How do you know what the right college degree for you is?

whiteboy

..and what do you think is the most useful?

Poor Craythur

You should do your degree in something you love not something useful. And in a proper academic discipline.

plein de force

Do something that you'll be able for that fits with your interests/ambitions and one that can help get you into a job you want to do

Tefral

Poor Craythur wrote: »

You should do your degree in something you love not something useful.

This is a fact, because believe me when it comes to writing your thesis or dissertation.. youll need to be in love with it, because after 10 - 15k words, numerous projects, exams and 4 years youll just bearly like it ha ha

Captain_Generic

Clown College "Its Serious Business"

El Weirdo

It has your name on it.

The one with the least amount of hours per week.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Do whatever you were good at in school. I think some of this "self-actualisation" bs can go a little bit far, not all of us are going to live the dream doing the job that has been created for them and smile going into work every day. Work is work. Do something you are good at and something you dont hate then you can be good at your job and hopefully get better wages as a result.

Of course if you are madly passionate about something then you should pursue it but I'd imagine it's a small number of 17/18 year olds who have such a mad passion

Tbh I think a lot of this talk about doing something that defines you puts even more pressure on young'uns because they haven't got a clue what they like yet and feel like they're in the wilderness as a result.

Just do what you're good at and the rest will fall into place. It's all what you make of it

Edit : That's feckin serious for a friday night, oh well, my opinon anyway

Poor Craythur

Maia Bewildered Shipyard wrote: »

Do whatever you were good at in school. I think some of this "self-actualisation" bs can go a little bit far, not all of us are going to live the dream doing the job that has been created for them and smile going into work every day. Work is work. Do something you are good at and something you dont hate then you can be good at your job and hopefully get better wages as a result.

Of course if you are madly passionate about something then you should pursue it but I'd imagine it's a small number of 17/18 year olds who have such a mad passion

Tbh I think a lot of this talk about doing something that defines you puts even more pressure on young'uns because they haven't got a clue what they like yet and feel like they're in the wilderness as a result.

Just do what you're good at and the rest will fall into place. It's all what you make of it

Edit : That's feckin serious for a friday night, oh well, my opinon anyway

But a degree in itself is a useful thing to have, even in a niche subject. You learn so much from a degree besides the subject - research skills, critical thinking etc. So, do it in something you love, and who knows where it will take you.

General General

Mathematics. It's easy.

chocgirl

Simple answer you don't until you're in it unfortunately. I think you need to look out for a couple of things, a subject you're interested in, one that you think you'll be good at and one that you feel you will benefit you career-wise in the future (help you make money in a nutshell).

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Poor Craythur wrote: »

But a degree in itself is a useful thing to have, even in a niche subject. You learn so much from a degree besides the subject - research skills, critical thinking etc. So, do it in something you love, and who knows where it will take you.

Oh yeah I agree, any degree is useful and it's very easy to move around once you do have one. I was just saying that a lot of kids dont know what they "love" at that age and it stresses them out, thinking that they dont know who they are when they're finding it hartd enough to figure that out anyway. To a lot of people it's just school, dont particularly "love" anything.
And in such a case just do what you're best at as long as you dont hate it and dont stress about wondering what your one true passion is supposed to be.

Because in reality, most people aren't passionate about their jobs, it's just something they do. And obviously you do something you like but not necessarily love, the ones who do have something they love are the few fortunate. Imo.

Aodan83

What I did was I created a bracket, like this one, and put in a course name in place of each number. Then, for each pairing, I flipped a coin, heads the first choice, tails the second choice. (e.g, 7 is heads, 8 is tails.) The winner of each coin toss progressed to the next round. This continued until only one course remained. The "Highlander" course if you will. And that is how I chose my college course.

Poor Craythur

Maia Bewildered Shipyard wrote: »

Oh yeah I agree, any degree is useful and it's very easy to move around once you do have one. I was just saying that a lot of kids dont know what they "love" at that age and it stresses them out, thinking that they dont know who they are when they're finding it hartd enough to figure that out anyway. To a lot of people it's just school, dont particularly "love" anything.
And in such a case just do what you're best at as long as you dont hate it and dont stress about wondering what your one true passion is supposed to be.

Because in reality, most people aren't passionate about their jobs, it's just something they do. And obviously you do something you like but not necessarily love, the ones who do have something they love are the few fortunate. Imo.

Yep, when I was 17, I didn't have a clue and I still don't. Wish I had passions in life.

Aoifey!

I knew my only option was the closest college to me so I went through every course and narrowed it down til I only had a few left. Think I picked to wrong course, but I can't afford to drop out so guess I'll just stick with it anyway.

evercloserunion

Do the course, and if you liked it then it was the one for you.

Dudess

Yeah just do what you enjoy. It might not be job-focused but it would be preferable to spend three or four years doing something you love rather than something you don't enjoy. You can always do a postgrad or further training if you need specific practical skills.

whiteboy

maybe I'll do arts LOL

Hank_Jones

Go for an Arts degree, so everyone on here and pretty much everywhere can tell you how useless it is.

fonecrusher1

Do a degree that gets you a job where you get the most amount of money for doing the least amount of work. Like a GP.

whiteboy

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Go for an Arts degree, so everyone on here and pretty much everywhere can tell you how useless it is.

it seem to be a favourite among school leavers who just want to go to college to have fun.

flyswatter

Computing, I don't think you'll struggle to find a job there for a while.

Hank_Jones

whiteboy wrote: »

it seem to be a favourite among school leavers who just want to go to college to have fun.

Depends on the person really.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

whiteboy wrote: »

it seem to be a favourite among school leavers who just want to go to college to have fun.

Never mind the naysayers and the bad rep, if you dont know what you want to do it's a great place to start.
The whole American college system is bsed on something similar to starting with an Arts degree

I know Arts graduates who are not just teachers but solicitors, barristers, accountants, psychologists and just working in various different roles with MNE's.

It's magnificently broad and as such gets your foot into a wide range of specialisations. Tbh, apart from science subjects an arts grad can end up just about anywhere. Or nowhere depending on the person...

whiteboy

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Do a degree that gets you a job where you get the most amount of money for doing the least amount of work. Like a GP.

Or something business related, I imagine you could learn a lot of useful skills in management and so on.

TanG411

Unfortunately what you may think you're interested in could be your biggest nightmare. Take it from me:

I had an interest in psychology, particularly childhood studies and the development of the brain. Applied Psychology was 505 points which I knew I wouldn't get, so decided to do it through Arts which was 360. I got that.

Took Studies in Psychology for 1st year (Alongside English, Maths, and Sociology). It was a horror, I simply couldn't get my head around the course at all. I knew the bare basics which was enough to pass me at 42%. Decided to drop it for 2nd year and took on a joint English and Maths degree.

Horror again. Although I enjoyed maths in secondary school and 1st year in college, I couldn't get my head around it this time. Particularly in Geometry, Linear Algebra, Differential Calculus, and Discrete Maths.

Now I have the exams in April, and with no interest in the degree anymore, I am looking to drop out and miss the exams.

I'm not one of those students who saw college as 'fun'. To be honest I hate college with a passion. Everything is revolved around drink, house parties, and the 'craic'. I don't drink alcohol, no interest in house parties, and what students call the craic could involved getting absolutely hammered and then talking about it the following morning. We had students complaining to a lecturer this year because we had a 9a.m. exam during RAG week.

So now I am stuck in an enviroment I can't stand anymore, add to that a degree I can not pass.

So be wary, you may not know what degree you really want until you get stuck into it.

mikemac

Do what you love, not what you think is "right"
If you want to do Latin and Ancient Greek then do it OP

I did a practical degree, I suppose you could say it was practical, science based.
And had a girl who did archeology as my teammate in work, she was just as good as me.
You can learn technical knowledge for any job. The degree is to show you can learn.

Some on boards look down on arts degrees, for me I think studying archeology is incredibly interesting :cool:

Skerries

don't worry about the course you do, once you pass it you will be fine
employers only want to see that you are disciplined enough to work at something
i work in IT with people who have done everything from a doctorate in Chemistry to Economics degrees
A BSC is just a stepping stone to what you ultimately want to do

pablo-jericho

Aodan83 wrote: »

What I did was I created a bracket, like this one, and put in a course name in place of each number. Then, for each pairing, I flipped a coin, heads the first choice, tails the second choice. (e.g, 7 is heads, 8 is tails.) The winner of each coin toss progressed to the next round. This continued until only one course remained. The "Highlander" course if you will. And that is how I chose my college course.

Thats good actually, not for a college course mabye but I like the knockout effect, you should have done the full Champions League..

df1985

Mine sure as hell wasnt right for me-anyone want an accounting and finance degree??? wont be using it.....well i probably have no choice but to.

Spunge

http://www.payscale.com/chart/33/Top-10-College-Majors-That-Lead-to-High-Salaries-2010-v1.0.png

For $$$, hit that engineering.

Celtise

cronin_j wrote: »

This is a fact, because believe me when it comes to writing your thesis or dissertation.. youll need to be in love with it, because after 10 - 15k words, numerous projects, exams and 4 years youll just bearly like it ha ha

4 year degree done (including optional dissertation), in middle of masters and no thesis started (so behind) and I already hate it. Where I'll get the willpower to do my thesis and exams is unimaginable. Thoughts of dropping out have been plaguing me. In the long run I don't see myself even working primarily in this area either anymore. And I liked the area at the start, didn't pick it for the €€€ and it was my first choice course. Though in retrospect the grass is greener on my second choice, if only it had been in a good college, I might not have such regrets.

So overall, you don't know and you might never know it's the right course but everything turn out ok in the end (...or else it's not the end).

eternal

This is an impossible question to try and answer.Few have the same passions at 17 as they do at 40.I know very few people who are at now after studying whatever in college.
You cant know until you actually experience the course how it will affect you ,how you will take to it and so forth.
After three,four years constantly studying the same thing ,you may not want to spend your life doing it .
Lot of people change careers in life.IMO its about what you want at certain points in your life.Think about the one thing you are good at ,the one thing that always stands out for you.The one thing you were always told you were good at.
Everyones good at something .Just hope that being forced to look at that one thing daily ,you might not get woefully sick of it.Buy hey ,you can always go back to college and do something else .Follow you heart !