Thinking about dropping out of college

<p>I'm interested in becoming a front-end developer and doing things like web design and web development. The closest thing to that is Computer Science, which really has not a lot to do with practices to become a web developer. The only types of classes that really are relevant to what I want to do are offered only at big universities on a more advanced level, and it will be 2, maybe three years before I can transfer and even get that opportunity to take them. </p>

<p>Today in my Computer Science class (which just started) I just started wondering "what am I doing here?" because I always get the nagging feeling that I'm wasting my time learning a principle that isn't applicable to my career choice.</p>

<p>I'm really trying to find a reason to stay in school instead of just kicking it at home and learning what I actually need for the job, I also have ADHD which is a common denominator among "successful" dropouts, but right now its a battle between the pressures of society vs. the risk of putting my eggs in a fragile basket. All I know is that school is now getting in the way of me advancing with my real passions so I'm not sure what to do.</p>

<p>I'm sure on this website I will get more answers telling me to stay in school, but again most users on here are college students or graduates so I expect to get answers from one side of the argument. Likewise on the Stanford Startup Engineering forum on Coursera, I expect to get answers preferring to drop out. So yeah I'm not sure what to do.</p>

<p>At the end of the day, this is your own choice, but from one college student to another here’s my opinion.</p>

<p>I am a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, and I also have ADHD. In a weird way, I am actually happy I do though. You can put me in a room with the smartest kids in my school and they can all run circles around me in math, chemistry, and biology. But I honestly feel I am ten times more creative than the other kids I go to school with. I love music, public speaking, and writing and I’m really good at all of those things. Because of this, when I am sitting in my math courses, I often feel like the class is a joke. I feel like I have no reason to ever learn something that a calculator could do. That’s not talent and it’s certainly not something I want to learn. Sometimes I think of dropping out to do music, which is my real passion.</p>

<p>I also have an older brother who loves music. He is a pretty smart cookie (got accepted to MIT and a few Ivy’s) but he decided to skip college and be a musician instead. A few years ago he packed up all of his things and moved out to Nashville and he’s been there ever since. Over the years, I’ve always admired him for taking the risk, and in a way he is motivation for me to stay in school. Because we are so similar (in age, talent, looks, mannerisms) it is easy for me to imagine what it would be like if I decided to drop what I was doing and pursue music instead. </p>

<p>He is moving home in a few weeks now to go back to school. When he told me I was shocked and I asked him why. He told me a few things I never thought of. You see, when you drop out of school, the pool of people you end up interacting with on a daily basis changes drastically. Suddenly everyone you work with, everyone you hang out with, and everyone you have to do music with, build websites with, or even room with are all college drop outs just like yourself. Except they didn’t all drop out for the same reason as you. The majority of them dropped out because they weren’t smart enough, didn’t try hard enough, or had horrible habits that kept them from succeeding (my brother roomed with a kid who turned out to be an alcoholic). It can be a real drag when all of your friends are at school and you’re spending your days working at a furniture store with people you feel you are ten times smarter than. On top of that, you are working on a time limit. If you don’t succeed in a few years are you going to just keep working at that furniture store? Or are you going to go back to school? It’d probably be easier to work on what you truly like on the side, while you go to school for something that you just kinda like.</p>

<p>All in all I would say this. Don’t drop out. Your problem isn’t that you don’t like school obviously. You’re problem is you’re studying the wrong thing at the school you are currently at. The solution is not to stop going to school. The solution is to fix it so you are going to school for what you like. You say it’s going to take a few years before you can take what you really like. Well if you’re talking about having to take general courses, don’t worry about that as much. Think of it this way. You’re going to spend two years taking general ed courses and then you’re done. From there on out you’re going to be taking all the classes you want and get a guaranteed degree in what you like to do (which pretty much means a guaranteed job). This is so much easier to do than to try to learn things on your own for a few years, with no guarantees you are going to be able to do it, and no degree, so little guarantees of getting job offers.</p>

<p>I know how this feels, I want to a web developer too but when you search for a univerrsity offering degree’s in this field, u’ll only find a handful of universities who offer such courses… But in the end think that whatever u learn from this course will always help you at some point of time …
Not everyone gets to be steve jobs and bill gates after they drop out so think 10 tiimes before you take this step but in the end the choice is yours… So take a decision which you wont regreat when you become a man. All the best on whatever you choose.</p>