Studying joint honours is the best way to do uni

It’s the Gemini of studying


While not publicly spoken, it is widely known that we who study a joint honours are looked down upon. “What do you study?” people ask as we reply with two answers, only to be scoffed at in response. Well you’re all wrong, the truth of it is that actually joint honours are the best degree’s money can buy.

My parents’ faces filled with an expression of sheer horror when I first told them I wanted to study a joint honours degree. Their initial response  “Well are you only going to come out with two halves of two separate degrees?” and unfortunately I hear the same thing from other closed-minded or ‘old people’, aka anyone my parents’ age.

I always knew juggling two subjects would be hard, but hearing from fellow students that two subjects in my joint honours degree doesn’t equal the same time, effort or outcome as a single honours degree gets pretty grating.

Yes, I become a whirlwind of panic and post-its when it comes close to deadlines: caffeine will become your best friend and so will time management calendars. If you’re thinking about a joint honours degree scheme then prepare to open the floodgates and bear your soul without shame because you will cry. In frustration. A lot.

It’s really not that easy to flip from World War One poetry to renaissance art history in medieval Europe in the same all night power session.

But that’s what makes my life better than your dull and regular single honour life, whilst you spend 12 hours trying to read up on some super dry Aristotle, I’ll be dropping in and out of my two favourite things all night… I get a bit bored of Freud and I’ll be straight into some painting. I literally can never get bored of my subject as I have two of them.

Seeing the glares from your tutors (oh yeah, we have two of those as well), when you explain that you need to prioritise this week on your other subject will not become any less fatal looking when you beg that your need time on an essay for your other subject.

Both will want you to prioritise theirs but as a student you can barely manage to balance your napping and Netflix time let alone two essays at once. Prepare your housemates that you will become that sobbing mess at some point in either.

Nicotine and caffeine – introducing your new joint honours in surviving the all nighter

But at the end of the day think how proud you’ll be graduating knowing you’ve achieved the impossible of balancing both subjects and not crying so hard your tear ducts fell out. Employers and more importantly the students, parents and teachers that criticised your degree choice and judged your time management (hard) will trust your motivation and dedication to power through what at some points may have felt like three years of hell.