faetal on 29/8/2013 at 12:00

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(I'm in the UK, so age range in brackets should help with equivalents)

I didn't go to uni until I was 25. After I finished my GCSEs (at 16), I went to college (16-18) and dropped out after a few months, as I had zero motivation - all I wanted to do was fuck and get fucked up. I then spent 4 years working in a supermarket earning next to nothing. Realised that yes, I had made a mistake, so I took an evening class in MS office and not long after, managed to get a job doing office admin (still for not much money). Realising that I still wasn't doing well, I managed to move sideways within the company and landed a role in IT testing systems. I did well at that and the additional intellectual stimulation provided by the more technical role made me realise I had a professional desire which was never going to be satisfied by working in the financial sector.

I was very lucky at the time to have a girlfriend who saw I had some wasted potential, she found a degree course which had an access year (I did not have A-levels from the 16-18 period, required for university entry) doing Biology. So at 26, I started this 4 year degree course. I was also very lucky that the government at the time had a scheme whereby independent living persons over the age of 25 would have their fees paid for them (no loan) and I could live from a student loan (I have racked up just shy of £20k, but don't need to repay anything until I am earning >£20k p.a. and the payments fade in on a sliding scale tied to earnings, thus highly doable) subsidised by part time work. Luckily (again), I was able to carry on working part time in my IT job, which meant that for 18 hours' work a week, I could get £270, which made for a pretty comfortable university experience, bearing in mind that my rent + bills was about £350 a month.

I found a consuming passion in biology and particularly biochemistry, worked my ass off both in and out of uni and graduated with a 2:1 (probably could have worked harder for a 1st, but was prone to some partying myself). As far as studying at uni goes, my advice is pretty much:

1) Attend ALL lectures (unless unavoidable). Revising from powerpoint slides and other people's notes will suffice to a point, but you lose a great deal of the information by getting it in flat context. Also, learning and memorising by both visual and aural routes simply allows for better assimilation of the information.

2) Study outside of university. Basically, use as many different environments and learning methods as you can. Diversification of the input leads to greater brain stimulation = better learning.

3) Make good friends to socialise with, but also find at least one good study partner. Having someone who is good at what you are doing in a different way to you means you can effectively test each and strengthen one another's learning.

4) Pay close attention to transferable skills. As mentioned above - MATHS IS IMPORTANT. There is a good reason why someone who has a maths degree will find work easily. Part of doing a degree is essentially learning project management. There is also a good reason why some jobs will only employ people of degree calibre - degrees teach you a variety of universally useful skills.

5) Enjoy learning. I fucked up at 16. I had no idea what I wanted for life so I opted for a light take on oblivion. I got stoned, I got drunk, I chased women. It did precisely nothing for me and that hindsight meant that when I came back to education at 26, I treated every minute of study time as a gift. A second chance not to be a loser. I treated the learning resources as an opportunity that I had a mere 4 years to take advantage of and I was rewarded for it.

I was offered a PhD position by the supervisor of my dissertation project and am now 5 months from handing in my thesis and I have applications in for funding more research where I am, plus an opportunity to move to a lab in Lyon, France to do research I am interested in which I am designing myself. I'm not intending to brag, but you can probably appreciate from my history that I'm continually appreciative of the fact that just over 10 years ago, my career was working on a supermarket delicatessen.

The one regret I have is that I didn't do things properly the first time around. While my friends all went through college and then uni, I was working with a bunch of middle aged women (who were awesome, but that's not the point) cutting up ham and cheese. As it stands, I will be 34 when I get my PhD - which puts me about 10 years behind most of the pack. I will be trudging through academic positions continuing research where my contemporaries on a similar course will be heading up their own groups or settling into lectureships.

Not everyone is made for university or further education in general, but you should think very carefully about what to do next and where you want to be in 10 years' time, because that time will fly. I'm still very happy that I've got to where I am, but can't help resenting myself for spending 10 years dicking about when I could have been doing what I'm doing now. I also know of people who went straight into work when they left school at 16 and are doing very well for themselves. The important thing is to decide what you want and start making it happen. You can have fun along the way, but having no plan just results in a lot of wasted time.

Briareos H on 29/8/2013 at 13:00

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Okay, my bad. I assumed so because you commented somewhere about jeuxvideo.com. I have no idea what the Spanish education system is like, I'm a bit surprised that high school would be so difficult. Are you sure uni was the right way to go for you?

faetal on 29/8/2013 at 14:09

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Have you considered travelling for a year? You can work as you travel to make the outlay relatively modest.

Queue on 29/8/2013 at 15:25

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You know, I actually like the idea of a "don't really care about you" university education. It forces the notion of self-reliance. If students aren't allowed to fail, then they will expect to always win. If they cannot falter through their own actions or inaction's, then what lesson in life are they learning?

... just the way I look at it.

Chimpy Chompy on 29/8/2013 at 16:40

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Unemployment amongst young people in spain is like 55% currently.