h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ah, the Leeds Corn Exchange! I used to live down Calls Lane (you know the multicoloured flats down there, the new ones?). I used to see you guys hanging around there all the time. Well, Sixth formers, anyway, I moved out of Leeds three years ago so it probably wasn't you personally

Is the Corn Exchange still open, or has it closed now? There were lots of rumours about it closing for a while.

Welcome to h2g2, by the way. Let me know if you need any help.

Vip

I did hang around there three years ago, but I've changed a lot since then.

The shops have gone from inside and it's now a food court

Not many people go there anymore now, it's just the goths, chavs, punks and skinheads.

I will let you know if i need help, thanks

That's depressing. Mind you, I only when in there for the Travelling Man, and I remember when they moved out so it's not as though I even supported the place. Hey ho, times change.

Yeahh, when they were moving everything out there was a massive protest, and because I was only young I couldn't go, which was a shame.

And the people who own Corn Exchange said they were going to keep one shop in it, Grin, but they never did, which caused another protest.

They're now on about changing the seating area into a car park, so we've organised another protest

Ouch. Like there isn't enough traffic in that bit of town already. It's not like there's enough space to make it a decent car park either. Good luck on your protest.

So have you finished your A-levels now or are you still working on them?

Thanks

I'm in my first year, and I'm suprised it's going so well.

Well done you.
By November of my first year of A-levels I had to drop Chemistry, as attempting to do four subjects was killing me. It was sad but in the end it was the right decision as there was no way I could continue with my clarinet studies at the same time, and I wanted to do a music degree.
In hindsight I shouldn't have done the degree, but I'm still glad I carried on playing up until that point.

Are you hoping to go on to Uni, or getting out into the real world? Or have you no idea yet??

Well, I sm thinking uni to do forensics, but i'm still not too sure, with the rise in fee's and all that.

Yeah, that's a toughie. It would have made me seriously reconsider my plans too.

I guess the crucial questions are:

a) can you get into forensics without it?
and
b) do you definitely want to work in forensics?

The best thing to do is probably to try to get some work experience in the field and see if that answers the questions.

Paying back your student loan is something that you won't even realise that you're doing, as it comes straight out of your salary. Easy for me to say though, I only have 10k of debt.

I would say that if you are pretty sure you want to work in it, and you're pretty sure it's the only way you could get in, then take the plunge. It's also a pretty good experience and taught me how to live on my own.

On the other hand, you could always take a couple of years off from studying and work for a year or two and re-evaluate afterwards. Students who do that tend to be the ones who do really well at uni, because they are sure they want to be there and are used to working life. It took me two and half years to really get my work ethic going, which salvaged the degree but it was too late to get anything better than a 2:II.

Failing that there's always Open University, which you can fit around work, or work part time so that you don't get into so much debt.

Sorry, that was a lot of advice there. Feel free to ignore all of it if you want! I work as a careers advisor (for adults though, not young adults), so it just sort of typed itself.

*ahem* And now back to regular programming...

Thanks for the advice, I will take it in and think about what I want to do.