‘Arts degrees don’t tie you down, they help you to find your wings’
CASSIE MURPHY always did well in class but, she says, “when it came to exams I’d panic”.
It hasn’t prevented a successful educational journey and the 22-year-old is now entering the final year of her degree programme. What has been crucial along the way were the supports available.
Because of her exams’ anxiety, Cassie, from Valentia Island, Kerry, was allowed to sit her Leaving Cert in a special centre, which, she says, was a great help in remaining as calm and focused as possible.
Her top CAO choice was a degree programme in psychology, and she thought her hopes were dashed on Leaving Cert results day in August 2014. But things took a positive turn with the offer of a lower preference, a place in the BA Joint Honours in the University of Limerick. It allowed her to study psychology as part of the degree programme.
With small class numbers and many friendly faces on the course, Cassie settled into what she described as a very supportive environment at UL.
“People on the course bounce off each other. We are always meeting up and helping each other,” she says.
She continues to find it helpful to sit exams in a special centre.
Although she went in expecting to specialise in languages and psychology, she fell in love with criminal justice and is now taking that along with psychology.
Cassie says this has probably worked out better for her as she really enjoyed studying law modules too.
Along the way, she took every opportunity to explore all her subject choices, including Irish. She recalls: “I walked into the lecture hall with my roommate and we took our seats. After five minutes of non-stop Gaeilge, I decided it was best for me to give it a miss and ran from the class as fast I could.”
As she enters fourth year, Cassie is excited about her future choices: “Where do I want to go afterwards? Who knows! I like challenges and changing my opinion. That’s why I decided to spend a year of my degree in France, to give myself a chance to learn something different and fix my relationship with the French language.
“Arts degrees do not tie you down. Instead they help you find your wings.”