University Life: The end is in sight!

This post is going to be a little different than my other posts about university life. I am not going to offer advice how to find your way through university. But I am going to talk about my own recent experience at university. I know by now that studying can be more challenging and stressful than many people think. But all those challenges are nothing compared to the difficult job I am facing at the moment. I am about to finish off my studies in Sociology. This means that I am writing my final bachelor paper now. This paper is the first step in getting a university degree. The second required part for a degree in Sociology is the final oral examination you take after finishing the paper. But putting together this paper is the truly nerve-racking part of studying.

First of all, I needed to select a seminar course to write my paper in. Ideally, it should be a field of sociology that interests me. But this wasn’t the biggest problem because I didn’t have many choices. I attended two seminars this term which qualify for writing a bachelor paper in: Sociology of Fashion and Sociology of Crime. The first subject doesn’t interest me that much. But luckily, the second does.

The second challenge was to select a topic for the paper. In my case the professor handed out a list of 30 possible topics – one topic for each seminar participant. The problem in the first lesson of this seminar was that the professor read out the topics one by one. And he assigned each topic to the pupil who screamed the loudest or called attention to herself the fastest. And that wasn’t me. So I was left without any of my preferred subjects. Eventually, only three topics were left, so I had to take one of those. At first, I was totally unsatisfied with my topic because it was a domain I had never heard about before. Then I started reading some texts and books about it and my initial dissatisfaction vanished.

The next problem I am facing is that I haven’t had much time to work on the bachelor paper up to now – and it’s supposed to run 30 to 40 pages. In addition to the seminar on Criminal Sociology, I have four other courses. And some of them are pretty time-consuming. Two courses require a lot of reading and online researching, the other two a lot of writing. I had to hand in a 20-page paper this week. This is to say that I have had to invest more time in these courses than expected and that I am lagging behind with my actual assignment – finishing my bachelor paper. Anyway! There are still two months left to work on the paper. So I am optimistic that I will work my way through this challenge successfully.

After I finish my paper and the professor grades it, then the second part of the bachelor’s degree awaits me. The oral examination. But having an easy time learning for tests, I won’t be challenged that much by this exam. The only real challenge is that this examination requires a lot of careful administrative preparation. Concerning the examiners. Concerning the exam subjects. This means that I first of all have to take care of the date on my own. Of course, the professor who graded my paper will be one examiner. But I also have to decide on another professor who will examine me in a second subject of my choice. And I have to look for a professor to chair the whole assessment. So the most crucial factors for getting my bachelor’s degree really depend on my organizational abilities. But luckily, I am an optimistic person.