where do you go to university/TAFE, and what do you do?

What do you study? Why?

Next year I'll be heading to university, so I've really got to think about what I want to do... But I can't make my mind up.

I'd be interested to know, what do you folks study? Where? Why? Is it what you expected? Do you just find it interesting, or are you doing it as part of your career path? Are you just in it for the money?

I say it once more
im so proud of you dude for going back and doing your HSC *thumbs up* and best of luck with uni!

I dont study, i dont plan to next year, the year after yes i do plan to. No idea what, where , or whats going to become.

Ill stay working shit jobs, shit hours for shit pay in shot conditions well maybe not

I'm going back to uni this year in semester 2 to do psycholgy

I was doing my b/teaching and b/arts and it'd a good thing i quit because i have really bad grammer and can't spell for shit (see all my posts lol)

I wanted to be a primary school teacher since i was 10 yrs old and it took me 4 years to get my uai due to having a child young and 'life' just basically getting in the way but i keapt going and i made it

only to quit after a year of my degree

It's just that i was at uni for sooooooooo long and had only completed one year and still had three years to go and wasn't sure if i was sick of uni or sick of my degree so i decided to defer for a year to just 'be'

It was the best time in my life actually and the best thing i had done because i had alot of pressure from family to "finish your degree...your a single mum...make something of yourself " and yada yada yada *sigh*

In my time off i actually went to lot's of places, net heaps of people and experienced so much that i had never before and one day it just hit me what my purpose her was (as hippy as that is) and that's to be a nurse. I love looking after people and am always trying to make people smile etc and nursing to me is just making someones day a bit more comforatble and that's something i could do all day long

I realise nursing is hard work, low pay for what you do and it's a messy yucky job sometimes but that doesn't bother me. I just 'feel' that is what i'm here to do...my place so to speak....maybe it's the mum in me coming out? *shrugs* I just just know it's right.

While doing my teaching degree i did find that i have a deep love for psycolgy, socialogy, anthropology and basically seeing how people interacte and why they are the way they are so before i do my nursing degree i'm doing that basically because i can and i want and i'm interested

I would like maybe to be a pychiatric nurse though so will hopefully tie that all in together some day. But also I would like to do art and music therapy and go to hospitals and vist children and mental patients and people in prisons and hepl them deal with their emotions etc through art and music.So hopefully one day all three of those goals will be met *fingers crossed*

I have passion for what i want to do and i also have the confidence to know i can if i put my mind to it so i will achieve it.

Thanks for reading and sorry it was so long but it's something i just can't simplify without saying all of that

i'm doing digital television production & i love it,
i really searched around to find the perfect course for me and i think having a course which gives me the fundamentals of the industry i want to break into really helps.

my best advice when looking at a uni course however is, really look into it, find out what sort of hours you will be doing, what is invvolved with all of the subjects, talk to other students if you can. its not worth just throwing yourself in the deep end and just taking a chance on someting because it can be a waste of a year. (like so many of my friends have done and now have to finish out their year and start all over again)...

most importantly, pick something you really like and are really interested in...my philosophy is that if you are doing something you like, you will do well and be motivated to try...if you pick something that you really only halfheartedly like it can lead to a job you dislike, people u dislike, a LIFE you dont like...etc etc...anyway thats my little rant

so much respect

I assume that you are not a school leaver - so cool. Look, I do Media Studies, I like it , ask any serious science or law student and they will laugh at me but I love what I am studying.

Ask me and i laugh when they graduate and travel in Europe for 4.7 months and then end up working ina call centre anyway. Not to mention the 2.3 months they spent working in call centres in Europe having "an experience."

You have nothing to lose so choose what you enjoy. What is it? Linguistics? Human Resource mangement? Info-tech? Medicine? Arabic studies? Philosophy? geooo Science? Pure math? peace studies (which is available at my uni)? Lit? Physio? ...

My only advice is stick to it...get smarter.

yeah Apollo, I pretty much had no idea what I wanted to do when I finish my course too...

Though, I've got direction now... Just talking to mates, getting what kind of things I may want to do.. off my chest, I've been shown that "media and communications" course... which sounds pretty unreal cause, it covers what I wanna do

Dont put pressure on yourself.. whenever you think of a job/proffession which may be a possibilitiy... go grab your diary and a pen, and write it down.

Then just look at them every now and then, and see what course would be best suited for them :D

i gotta focus on finishing this course.... i take too many days off

goodluck with yours

I'm currently enroled in a BM in tourism coupled with a BA in International Studies (spanish as my major).

I love international studies, but the management degree is a total wank. I could so much more easily have done these same tourism courses at TAFE and be done by now.

I have thus decided to persue the degree i was aiming for before the HSC - BA Communications coupled with a BA Int. Stud. I think i have a fair chance of getting it also - my international studies courses hold me at a distinction average at the moment.

My passion is languages and linguistics. My aim is to do this course and gain some proffesional writing skills, then refresh my three languages (which by the end of my degree will be spanish, english and french) then become a professional translator/interpreter. I would also like to speak a slavic language and maybe an asian language - but that is in the far future. For now i'm content to stick to spanish, which i love.

My aim is to be trilingual by the age of 25, which is more than reasonable at this stage. By the age of 30 i would like to speak 4 languages.

The best advice i can give you is to do something for which you hold a genuine passion. This is because when it comes to studying, suddenly it is not a chore but a joy, and you realise how much fun studying can be, if you give it a chance...

I do Software Engineering.

I'd like to end up writing software for a special effects company but before then I would enjoy a stint writing video games professionally. I'm not worried about getting a job. I enjoy working with computers on a computer science level, find it interesting and am reasonably good at it. Am considering going back the year after next and doing a Masters in Computer Science of pretty much pure research.

Although, at some stage of my life I'd like to make a living from...

- Singing
- Design of some sort
- Managing/owning a business
- Teaching
- Event Management
(not in that order)

I don't care enough about money for it to be a priority as long as I live comfortably, have a tv, have a fridge full of beer, good company and good times.

Oh, and at some point I'd love to form a group of people that go in trivia competitions... professionally.

And maybe buy a van, driving around the country solving mysteries.

-----------------------
That be Handsome Peet
He dances for a nickel

I'm finishing the very last subject of my Bachelor of Multimedia, majoring in Software Development. I'm one of those unfortunate people who started doing something and half-way through found out they hated it. I know now computers aren't what I want to do with my life and I'm pretty sick of them, but it's all a bit too late.

The truth is though, the way I figure it is, there are no guarantees in life and everything you know can change in an instant so I don't see it as my own fault, just a change in fortunes that happened to change my priorities and thus my interests in life.

My first passion is writing, but I'd be happy to change into a career where I got to deal with people. I like people. I like writing too. I write good.

BA Dbl Major Politics/Philosophy. Why? Cos I am a freeeking idiot. Seriously. Choose something with less essays.

I study Accounting and Finance

I one day want to be rich.... I believe in the philosophy that u will never enjoy your job, so u may as well get paid well for it.

I want to go back to uni to study theology maybe one day

I dunno ive still got one more semester after this then a CA to do then maybe a securities institute...

Fuck im sick of study 14 years without a break

I know you've already put a lot of thought into what you want to do next year but I still really think journalism/ international relations is the field you should head into.

I dropped out of a business degree after 18 months. I'm hoping to go back next year to do a Bachelor of Ancient History with a diploma of education. Anyone who knows me will understand that this is a much better choice of course.

And remember hon, if your really hate what you initially choose to do you can always transfer. It may seem like a waste of time but in the end it will be the right decision.

I have a bachelor of Science, Genetics and Biochemistry double major.

I hated uni, but it was more because I had to do an obscene amount of travelling to get there and home. 1.5hrs each way just so that I could go to one 1hr lecture at 8am never seemes worth my time. But I loved the learning. Some of the things that we studied were facinating, others tediously boring. But overall I loved my course and the things I learnt, which is always more evident when I can suddenly explain things to people, such as phenylketonuria.

One thing I cant emphasise enough is to do something that you enjoy. It doesnt matter how obscure the course is, or whether your mates think that you're a fool for picking the course you do and not one which can make you rich. Like everyone else has said, if you enjoy the subject matter, then the study isnt quite as hard. I got asked a countless amount of times by people I knew, "Why are you doing science? you know theres no money in that?!? You should be studying IT or something like that.", cept the problem is that I have no interest whatsoever in working with computers and I love scientific research. I've worked in jobs I've hated and in the end you dont make an effort to achieve excellent results and you just end up unhappy and unsatisfied.

Lastly, you never really realise it until you get to uni, but if you want to get somewhere, then there is always an avenue for to to take to achieve your goal. It may take you longer than someone else, but its always possible. So dont ever give up.

Good luck, I hope that you can work out whats fitting for you.

stace.

I'm doing my Bachelor of Arts Training and Development... why? Because I'm a fucking moron.

I'm serious, I decided I felt like getting yet another piece of paper that tells me I can do the job I already do would be a good idea as a way to stop being bored. I'm already over-qualified and quite honestly don't need to be at uni again. But I thrive on the challenge as much as I hate it and I'm already looking at adding enough bridging so I can merge some psych units in there and maybe move over to psych once I've completed this one... why? because yet again I am a moron.

The closest postgrad thing was a grad cert/dip in education and apparently the BA T&D was more tailored towards people already in the Training field (requirements for entry are 5+ years industry experience as a trainer including instructional design & development, training small to large groups and 5+ years relevant experience in the industry in which you train).

I study at Curtin university of technology in WA, via correspondence because it is the best. In my field they are pioneers and one of the few schools to recognise that the Bachelor of Arts Adult Education was really poor and all it did was equip teachers with the skills to go teach, forgetting the extreme difference in climate between adults and children and to adopt a course that addressed Adults and their need in learning environs both workplace and classroom.

Training has largely been a field where you get experience in the real world about your subject then come in and tell others how to do it, lately there's been a push to make sure trainers are qualified to teach. Teaching adults is nothing like teaching children or adolescents so now any trainer has to have the Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment. I've had mine for 4 years and I thought I should upgrade that qualification to the relevant degree, to me it was killing two birds with one stone. No I don't need it for my job however if I leave my job it will be advantageous because it is a relatively new course and shows prospective employers that I have a keen desire to keep myself up to date with industry trends and standards (blah blah blah insert lengthy explanation here) and it also cured the restlessness I was feeling (and instead has added to my stress).

But I love it.

I went back to uni because I was bored, I chose the course for the reasons above, I will never ever use this degree. Right now I'm the National Manager for Training, Development and HR Services, I've negotiated myself a couple of days a week training (because I love it) but largely I run seminars and training events for up to 500 people around Australia and make the decisions on how those departments run (ok so it's more complicated than that but you get the gist).

I never started out to be where I am, hell to be honest I never started out to be a trainer either. I wanted to be a forensic scientist or criminal psychologist and I've got statements of attainments saying I've completed units towards both of those goals before I decided I didn't like it.

Choose to do what you enjoy, pick a course that appeals to you with the knowledge that you can always change. These decisions aren't set in stone, they can change as you grow.

i'm doing my bachelor teaching/bachelor arts to be a secondary english teacher but i don't really like it. all my subjects are primary based and after a year and a half i'm not even sure if i want to be a teacher. i like my uni though, i'm at the ourimbah campus of newcastle uni and it's a great place to study. i'm thinking i might want to change to a business or IT degree though.

Sports marketing. I love sport and I need to be doing something where I have fun, otherwise what's the point?

Just do something that you want to do, not something because you just want to be at uni. It's so unstructured (compared to high-school) that if you don't really want to be there then chances are you won't be. There's too much other stuff to get distracted with.

I envy people that have found a course that they really love, because I'd like to be back at uni some day but I can't figure out what could possibly hold my attention for 3+ years...

Good luck with whatever it is you embark on!

I did Bachelor of Business in Tourism and Hospitality (majoring in Event Management) and a year of post grad work in HR management.

I went to uni because it'd help me get a slightly better pay rate than if I didn't have a qualification here, and also i wanted to further my interest in the tourism sector (using events as a tourist bait). ideally those qualifications would help me find a job in the related fields but unfortunately with the recession - such jobs are hard to come by.

So i guess the most important thing is to try to guess if you'll be in demand after you finish your course. Things may seem really promising for a particular course now, but what will happen when you graduate, and there are like a million other similarly-qualified grads fighting for the same job.

Good luck apol|o

Edit - Let's keep this thread serious please

I study asian studies, hindi language major (the idea is to work in forign relations, proberbly diplomacy) with rather too much art on the side.
why? I'm with kitty on this one, because I am fucking moronic.

My only advice is when you choose your course, choose something you'll enjoy studying, and something that will take you where you do actually want to go, because despite claims to the contray I've found a course that basically preps me for a life of lucrative pay, cocaine addiction, 9inch heels and pinstriped suits, has a very limited appeal.
but thats just me.