Want to drop out of college...need some guidance

College Life
41

Does your school have a counseling department? That would be a good place to start for the anxiety and they might know of local resources who offer career counseling or you could google for that. You want to make sure that your mood doesn’t dictate your educational path because you may not be in the best emotional place right now.

It sounds like you might really be a good fit for a career as a science writer so maybe do some online research as to what kind of backgrounds those in that profession typically have.

42

lol is this guy for real?

I can guarantee you that Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg did not make D’s and F’s because they hated class. They might have felt so unchallenged by college that they dropped out but they were smart enough to not have a blemish on their academic record out of sheer spite. Pretty sure that had perfect GPAs before dropping out.

43

@OhSorryYo You are wrong.
Bill Gates “neglected classes his heart wasn’t into”, spent excessive time alone figuring out plans:
https://www.quora.com/What-were-Bill-Gates-grades-at-Harvard

Steve Jobs had an average high school GPA, recorded drug use:
http://www.cultofmac.com/227074/steve-jobss-high-school-gpa-is-proof-that-grades-arent-everything/

Mark Zuckerberg skipped classes, failed to write end of term paper:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1368625-zuckerbergs-college-gpa-before-he-dropped-out.html

And Joe Biden failed college English and was accused of plagiarism…it was chalked up to him “not being knowledgeable about how to cite information.” Now you know what desk he sits at.

Thanks to everyone who actually provided real help and advice. I really appreciate it!

44

Just because you have a college degree in something, doesn’t mean you have to get a job in that one area. Sometimes just having the degree (in anything) is a hurdle you need to jump to be able to get many types of jobs.

I majored in electrical engineering and quickly found out i didn’t like hands on labs and such…but I finished and got a job where you need a technical background and the ability to think logically…but no need to design circuits.

45

My general thoughts about your situation:

You need to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. Also, in the US, generally speaking, you can USUALLY merge into another job or career (with some effort) even though your prior job experience or education is in another job/career field.

I say “generally speaking” because when it comes to stuff like engineering and physics, those fields are pretty hard to switch into if you have a degree or experience in something else.

I totally agree w/the other poster who said that you need to do some serious soul searching and decide if you like physics because of popular science/science fiction or if you like physics for other reasons.

Here’s the deal with college…EVERY college student has to take classes that are:

a. not in your major
b. in your major but on a topic/subject in your major that you don’t like very much
c. general ed topics that have nothing to do with your major

The purpose of this is the following:

  1. to have a well rounded education
  2. to have a solid education in your major

What you cannot usually do is ONLY take the classes that you are super duper interested. If you REALLY want to get a college degree, then you have to suck it up, put on your big boy pants, and do some stuff that you DO NOT LIKE in order to get to do the stuff that you REALLY like.

Another reason why this is important:
This is how real life is in the working world. EVERY JOB has stuff in it that is boring, menial, not your favorite, etc. EVEN if you run your own business/company, you end up having to do stuff that you don’t particularly like. But it has to get done. It’s part of being an adult.

If you are not ready to do that, then you SHOULD go ahead and drop out. There’s nothing wrong with that. My own husband did that a couple of times in his long quest to finish college & get a bachelor’s degree.

From an outsider’s point of view, your post tends to come across as a bit childish/whiny. Kind of an older kid’s equivalent of a 5 year old saying “I DON’T WANNA!” But that was probably not your intent. :slight_smile:

46

Hugs to you, OP…I think you’re very smart and very frustrated and at a crossroads where you know what you’re doing isn’t working but you aren’t sure what path would work. Great things can sometimes happen at moments like this. :slight_smile:

I’m going to think about this a bit for you. Having moments of great indecision are the moments where you can feel most aware.

47

@tucsonmom I appreciate all your advice. However, I really don’t see why you need to make comments like “my posts appear whiny.” Number one, that doesn’t help me in any way, which is what I came here for. And number two, exactly as you said, I did not intend that and if you were having a verbal conversation with me in person, you wouldn’t be saying that. You’d think I am a really deep thinker, intelligent, and just need some direction. :slight_smile:

48

I dropped two of my three classes for this semester because I had fallen 2 weeks behind on assignments and there’s no way to rebound from that with a decent grade. I still have one class remaining that I will be able to finish with a good grade. I’m planning to spend the next few months coming up with a plan about exactly what I want to do. I’m not ruling out transferring to another college entirely.

49

I apologize for the comment about being whiny.

FWIW, there are MANY students who take a longer road to complete a degree. I have friends, for example, who could only handle taking 1 class per term/semester because of other personal obligations (working full time, they had kids young, other ‘life stuff’ got in the way, etc.). It took them a much longer amount of total time to finish, but they did it and it was really awesome. There is NOTHING wrong with taking some extra time and in many cases, deciding to take a step back and reevaluate your situation is a very wise thing to do.

If you’re not sure what you’d really want to do with physics or the sciences in general, you could also consider doing some informational interviews with a couple of physicists. Just to ask them about their jobs…what do they like about it, what’s frustrating about the job, what advice would they have for someone who is considering that line of work. I ended up in a career that was far different than the one that I got my degree in. I totally get where you’re coming from because once I’d figured out that my degree field was not what I really wanted to do in life, I had to figure out “What now?” and that part was a struggle at first.

When that all was going on, a very wise person recommended a book called “What Color Is Your Parachute?” It’s been printed every year for decades now and they revise it/update it every year with new info. You could start with something like that. Also, a lot of college career centers will sometimes offer various career field personality assessment tests that can help you figure out what areas might “float your boat.” The Wall Street Journal had an article a few years ago about stuff like that → http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704133804575198011745918470.

50

For every Gates, there are thousands working menial jobs in lives that they hate because college did not ‘suit’ them. There are many paths to success, but if you expect life to be enjoyable all of the time or that jobs will not have expectations that you do not like, you will be very unhappy as you age.

That piece of paper opens a lot of doors. Unless you can apply your genius, you are just another smart kid. Out here in cc land you are probably closer to average than the top 2%. My kid tested in the top 0.2%, but he still has to learn from professors who are (egad!) not as smart as him. And he has to work on projects with classmates that are downright ‘normal’. Guess what? Out in the world, half of the people are below average. You still have to deal with them. College may be the safest place for you to learn that.

51

Take a break, but know that there are advantages and disadvantages to this choice. College is voluntary and something that you can always return to. However, it does get harder to do when you have to pay for it yourself from a low paying job and loans, you have other obligations, a family, etc. The choice is yours.