it. They do full summer (very well paid) internships. My brother didn't do quite as well as he wanted in the Leaving, did a physics course in DCU which he found tough, but went into banking in London and is doing fine.

Whatever happens, best of luck. The most important thing about college is to enjoy it, so try to get involved in as much stuff as possible and you will slowly, but surely, come to love it.

LegacyUser

Hi Op,
I would echo the last poster, stick with the course you started. Also law no longer guarentees a job, in fact there was someone on the radio form one of the law organisations (Law Society I think) and they said there was an over supply of law graduates and it would be several years before the "backlog" was cleared. I know someone also who started to study law, like you it was all he wanted to do after LC, however after about six months he changed to a general business degree and is now in his final year of the course and has no regrets about the change.
As someone who is a lot older than you it may be a blessing in disguise that you did not get law, I know several times in my life I have been disapointed about not getting something, job etc. only to find out months later it was the best thing that could have happened at the time.
Finally as others have said I would also recommend to talk to your tutors about how you feel about the whole thing, I am sure that have dealt with these issues before.
Best of Luck OP.

LegacyUser

I'm going against the grain here.

Consider my story OP.

I aways wanted to do medicine in school. From day one. But I didn't study at all (did the bare minimum) throughout school. I was more interested in sports and thought I was going to be a professional footballer (I had trials for several premier league clubs at the time) so school wasn't that important. I always wanted to be a doctor.

Well, leaving cert came around and I got 440 points... nowhere near enough for med. I knew I wasn't going to get in and still had dreams of being a professional footballer so didn't care too much. Like you, I filled my CAO form with courses (as was told by my dumb career advisor in school) and ended up getting offered an arts course I didn't want to do. At that point I actually wised up and wanted to repeat my LC and give it my best shot to get into a course I would love. My parents, like yours, disagreed.

They were thinking about themselves imo and how having a child "repeating" would look on them.

Unfortunately I was dumb enough to listen to them and continued with my arts degree. I failed third year and left the course. I just couldn't stick it any more. I would rather have killed myself... seriously. I absolutely hated every day of the course. Halfway thought first year, my football dreams were killed due to a bad injury and I was stuck with this horrible course I hated. I just couldn't do it.

I left the course and moved away from home. I worked in menial jobs for two years. I was lost and didn't know what to do. I thought my life was over. I almost committed suicide at one point.. even had a tree picked out and walked over there late one night and sat underneath the tree for a few hours but couldn't bring myself to do it.

I decided I was going to do medicine no matter what. I decided to go back to college and finish the degree i hate so i can do graduate medicine. i am currently back in that degree course. i hate it, but it's all about medicine for me and i feel great to be on the path and the future is bright.

So OP, I'm warning you, don't listen to other people, listen to YOURSELF and do what YOU WANT because you will seriously regret it if you don't. I found myself sitting under a tree, seconds away from hanging myself, all because i listened to my parents and not myself. I'm not saying that could happen to you, but it's something to consider imo.

Have a long hard think about it OP and do what YOU WANT. I think you know what that is already. If you want to talk about it IRL, i can send you my number if you want.. just reply back.

I wish you luck OP.

Collisionman

It's been several months since I read this thread but I'd like to say to you all that your advise has really helped and I am continuing with my physics degree and not dropping out. I'm actual really starting to like the degree. I'm thinking about doing a finance related masters afterward (Quant. Finance in UCD) cause I don't know if I want to be a physicist my whole like.

Again, the advise was really helpful, and believe me it was.

Thank You!

parker larkin

aww this has warmed my cold heart, well done on giving the course a chance and glad you're enjoying it to boot
All the best with the future