Ahem. An embarrassing topic. Daddy wants you to be a lawyer. Mummy has always dreamed of you fulfilling her thwarted desires. Rushing to the gym, having competitive coffee mornings where she drones on and on about your achievements until you wish the ground would open up and swallow either her or you. You only took History to please your father. Your much prefer English, but spend all your spare time either playing the guitar or practising spoken Spanish with that lovely boy from Madrid.
Back in your world, you'd like to study music, after maybe a gap year travelling in South America, perfecting your Spanish. Music and Spanish maybe? Spanish with Music on the side?
It can be hard to tell your parents where to get off. Maybe the whole issue of student funding might help you: remind them that though you are grateful for any support they may be prepared to give you, the tuition fees you are likely to be paying if you are UK resident are taken off your tax bill, not theirs. It's your life, and your job prospects are much better if you get a first class honours degree in Art or Music because you love the subject, than if you get a 3rd or drop out from Law because you hate every minute of it.
What's more, some of the best lawyers took a first degree in something completely different anyway.
We trail round the country going to careers conferences, listening to what employers actually want. Creativity, design ability, enthusiasm, excellent communication skills are highly prized. Office drones, the merely mindlessly industrious are not going to cut it any more.
Do what you love, what you're good at and if you're being berated by anxious parents about 'doing something with good job prospects', point them in the direction of Chapter 3 of our book, How to Get Into University, available free on iTunes.
And do remember, your parents only want the best for you really. All kinds of funny things go through parents' heads: they try to live through you; they subconsciously do the same things to you that their parents did to them, even though they always swore not to; they worry about finance and try to protect you from the struggles they have faced, but in the end, it's your life and you have to live it. Go for it.
Back in your world, you'd like to study music, after maybe a gap year travelling in South America, perfecting your Spanish. Music and Spanish maybe? Spanish with Music on the side?
It can be hard to tell your parents where to get off. Maybe the whole issue of student funding might help you: remind them that though you are grateful for any support they may be prepared to give you, the tuition fees you are likely to be paying if you are UK resident are taken off your tax bill, not theirs. It's your life, and your job prospects are much better if you get a first class honours degree in Art or Music because you love the subject, than if you get a 3rd or drop out from Law because you hate every minute of it.
What's more, some of the best lawyers took a first degree in something completely different anyway.
We trail round the country going to careers conferences, listening to what employers actually want. Creativity, design ability, enthusiasm, excellent communication skills are highly prized. Office drones, the merely mindlessly industrious are not going to cut it any more.
Do what you love, what you're good at and if you're being berated by anxious parents about 'doing something with good job prospects', point them in the direction of Chapter 3 of our book, How to Get Into University, available free on iTunes.
And do remember, your parents only want the best for you really. All kinds of funny things go through parents' heads: they try to live through you; they subconsciously do the same things to you that their parents did to them, even though they always swore not to; they worry about finance and try to protect you from the struggles they have faced, but in the end, it's your life and you have to live it. Go for it.
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