Should I give it up or finish it and go on

[DeeGripp]

Hey guys,

 

Here goes my little story.

 

I enrolled in a Marketing MSc programme in the fall of 2012 in a UK-based university. Unfortunatley, things have been going downwards from day 1. Soon after starting, I realised that the programme I am in does not ideally suit my experience and academic background. The programme turned out to be more suitable for people with jib experienc in the area. I had only 4 Marketing classes forming a Marketing conecentratioin along with my BA Business degree. Furthermore, I found myself being very dissapointed with the academic level in class. The place is very international, which is a good thing but mist students do not seem to have the necessary entry requirements that they should have.. Such as a proper level of spoken English!! 

 

I am starting my second semester now and I am determined ti finish this thing, despite the fact that I often feel like running away which everybody tells me not to do. My choice has been eating me out for the past months and at times I don't think it's worth c=going on even if it's for 4 more months. The part that bothers me the most is that I realise that I want to work in Advertising and that I want to study Advertising. I am thinking about reapplying for a programme in a US-based university.

 

My questions are:

 

Is a second degree in Advertising going to look unnecessary and redundant given that Marketing and Advertising are closely related?

 

Should I just take this semester off if I feel so unhappy with my choice and try to figure things out?

 

Can I just go on with another degree and try to forget this thing ever happened? How am I going to explain this to potential employees?

 

Any feedback would be highly appreciated!!

 

Sincerely yours,

A Little Lost

 

 

[damequixote]

Hey buddy, 

 

My advice is to push through, get by, and focus on your advertising applications for next year. Taking the semester off will only prolong your suffering and leaving your program will definitely raise some employer/adcom eyebrows IMHO; get it over with, get the degree you've been working for, and then get another one. I hope someone with experience in your area, though, can speak to the degree redundancy question as I have no clue.

[fuzzylogician]

The question you want to ask yourself is whether or not you need this degree - or the advantages and disadvantages of staying and finishing the degree. If you want to stay in a related field, your past academic record will be relevant and questions will be asked about events of flakiness (such as quitting in the middle of a graduate program in a closely related field). You may be able to justify leaving with the "not suited for my needs" explanation but if you can do a good job of finishing the degree by just staying on for another 4 months, I think that will look much better. The only reason I think it would be a good idea to quit is if it turns out that having this degree could actually hurt your chances of being admitted to an Advertising program in the US (which sounds doubtful to me but I don't know the field), or if you think you'll do very poorly in the Marketing degree you're currently enrolled in a way that would look even worse than just quitting and blaming it on bad fit.

 

As a sort of side remark, I am always slightly irked when native speakers of English expect international students to arrive at their universities with already fully developed spoken language abilities. As an international student, I have excellent writing ability (I edit native speakers' papers, for example) and I'm a fast reader. I have many years of experience doing both of those tasks and I've been professionally employed as a translator in the past. But before I had the chance to live in an English speaking country, my everyday life was led in a different language and there were limited opportunities to speak English at all, let alone with native speakers. In my experience, that's the case for most international students - you may have excellent passive knowledge but applying it actively takes a while to master. Put that together with moving to a new country and starting a new degree, and I think you can understand why expecting immediate good performance is setting the bar quite high. Usually, people take a few months (about a semester) to adjust and acclimate, and with the adjustment comes an improved ability to orally express ideas in English. Bottom line, I think next semester will be better for you in terms of dealing with non-native speakers in your class, and I think an adjustment in your own expectations might help as well. Certainly I wouldn't mention this as a reason for quitting your program, in case you choose to do so.

[DeeGripp]

As a sort of side remark, I am always slightly irked when native speakers of English expect international students to arrive at their universities with already fully developed spoken language abilities. As an international student, I have excellent writing ability (I edit native speakers' papers, for example) and I'm a fast reader. I have many years of experience doing both of those tasks and I've been professionally employed as a translator in the past. But before I had the chance to live in an English speaking country, my everyday life was led in a different language and there were limited opportunities to speak English at all, let alone with native speakers. In my experience, that's the case for most international students - you may have excellent passive knowledge but applying it actively takes a while to master. Put that together with moving to a new country and starting a new degree, and I think you can understand why expecting immediate good performance is setting the bar quite high. Usually, people take a few months (about a semester) to adjust and acclimate, and with the adjustment comes an improved ability to orally express ideas in English. Bottom line, I think next semester will be better for you in terms of dealing with non-native speakers in your class, and I think an adjustment in your own expectations might help as well. Certainly I wouldn't mention this as a reason for quitting your program, in case you choose to do so.

Edited January 18, 2013 by DeeGripp

[DeeGripp]

Thank you both for your replies. They are really helpful.

 

Fuzzylogician, I absolutely agree with your arguments. I am getting myself more and more convinced with the fact that I should finish the degree and focus on what I want to do next. After all, the degree did not turn out to be what I had expected but it has helped me aquire knowledge int the particular area. 

 

When it comes to being fluent in English when you are not a native speaker, I should point out that I myslef am not a native English speaker. The level of English of many of my cassmates, however is absolutely atrocious and this fact is bothering me primarily because our course requires a lot of group work. Being in a group with 4 other students who find it hard to express themselves can make this experience a complete torture and influence our academic record in a rather negative way. It is highly dissapointing and demotivating to see that a large number of people do not comply with the simple English Language entry requirements, and such an occurence suggests strongly that the institution has admitted such students for the doubled amount of fee they are to pay ( non/EU applicants are to pay a much larger tuition according to English laws). It is,indeed sad to see that some universitites have clearly blown this cash-generating action out of proportion and I can daresay that the institution I am attending right now is one of them.

 

I really want to study Advertising and regret the fact that I did not pursue this desire a little earlier. I did have some strong reasons for that at the time when I was to make the decision, though. Now, I am hoping that time will pass fast and that I will get to put this unpleasant experience behind me. :/ 

[languages-etc]

DeeGripp - I'd say to continue, unless you are heading to a really dark place where your mental health is at stake. I say this because you have a mere 4 months left, and at the end of that you will have a degree and be able to say to yourself that you stuck it out, despite the terrible situation. Later, explaining why you have 2 degrees is easier than explaining why you dropped out of a program. Look at the positive side, you now know what you want to do (Advertising), and you can develop a plan during these next few months to pursue that direction. Good luck!! 

 

I am starting my second semester now and I am determined ti finish this thing, despite the fact that I often feel like running away which everybody tells me not to do. My choice has been eating me out for the past months and at times I don't think it's worth c=going on even if it's for 4 more months. The part that bothers me the most is that I realise that I want to work in Advertising and that I want to study Advertising. I am thinking about reapplying for a programme in a US-based university.

 

=====

 

btw, fuzzylogician, I consider your English to be native-level, even if another language is your 'first.' Without needing to know your personal bkgd, your family/parents or education or some other combination of factors has given you amazing language ability! (Yeah, linguistics helps too.) During my many years of working with foreign/international students, they've always said that N. American students who are native speakers are not as intimidating as some non-native speakers who are amazing at English!   Just adding that as an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered before.  (Sorry for being a bit off-topic here.)

[fuzzylogician]

Fuzzylogician, I absolutely agree with your arguments. I am getting myself more and more convinced with the fact that I should finish the degree and focus on what I want to do next. After all, the degree did not turn out to be what I had expected but it has helped me aquire knowledge int the particular area. 

 

When it comes to being fluent in English when you are not a native speaker, I should point out that I myslef am not a native English speaker. The level of English of many of my cassmates, however is absolutely atrocious and this fact is bothering me primarily because our course requires a lot of group work. Being in a group with 4 other students who find it hard to express themselves can make this experience a complete torture and influence our academic record in a rather negative way. It is highly dissapointing and demotivating to see that a large number of people do not comply with the simple English Language entry requirements, and such an occurence suggests strongly that the institution has admitted such students for the doubled amount of fee they are to pay ( non/EU applicants are to pay a much larger tuition according to English laws). It is,indeed sad to see that some universitites have clearly blown this cash-generating action out of proportion and I can daresay that the institution I am attending right now is one of them.

 

Sounds like you made an unfortunate choice of program.. and I think I would be upset too if I was made to work with people who are clearly not equipped to be part of the same program I am and my grade depended on it. But since it's just 4 more months, sounds to me like it's worth sticking it out and spending the summer/fall researching better schools for your next degree and crafting your application. Having a Masters in a related field can only help, not hurt. It's your job to get that message across, and I think that shouldn't be too hard to do, once you figure out exactly what you want to study and why. Good luck!

 

 

btw, fuzzylogician, I consider your English to be native-level, even if another language is your 'first.' Without needing to know your personal bkgd, your family/parents or education or some other combination of factors has given you amazing language ability! (Yeah, linguistics helps too.) During my many years of working with foreign/international students, they've always said that N. American students who are native speakers are not as intimidating as some non-native speakers who are amazing at English!   Just adding that as an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered before.  (Sorry for being a bit off-topic here.)

 

Heh, that's nice to hear, thanks for the compliment!

[Seeking]

Fuzzylogician,

 

Yes, you have native fluency in English and DeeGrip, I feel you need to improve your English proficiency level - going by your writing.

 

That said, I feel you should complete the program if you can get good grades in it.

 

It's true that many native English speakers don't have as good a command over English as many non-native speakers do. Not all non-native speakers are poor in English proficiency.

 

This is why I feel everyone applying to a Grad-Program in an English-speaking country - irrespective of whether a native English-speaker or not - should write the IELTS/TOEFL.

 

Perhaps TOEFL should be changed to TOEIL (Test of English as an International Language). IELTS is already the International English Language Testing Service.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Seeking