Is university worth it? The non-academic value of university

2018-10-01 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 13:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Learning and studying (also: Money and investing) · mode: Personal story · tags: Aimed at students, His medical past, Family, Sponsor segment present

In a video sponsored by Universities UK, junior doctor Ali argues that the non-academic side of university is very much worth it: first unstructured time, female friends and early rejections, friends who become lifelong collaborators, time well spent, and UK student loans that work like a graduate tax.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why this video: Universities UK asks Ali about his experience of university; the two points ahead

00:00:58 — Personal development: independence, unstructured time, female friends, rejection

★★ For most people, Ali says, university is the first time they strike off on their own, away from home, doing their own laundry and cooking their own meals. — 00:00:58
★ At Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the college did Ali's laundry and college accommodation had hardly any cooking facilities, so most students ate in the dining hall. — 00:00:58 · Emmanuel College
★★★ Ali thinks one of the main things university gives you is being truly in charge of your own time for the first time: after rigidly structured school days come large swathes of unstructured time. — 00:01:27
★★ Ali says some students spend their unstructured university time playing video games such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch or Fortnite, which is fine, while others join societies and pick up new hobbies and skills. — 00:01:56 · World of Warcraft
★★ At university Ali took up the guitar in his second year and the piano in his third, and joined two choirs and the singing troupe of the hospital pantomime, developing his musical interests. — 00:02:26 · Addenbrooke's Hospital Pantomime
★★ Ali suggests using gaps in the university timetable to learn skills: with a two-hour gap between lectures you might as well learn to play River Flows in You, to play it on the piano at Cambridge's Grand Arcade. — 00:02:53
★★ Ali did not use his time efficiently in his first year, but as he went through university he realised how much spare time he had for other things, an experience he thinks he would not have had without university. — 00:03:22
★★ After seven years at an all-boys grammar school in Southend-on-Sea, Ali had female friends for the first time at university, where his friendship group became about half boys and half girls. — 00:03:22
★★ Ali says university taught him how to talk to girls, which he found surprisingly hard at first; he had viewed girls almost as another species. — 00:03:51
★ In his first year at university Ali fell in love, he thinks, and went through the emotions of heartbreak. (hedged) — 00:04:20
★★ University was the first time Ali was seriously rejected, romantically and in applications, after usually getting whatever he applied for at school. — 00:04:20
★★ At university Ali was no longer automatically among the top few in his class: his first essay back, on how bones grow, got 54%, a shock after marks in the 90s at school with little effort. — 00:04:50
★★ Ali says being taken down many pegs at university helped him lose the arrogant streak he had developed at school, and realising he had to put in work and effort benefited him a lot. — 00:05:19
★★★ Ali thinks applying for things and being rejected helps you grow, because you realise the worst case and rejection are not so bad, so you might as well apply. — 00:05:19
★★ In his third year Ali applied to spend a year at Harvard, as a friend of his did, and was beaten by people with better qualifications or applications. — 00:05:19
★★ Ali calls his Harvard rejection good for his personal development, because the world moved on and it did not matter, a good lesson to learn early in life. — 00:05:48

00:06:02 — Making friends who become lifelong collaborators

★★★ Beyond the well-known friendships, Ali thinks university is probably the best time in life to meet people you can collaborate with for the rest of your life. — 00:06:17
★★ Ali set up SixMed with friends from university and some school friends, making the materials for its BMAT, UKCAT and interview courses; he thinks it succeeded because it was a collaboration of so many students and friends. — 00:06:47 · 6med, BMAT, UKCAT
★★ Ali's YouTube channel benefited early on from friends coming on to give tips on medicine interviews. — 00:06:47
★★ Ali's brother Taimur studied maths at Oxford, where he made three friends; about two weeks before this video he moved to Silicon Valley, where the four work on a startup that is doing really well. — 00:07:16 · Taimur Abdaal, University of Oxford
★★ Ali recalls his brother Taimur pointing to people in his college as possible lifelong collaborators, and calls having friends you can see yourself working with a really nice position. — 00:07:46 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ If Ali had another idea for a company, he has a handful of people from university in mind whom he would message in a heartbeat and want on the team. — 00:07:46
★ Ali says quite a few consultants at Addenbrooke's know each other from university, ended up working together in Cambridge and socialise together. (hedged) — 00:08:14 · Addenbrooke's Hospital
★★★ Ali thinks making friends who are also collaborators is unique to university: he can think of few other places where you are among such a small group sharing your interests. — 00:08:43

00:08:55 — The time and money cost of university: is it worth it?

★★ To decide whether university is worth it, Ali weighs its cost, which in the UK comes down to two things: time and money. — 00:09:05
★★★ Ali cannot think of a better way to have spent six years of his life than studying medicine at Cambridge, and says the time at university is absolutely worth the experience. — 00:09:35 · University of Cambridge
★★ Ali says people usually cite UK tuition fees of £9,000 or more and fear lifelong student loans as the money cost of university. — 00:09:35
★★ In UK student finance, Ali says, you pay little upfront: the student loan covers all tuition fees and a maintenance grant covers much of your expenses. — 00:10:01
★★ Students from lower-income backgrounds get many bursaries at some universities, such as Cambridge, and Ali says they can fund almost all their studies from government and university money. — 00:10:01 · University of Cambridge
★★ UK student loans are repaid only above an earnings threshold, £21,000 for Ali's year, at 9% of earnings beyond it. — 00:10:01
★★★ Ali sees the UK student loan as a graduate tax: a degree helps you get a job paying above the median, so paying 9% of your earnings beyond the threshold is fine. — 00:10:38
★★ Ali contrasts the US and other systems, where graduates can be saddled with $150,000 of debt chased by banks and companies. — 00:10:38 · United States
★★ For nearly everyone in Ali's cohort money was not really an issue thanks to UK student finance; he apologises to international students, who pay their own fees and for whom money is an issue. — 00:11:08
★★★ Ali concludes that university is 100% worth it: worth the time, and its money cost is not one you see until a few years later, once you are earning. — 00:11:32

00:11:57 — Universities UK photo competition and sign-off

★★ Ali invites viewers to enter a Universities UK competition, free to enter: post a photo of their favourite university memory with a caption, tag Universities UK, and they could win the new iPhone XS; it closes at midnight on 7 October 2018. — 00:11:57

Threads in this video

first on record · Is university worth it? — Ali concludes that university is 100% worth it: worth the time, and its money cost is not one you see until a few years later, once you are earning. (00:11:32)
refine · How do you make the most of university? — Ali suggests using gaps in the university timetable to learn skills: with a two-hour gap between lectures you might as well learn to play River Flows in You, to play it on the piano at Cambridge's Grand Arcade. (00:02:53)
refine · How do you deal with rejection and failure? — Ali thinks applying for things and being rejected helps you grow, because you realise the worst case and rejection are not so bad, so you might as well apply. (00:05:19)
looked back · Ali, a fifth-year medical student at Cambridge University, is co-founder of SixMed, a small company running courses for medical school applicants, and has taught its BMAT Crash Course for five years. — Ali set up SixMed with friends from university and some school friends, making the materials for its BMAT, UKCAT and interview courses; he thinks it succeeded because it was a collaboration of so many students and friends. (00:06:47)
looked back · Ali auditions for the Addenbrooke's charity pantomime in his final year (2017) — At university Ali took up the guitar in his second year and the piano in his third, and joined two choirs and the singing troupe of the hospital pantomime, developing his musical interests. (00:02:26)
mentioned · Ali teaches himself the piano from YouTube tutorials in his third year of medical school — Ali suggests using gaps in the university timetable to learn skills: with a two-hour gap between lectures you might as well learn to play River Flows in You, to play it on the piano at Cambridge's Grand Arcade. (00:02:53)

Mentioned

People: Taimur Abdaal

Projects: Addenbrooke's Hospital Pantomime

Works: BMAT · River Flows in You · UKCAT

Organizations: 6med · Addenbrooke's Hospital · Emmanuel College · Harvard University · Universities UK · University of Cambridge · University of Oxford · Westcliff High School for Boys

Places: Grand Arcade · Silicon Valley · Southend-on-Sea · United States

Products: Fortnite · Overwatch · World of Warcraft

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