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I want a degree...

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
Right, so I tried the 'going to uni' for 6 days last october, and found it to be the biggest disaster. However, I still want to get a degree. I just can't stomach the 'student life' of living away from home for 3 years.

I'm really really stuck, and have no idea what to do. I've looked into the OU, but they don't do the kind of degree I really want.

If anyone has any idea how I could study for a Fashion Design (or related subject) degree, without having to 'attend university' then pleeease help.

I'm pulling my hair out. I know exactly what I want to do, but I have no way of doing it :no: :(

Ilora x
Post edited by JustV on
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  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Right, so I tried the 'going to uni' for 6 days last october, and found it to be the biggest disaster. However, I still want to get a degree. I just can't stomach the 'student life' of living away from home for 3 years.

    I'm really really stuck, and have no idea what to do. I've looked into the OU, but they don't do the kind of degree I really want.

    If anyone has any idea how I could study for a Fashion Design (or related subject) degree, without having to 'attend university' then pleeease help.

    I'm pulling my hair out. I know exactly what I want to do, but I have no way of doing it :no: :(

    Ilora x

    You don't live away from home for the whole three years. Usually in uni accomidation you get booted out over the holidays. And 6 days isn't a long time, it took me a good term at least to find my place at uni.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Right, so I tried the 'going to uni' for 6 days last october, and found it to be the biggest disaster. However, I still want to get a degree. I just can't stomach the 'student life' of living away from home for 3 years.

    I'm really really stuck, and have no idea what to do. I've looked into the OU, but they don't do the kind of degree I really want.

    If anyone has any idea how I could study for a Fashion Design (or related subject) degree, without having to 'attend university' then pleeease help.

    I'm pulling my hair out. I know exactly what I want to do, but I have no way of doing it :no: :(

    Ilora x
    you could apply to university closer to home so you dont have to move out.
    im at college, but i havent moved. I just travel 30 mins on the train to get there.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've been at uni for the past 2 years and i haven't moved out. Besides you really need to give it longer before you quit!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Okay. I've looked into commuting, I've looked into living in halls, then coming home at weekends and every holiday. I've sent off for prospectus's from every uni/uni college in the vicinity. I've thought about it all, but have come to the conclusion that going to university is a No-Go for me. Full stop. I do not want to go to university.

    But, I still want the opportunity to study for a (specialised) degree.

    Why can't degrees like fashion design, be made available to students not wanting to study at university? Like the OU for example, I'd love to do a degree from home, but they just don't cater for my taste. Maths and Law, yeah. But Fashion, no!

    I'm so stuck :( Ilora x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh no, they don't offer something you want to do. How unfair is that?

    You have to choose what is more important to you. Standing on your own two feet and getting a degree from university, or keeping the cushy lifestyle by getting mummy and daddy to run around after you.

    You never gave uni a good go before. No doubt because of your anxiety. Well you have to choose what's more important to you, honey.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit, honey, it's not about 'giving it a good go' at all. If I was comfortable going to university in the slightest, I would be there right now, believe me. I want to study, I want a career.
    But my problems are past just 'giving it a go' now. 6 days may be a pathetic attempt for some people, but for me, in those 6 days it was clear as day that I was not comfortable at university. It's just not me. End of.

    You may criticise me, but that's who I am. That's what I've done.
    I don't need anyone telling me I should've 'just got on with it', because I tried that for what I believe, was a long enough time.

    I'm past caring what people think about me, I just want (need) some help. Not criticism. I am genuinly looking for answers, so if you cannot help me at all then please don't reply.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well your choices are quite clear.

    You either go to university and do a degree, or you don't. You can stay at home and go to a local university, or you can go far away. You could do a fashion HND at college if you wanted.

    There isn't any advice to give. Those are the choices. Take your pick.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    have you tried googling it? i just did and some fashion degrees just came up that you can do through unis online...worth looking into, i'm not sure how they work though.

    isn't there a college local to you you could do it at like RB said? or try asking at your local careers center - they can give you evening classes info which may be less intimidating for you. are you going to work and study then? it can be hard to get funding for anything that isn't full time education, or is that not a problem?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    it might have been just that particular university that didnt suit you. They are not all the same. You might find it more cope-able with if you went to a local polytechnic or college rather than a big university.
    You will probably find that you cant do something like a fashion degree studying from home because its such a practical course, but you may be able to find a college based one thats part time therefore not as big a step as it was to go to a big university away from home for the first time on a full time course.
    If you want a degree then it will almost certainly involve some time at college. Even OU courses you need to go to college occasionally, although the OU dont offer courses in fashion (as im sure you know)
    learn direct do 2 self directed diplomas in fashion, but thats not the degree you want.
    I think you may have to think about being a bit more flexible about what you will or wont consider.
    I think you had a bit of a bad experience when Uni wasnt what you were expecting, but I dont think you should let that put you off going to college completely, because it could really be character building for you, it could help you get through some of your anxiety, especially if you talked to the college counsellor while you were there.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My first 6 days at uni, it was clear as crystal I shouldn't be there.

    But I stuck it out, and 8 weeks in I was enjoying myself, by the end of the year, uni was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

    6 days doesn't seem like a pathetic attempt. It IS a pathetic attempt.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote:
    My first 6 days at uni, it was clear as crystal I shouldn't be there.

    But I stuck it out, and 8 weeks in I was enjoying myself, by the end of the year, uni was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

    6 days doesn't seem like a pathetic attempt. It IS a pathetic attempt.
    and thats just gonna make her defensive
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Probably, but that seems to be her idiom.

    Seriously though 6 days isn't an attempt, if you were generous you could call it an empty gesture.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fashion is one of the most competitive, back stabbing, bitchy industries you can go into. If you can't handle going away to university then I really think you should probably try looking at another carrear option and set your sights a little bit lower.

    However if you have your heart set on designing and making clothes - then start small - so you can't do a degree - but you could probably do a dress making evening course - you could make stuff and try and sell it locally. Also lots of unis do correspondence courses for overseas students so its worth while phoning up the London College of Fashion and St Martins Directly - I dunno if there are any other unis that have a good reputation for fashion or not but thats pretty much the two big ones.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I already said something similar when she originally posted about it.
    I do think itd be a shame though if it put her off ever going to college again.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I do not want to go to university.

    But, I still want the opportunity to study for a (specialised) degree.

    without sounding patronising..sometimes in life we have to do things we don't want to do. if that means you going to uni to do the degree you want to do then you're going to have to go to uni. i'm sure if there was another way around it that you'd have found it by now. good luck all the same.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    are you sure the things you hated about uni won't be exactly the same things you'll have to do to have a career in fashion? long hours, being away from home, having to socialise, standing up in front of a whole room of people to sell your work/skills? it isn't for the faint hearted or work shy.

    anyway, you will have to physically take yourself into a college or uni to learn fashion. whether you stay in halls or stay at home and commute doesn't matter, but you will have to have practical lessons, and critiques, and do presentations and have art lessons, and you just can't do that with distance learning. it's a very involved subject. in my first year (switched courses at the beginning of my second year) I was doing 10am - 5pm every day plus preparation for presentations, sketchbook and sample work and design work at home, so it's definitely not a slacker subject either.

    you want a degree but you don't want to go to uni. so you'll either have to settle for not having a degree, or doing one that is offered by the OU or other distance learning places (mostly essay-based subjects). tough, but that's the way life is.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You don't necesarily have to have a degree Ilora to keep up with the Joneses. Degrees sometimes aren't worth the paper they're written on, especially if they are in Madonna or Michael Jackson studies. What matters is this: that YOU DO HAVE OTHER OPTIONS AND what matters is that you have teh deication to see it through.

    Fashion is hands on. I know this because I went to the London Colleg of Printing (see name change School of the arts) which encompassed St Martin's Colleg on site and the London College of Fashion just down the road. All these careers including mine (journalism) are vocational careers, despite vain attempts to intellectualise them. Example it makes no difference whether you take a journalism postgrad (technical based) or a journalism masters - the masters won't give you a leg-up when you need to know how to operate controls in a broadcasting studio.

    Look there are B-TECS, there are HND's as Kermit nentioned there are NVQ's and GNVQ's. It's all about contacts, contacts, contacts, getting an apprenticehip with a taylor and the like. I know some designers so if you need a helping hand PM me.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I just want to set the record straight. I may have left after 6 days, but it wasn't PURELY to do with disliking uni life.

    I attended the first day of enrolment and found that my name wasn't on the register. After speaking to the course tutor I found that I'd been sent an offer letter, by mistake, so I had to leave the course/uni anyway.
    The reason for this is because during interview, I was told that I may have to defer entry for a year and study for a foundation course in Art and Design in order to join the course. (as I didn't study Art at A-level) But they said they'd send me an offer letter either way, I was just to wait and see.
    I sept, I received the offer letter for this year, so there I was thinking that I wouldn't need to take a year out, and I would go straight into the degree.
    It wasn't until I got there, moved all my stuff in, stayed in halls for 5 days and then went to enrolment that I found out I shouldn't have been there at all.

    So excuse me if I do seem defensive, I probably would have stayed if it wasn't for this 'misunderstanding' with offer letters.

    After all that, I then went for interview at BCUC to study the same degree and was told the same thing - come back in a year once you've completed art and design course and you can study the degree.
    So I then went to my local college to enrol on the above course. Again, attended interview and was then told that because I didn't have an A-Level in art, my portfolio was not strong enough, and so I wasn't accepted onto the course.

    So you see, it wasn't just a 'half arsed' attempt. I did everything I could to try and sort something out, get somewhere but every single time I tried, my best wasn't good enough.

    All this happened last October. Since then I have studied an accredited Dressmaking course and also a Jewellery and Silversmithing course with the local 'Adult Continuing Education' people. But, now I've found that the dressmaking course is now not accredited and the fashion design course I was about to enrol on, was taken out of the prospectus because of low enrolment.

    So... we're back round to square one. I'm still extremely clueless as to what to do next. I've spoken to Connexions about fashion/dressmaking apprenticeships but because I live in the crappiest area for this sort of thing, there are no vacancies.

    If anyone STILL wants to say that I haven't tried, or that I should 'give it another go', then they obviously don't understand what the hell I've been through to try and actually get somewhere. :no:

    Ilora x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I still think your best bet is moving in or around London and trying to get an apprenticeship - money and training on the job.

    Can I emphasise to everyone else, though a degree will undoubtedly help most, degrees as a means to an end are not the be all and end all and you can still get on in some careers/professions/jobs without one.

    Here's an example, I know a top journalist who left school at 16 and is now the top crime/investigative journalist there aged 30. He went straight onto a local paper and did his three years etc. etc. After that teh sky was the limit. Or he could have done it my way: 3 A-levels, languages degree, postgrad journalism and eight years later finished studying at 24 with barely any money to my name. I know which way I would have gone about things looking back. Uni teaches you a) how to drink lots of beer b) how to study and research and make friends c) possibly makes you more worldly wise and gets you mixing with people from all walks of like. But altetrnatively I think a lot of people go to uni for the hell of it, cos, it's the done thing and the 'perceived prestige.' And I really don't think those are good enough reasons imho.

    How many plumbers/lift engineers/electricians/mechanics go to uni? And how many people know plumbers/electricians/builders who are 'minting it' to be crude. Exactly.

    Horses for courses, folks. If Ilora hated uni after six days and hated it that is her business, her feeling, her emotions and her sntiment. We all have different levels of tolerance, so who are we to judge if she left after six days or six minutes. I'll shtup now, 'cos I know you probably want me to.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It wasn't until I got there, moved all my stuff in, stayed in halls for 5 days and then went to enrolment that I found out I shouldn't have been there at all.


    You had a place in halls... but weren't enrolled at the university?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    whats the big deal staying away from home...every summer since i was 12 i've spent 3 weeks away from home, it's brilliant, i thought everyone rejoices at the day they go to uni to get a bit of independence...just me then
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote:
    You had a place in halls... but weren't enrolled at the university?

    Hmmm. Quite. What a strange university!
    turlough wrote:
    i thought everyone rejoices at the day they go to uni to get a bit of independence...just me then

    It depends how much freedom you have at home. I have more freedom living with my parents than I ever had living in halls. I can cook when I want (without fear of getting into trouble off 'security'), stay out as late as I want (without being locked out), have whoever I want staying over (without having my room searched) and keep candles in my room should I so desire. I can also keep my yogurt in the fridge without fear that some fecker will steal it :D

    I've personally never believed halls offers any kind of independence, merely a different sort of dependence.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ilora you need to go do and Art Design foundation course then - I dont' know anyone thats studied any form of Art that hasn't. So you didnt get in to do it last year - you need to work on your portfolio and try again. If you can do it close to your home then thats great and a step in the right direction.

    Or the fact that you didnt' even get in to do the foundation year might be telling you something....

    As Mazza says though degrees really aren't the be all and end all of everything - I feel like i've said this 3 billion times but you can do just as well in life without them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote:
    You had a place in halls... but weren't enrolled at the university?
    Yeah, all you needed to get a room in halls, was the offer letter. Enrolment wasn't until about 5 days into the 'freshers week' for me (depending on the course you're on).

    Ilora x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You've got to be taking the piss, I mean seriously, hall-places are like gold dust in most uni's.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Who knows. Who cares. The facts of why she didn't stay at uni are irrelevant.

    Your choices are as stark as I said above. There are options, but if you want to get any qualification in fashion none of your options is "sit at home and hide". You can either move out, or you can commute, you can go near, you can go far. You could do art or fashion at the local college, you could do more at the local university. But you're going to have to go into the big wide world and stand on your own two feet.

    If you don't feel able to go out into the world and be pro-active then a fashion career isn't what you want. Even if you go and work on the job somewhere you will need to be go-getting, pro-active and sociable.

    Your choice. But nothing falls into your lap, you'll learn that sooner or later.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well, mine was a late application to halls at London Met. It wasn't until sept that I'd actually secured a room in halls after mum and dad begged the acomm office for a room. I was originally in Sir John Cass in Hackney, but was later transfered to Claredale in Bethnal Green, after a room went free, tripling the size of the room too.

    It all seemed too good to be true... Ilora x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    Who knows. Who cares. The facts of why she didn't stay at uni are irrelevant.

    Your choices are as stark as I said above. There are options, but if you want to get any qualification in fashion none of your options is "sit at home and hide". You can either move out, or you can commute, you can go near, you can go far. You could do art or fashion at the local college, you could do more at the local university. But you're going to have to go into the big wide world and stand on your own two feet.

    If you don't feel able to go out into the world and be pro-active then a fashion career isn't what you want. Even if you go and work on the job somewhere you will need to be go-getting, pro-active and sociable.

    Your choice. But nothing falls into your lap, you'll learn that sooner or later.
    No offence Kermit, but who made you Mr Know-All? You talk to me as if I know nothing, and assume that I'm stupid or something.

    I know you get out life what you put into it. I know that opportunities don't come knocking. I know that, so stop preaching to me as if you're my father.

    I don't care what personality traits I will 'need' to have in order to have a career in Fashion. All I know is that it's all I'm passionate about, and to me, that's all that matters.

    All I want are the relevant skills and knowledge to make it on my own.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I know you get out life what you put into it. I know that opportunities don't come knocking. I know that

    Well get off your arse and do something then.
    I don't care what personality traits I will 'need' to have in order to have a career in Fashion.

    Well you should.
    All I know is that it's all I'm passionate about, and to me, that's all that matters.

    That's a start.
    All I want are the relevant skills and knowledge to make it on my own.

    And you can't get them on a distance course so quit whining about it.

    Go and study or don't, it's not like I care.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    kaffrin more of less said everything I was thinking. Fashion and it's related subjects are one of the few skills/courses that can't be learned independently. You need to be shown the necessary skills, have tutors etc on hand to show you where you're going right and wrong during what I imagine will be endless processes of designing, redesigning, drafting, sewing, ripping out stitches...the list goes on. A University environment is far preferable for any course, you have immediately to hand all the resources and support you might need, but in many subject areas it is feasible to study on a distance-learning or open course. I just don't think fashion/textiles or many "practical" courses or fields lend themselves to that. You couldn't really expect to study Mollecular Biology at home, either.

    There's been some excellent advice doled out here, maybe an apprenticeship or some relevant work experience would be a good idea...as if you're interested in the world of Fashion and Design then confidence and the ability to network/get along with anyone is essential. It would be excellent if you could follow through with this, as it's always good to get into something you're passionate about...I just think you might have to compromise what you're willing to try a little more.

    Good luck, though.
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