Fresh 18 year old here, so I'll hopefully be going to uni next year. My main concern is:
Do I persue a course in something I find horribly boring but tolerable (Computing) or something I very much enjoy but will be hard finding a job in afterwards (Music)
I'm also thinking of going Birmingham City. Any of you lot over there, how is it?
>>5914 Bear in mind that whatever you choose, you'll be studying it for 3-4 years, so "horribly boring" probably isn't the sort of thing you'd want to do.
You're 18 so just go with music. The worst that could happen is you end up at 21 with a degree unrelated to your profession which is normal. If after a year you decide that you really don't like all that music lark then you will at least have a better idea of what you want to do (having also got yourself some arts student clunge). You get an extra year of undergrad funding for this very reason.
Honestly I'm jealous. Your're at the age where you cannot possibly fuck up irreparably with the decisions you make so relax and enjoy it.
>>5915 I disagree with this, I said in a different thread. It's only three years and you'll find aspects of enjoyment, the short story is that very few people like structured learning regardless of topic. I like history, I do not like being taught history nor told to learn history. To that end, do what's going to of most value to your intended career - that would be comp sci. There's no point in music degrees. If you like music, do music anyway, you'll hate learning about either anyway.
Lads please stop lying to this chap. I don't mean to sound harsh, but music? Enjoy working in a call centre. With a degree.
Unless you are part of a very lucky few, chances are you'll regret choosing the fun course over the practical one. Just keep that in mind. If you are a musician already, then you should know in your heart that a degree on the subject is going to be redundant the majority of the time.
Fuck off STEMlad. Education is about the enshrinement of knowledge, the passing on of that knowledge, and the personal growth you undergo in the process. Should we just stop teaching stuff all together that wont get you at least £35K a year at the end of 4 years?
Have a little perspective. I'm studying applied biology, but I'd never be so obnoxious as to attempt to stifle the aspirations of a young lad based on my own prejudices about what does and does not constitute a "practical" field of study. That isn't the fucking point.
I'm not saying we should, you dickhead. However the lad asking the question is clearly fucking concerned about it isn't he?
I don't know what kind of background you come from, but as someone who came from poverty, I consider myself to have been very lucky that people gave me frank and honest advice like that once upon a time. Don't blatantly lie to the guy and say "Ahhh fuck it, you'll be fine whatever you do! You're only 18!" because it is a really very nasty lie to tell someone.
I do get where you are coming from I really do, but let's not hinge a lad's future on your intellectual idealism shall we?
>>5921 > Education is about the enshrinement of knowledge, the passing on of that knowledge, and the personal growth you undergo in the process.
You're both right, but other motivations come into play. I like music is nto the same as I want to pursure music academically, or I want to understand music.
>>5922 >"Ahhh fuck it, you'll be fine whatever you do! You're only 18!"
Fucks me off when people say shit like that, as though people should pay no attention to their future and just #yolo and make uninformed decisions.
>>5919 >It's only three years
There's no "only" about it. It's a fairly long time to be doing something you really can't stand. If you're in it for the money, then you're doing it wrong. You're going to have a shit time through the degree, finish with a shit result and end up in a shit job.
>>5924 How does he know he can't stand it? Music degrees aren't like music at GCSE, nor is computing, or chemistry as I did. Some bits you hate, some bits you find interest in. It comes and goes, as with any subject.
Frankly I don't think anyone really enjoys their subject until they're about 22 or 23, by that point they're mature enough to take a different attitude. Until then it's just 'learning' and nobody wants to do it really, they'd rather be partying.
What I'm really saying is that I don't think anyone who has never been to university has really any idea of what they will enjoy or not, it's variable and very disconnected from what they actually end up doing at university. What I'm saying is take the pragmatic option and do computing on the off chance (as you have with music) that you find things you enjoy within it.
The 'enjoyment' factor is also overrated I think, I didn't like my course but I damn sure did the work to get the most out of it. That would've been the case no matter what I did. Do I regret doing a chemistry degree? No. Would I have rather have done something else? In retrospect, perhaps maths or economics, but really would my enjoyment of my course been any better? Not really, no.
>there's no "only" about it
It's university - your degree is a bit part of your life and the subject essentially moot with regard to your day to day life.
>>5926 >The 'enjoyment' factor is also overrated I think
Mate, it's three whole years. Whichever way you cut it, it's a long time to live through. Life's far too short to waste that much time being miserable.
>>5929 Yes. You said he should study something he probably won't enjoy on the off chance that he does. That's a really poor way of approaching it. It's like saying you should go live in a shithole on the off chance that your neighbours are nice.
>>5931 >I've got a B in GCSE music and should be getting a C in A-level music tech
I'm going to level with you mate - with grades like that you're looking at a £27,000, three-year-long party. Don't expect your degree to be worth much more than the paper it's written on. The valuable thing will be who and what you get involved with before now and graduation. Become an active member of music-related societies, develop connections with like-thinking people, get involved with some kind of student radio or produce your own music during your (many) free hours and you'll be on the right track.
There are only two music tech degrees in this country with any real industry employment prospects - the Tonmeister at Surrey and Jon Thornton's course at LIPA. Surrey won't even consider you without A grades in mathematics, physics and music. LIPA are more flexible, but they're just as selective; they want substantial evidence of independent study and experience in music tech.
Beyond the handful of actual jobs available in broadcast and new media, it's all freelance and is all a matter of your track record. A touring production looking for a FoH engineer couldn't care less about your qualifications, they want a personal recommendation. The same goes for labels looking for mix engineers or producers, only more so.
If you want to mix sound for a living, you need to get out there and mix sound - am-dram productions, demo recordings for muso friends, whatever you can find. If you want to make your own music, then you want to be on a music course rather than studying music tech; there's nothing you need to know about the technology that you can't learn from Modern Recording Techniques, back issues of Sound on Sound and a lot of practice. If you can't get onto a music course at a conservatoire, LIPA or the ICMP, then I wouldn't bother.
>>5937 >There's a good chance of that whatever he does
There's a good chance you'll be killed crossing the road, but that's no reason to assume it'll happen.
>>5941 As I'm sure you've figured out, there are of course more options than the two you've mentioned. If you pick something you find at least vaguely interesting but isn't too niche you should manage to get through without throwing yourself off a building, and still have a decent range of job opportunities open. Despite what some may think, there are few lines of work where anyone cares about the subject of your degree as long as it's reasonably rigorous. Medicine and law the main exceptions. Finance is known to be particularly liberal with the grads they take in, where solid results and the ability to pass their selection process are more important than what you actually studied.
>>5941 That's precisely what I've been telling you mate, a music degree is not a degree in being musical but studying music. Your experience of music tech and university Music Technology are two wildly different things.
Meanwhile you could get a worthwhile degree that takes up fuck all of your time (welcome to uni) and spend the entire rest of your week doing the music you enjoy.
Picking subjects on the basis of what you enjoy is complete bollocks in my mind, since your experience and the experience to come are wildly different.
>>5943 >get a worthwhile degree that takes up fuck all of your time
Computing would be a poor choice by this metric. It tends to have some of the highest contact time requirements. The humanities tend to have lower requirements, meaning more control over allocating your own time between assignments and other commitments.
I don't particularly wish to weigh in on either side of this tangent of the debate, but that's not an inconsiderable amount of time whichever way you look at it.
>>5976 Yes it was a fucking lot and I did it and having worked full time not once though my undergrad was nearly as stressful or time consuming. Op will likely have less than half the hours I did. I'm not trying to sound impressive, I'm just trying to reinforce earlier points I've made. I had 28 hours, did I go ot all of them? Did I fuck.
>>5932 I wouldn't mind anything from my own production and DJ'ing (I know the course won't help that, but I'm sure there are societies that would be worth getting into)
In terms of jobs, recording engineer, sound design, live sound etc. I probably wouldn't even mind being a teacher.
