University degrees.

[M@CC@ 16]

P.S Cracking thread made my lunch hour on Friday fly past.

yeah did waste a good morning

 

[Vange Shrimper]

i got a Desmond Tutu

So did I, and I did a joint honours in 2 completely different subjects. Only me and one other boy in the year done it.

Only a few people on my Physical Geography side of my degree got a first and they did that with either Water Studies or Environmental Science.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

So did I, and I did a joint honours in 2 completely different subjects. Only me and one other boy in the year done it.

Only a few people on my Physical Geography side of my degree got a first and they did that with either Water Studies or Environmental Science.

With prose like that, I can't believe you didn't get a higher classification.

 

[Medway Blue]

At my uni over 90% of history students got a 2:i, but less than 5% got a first or a desmond. Science has exact answers rather than the subjectivity of the arts so the marks are more extreme.

If you do dual honours, you are also less likely to get a first. On the otherhand it is more interesting.

This, for me, is what makes arts subjects more interesting than science. Yes, it's interesting to see how everything works in the sciences - but exact answers bore me. I like the challenge of debating, weighing up all the different explanations for historical events, counter-factual history, interpreting sources etc. I don't think it makes you less likely to get a 1st at all. I'm sitting on a low first mid-way through my 2nd year. YOU make yourself more or less likely to get a 1st in my opinion.

 

[Pubey]

Firstly - great thread! A really excellent read.

Definitely go guns blazing for your 2.1, you'll be struggling with a 2.2. My experience is that the grade is used as a crude filter by employers before they even look at the Uni or Subject. It's not impossible to do well with a 2.2, but you'll always be a step behind and have to work that bit harder to show that you are just as good as the herd of 2.1 graduates.

With more and more graduates and a general reduction in 'graduate jobs' even graduates with 1sts will be struggling to get on the ladder.

Also, just because your first batch of marks weren't great, doesn't mean that it's impossible to improve, even considerably. I had friends who went from 'pass' to 2.1s, and from 2.1s to Firsts. I had a solid 2.1 in the 2nd year and then just missed out on a First by a couple of percent (That was because LSE asked for a First when I applied for their Masters degree, but they accepted me anyway).

If you know the areas you've found difficult, then definitely use your personal tutor/office hours to work out how to get your grades up. Showing that you have been proactive in doing this will help your case if you end up 0.5% off a 2.1 when you graduate and take your case for getting a 2.1 to the Exam Board.

Someone mentioned picking "easier modules" - definitely do this. I learnt the hard way that Modules that begin "Advanced...." should be avoided at all costs. If you can get onto modules in the 2nd/3rd year that start "Introductory..." then these are the ones you sign up to!!!


In general, going to university isn't crucial to do well in life, I have plenty of friends who did their A-levels and went straight into the city and are doing well. However not everyone is like this, and also, not everyone at 18 knows what they want to do as their career. University is a great time to mature, get some life experience and find your area. There is no right or wrong decision about going to uni, however I think that with the massive growth in uni places, options and the belief that "childen HAVE to go to uni" is definitely lessening the impact of having a degree, and already a Masters isn't what it probably used to be.

 

[Vange Shrimper]

With prose like that, I can't believe you didn't get a higher classification.

Good job I didn't study English then, aint it? ;) :p

 

[!famous!SUFC!!!!]

hi people im intriged by the thread! im taking a sports science course at collage hoping to DDM around 300 UCAS points, add my national cert in sports and i hope have at least 400 points so i should be able to get into uni easy? there are so many sports courses i stuck! i think i want to do coching and or sports conditioning

any now what uni's are good for sports? i no loughborough and st marys are

thanks for any help

 

[Perth Bambi]

hi people im intriged by the thread! im taking a sports science course at collage hoping to DDM around 300 UCAS points, add my national cert in sports and i hope have at least 400 points so i should be able to get into uni easy? there are so many sports courses i stuck! i think i want to do coching and or sports conditioning

any now what uni's are good for sports? i no loughborough and st marys are

thanks for any help

Bath. Amazing facilities. #

The one thing I will say is that if you want to do coaching you will probably have to take all your badges serperately as I can't imagine many Uni's will intergrate them. My Uni had a module where we had to do a certain amount of hours in coaching badge hours but we had to pay for them and do them all in our own time (although subsidised).

Sports conditioning, again you may have to do a masters afterwards as there are so many people who have a similar degree. I do have a friend who has done his strength and conditioning masters so if you want to know anymore PM me and I will try and get any information of him that you need

 

[!famous!SUFC!!!!]

thanks for the info. still looking at potential course. i think i will go for coaching but not sure i will get into the two uni's i mentioned. i did my first coaching badge at 15 and have a local youth club will to sponsor me so i dont have to worry about paying or anything for the others

 

[Holy Joe]

Ask what companies attended their last few milk rounds. Many companies go to the same universities year after year to recruit - they are the universities the companies hold in high esteem.

How many city institutions attended the Portsmouth poly milk round this year?

 

[!famous!SUFC!!!!]

ah great bit of advise to all those chosing a uni......er....no defo not going portsmouth! hehe

 

[Holy Joe]

& back to poly's...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...ities-could-revert-to-polytechnic-format.html

 

[Pubey]

Ask what companies attended their last few milk rounds. Many companies go to the same universities year after year to recruit - they are the universities the companies hold in high esteem.

How many city institutions attended the Portsmouth poly milk round this year?

exactly. I noticed the difference between Leicester (top 10 for economics) and LSE (number 1 for economics)... all the clubs/societies/teams at LSE were sponsored by Deloitte, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Citibank etc etc etc. They always had a presence on the campus and held drinks receptions and open days at LSE to get people to register on their recruitment schemes.

 

[Emu]

hi people im intriged by the thread! im taking a sports science course at collage hoping to DDM around 300 UCAS points, add my national cert in sports and i hope have at least 400 points so i should be able to get into uni easy? there are so many sports courses i stuck! i think i want to do coching and or sports conditioning

any now what uni's are good for sports? i no loughborough and st marys are

thanks for any help

For Sports and Coaching Lincoln has a good course and integrats coaching into the degree each year.

I left after two years for various reasons and now doing my last year at home but, i cant fault the course or the tutors hey have there.

The whole grade issue is getting to me now aswell, got a grade back that i thought would have been higher which can (potentially) bring me down to a 2:2 if i get another rubbish mark, but im hoping that wont be the case and i have my dissertation mark to add to what i get aswell. So, fingers crossed!

Em.

 

[M@CC@ 16]

Ask what companies attended their last few milk rounds. Many companies go to the same universities year after year to recruit - they are the universities the companies hold in high esteem.

How many city institutions attended the Portsmouth poly milk round this year?

i will ask for you..

how many city institutions you reckon went any uni this year? probably not many

obviously if you can get into to LSE, cambridge/oxford etc. you would go there

 

[Holy Joe]

i will ask for you..

how many city institutions you reckon went any uni this year? probably not many

obviously if you can get into to LSE, cambridge/oxford etc. you would go there

Most of them (maybe rbs didn't bother)- graduate schemes are still going just scaled back. How many went to Portsmouth? How many went to Portsmouth in 07?

 

[M@CC@ 16]

why wouldn't RBS bother ;)

like i said i'll find out

 

[chadded]

University is for lazy work shy posh kids who are too scared to enter the world of work and want to skive off, smoke pot and shag around for 3 years.

Unless you go to the University of Life, where famous alumni include chadded, Rusty Shackleford, A Century United, Lord Ashdown, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Lee Bradbury and Prince William.

 

[Mad Cyril]

University is for lazy work shy posh kids who are too scared to enter the world of work and want to skive off, smoke pot and shag around for 3 years.

Unless you go to the University of Life, where famous alumni include chadded, Rusty Shackleford, A Century United, Lord Ashdown, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Lee Bradbury and Prince William.

And Prince Harry.

 

[Pubey]

I think those in the know will appreciate the significance of a maths degree from Bath, back in the day I applied to do an MPhil in 'Bayesian Statistics' at Bath as I knew the reputation of the department and the quality of the research staff was immense. Unfortunately I could not get the funding so had to ditch these plans and get a job.

I'm not sure if employers see specific Universities as being ares of expertise as much as those in academia and may just see a 2.2 as a 2.2. My opinion is to take courses you know will get decent marks in. This was quite easy in my degree as there was no rigid route to graduation so long as I had completed a handful of 'core' modules.

For example I started doing a pure maths degree but found it a complete head melt, for want of a better phrase, (all that mathematical analysis absolutely killed me). I swopped over to Stastics at the start of the second year and it was a piece of **** in comparison managed to walk with a very good degree.

One of my ex's, who was much cleverer than me, did the Pure Maths at Bath and walked out with a 2.2 and had to do many a resit. She wasnt thick or lazy its just the course was ultra demanding compared to mine.

blimey, a MPhil in Bayesian Stats would have been nuts, i do quite a lot of bayesian stuff for clinical trials.

good point about swapping modules/parts of degrees. often in the 3rd year you can find modules where you may have already covered part of it (or it's just much easier)