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So who has dropped out of University and why...
- Thread starter waloshin
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I did so very abruptly for health reasons, I didn't return to the course or simply take a leave of absence as I wasn't enjoying the course so a year and a half later I returned to a much better university to take computer science instead. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Went out of state to school. I ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks during my first semester, due to a diabetic episode (diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 9).
Either way... I'd tell you to enjoy your time in school and if you are a willing and able person you shouldn't have to worry about dropping out. If I was able to be in the hospital for 2 weeks of my first semester, and continue on to my degree, you have absolutely no excuse.
Either way... I'd tell you to enjoy your time in school and if you are a willing and able person you shouldn't have to worry about dropping out. If I was able to be in the hospital for 2 weeks of my first semester, and continue on to my degree, you have absolutely no excuse.
Just resist the temptation to procrastinate and indulge in distractions. Remember that it's your education and you should make the most of it.
If it helps, you might think of it as a job that requires 40 hours of work per week. If you put in at least that much, you should do fine. Once you've completed your eight hours per day (more if you can manage it), then you're free to have some fun. Success at a university really comes down to time management.
If it helps, you might think of it as a job that requires 40 hours of work per week. If you put in at least that much, you should do fine. Once you've completed your eight hours per day (more if you can manage it), then you're free to have some fun. Success at a university really comes down to time management.
I'm on my third college and here is my advice:
For your first year, do not party during the week. This is crucial. There will be tons of college parties every night, and having fun is important in college, but make sure to keep your weeknights for studying. If you have the self control, don't even party the first semester. Let it sink in. College is a ton of work.
Also remember that college will not teach you everything. College is a stepping stone and to really learn the material you will spend lots of time researching on your own.
As for my backstory, when I graduated I took a year off which made me want to go back to college. I started at a community school and went there for a year until the school held a big meeting and told everyone that they lied about their accredidation. I received a full refund and dropped out, and joined the army.
After basic training, AIT, and a deployment to Kuwait I went to Penn State for computer science for two years. Their computer science at that time was not good at all. It was extremely slow. (In the intro to C++ class, we only learned data types, loops, if then, and switch statements in 16 weeks of class). I left that school and switched to DeVry. I chose their online option and took a job working overseas for the next three years. I'm now almost 29 and wish I'd of picked a school back when I was 18 and by 22 (which comes in the blink of an eye) and I'd be done with school. It gets harder to go to school the older you get. In the 18 - 24 range its fairly easy to finish school, but after that you start having to be able to provide for a family and move on with life.
Right now my college is so intense that if I didn't have a savings to live off of I would be screwed. I work no less that 12 hours a day on class work (DeVry is a bit insane with the homework requirements) and wish every day that I was already done with school. I will graduate in the summer and be able to "start my life" so to speak at the ripe age of 29 :/
My advice, get it done, get it out of the way, and reap the benefits
Just make sure you go for something real that will help you later in life. Too many people I know spent $90k for a Humanities degree or an East Asian Studies degree :/
Quite honestly, I think everyone goes through ups and downs at university. My university even made us attend a compulsory welcome lecture where they showed a graph representing student happiness during the first year. It was a study they had done from a qualitative research. I remember sitting in that class thinking that will never be me.
Well I was wrong. I almost found myself taking exactly the same curve they showed. Sure, there were times where I wanted to quit but in the end I am glad I stayed with the course. Mainly because of the great people I met and also because now, at 24, I realize it was good to get a degree under my belt so I can concentrate on doing the things I want to do now.
My advice: when times get rough, talk to people. Share the down with your friends because they are pretty much going through the same thing. Speak to your parents, they care. Speak with the school councilor if you have to. There is a balance to strike between partying and studying. Not all partying has to involve copious amounts of alcohol because often that ruins your next "study" day. Cinema / Bowling / these innocent events are totally stress relieving but mean you can go home and finish that essay.
I think you'll love university. Go with a positive all-new attitude and you will get a lot in return. Remember you learn just as much from the new people around you as you do from your chosen major.
Well I was wrong. I almost found myself taking exactly the same curve they showed. Sure, there were times where I wanted to quit but in the end I am glad I stayed with the course. Mainly because of the great people I met and also because now, at 24, I realize it was good to get a degree under my belt so I can concentrate on doing the things I want to do now.
My advice: when times get rough, talk to people. Share the down with your friends because they are pretty much going through the same thing. Speak to your parents, they care. Speak with the school councilor if you have to. There is a balance to strike between partying and studying. Not all partying has to involve copious amounts of alcohol because often that ruins your next "study" day. Cinema / Bowling / these innocent events are totally stress relieving but mean you can go home and finish that essay.
I think you'll love university. Go with a positive all-new attitude and you will get a lot in return. Remember you learn just as much from the new people around you as you do from your chosen major.
I'm not so sure you're asking for that advice from the right demographic of people.
I dropped out a couple of times. The last time was due to burnout. After uh, enjoying the college lifestyle a bit too much, I had a terrible GPA. I also realized I had no business majoring in engineering, so I dropped out for a semester. When I came back, I tried to make up for lost time, and went for two straight years with no breaks. I took classes in fall, spring, and summer. By the end of that stretch, I didn't want to step foot in a classroom. I ended up getting a full time job with the university, so I just did that for a while. After a couple of years, I decided to take advantage of their free classes benefit, and went part time, taking 1-2 classes per semester until I finished. So, yeah, I took the long road to a degree.
Edit: The big lesson here? I don't know. I guess be very stubborn.
Seriously, though. The key is finding a good school/fun balance. Too much fun, and you wind up with say, a sub 2.0 GPA. Too much school and you get burned out. I keep telling people that academically, going straight to a 4 year university was probably the worst thing I could have done. As far as life experience, going to a 4 year university 4 hours away from home was probably one of the best things I could have done.
Edit: The big lesson here? I don't know. I guess be very stubborn.
Seriously, though. The key is finding a good school/fun balance. Too much fun, and you wind up with say, a sub 2.0 GPA. Too much school and you get burned out. I keep telling people that academically, going straight to a 4 year university was probably the worst thing I could have done. As far as life experience, going to a 4 year university 4 hours away from home was probably one of the best things I could have done.
Dropped out after I got my associates at community and had transferred to a University, the financial aid office was a cluster**** in 2004 students were waiting on grants and loans into the middle of that winter term, so no money led to an eviction--my work study funds couldn't cover fuel so it left me with no place to live. I was wandering around doing day labor for about two years following this.
I never dropped out but came close to it once, my first semester of my first year. Not for health or financial reasons (it was a community college) but because I hated studying with a passion. And still do - school hater since 1986! Closer to the end of first semester I realized that I have 2 options:
1. drop school entirely and just get a job or
2. start studying and actually stay in school
I chose option 2, worked hard and at the end of second year transferred to a decent private university on the first try. The latter was much more difficult than a community college (not to mention expensive) but I toughed it out. It was a 5 year school because of COOPs. Because the transition was difficult and for other various reasons my college ended up to be 5.5 years total for all but I did graduate with a Computer Science degree. It was a long and winding road indeed. But then again I know a guy who took 7 years to get the same degree in same school so it isn't all that bad.
On the other hand, I have a friend who got a 1.6 GPA in same school his first semester and dropped out. Now he is going in a similar direction as I did over 10 years ago: he finally graduated a community college last year and now goes to another school on the behest of his relentless wife. All a the ripe age of 32.
So my advice is: unless it's absolutely unbearable - tough it out and stay in school. Getting the same education later in life is going to be far more difficult and time consuming.
1. drop school entirely and just get a job or
2. start studying and actually stay in school
I chose option 2, worked hard and at the end of second year transferred to a decent private university on the first try. The latter was much more difficult than a community college (not to mention expensive) but I toughed it out. It was a 5 year school because of COOPs. Because the transition was difficult and for other various reasons my college ended up to be 5.5 years total for all but I did graduate with a Computer Science degree. It was a long and winding road indeed. But then again I know a guy who took 7 years to get the same degree in same school so it isn't all that bad.
On the other hand, I have a friend who got a 1.6 GPA in same school his first semester and dropped out. Now he is going in a similar direction as I did over 10 years ago: he finally graduated a community college last year and now goes to another school on the behest of his relentless wife. All a the ripe age of 32.
So my advice is: unless it's absolutely unbearable - tough it out and stay in school. Getting the same education later in life is going to be far more difficult and time consuming.
I did my first year. I went to the local state school because they gave me a very small scholarship but the school was large and not a very good fit for me. I should have done a lot more research and probably gone to a smaller school with a lower student to teacher ratio and a more non-traditional education style. May have paid a bit more but I think the experience, for me, would have been better.
I also took a pretty staid line-up my first semester out (English, Math, Spanish and Journalism 101). I should have taken at least one class for fun.
And, the cardinal mistake... I had two classes before 10 a.m. That age-old rule about not scheduling early morning classes? So true.
I also took a pretty staid line-up my first semester out (English, Math, Spanish and Journalism 101). I should have taken at least one class for fun.
And, the cardinal mistake... I had two classes before 10 a.m. That age-old rule about not scheduling early morning classes? So true.
My semester and a half at Florida State was well spent dating various lovely freshmen ladies (does getting nekked in the dorm room count as a date??) Lol. And drinking, getting high all hours of the day and night.
Mistake number one: having no clue what I wanted to do when I grow up and no personal motivation to grow up.
Number two: early morning classes.
Number three: co-ed dorm living
Number four: that acid trip where I decided to get a cafe racer and move to California where I would grow a pot farm and maybe start a small church along the northern coast. (I was a little early to that party- it's totally do-able today._)
Number five: early morning classes
I'm in my 40's now, and it's all water under the bridge.. but having a drive to learn and succeed without adult supervision is paramount. I was a little late to that party. I did have one helluva extended summer vacation, tho. Lasted a decade.
Mistake number one: having no clue what I wanted to do when I grow up and no personal motivation to grow up.
Number two: early morning classes.
Number three: co-ed dorm living
Number four: that acid trip where I decided to get a cafe racer and move to California where I would grow a pot farm and maybe start a small church along the northern coast. (I was a little early to that party- it's totally do-able today._)
Number five: early morning classes
I'm in my 40's now, and it's all water under the bridge.. but having a drive to learn and succeed without adult supervision is paramount. I was a little late to that party. I did have one helluva extended summer vacation, tho. Lasted a decade.
perennial dropout
K-12...finished, so off to college
First ask yourself if you need college and if the answer is yes, how much do you need? How much is too much where you won't get a return on your investment? How much time in college/grad school/trade school is taking away from actually making money to pay bills?
So here's the crooked path I carved out in the last 30+ years as a college student:
Junior college and Cal State University...did some units, got married with just over half of school done when I dropped out, and later finished AA then later BA (but BA at a different University eight years late but did a lot of living in between). I was a musician and got a minor hit song on college radio and I wouldn't trade that for the world.
Grad school...did half of MBA but it wasn't for me but got great grades and I learned a lot, but dropped out
...did many of the prereqs with excellent grades for PhD program at University of California but found I didn't want to commit five years full time so I dropped out of that, too
...did some law school, but unlike MBA school, my grades were terrible
...went to Microsoft technician's Academy and graduated and got my Microsoft Certification, but also did CompTIA A+ Academy and finished well but never bothered to get certified
...also went to Cisco Academy and did very well but dropped out
...back to Microsoft Academy to re-certify and I am on track for good grades in this program and I fully plan to get the latest Microsoft Certification, but just that and not an alphabet soup of certifications
1) With some success and some failure in college, grad school, and technical school, I found just do what relates to your job and finish only what you find absolutely necessary.
2) Unlike most K-12 programs and technical certification schools, college is great in that you can do some, drop out, and finish later.
I hope this helps.
Though a self-employed computer technician/network engineer with ten years in does not need a master's degree in anything I can think of, I plan for fun to get a master's in an interdisciplinary program of courses I get to choose. When studying for the joy of learning, then school is never a waste of time.
K-12...finished, so off to college
First ask yourself if you need college and if the answer is yes, how much do you need? How much is too much where you won't get a return on your investment? How much time in college/grad school/trade school is taking away from actually making money to pay bills?
So here's the crooked path I carved out in the last 30+ years as a college student:
Junior college and Cal State University...did some units, got married with just over half of school done when I dropped out, and later finished AA then later BA (but BA at a different University eight years late but did a lot of living in between). I was a musician and got a minor hit song on college radio and I wouldn't trade that for the world.
Grad school...did half of MBA but it wasn't for me but got great grades and I learned a lot, but dropped out
...did many of the prereqs with excellent grades for PhD program at University of California but found I didn't want to commit five years full time so I dropped out of that, too
...did some law school, but unlike MBA school, my grades were terrible
...went to Microsoft technician's Academy and graduated and got my Microsoft Certification, but also did CompTIA A+ Academy and finished well but never bothered to get certified
...also went to Cisco Academy and did very well but dropped out
...back to Microsoft Academy to re-certify and I am on track for good grades in this program and I fully plan to get the latest Microsoft Certification, but just that and not an alphabet soup of certifications
1) With some success and some failure in college, grad school, and technical school, I found just do what relates to your job and finish only what you find absolutely necessary.
2) Unlike most K-12 programs and technical certification schools, college is great in that you can do some, drop out, and finish later.
I hope this helps.
Though a self-employed computer technician/network engineer with ten years in does not need a master's degree in anything I can think of, I plan for fun to get a master's in an interdisciplinary program of courses I get to choose. When studying for the joy of learning, then school is never a waste of time.
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My semester and a half at Florida State was well spent dating various lovely freshmen ladies (does getting nekked in the dorm room count as a date??) Lol. And drinking, getting high all hours of the day and night.
Mistake number one: having no clue what I wanted to do when I grow up and no personal motivation to grow up.
Number two: early morning classes.
Number three: co-ed dorm living
Number four: that acid trip where I decided to get a cafe racer and move to California where I would grow a pot farm and maybe start a small church along the northern coast. (I was a little early to that party- it's totally do-able today._)
Number five: early morning classes
I'm in my 40's now, and it's all water under the bridge.. but having a drive to learn and succeed without adult supervision is paramount. I was a little late to that party. I did have one helluva extended summer vacation, tho. Lasted a decade.
Oh god, i'm just a sophomore but i know what you mean. I have classes every weekday and the ALL start at 8:00 AM. Worst thing i have ever done in my life. Also, i'm the type of person who likes to look over things right before a big test (Not cramming, just like a last check type of deal) and that means waking up at 5:00 AM on the morning of my statics tests
. I guess it's worth it though since i've gotten 100's on both of my statics mid-terms
Oh god, i'm just a sophomore but i know what you mean. I have classes every weekday and the ALL start at 8:00 AM. Worst thing i have ever done in my life. Also, i'm the type of person who likes to look over things right before a big test (Not cramming, just like a last check type of deal) and that means waking up at 5:00 AM on the morning of my statics tests
Yeah, but the other extreme can be very annoying as well. I had a few friends who were a year or two ahead of me, and they all told me how much morning classes sucked. So, my first semester, I didn't have a class that started before 11AM. The problem is that I was often in class until late afternoon. This sucked, since my friends would often decided to do stuff during the afternoons. There was one cool bar that offered a happy hour starting around 3pm that had cheap beer and free pool. Too bad I was often in class. The worst part was I got a job on campus and ended up working during the mornings, so I still had to wake up early.
More than 50%
of all college loans are in default today.
Less that 30% of 2010 college graduates found work in their field of study.
Just remember, 10 years ago they were saying the college graduates would be leading every single field, because they supposedly have the latest knowledge and skills.
Do yourself a favor and learn a trade that will give you a return on your investment.
of all college loans are in default today.
Less that 30% of 2010 college graduates found work in their field of study.
Just remember, 10 years ago they were saying the college graduates would be leading every single field, because they supposedly have the latest knowledge and skills.
Do yourself a favor and learn a trade that will give you a return on your investment.
I dropped out of school due to several reasons. First reason, it was too expensive. I still owe them over forty thousand dollars in tuition. Secondly I was under alot of pressure. I was working over sixty hours a week to pay bills and send my mom and siblings money while they were living in a third world country. I couldn't find a job with American companies, which I assume is because my first name is associated with terrorists (this was a year and a half after 9-11 so I can't blame them for being worried).
In the end I only found work with other Arabs where i got underpaid for my work. I even took out loans through the school to help support me and my family, which I regret to this day. I should have worked harder. I wish I could go back to school, its just that I don't have the money, I don't know what to study, and I kinda lost the "drive" to be motivated to try anymore
In the end I only found work with other Arabs where i got underpaid for my work. I even took out loans through the school to help support me and my family, which I regret to this day. I should have worked harder. I wish I could go back to school, its just that I don't have the money, I don't know what to study, and I kinda lost the "drive" to be motivated to try anymore
I am getting the impression that our favourite thread-starter is looking for excuses to tell Momsey and Dadsey why he wants to quit Regina U. after his Freshman year.
I too would like to do one year at a "party school", when nothing counts in the grand scheme of things. The Sophomore year is when the rubber hits the road.
I too would like to do one year at a "party school", when nothing counts in the grand scheme of things. The Sophomore year is when the rubber hits the road.
This.
There is really no room for a "well rounded" education anymore. Employers want skill and sadly too many universities refly on the useless fluff classes like humanities and fifty versions of english rather than real skills that help you in the work force.
When I dropped out of penn state, it was because at the time over 70 percent of my degree was fluff classes. How could I have a degree in computer science when I only had one comp sci class per year?? Mind you this was a while ago so maybe things changed.
I take CS classes to stay current in my field as a computer technician and have for over 10 years. It hasn't become any better as far as traditional CS programming classes. The two year college had the required C++, VB, and Java, but have dropped the first two and split Java into two semesters as it's the only language in the curriculum today. The rest of the CS degree are general ed from english to math to sociology to physics, but only two semesters of Java programming! (6 of your 60 units in your degree are programming classes!)
The four year college (Cal State University) here only has Java and HTML as CS requirements and the rest are support classes like IT management, Cisco networking, and Creative Suite related classes, and the bulk being electives of the student's choice. The good thing about the strong attention for CS majors to Creative Suite is that the school has a ton of high end Macs.
For HTML, there are some elective classes at the two year college nearby that the Cal State kids could take and transfer. (15 of your 120+ units in your bachelor's degree are programming classes but you can elect to take 18 units of programming, but this is still weak for a CS major, imho).What I would like to see these public colleges have is a much more programming related degree which aims to make the CS major at least a minimally competent programmer.
But with these two California public universities, an AS degree CS graduate will have one semester of beginning Java and one semester of advanced Java. A BS degree CS graduate will have the two Java classes, with only the addition of an HTML class in one's 3rd year, and a capstone 4th year class project (like a bachelor's thesis) involving either HTML or Java. So yes, in these two California schools, it's one programming class per year for four years.
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