<p>The moment you read the words "I am dropping out of college" you probably thought that I am struggling in college. It must be too difficult for him. That's what you thought, right?</p>
<p>You are wrong.</p>
<p>I currently have a 3.5 GPA, which is not a great GPA by any standard, but given the amount of time I spend studying, which is by far not as much as the amount of time I spend procrastinating and philosophizing about life, I am satisfied.</p>
<p>My dropping out of college has nothing to do with not being intelligent enough to pass my classes, not having enough money to pay for college, or some sort of personal constraint. My dropping out of college has to do with my being socially inept. To be fair, we could say that part of the reason I am dropping out of college has to do with with a personal constraint: I have the social abilities of an autistic person and the worst part is that I feel no motivation whatsoever to change. It's almost like I find it degrading and humiliating to have to feign an attitude or put on a fake smile just to gain the good opinion of others. They are not better than me, so why punish myself in order to please/appease them?</p>
<p>So, given my socially disgraceful attitude, I have decided that dropping out of college is my best option. It was not an easy decision by any means and not one that my parents are going to take lightly, but I see no point in continuing my studies. Since I don't have social skills and no motivation to acquire them, I might as well not bother with college, since I am going to end up either unemployed or doing a job that the average high school dropout could do. (And everyone knows that no social skills means no job or menial job.)</p>
<p>I might as well finish college now, find a job doing manual labor, and perhaps 3 years from now, instead of worrying about repaying college loans, I'll worry about finishing repaying a mortgage.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading. I bet you have never encountered a person like me. I suck but at least I am one of a kind.</p>
<p>Social skills are something you need everywhere, not just in college. Working as a manual laborer wil be just as sucky as college and probably much worse, becaues not only will you have to deal with the pain of social awkwardness, but you’ll have bleakly limited career options.</p>
<p>people drop out of college for a lot of reasons. my friend dropped out because he got very sick, or some people drop out because they have to work. i wouldn’t judge you, but hey some people would</p>
<p>it’s probably a bad idea, your life will be less sucky with a college degree than without it. if you’re smart but have no social skills, at least you have the redeeming quality of being smart. you can be a computer programmer or something.</p>
<p>the world needs lots of qualified workers. but without a college degree, in this economy who’s gonna hire you</p>
<p>and you look like you’re in a bad place emotionally right now
so i hope you feel better
and please be careful about making rash decisions that you might not be able to take back…don’t let despair goad you into doing something stupid</p>
<p>You have a loser attitude, and you will probably regret this decision the rest of your life.</p>
<p>If you have a college education, perhaps you will be able to find a job that requires less social skills. If you become a manual laborer there is no chance you will ever get what you want</p>
<p>Dropping out is a bad idea. In fact, college is one of the best places to learn social skills. You’ll never again be in a place with such a variety of potential activities to get involved with that involve people who are your age. You also won’t be in a place that has free or low cost counseling and other assistance available to help you develop your social skills.</p>
<p>You also will be relegating yourself to a career path far below your potential. In addition, employers and coworkers will have far less patience with your lack of social skills than would professors and your fellow college students. And their lack of patience may lead to your being unemployed or very underemployed no matter how smart you are or how high your college gpa was.</p>
<p>That is crazy. You’re in a top 30 college with people who are smart and know how to party. Most people would love to be in such a school. Stop with the drastic stuff and change whether you like it or not. You are a loser. We are both losers and will forever be losers if we don’t change. Just go to a different school if you hate your school so much. Your grades are high enough to transfer somewhere decent. I have a feeling you’d be miserable anywhere you go in your present state though.</p>
<p>Stop waiting for people to be tolerant because they never will. Either get over it or change.
At least you have the option of leaving. Sometimes I encounter some of the people I knew in the past and feel bad because I am the same loser I was when I was 16 or even 12 years old. I’m going to win by having a new personality where I’m cool and successful. At least you go to a top 30 school and have a 3.5 gpa. Most people your age don’t achieve that. If you think they do, you live in a really privileged neighborhood where people will definitely think you’re a failure if you do menial labor.</p>
<p>You’re not unintelligent because you’re dropping out of college. You are unintelligent because you “have the social abilities of an autistic person and the worst part is that [you] feel no motivation whatsoever to change.”</p>
<p>If you are giving up now, what makes you think that you won’t give up after 2 weeks of “manual labor”? Or give up because you are behind on your rent payments? College is not just a time for classroom learning, but also life learning. You learn time management, stress management, self-motivation, discipline, and yes how to be social. You are receiving an F in the social department, step it up next semester, join some clubs, talk to more people, and pass “that class” (being social). One does not need college to be successful, but for the most part, those life skills you learn in college you will need in order to be successful.</p>
<p>Take a damn class at your college to help. Social skills are something you can learn, it’s not easy, but not a lot of things are. Life will suck HARD without a college degree in this society. 20-30 years ago, you could have made it fine without a college degree, but now good luck.</p>
<p>TA, when people attempt to engage me in a conversation, if they know my academic qualifications, I suppose they think:</p>
<p>a) This kid’s parents are rich, how else would he have gotten accepted to college?</p>
<p>b) Nowadays anyone, ANYONE, goes to college.</p>
<p>c) This kid is full of it. He is not a college student.</p>
<p>d) I thought the school this kid goes to was a good school.</p>
<p>e) This kid probably takes really easy classes.</p>
<p>I hate to have such a loser attitude, but the truth is that a kid from an average state school with a 2.5 GPA is not that worse off than me after all.</p>
<p>or maybe f) this kid must be very smart and hardworking
don’t throw away what you have just because you are not feeling so great about yourself. learn to think more positiviley. The fact that you are getting a 3.5 GPA shows that you are not a failure</p>
<p>You need to talk to a shrink dude. Maybe the reason you can’t understand why people are put off by you is because you lack empathy and might even be slightly psychopathic or something.</p>
<p>Dropping out of college is too drastic. That will affect the rest of YOUR LIFE. Someone with a 3.5 GPA in a top 30 school would go crazy having to work a menial job. I know I would.</p>
<p>Take a class in public speaking or something where you’re FORCED to interact.</p>
<p>" but the truth is that a kid from an average state school with a 2.5 GPA is not that worse off than me after all."</p>
<p>The sad truth is that the kid whom you describe is probably far better off than you are because that kid is likely to have social skills, and therefore will be happier and more employable. </p>
<p>That’s why it would be to your benefit to get counseling and whatever other help is available on your campus.</p>
<p>I would also encourage you to try to stick it out and finish college - you will be closing so many doors by quitting now. It’s clear from your posts that you have not found your niche at your current school and it may be that although it is a top school, perhaps it is just not the right school for YOU? Similarly I don’t think you have discovered your passion yet or gotten involved in anything you are strongly interested in; often as students get further into their majors, and once they finally enter the work force, they are surrounded by more people with similar interests and goals, and this can also provide you with opportunities to develop social skills and friendships with people who are more your peers and have more in common with you (and thank god, the freshmen do eventually grow up!). Why sell yourself short now and put yourself into a position that I suspect you will eventually grow to hate and resent?</p>
<p>However, you don’t have to do this alone–there are resources to help you, but YOU need to seek them out and accept and follow the advice they give. It is time for you to to become more proactive and less reactive, and time to find other more positive outlets to express yourself besides internet forums (which clearly are not providing you with the support or help you need). I know it is hard when you are faced with challenges that most other people do not face, but your road will not get any less bumpy if you give up now. Hang in there!!</p>