Life After High School: How to Figure out What Comes Next
Are you starting to wonder about what you want to do at Uni next year? Or if you even want to go? Have no idea about where to even start looking for answers? We’ve got some suggestions that you might want to consider.
Go to University open days and careers fairs
Students often pick a field of study or work that they think they are interested in without properly researching other options. Consequently, many students end up changing degrees after having started university and having to go back to re-start or extend their studies when they realise that there is another path better suited to them.
If you’re thinking about going to University, check out the university open days and careers fairs. These events give you the opportunity to explore areas of study and work that you may not have considered before so that when you start at university you can be sure that you’re in the course that’s right for you.
These events also give you an opportunity to speak to people who both teach and study the areas that you are interested in, so that you can ask all your questions to people who have genuine experience in that field. This can be really helpful as it will allow you to gain a more complete understanding of what would be required of you in your studies or desired profession, and allow you learn about things that the university course handbooks might leave out when they are trying to ‘sell’ that course to you.
Take a gap year
It might seem like the obvious answer, and maybe even a bit of a cliché, to put off choosing what to do with your life for another year, but taking a year off from the chaotic student lifestyle is often exactly what young people need in order to gain some clarity. Taking a year, or even just six months can provide much needed time to thoroughly think about your options and prevent you from making a hasty decision that might lead you down a path that isn’t necessarily right for you. Not to mention you can use this time to travel and work to save money so that if you do eventually return to studying you can focus more of your attention on achieving good grades without worrying about missed experiences or struggling with your finances.
Choose a general degree
If you have a general idea of the field that you would like to go into but just aren’t sure of what you want to specialise in why not choose a generalised degree? Many universities, including UWA, offer broad undergraduate degrees that allow you to pick various units of study that interest you so that you can try out a few different possibilities before having to declare a major. For example, if you’re interested in science you might want to take some units in pathology, psychology and human biology at a tertiary level before deciding which area you would like to pursue. Similarly, if you enjoy humanities subjects you can take units in subjects such as languages, history, media and communications studies and many more within your first year of a general Arts degree, which can then help you narrow down which area you would like to focus on for the remainder of that degree.
