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View Full Version : Please, please help! Uni student in desperate need of help!


pilottom
2nd May 2006, 19:02
Hi,

I've kind of already asked a similar question! (I'm in my first year and am doing my exams this week, then have a 4month break.

My problem is this, I really hate uni and have done for half the year, I haven't sorted my accomodation out for next year, so I'm not committed to anything. I need some advice as to whether I should:-

1) Leave uni completely, get a job and save up/do my pilot training
2) Take a year out, get my head together, then make a decision and make sure I don't make any rash decisions
3) Do another 2 years at uni and finish my degree (however I have been unable to find out anyone to share accommodation with, ideas would be appreciated!)
4) Something completely different! :confused:

I suppose my question is kind of the ultimately unanswerable, degree or not! I also realise that if I don't have a degree I don't have anything to fall back on! :ugh:

Cheers in advanced for all your help! :ok:
Pilottom

P.S. If I take a year out/get a job, what sort/what location of job should I get?

Tony_Soprano17
2nd May 2006, 19:20
Hi pilottom

I am in a similar situation to yourself, ill give you a brief outline.

Im 20yrs old in college doing a two year business managemnet course (in 2nd year) I too hate the course and the college, i have no interest in what im learning. I was close to dropping out in 1st year and again earlier this year. Unlike yourslef though i live at home so dont have the expenses that come with living away from home.

I sat down and had a long and emotional conversation with my aprents and we agreed that id finish out the course. The fact that im in 2nd year in a 2 year course was a key point ( i dont have 3 years left like you). But from my point of view i felt it was only reasonable to finish out the course then pursue full time employment after the course had finished. I would work for one or two years and then go and train to be a pilot with the help of a bank loan and or parents. So that is where i am at now exams start in a week and i have hated the course even since i decided i wud stay doing it.

What you have to decide is whether or not it is better to complete your course and then start working or leave now and start workin straight away (bare in mind the paysacle with a degree will be significantly different tha if you started working now i.e. u cud earn the same amount once you have the degree as if you droppped out now. I suggest you have a long conversation with your parents and go about drawing up the pros and cons of each situaiton. Also keep doing research like you have done on this forum. You have taken the first step in deciding what to do. You will also have a gut feeling about what is right to do and if you really want to be a pilot and have a passion for it then it will happen beofre during or after your degree.

I hope this will be of some help to you and remember it is always better to have a lot of choices than having none.

Tony_Soprano17

Re-Heat
2nd May 2006, 20:46
Tom,

Pilots are organised people with a clear idea of their direction - having a partial degree course on the CV is worse that not having one at all as it shows lack of commitment.

Although it is true that once you have an ATPL, employers are focused upon flying qualifications only, what do you think it signals to an employer when two people with otherwise similar hours and skills are against each other.

Get you head out from the clouds, ORGANISE your life and find some housing, and finish your degree before you pursue your aviation career. What use is a year out if you are not focused on the degree anyway?

It is all very well asking us for advice, but are you expecting us to decide your life for you on the forum?

Read:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=131649

Get off the internet and do some revision!

tailwheel76
2nd May 2006, 20:58
Everyone needs advice/ideas at times, even pilots...

If you don't finish your degree theres no need to put it on your CV, so justifying why you drop out wont be an issue anyway. That said, dont rush into things. Leave yourself options, take a year out, work, travel, fly whatever takes your fancy, but get it out of your system as once you start professional pilot training you'll need 100% focus and dedication.

Re-Heat
2nd May 2006, 21:31
Rubbish - your CV cannot have a hole in it - it will be obviously all and sundry. Unless you intend to lie.

LD Max
2nd May 2006, 21:33
I think Tailwheel was just pointing out that a "partial degree" is the same as "no degree", therefore it has no place in a CV.

LD Max

Hobgoblin
3rd May 2006, 02:26
Sincerely pilottom,
Stick to it, finish the degree. You will not regret it. Plenty of time afterwards to see the world and sow the wild oats etc etc.
Good luck

Groundloop
3rd May 2006, 08:06
Okay, so drop out and not mention uni on your CV. That's not a problem.

However, you then get that magic airline job and have to apply for your airside pass. Need to give your life history of where you were and what you were doing for the past yonk number of years.

Ahem, well, I was at uni for two years but didn't get anything.

Oh! Why not?

Could possibly be bye, bye job.

With the level of security checks these days it is VERY difficult to be economical with the truth.

femaleWannabe
3rd May 2006, 08:18
I hated uni.. after the first year I lost interest as flying was always plan A and uni was plan B. However, I stuck in and finished the course, got a good degree and now have a job which pays well enough for me to afford flying lessons. I think you should stick with uni, you need a back up plan of some kind anyway - and gaps in your cv are pretty bad.

scroggs
3rd May 2006, 08:36
At interview you will be asked to explain what you did between leaving school and the present day. It would be very difficult to conceal an abandoned degree course - and lying is not an option. Therefore you need to come up with a very convincing explanation of why you could not commit to your degree course, and evidence of lack of commitment does not go down well at interview!

Nevertheless, abandoning a degree course is not the end of the world as long as it is done for very good reasons. What those reasons might be is an open-ended question, but there are plenty of acceptable ones. However, 'I hate university' isn't really one of them, and is unlikely to convince anyone - least of all anyone who went to university and had a great time! It sounds too much like a 13-year-old's protestations of 'I hate school' when what he really means is he doesn't want to get out of his warm bed and put in a bit of effort - and that's how you're coming across.

Think carefully about what you're going to do. There are more options than you gave us, and one important one which you left out is changing your degree course. You don't say what course you're doing, so it's difficult to advise you what else might be worth considering. A year out at this stage is probably a cop-out. You'll probably not go back to uni, and you'll delay getting into anything productive for another year. 'Going to earn money until you can start a flying course' is too wishy-washy. You need to have a plan that encapsulates how much money you need, the timescale for obtaining it, and exactly how you're going to go about getting it.

You have a lot to think about, and probably the first thing is growing up a bit and taking responsibility for yourself and your future.

Scroggs

PPRuNe Towers
3rd May 2006, 10:26
... and obviously you've got that Class One medical out of the way haven't you.

Rob

femaleWannabe
3rd May 2006, 10:42
Number one on your list appears to be leave uni, get a job and save up for pilot training. What kind of job are you expecting to get? Do you have any experience? At your age I doubt it, so with no experience, and no degree, any job you get is not going to be fantastically well paid. I think you'd be lucky to cover bills and rent, never mind manage to save up £40k+. Just think, you need at least £5k for your PPL, if you try to save this over a year, that's over £400 a month you need to put away. Go and do some sums!

If you take a year out, you will never go back to uni - I think we can all guess that from your post already! What do you hate about uni? The actual place, the course, the people, what? If its the particular uni, you could go somewhere else - you may have to go back a year though depending on the course. If it's the course, change it! Plenty of people do this after first year.

One thing uni is very good for is making you grow up and be responsible for yourself - part of this process is learning to stick with things that maybe you don't particularly enjoy. Life is full of things we don't enjoy, but some of them need to be done! If you quit now, get a job, and you hate the job, will you just chuck that in as well?!

pilottom
3rd May 2006, 19:53
Just wondering how a university transfer would be looked at by potential employers?

king rooney
3rd May 2006, 20:48
At interview you will be asked to explain what you did between leaving school and the present day. It would be very difficult to conceal an abandoned degree course - and lying is not an option. Scroggs

lying, not an option..... depends how good you are at it;)

thefunky1
4th May 2006, 12:59
I can sympathise greatly with many people in this situation and since i've basically been there and done that i hope you don't mind if i throw my bit in.

I left school after my sixth year (I'm Scottish) with 6 A Highers and two A CSYS (Sixth year studies a peculiarly Scottish thing) knowing that i wanted to be a pilot. I was planning to go for some of the sponsorship programs but i had also applied to university. A month after i left school September the 11th removed the option of any sponsorship. (That is not meant to sound as callous as it does, sorry) So i went to university. I had applied to university to study law because, basically, i was forced into it by my teachers (don't let them fool you, they want you to go, it makes them look good) and my family. Because i did well at school they basically told me that i would be lazy and selling myself short if i did something less than law or medicine etc. Since i knew i didn't want to be a doctor i chose law.

I went to university and i hated it; truly, truly hated it. I can honestly say that my time at university was the unhappiest of my life. Because of that i took a year out after my first university year and worked full time. This really helped me screw my head on the right way and within a year i was promoted twice and basically became a depute manager. I also did some flying during this time but didn't have the money to really commit to training.

Reaslising that there was no way that sponsorship was going to be an option i decided that for all i hated it i was going to need my degree, so rather than start again i decided to go back and get it over with. I know a law degree isn't the most relevant to flying but i'd started so i was determined to finish. Problem. The university changed the course structure in the year i was out and this meant i couldn't rejoin where i'd left off. Instead i'd need to do part time study for a year and then rejoin. Cue more work and some more flying. After that year i went back full time and have continued to hate it since. I am actually sitting writing this with my books open in front of me to study. I have now been at university for five years and have one left. Thanks to my decision to stop and the decision to change the course structure it will now take me 6 six years to finish a four year course. I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of becoming a lawyer and as soon as i graduate i intend to devote evrything to getting my rear end in a RHS.

The point that i'm trying to make is that if university isn't for you you will loathe it. However, that gap on your cv does need to be filled somehow. I don't expect that my broken-up degree will look great but i hope that i can justify my time not at university sufficiently and show that i have used it to develop as a person. Also in today's job market nothing is guaranteed as a pilot and if i need to repay money from training then that degree is going to help. I wouldn't ever lie about my time at university as i don't think i need to. I think everybody will sometimes make a decision that they regret but it's better not to sit about moaning about it and to have the ability to meet it head-on and just fight your way through it. (To which end i should get on with studying) And anytime you need a boost i recommend taking a break and going flying- seems to make everything worthwhile.

One final point - university isn't all bad, i made some great friends and met the missus there. She's a solicitor and knows how crap law is. My aim in life is now to show her how much better the view is out of a pilot's office window! :ok:

Oli EZ
4th May 2006, 13:16
Hi Tom

As the subject of Uni transfers go, i don't think its necessarily a bad thing... there are lots of unis out there and not all of them will suit you. If you are proactive and make the positive choice to change uni so you can go get your degree, then surely this will look good on your CV. I know lots of people who have done this, so as to get the best possible outcome for their degree (which you are investing in too). A degree is always going to be good on your CV, and theoretically should give you the advantage upon those with similar credentials who do not.

Besides, wouldn't be surprised if major carriers start to require degrees in the future or at least prefer you to have them as so many people are acquiring them these days. I know it can be rough when things aren't going to plan at uni, but there are peaks and troughs all the time at such a place. They can be incredibly close environments, amplifying problems and the like. But do your best to get your degree Tom, that’s this one persons advice! Transfer if you need to, its not too late for that even now! Neither is it too late for accommodation, believe me there are always people moving in and out of accommodation for millions of reasons, plus you could always apply to become a warden on campus... I did... it saved me a packet on rent, was a great job with great people - good on the CV too!:8

Good luck whichever way you go Tom!