Flunking out of grad school and wanting to be okay with it

Student Lounge College Life
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Hi all!

I guess I’m dealing with somewhat of a unique situation since no amount of googling can seem to give me any familiar sense of what I’m dealing with.

This is my situation: I’m a first semester graduate student, and I’m probably about to flunk out. This in itself isn’t so devastating to me because I had every intention of dropping out after this semester anyway. Turns out that grad school just isn’t for me. It’s too hard, and my program is completely ill-suited for me. I’m okay with failure so long as I tried, but the thing I take issue with is the “flunking out” part.

My concern is this: Will my brief, horribly failed attempt at grad school come back to haunt me when looking for jobs? The institution I’m about to flunk out of is the same institution where I earned some of my undergrad, so will future transcripts reflect this? Again, I’m content with a little failure, but I don’t want it to ruin my life.

Anyone else have any similar experience to share?

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Can you just withdraw at this point? As for your next job, just be prepared to explain your employment gap.

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Withdrawal is out of the question at this point. I just have to live with this mistake I made, unfortunately. As for my next job interview, I’m okay with explaining away an employment gap. My worry is that my transcript will reflect my horribly irresponsible and unsuccessful foray into grad studies. Like, is it possible to just pretend I never went? Will it show up if they ask for a transcript?

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Ask on AskaManager.org

I don’t think you have to say that you went to grad school. Unless they said “Give us the transcripts of every school you have gone to” you can just say you got a B.S at XYZ University and send that transcript if they ask.

Also, do they literally give you an F? or do they give you a C which is basically the same thing in Grad school terms?

Have you asked on:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/

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This seems a little odd - why did you accept the school’s offer of admission/enroll in graduate courses then?

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I would be devastated for the fact that I paid money for a class and didn’t get credit for it because I failed it. Grad school is expensive.

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This will not ruin your life. Things like devastating illnesses, accidents, drugs/alcohol, violence, deaths, criminal activity etc. ruin lives. So you tried graduate school, you decided you weren’t going to keep going, you let yourself fail your courses in the process. It’s done, the money has been spent, pick yourself up, and move on. If you have to explain it to an employer, then so be it. This is something you can recover from and put behind you.

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Flunking out is never the ideal scenario and I would try to salvage the semester if it is at all possible. But either way you need to move forward with your life in a positive manner. Can it come back to haunt you in some cases? perhaps it might? But I would have an answer prepared for job interviews to describe what happened/the time gap and I think you can use part of what you said above – something like that the grad program turned out to be ill suited for your interests and academic strengths but you are ready to move forward with your life.

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2 Withdrawal is out of the question at this point. I just have to live with this mistake I made, unfortunately. As for my next job interview, I'm okay with explaining away an employment gap. My worry is that my transcript will reflect my horribly irresponsible and unsuccessful foray into grad studies. Like, is it possible to just pretend I never went? Will it show up if they ask for a transcript?

Why is it out of the question? Why ask for advice and then say that you have already decided what to do?

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