Holly's blog

I have been asking myself a lot recently "Is university right for me?" and "Am I doing the right thing?". Neither of which I know the answer to.

I passed my A Levels and although my grades weren't great, I managed to get high enough grades to get into my firm university and do my chosen course of single honours History. I love History and am so glad I've gotten in. However, in the long term I would love to have a career in journalism or the media industry or social media so it would probably make more sense for me to do a media degree. Saying this, I've been told that to get into journalism it is better to do a degree such as History, English or Politics rather than Journalism.

Honestly I have no idea what I'm doing or what I want and hope I'm not making a mistake. What do you think I should do???

Today is Thursday 18th August 2016 and if you are an A Level Student you will know that today is A Level Results day!

When I woke up this morning (not that I'd ever really fallen asleep because I was worrying so much), I went on the UCAS website and waiting until 8am when Track would be updated and tell me whether or not I'd gotten into uni. I was so happy when I discovered that I'd been accepted to my first choice university and had been given an unconditional offer because I'd met the exam requirements! I'm going to be studying History at a university that seems perfect for me!

However, I still had to go to college and get my results. I went with my friend Zoe and got there around 10am. Zoe had amazing results (I wouldn't have expected anything less from her!) and my results were okay - at least I'd passed and gotten into uni even if they weren't what I'd wanted! I got a B in English Literature and Language overall, and C's in History and Media Studies overall. I'm slightly disappointed because of how hard I worked this year but I know that my AS grades are what dragged me down. For some reason I'd found AS level's so much harder than A2 and this reflected in my grades. This year I managed to get an A in my History coursework but because of exam results last year I ended up with a C overall.

Overall I'm happy with my A2 results, just not so happy with my overall A Level grades. On the bright side I managed to pass my A levels and get into a university I've wanted to go to and will be doing a course I will hopefully love! Well done to everyone, no matter what grades you got and good luck for your futures!

I'm worried about starting university. I move into my uni halls on 17th September and my freshens week starts on the 19th September. I'm going to a uni that's about an hour to two hours away depending on traffic or which train I get. I've visited the university once and I fell in love with it. It isn't a top university and isn't at the top of any league tables but I could see myself there and fell in love with the campus, the city and the course.

I've chosen to do single honours history as History has always been one of my favourite subjects and I've always been (relatively) good at it. I know I'm going to love the course and would love to go into journalism or work in a museum. However, those are both competitive fields meaning it's unlikely I'll end up in either of those, especially as it's hard enough to get a job nowadays! This has made worried as a History degree isn't as versatile or as "useful" as a degree in ICT or Business and as such I'm worried about my future job prospects.

To make matters worse, neither of my parents think I should do a history degree. My mother constantly tells me it's a stupid idea and I'll get nowhere with it whilst my father just tells me how hard it is to get a job with any degree. This doesn't help with my self-doubting.

I'm so worried about whether I should be doing a history degree or not. I love History and would love a job related to it but I'm worried about what will happen when I finish my degree. I also plan on living at home during my second and third years to save money and I just don't know if I could deal with my mother telling me how much of a mistake I'm making doing a history degree while I'm in the middle if doing that degree.

Do you have any advice? X