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Nicholls · 06-18-2007, 03:55 PM

I'm 15 years old at the moment and in my first year of GCSEs at Britain. I will do well in my GCSEs so there are no problems there, but a question lies in the not too distant future about when I'm going to leave the British education system.

For those of you not familiar with it, my first opportunity to leave will be at the end of next year when my GCSEs finish. From then I can theoretically leave whenever I want but the only reason I would continue is to go to university and to be honest if I did not go to Cambridge or Oxford I doubt I would consider it a worthwhile endeavour. To go to one of those universities you need very high grades, which I am sure I am capable of getting. You also need a selection of extra curricular activities and other stuff which I can also get.

This is what is considered a "normal" path through life, of course from there you get a degree and then go and get a job. The trouble is a do not plan on getting a job (self-employment for me), so the degree to me is worth almost nothing. However I do think I would enjoy the experience of going to university which is why I am thinking of going.

Some of you might have gone "wooh - hold on a sec" when I said I was not going to get a job, but it makes perfect sense to me as I hate the idea of getting bossed around and not being in control of my time. As you can expect I find school fairly monotonous because of this. The only reason I am thinking of going to university is for the experience and then I will go out of university and jump straight into the career plan I'm already thinking about.

So the question is this: is it worth me going to university? My career will involve a lot of writing and I would read English at university so the education of it would certainly help; but do you think I could better spend the three years it will take for me to get my degree? I'm particularly interested in opinions from those who went to university, how they found it and if given the choice they would do it again if they turned back the time. I'd also like to know if anyone here dropped out of the school system early and how they found it. If anyone is self-employed here I'd also love to hear your opinions.

06-18-2007, 03:55 PM	#1 (permalink)
Nicholls Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 54	To university or not to university? I'm 15 years old at the moment and in my first year of GCSEs at Britain. I will do well in my GCSEs so there are no problems there, but a question lies in the not too distant future about when I'm going to leave the British education system. For those of you not familiar with it, my first opportunity to leave will be at the end of next year when my GCSEs finish. From then I can theoretically leave whenever I want but the only reason I would continue is to go to university and to be honest if I did not go to Cambridge or Oxford I doubt I would consider it a worthwhile endeavour. To go to one of those universities you need very high grades, which I am sure I am capable of getting. You also need a selection of extra curricular activities and other stuff which I can also get. This is what is considered a "normal" path through life, of course from there you get a degree and then go and get a job. The trouble is a do not plan on getting a job (self-employment for me), so the degree to me is worth almost nothing. However I do think I would enjoy the experience of going to university which is why I am thinking of going. Some of you might have gone "wooh - hold on a sec" when I said I was not going to get a job, but it makes perfect sense to me as I hate the idea of getting bossed around and not being in control of my time. As you can expect I find school fairly monotonous because of this. The only reason I am thinking of going to university is for the experience and then I will go out of university and jump straight into the career plan I'm already thinking about. So the question is this: is it worth me going to university? My career will involve a lot of writing and I would read English at university so the education of it would certainly help; but do you think I could better spend the three years it will take for me to get my degree? I'm particularly interested in opinions from those who went to university, how they found it and if given the choice they would do it again if they turned back the time. I'd also like to know if anyone here dropped out of the school system early and how they found it. If anyone is self-employed here I'd also love to hear your opinions.