Having second thoughts about your choice in a degree or university? Here’s some advice.

©Helewidis @deviantart.com

A while ago I was talking with a fellow student who wasn’t quite sure about her studies any more. Did she really want to continue here or was she in the wrong university after all? This made me think back on my own life.  After highschool I did a college degree of 4 years in Multi media design, already in my second year I noticed that  this was not something I would want to do for a living. I enjoyed designing and everything around it, I just didn’t enjoy it when I was forced to do it for someone else. I did continue and graduated in order to be able to go to University. My university choice was something different, Environmental science. But in the first semester I realised that the courses were not at all like I had imagined, I quickly dropped out after that. Suddenly I had no other options, nothing else I knew of that I wanted to study. I travelled for a couple of months and then it hit me, I wanted to go into the field of Leisure& Tourism management however, after having chosen the wrong study twice I was very doubtful of my own mind and scared that I would make a mistake again. But now I know, I finally made the right decision. Not because my university is good, or the courses are interesting, but because I now know what I want to learn and what I want to do with it after graduation. Because to be honest, my university isn’t always that good, and the courses sometimes are really boring. But I can now find the motivation to deal with it and keep my motivation high because I know where I’m going.

But how do you find a course that fits to your needs??

©tabascoterrier @deviantart.com

1. It’s important that you know what you want. I’ve met a lot of people who are studying just to be studying. Ofcourse you will have trouble with motivation then, if you don’t know where you want to go you’re less likely to take steps forward.




2. There is no such a thing as a perfect university or perfect degree.  I realized that many students do not fully grasp this concept. They believe their university should be perfectly aligned to what they want to do later on in life. But here’s a fact: There are too many different people with different wishes in similar fields as you are in. There never was and there will never be a degree or university that directly connects to your wishes and needs alone.




3. You are in charge of your own learning process.  Once you accepted that your degree course will not supply you with everything you want to learn, it’s important to become pro-active. My university never taught anything about theatre productions, so I joined a theatre group and produced a play for it. I know for sure that I learned  about 90% more about theatre productions through this experience than if my university had given me a theatre production course. Being pro-active is so important, I can’t press it enough. If you’re following a tourism course and you’d like to be involved in eco-tourism but you feel your university doesn’t give you enough courses about that, don’t just sit around! Go to the library, find books online, follow eco tourism blogs, go eco volunteering, find courses outside of your own university that might cover it! You will learn so much more if you do it by yourself! And you know what is a bonus? You will be creating unique knowledge! If there are 50 students from your university applying for the same job, all with the same degree and skills, those who took developed knowledge outside of university are more likely to stand out positively!




4. Don’t be ashamed or afraid of doing more degrees. When I graduated in Design, I thought I would never use the skills again, aside from personal use. How wrong I was! Studying management  I realized what a blessing it is! How many newly graduated managers are specialized in design as well? By having two completely different degrees I suddenly created my unique selling point(which also really helped me in getting the internship I wanted). If there is any advice I would give you it’s: Go on, get a degree in something you’re interested in, and then get another degree is something that you also like but is something totally different! You’re young, you still have time!

In the end, the choice is yours. What really helped me as well was trying to imagine with which choice I would be happier in the future. Ask yourself “If 5 years from now, I would look back on the decision I’m about to make now, which choice do I think would make me feel more satisfied or happy (or which one am I least likely to regret?)” It’s a long shot, but sometimes it just gives you this extra push. It pushed me to go to New Zealand and quit the degree I didn’t enjoy, back then I asked myself this question and New Zealand was the answer. Looking back on it, I could’ve never have made a better choice. What will make you happy.

Any thoughts or tips are very welcome. If you have a question or are stuck with your decision, don’t hesitate to ask me 🙂