u/Big-Ferret-2364

I'm doing a thing and I need a late save, but I routinely delete mine when I start a new one. First game btw

I'm genuinely not sure which is the best option. I don't have a lot of money right now and I've decided to get a proper qualification so I can earn more in the future. I have two options;

1. do a full time university access course followed by a 4 year accounting degree with a placement in year 3, working either a part time job or nothing depending on whether I can actually find a job at all (being hired as a student seems impossible)

2. get a full time job through some time of employment agency and work towards an ATI qualification by doing part time evening and weekend study in electronic bookkeeping, and work up to a level 5 within 4 years, potentially getting a job in the field in my 3rd year.

The second option means I actively make money while I study, the first means I'm making bare minimum to sustain myself and saving very little.

I know degrees are impressive, but ATI is still an accounting body and I'd like to make a full time wage at the same time.

I'm struggling with the decision because they both seem good, but I don't want to miss out on any major advantages by not doing a degree

Turns out it was literally just achievement hunting lmao.

I want to get all the achievements and I thought the best way to do that is just play the game and complete as much content as I can.

I went to Whiterun and decided to play the game how I imagine a new player is supposed to. I didn't worry about my level for certain quests, if I was given a quest I just did it without thinking and if it gets too hard mid-quest then I'll reassess.

I acted like I had no clue what to do and just followed the guide rails, and then I decided I'd do every single Whiterun quest since I'm going for all achievements anyway. I completed the companions before even meeting Delphine, then I picked a new city to go to, Winterhold.

By spending 10+ hours clearing a city of quests, I feel fully immersed in that city and all the characters become so familiar. When I hear Ysolda talk about how hard being a merchant is, I don't just see her, I see Whiterun and the hub she's trying to build her credibility in. When I talk to Adrianne, I see her shop, her dad, her backstory and her admiration for Eorlund. Everything sort of merges together and the characters aren't living isolated lives anymore, and it feels great to exist in that world.

When I did Winterhold, I talked to everyone and learned about The Great Collapse and how it destroyed almost the whole city, and how all the mages in the college are providing probably the last lifeline the town could possibly have to still retain its inhabitants, and it's suddenly a world where people aren't just following their programming, they're surviving in the wreckage of what used to be the most influential city in all of Skyrim.

I've spent dozens of hours in the game already and I've cleared Whiterun, Winterhold and Solstheim, and I haven't had this much fun with the game since I first played it 15 years ago.

I even discovered a quest Farengar has that I never knew about, and Arniel in the college.

I realised that the problem with my play style before is that I'd bounce around the world trying to find the fun quests, skipping most of the towns' contents and forgetting that doing standard quests is what makes the game fun in the first place, because you need to be part of the world to appreciate it.

Skyrim is slowly catching up to Risen as my most played game on Steam, I wouldn't be surprised if it passed it soon.

This is really hard to explain, but I really like when I need to buy a specific set of things and I have to go to lots of different shops to look for the individual pieces.

The closest thing I can think of is sculpting, because you can use literally anything to make a sculpture, but even making a nature journal would fit if it meant having to go all over the city looking for all the different flowers that grow in it.

I remember one time I wanted to make the Big Daddy doll that the little sisters in BioShock carry around, I had to go to sports shops, fabric shops, the kitchen cupboards, craft shops, I even found copper wire from somewhere, it was a really fun project and I enjoyed gathering the parts.

I don't want to just invent a random checklist though, it needs to have a purpose. The most recent example is when I wanted to own all my old favourite PS2 games, so I went all over the city and beyond to every CEX trying to find them all (and I did). It was like a scavenger hunt or something

I left school with no A-levels and worked for 8 years, and a few months ago I applied to an access course that leads directly into an accounting course, I want to be a forensic accountant.

I'm currently unemployed and hoping to get a job at least before uni starts, 8 hours a week and if I can I'll increase my contract to earn a bit more, but I'm currently living with my parents anyway and rent is almost nothing so 8 hours would comfortably pay my car insurance and everything else with a bit left over.

The main concern is I haven't studied anything in years, and I had a few mental health problems as a teenager that made school really difficult (depression, school pressure, basically an identity crisis because I'm gay and my family is religious). I've changed a lot since then and learned to handle things that would have made me feel way worse in the past. For example I'm decidedly not religious lmao

What's it like to go from a consistent job to studying new things all the time in full-time education? Is it something I should be concerned about? I feel like with an 8 hour job it should be easy enough but I'd rather go in expecting more work than less. I do drive but I'm gonna get a bus to uni if it's not too soul sucking.

You can probably tell from this post that I don't really have a clue what to expect, I don't even know the right questions to be asking or which aspects of education are gonna be the hardest, so I appreciate any input

It would be different if they'd actually used AI, but being accused and having everything paused seems like a great reason not to study with OU. I was considering it because I can get the same degree queen's is offering and only end up with 25% of the debt by the end of it, have all the time I would have spent on travel to devote to studying, plus I don't have to spend hundreds on fuel and parking while I study, and I have more freedom to work a part time job if I can go in for a midweek morning shift and study later.

I wouldn't use AI to cheat, but I do ask chatgpt to explain things I don't fully understand or tell me where I can find more information on stuff (purely for my own interests, I'm not currently in education). I'm worried that will somehow bleed into my work and be flagged as AI cheating, but at the same time if I'm using the material the course provides then I shouldn't need chatgpt at all so I can probably avoid it.

I'm currently enrolled in an access course at belfast met, but I was debating doing an open university access course more suited to the degree I want, and then continuing on OU for the rest of my education. My main concern was "is OU even properly recognised?" but now it's "will I be accused of using AI and have my work undone?"