No matter what some teachers say, not many students know exactly what they want to do when they leave school. Some students go into ‘panic mode’ and choose a college course or degree in a subject they ‘think’ they want to work in, and this can result in a lack of opportunities when they complete the course.

There has been a lot made of courses like ‘Media Studies, History and Travel and Tourism to name a few, and competition can be fierce when you complete your studies, meaning you may have to go back to drawing board. Many students finish courses, online to find they have to go back into their former retail roles, such as ‘sales assistant’ or ‘telemarketer’, and the longer you’re stuck in a ‘dead end’ job, the more damaging it can be to your career.

If you know you want to go to university, but don’t know what you want to specialise in, then you should be patient. It’s better to enroll on a course a year later, than it is to rush in and waste money on a degree that isn’t right for you.

Many students leave school for university, but you don’t really know what you’ve let yourself in for until the course begins. Often, university graduates will say the workload and the tasks became more difficult over time. So while first year may have been rather easy, the third year would have been rather difficult, and it’s the year where you put those skills you’ve learned to good use.

In year one, you may find there is a lot of reading and a reasonable number of essays, whilst workload increases once more in year two, while grades become more important too. Year three is obviously the big finale, but if you put in the effort and work hard throughout your period at university, you’ll do fine, and develop further in the future.

University can take a lot out of you, and it’s not just the workload, it’s the social life too. Many students have to balance social life with employment and the university course, but at the end of the day the degree takes top priority and you’ll certainly find that out in year 3.