ENGLISH LITERATURE DEGREE: IS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

 University has taken over my life recently… and not necessarily in the way you would expect.  There are so many expectations that come with starting university and I had a big long list in my head of what I thought it would all be like; here’s a list:

1.       Work, work, work and more work.

2.       Loads of homework

3.       Stressful, super hard work

4.       Intense lectures and seminars

5.       No money

6.       Being treated like an adult

After finishing Semester 1 and soon to be starting up Semester 2 I thought there was no need for me to wait until the end of the year before I wrote a blog post on my experiences and like the title of the post says ‘Is it really worth it?’ and there’s a simple answer to that- No. Before you start thinking that it’s me not liking university, or studying and being in education is just not my thing- I can honestly say that’s not the case. I am the biggest geekiest person you can image- I used to sit and write essay for fun, and spent my non-existent social life reading books… So education really is for me, but a pointless degree isn’t. In simple terms I felt I was merely paying £9,000+ a year to be at home most the time reading books. I had very little lessons in the first semester and I have even less in the second (8 hours a week). The first few weeks were brilliant, I was learning new stuff and it was all completely new, but I know it now and I find most of the time I don’t really need to attend the lectures as I instead just sit there bored and doodling in my notebook. This doesn’t apply to the whole of my lessons, I was lucky enough to have a lecturer that was passionate and brought up some interesting points and discussions and really got my brain moving but that only lasted 2 hours a week, the rest was rubbish.

If you’re seriously wanting to take English Lit as uni, just do your research and ask questions, because if I had known how most of my time was spend in a pointless lecture or at home because the majority of the learning is supposed to be done by yourself.. I certainly wouldn’t have paid a VERY overpriced £9,000. 

By writing this post I don’t mean to put anybody off- I enjoyed parts of my first semester, but I’m wanting others to know about what it’s like- as I wish I’d known. 

At least I’ve managed to power my way through the Game of Thrones seasons in preparation for Season 5 in April.- Every cloud has a silver lining right?!

-Ioana x