"Fuck it, I'm off" vs stability: advice needed

''I might not have any proper mates here but at least I do know a few people, and the thought of not seeing them again is a bit weird''

it is my experience that friends drift in and out. I only have two who i have seen, on and off, over the years (we are apart but i do give 'em a call evry couple of months, and vice versa). I mostly lose touch if i move to a new place (for study/work).

Move, or at least change courses. If that first sentence is really true there's no point in you staying where you are doing what you are doing, unless there are serious financial constraints involved.

2. you acknowledge it might be the city. the thing is, you're into the course and stuff now, i think its worth leaving for the right course, but not because of the city (especially as you're now someway into it). plus, you say its beginning to get better. manchester (in my opinion) is a good place to be (though, that is dependant on knowing people. but the thing is, socially, you have got something of a base, something you can begin to work from). there aren't really any places outside of london that are as good as manchester (leeds, nottingham, newcastle?) but none of them are any further south. and thats kind of irrelevant anyway, unless you can meet people.

leave if its for a course. stay if its because of the city. the fact that you are already there may sound like a weak reason, but i do think this actually carries some weight (and dont forget, you'll be moving after your course anyway)

1) look at the option of transferring to another university. This is very difficult and near impossible.
2) If you drop out, you will have to start from scratch. Start applying straight away.
3) Dropping out = get a job. Be ready for this, it's not nice looking for a job and the kind of job you get may well be horrible. It may help your confidence in the long run.

And yes, I do know what dropping out of university is like.

Plan plan plan and look at all the options. I'd say don't get out until it's desperate, and if you do, please consider what you will do carefully as I wouldn't recommend my fcuked up route to anyone.

If you decide to leave your course/uni and cannot get a transfer, you would have to go back to uni to start 2003 and finish 2006. [Under the first option, you would already have a degree and the option of doing a Masters, and still have a year to spare.]

All the best.

If you want a different Media Technologies degree, one which is closer to what you want to do - find one and contact them about changing. (You will have to apply through UCAS again) they may allow a second year entry taking credit from your first year at Salford. If its just a few technology issues you could even finish this year at Salford and go for third year entry (harder and possibly less useful). Looking internally at other courses in Salford as well that approximate closer to what you want to do might help too.

Also it is important to remember that a Univeristy degree - even one quite technical like yours - is certainly not the be all and end all in getting a job. If you want to work in the media/technology field then having a degree in it is so much more important that whether that degree is relevant. Certainly if we are talking computer/internet media you are already qualified for that kind of work. Moving on will take one extra year at least, do you want to waste that time if its nothing too specific.

Also complain to the course convener in writing - especially if the course has wildly deviated from the prospectus.

Definitely look into transferring to a different course within the same university; you've already said there are others that appeal more. It'll almost certainly be easier than moving schools.

The course could be construed to fit what it says in the prospectus, but in a very twisted, unexpected way. We do token modules in toher media, but not much and they don't seem to reference them in the main lectures. But really, they could call the course "TV Engineering" and not have to change anything.

I was thinking about leaving the course over the summer, but I had retakes to do and one of them (the presentation) couldn't be done until after I got back. If I'd known of the funding deadline with even starting the second year, I probably wouldn't have come back.

So teh plan currently is to switch straight onto the Media Tech course at another university, and hope they accept my credit. I don't think there is a course here that's better suited to me (where'd I say that mark?).

So I quit. Well, I transferred at any rate, to a university on the other side of the country, and I loved it there, got involved, made loads of friends and generally found it to have been the best decision of my life. I was more or less the same way through my course as you are through yours, and changing was actually fairly easy. I doubt you'll be able to transfer universities smoothly at this stage in the game, ie straight from one to another. It might be a case of taking the rest of this year off and working, then going to a new one in the next financial year, which is what I did. Funding-wise it was merely a case of 'pick up where you left off' for me, so I didn't have to pay tuition fees, although I did have to defer my student loan repayments in the interim year.

One thing though, it's really not worth your while leaving unless you are pretty sure that things will be considerably better elsewhere. From what you've said on this thread, and in previous posts, I'm not convinced that you are. I'd think pretty carefully.

"But media is television"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

He fully admitted it was a TV course, and that's what he came up with when I asked why they didn't put TV in the title. He said I should have inferred from the course description from where graduates later worked ("Granada Media Group, BBC Radio and Television, On-Digital and Pearsons Television"). I didn't really press him on why I should look at that and ignore the "At a glance: Radio, television and multi-media" and "This full-time modular course lays down the theory of video, audio and IT practice in radio, television and multi-media". But what a fucking twunt. Pete, who is it I should threaten to write to, if it comes to it?

He did say that my best option was to try and get in in the first year of another course this year, but I'm not sure how the funding would work?

Course convener could be head of department, head of faculty or some random punter drafted in for the task. The SU should be able to find them for you, and help represent you with a good early verbal complaint. Something that strikes me is that where you are studying - Greater Earthquake Manchester - there are a number of Universities in the area who might be able to do modular units which would fit into your degree stopping the need to move on whilst giving you the degree you want.

Drop out rates are a big issuein Universities at the moment - you do actually have a fair bit of power. And a killer quote you can use against 'em.

I'm kind of quite looking forward to getting out of Manchester generally though.

ironically she is from...manchester!

I like Oxford, it seems more appropriately sized for me.

If you feel that your course is the wrong one, another two years is an extremely long time to be unsettled and unhappy about it. As others have said, you may not be able to transfer smoothly to another Uni now (though it doesn't do any harm to make a few tentative telephone calls to ask the question, does it? ... you may be pleasantly surprised), so perhaps you should bank on starting elsewhere next year. Life's too short to be miserable.

Depending on your personal preference you can specialise during the second and final year in two major areas. The first area covers the specialised electronics behind modern media systems, the second focuses more on the computer hardware and software aspects.

I hope everything works out for you.

Good luck.

I'm just off to see the student union person. I don't really feel I can stay here much until january with that atmosphere between us.

I've been home to dig it out It has a list of modules and descriptions hidden at the back, and they do pretty accurately describe the course. It does have "Audio" and "Programming" and "Multimedia" dotted around the module titles, but it's not obvious how TV focussed it is unless you're looking for it. It also isn't obvious that half the modules are taught in a "you really don't need to know this" way.

Try not to piss people off on your course too much as you may need to get a reference off of them too.

My lecturer says I need a plan B, and a plan C. Suggestions?

(Actually I'm getting a plane back home for Christmas, cz I are mentalist, and I don't see how I can crowbar annoying Melissa into that one)

(ie No news yet)

GRRR

I'm on the first train to Oxford tomorrow morning. Any other ideas what to do?

And be patient. And polite. If you pretend to be rational then you will act rational.

(I'm not expecting people to help me sort out my life, I'm expecting them to be friendly)

So, I guess my best advice is don't blow up at the people at Oxford if they can't help you out, as that will disincline them from taking heroic measures to help you. You've got to find a constructive way to vent your frustration (unfortunately, I don't know what that constructive way is).

I went to the Admissions Office first. They phoned people and been phoning and basically told me as they hadn't been dealing with it they couldn't do anything, and gave me phone numbers of the people they'd been trying to ring. But no sympathy.

So I found the Engineering department and harassed the secretary, and she said there wasn't anything she could do as Julia was away, as was the head of the course. I asked if they had mobile numbers and she said yes but she couldn't phone them when they were away. After a lot of pointing out how screwed I was, she went and found some guy, who was the head of Mechanical Engineering. He said Julia had been very busy preparing a report for him and seemed a bit guilty. He took my details and said everything looked good, but he couldn't do anything until he spoke to the Field Chair, who was away until Monday. There's no rooms in halls available, so next week is going to be very interesting.

Would it be worth my while going to Oxford again tomorrow? That would give me an extra day to sort things out. I guess I should have asked her that.