Why I Came Back to Finish My Computer Science Degree (And Why UNISA Makes Sense)

The part I usually leave out

I made it to my fourth year of a BSc in Computer Science and Electronics at North-West University. Then life had other plans. I left without finishing. That’s the part of my story I’ve learned to tell plainly rather than vaguely.

In the years that followed, I kept building. UniApplyForMe actually started in 2021 while I was still at university in my second year — I was running an edtech NPO and studying simultaneously. By the time I left, I had already been a founder for two years. After that came the hosting company, the software engineering work, the servers, the mobile apps, the chatbot systems, and the real revenue from real products. None of it required a degree to execute. The skills were there. The experience was accumulating. The certificate wasn’t.

Why finish it at all?

Honest answer: partly for me, partly practical. The practical side is real — there are roles and opportunities where the degree is a filter, and I’d rather not be filtered out for a piece of paper when the underlying knowledge is solid. But that’s not the whole answer.

The rest of it is that I started something and didn’t finish it, and I’ve thought about that more than I’d like to admit. Going back isn’t about proving anything to anyone else. It’s about closing a loop.

Why UNISA specifically

UNISA’s model fits the reality of my life. I have a full-time job. I run two businesses. I’m not in a position to sit in lectures from 8am to 5pm. UNISA’s distance learning structure means I can work through material at my pace, schedule exams, and manage the load alongside everything else without one thing collapsing into the other.

There’s also something honest about UNISA that I respect. It’s not a prestige play. It’s a serious institution that has put degrees within reach for people who couldn’t access traditional university structures — for reasons of cost, geography, or circumstance. That aligns with what UniApplyForMe is trying to do. I’m essentially one of the students we serve.

What the degree actually adds now

At this point in my career, the degree isn’t going to teach me things I don’t know. Some of it will be revision. Some of it will be formalising intuitions I’ve built through practice. But there’s value in that formalisation — in having a structured framework to hang experience on, in filling gaps in theory that self-teaching tends to leave.

And the credential will be there when it matters. Not as the main thing, but as one less thing someone can use as a reason to look past everything else.

For anyone in a similar position

If you left a degree unfinished and you’ve been building anyway — the work you’ve done is real. The skills are real. The degree would be an addition to that, not a replacement for it. If going back makes sense for your situation, go back. If it doesn’t, don’t let anyone tell you the path you took was wrong.

Second attempts are underrated.