Top 11 Reasons Why Students Drop out of College
What do you think are the reasons why high school students make it — but stop there? College is a whole four years, but not everyone goes through with it. What holds them back?
We looked at several sources on the Internet and found that these are the main contributing factors:
- Homesickness and feeling that you don’t fit in. It’s a whole new world out there, and you may not be ready to embrace it.
- Educational burnout. While college gives you control and flexibility over your schedule, the hard demanding schedule, challenging courses, and boatload of homework certainly has turned a lot of students away from the desire to continue.
- Academic unpreparedness. Sometimes, high school didn’t really prepare students for college. Other times, students slacked off in high school and paid the price during their post-secondary years. The high school goal was to pass (so that students could get into college); in college, it is to succeed.
- Personal or family issues. You may have had an unfortunate illness in the family or you yourself just got totally get stressed out from the workload.
- Financial constraints. Tuition costs continue to soar, and scholarships or grants are not always available. Additionally, financial situations can change from year to year.
- Too much fun — but not enough education. Some students take advantage of their friendships, which could put them on academic probation due to suffering grades or absence in classes.
- The school isn’t a good academic fit for the student. You’ve selected a great school that is very arts-centric. However, you realize that you like the sciences better. Similarly, you may hate the average class size of 100 and prefer much smaller classes for more individualized attention.
- Setting sights on the wrong major. You may have wanted to be a doctor but after taking several science classes, you decided that you’re rather go into marketing. Does your school have a marketing major? If not, you’re likely to go elsewhere.
- No guidance or mentors. In high school, teachers and counselors were there to guide you, as high school classes are typically smaller than the entering freshman class. It’s a lot harder to get the personalized attention that you’ve been used to and that could turn people off quickly.
- External demands, particularly within part time or full time employment. Can we say Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? When the job puts too many demands on you, you may have to choose, and money usually wins out.
- Time to move out. If the cold winter just doesn’t suit you, you may decide to go elsewhere. You may want to go closer to home or to be closer to a significant other.
Why have your peers dropped out of college?
November 26th, 2007 at 12:50 am
I think if I were to drop out of college, it would be because I am not sure I want to live the life that college would leave me.. it has been hard to decide, and right now I am in college, but not sure if that is what I want to do. I want to move to a foreign country like Peru, and help others who are in need… I love web design and all, but I don’t feel like it will amount to anything when my life nears it’s end.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Too much s3x resuslted in early pregnancy
November 26th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Top reason in 1941: get drafted to go fight in europe
November 26th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Because I was making more money doing a different job (computer engineer) that I could have ever made as my major (art history) and changing my degree to comp sci wouldn’t have helped my career.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Got MBA!!!! Marriage By Accident…. (Pregnant, Drunk,or whatever screws up their judgement…)
November 26th, 2007 at 1:36 am
I agree with 6, most of my friends stopped right after high school. But me, i went on to try this college life out. come to find out, i was focusing more on what my friends were doing and felt…left out.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:58 am
re #1: pretty much, web design and all other forms of corporate jobs are empty and meaningless. The companies will not be around in 100-200 years and your lifetime of working for them will have no impact on the future of mankind. All you can say you did was line some richman’s pockets and keep the well oiled machine of capitalism going for a little while longer. I’d rather be a nurse if I can’t be a doctor, than live a meaningless life, actually.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:09 am
Numbers 2 and 3 ring especially true for me.
I’m tired of school, and high school didn’t prepare me, because it was so easy that I didn’t ever have to study. Now I’m screwed because I never developed good study habits.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:31 am
To Anonymous - If you’re passion is in web design and are pretty good at it, then college isn’t mandatory. You can easily move to Peru and start your web design firm while helping the locals by hiring them.
The benefits of a college degree will be realized if you’re; planning on joining the corporate workforce or a start-up seeking VC funds.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:40 am
lack of creativity. I just hate to do same task as 100 other people, and all that work gets thrown away. I could spend that time/effort somewhere else.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:09 am
I sort of fit into number one, because I could never meet anyone in my class… It basically made school unbearable.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:15 am
1. Disgustingly Hypocritical Administration
2. Disgustingly Hypocritical “Teachers”
3. “Teachers” know less than you do about their subject
4. They’re RIAA/MPAA enforcers
5. They’re Credit Card pushers
6. You realized the average graduate is $60K in the hole
7. People who own websites make more than the profs
8. People who work in Vegas make more than the profs
9. People who work in welding make more than the profs
A. People who operate cranes make more than the profs
B. Schools do things like give $50K to Edwards, who already has $200M and lives in the largest house in his state so he can talk about ‘poverty’ while spewing soundbites for his vice-presidential campaign
November 26th, 2007 at 3:17 am
College may be bullshit but passing it gives your dedication some credibility.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:45 am
couldn’t stand the stupidnes of doing a pointless course.
I used to sit in class and think “why I am here why I am here” only to get a fucking degree toshow i am educated. fuck it
November 26th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I am in the exact opposite position. I went to college, and now I can’t quit. After graduating the first time, there were no jobs where I lived, so I moved. Now I live in a town that I hate and can’t afford to live in, much less pay back my loans, so I had to go back to school just to keep from having to pay my loans back. So now it looks like graduate school is on the horizon a lot sooner than I had anticipated.
November 26th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Financial. They forgot lack of funds. Read something a couple years ago mentioning that the average graduation rate for a 4 year degree was 7.6 years and the biggest factor was money.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I left because I’m a technology guy and they wanted to teach me about 1960s technology. There’s enough obsolete information in my head from the 1990s. I don’t need professors filling it with more crap from 1960 that I’ll never use. College is a joke. It doesn’t prepare you for anything. Having a job is not at all like going to college and the information they teach you is useless unless you want to be a teacher. That’s why I quit.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Agree with point #3. I’m a first gen. college student, so I really didn’t know what to expect. HS counselors should do much better in preparing the student for college life. Much of what is taught for your major is not necessarily necessary, either. Examples include people who have a job in something not related to their bachelors and are successful none-the-less. I must disagree with Mr. Leake however. I am of the mind that everyone influences everyone. You never know who you affect, just by walking around. The man sweeping the lobby of a major business may do something to impact someone who goes on to do great things. Or the man sweeping may be inspired by another and invent a breakout product and make umpteen millions… who knows. To all college students: Do not despair in whatever field you enter. Individuality is one of humanity’s greatest assets, at every level. Do what makes you happy. If you make money doing so, great. But it can’t be sole motivation. Pursue your interests.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:43 am
I’ve been thinking about dropping out more and more each semester of my program. Between the teachers getting worse and worse (I guess they give you the best teachers first so you stay as long as possible and toss you the crap when you’ve gone too far to drop out), the content of the course changing constantly (entire classes were replaced and descriptions of the course didn’t match up with what was actually taught), and the program in general not meeting the expectations you had.
Although, many of your points to apply as well
November 26th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I dropped out of college my first semester to join the Marine Corps. I wanted to be a Marine all along, but I thought I wanted to go to school first. Turns out I was burned out on school so I went with what I felt was right.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I knew two people who dropped out because they played too much “World of Warcraft”.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Personally, I’ve outgrown the college experience. College has not taught me anything new. I have the intelligence, drive, and creativity to do without college.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:00 am
What about college being a business? Most professors don’t give a shit if you fail or succeed. They get their money and they are done with you. College is no longer a place to teach/learn, its a place to take peoples money. I work at an engineering firm, 99% of the new college grads who come in, don’t have the slightest clue as to whats going on, we have to teach them quite a bit still, and no we don’t take the D students, we take the A-B grads.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I work at university, here the problem is the staff and instuctors. Here are the top 10 reasons students drop out here:
10. Students are lied to and mis-led when recruited.
9. The only requirments for any job on campus is that you are realted to another employee. Don’t worry if they do not have one for you, if your spouse is important enough, they can create one.
8. 95% of the 5 year (and up) employees are not fit for their jobs and have no training.
7. Students are given info for requirements from people not trained and end up having to make adjustments themselves.
6. More money is spent on the front end to make the campus look good rather than to make it last.
5. Football players do not get arrested for doing anything, if they do they are released and sent home.
4. Football players that RAPE other students are sent home and the story does not make the paper.
3. VP’s that are promoted even after finding porn surfing on machine prior to the promotion, end up sexually harrassing female students and then having to leave town.
2. Most of the instructors are here for themselves and padding a resume with more flare.
1. Somewhere (maybe when several of the VO’s came from the education department) the institution put more value on the instrustors vs. the students.
If you want your school to fail, please follow the above steps to crush as many dreams as possible while your instructors contnue to move forward and pad the old resumes.
I have vever seen so many self rightous poeple in my life,
November 26th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I feel the same way. My student loans are so overwhelming that I’m thinking about going back so I can defer them longer. Plus, a masters never hurt anybody!
November 26th, 2007 at 9:30 am
The waste of time and money on classes that will have no purpose in anyones life. Such as Ethics in Technology. Ethics, whats that? A debate class with nothing but subjects that have no plausable answer but lots of controversy. Eventually you just lose interest. University, another name for NFL recruitment center. They care more about a winning team than an affordable education. The average student’s soul belongs to a loan company long before they even have a career to pay it back. Whats the point?
November 26th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I spent a year in college and quit. Same as #4. I was making more money and having more fun outside of college than in it.
Now 17 years later I am taking college courses in areas that interest me and to fill in some gaps. My so-called “adviser” can’t grasp the notion that I could care less about getting the piece of paper.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I did the college thing for 2 yrs, quit because I hated putting up with BS courses that had to be taken (because they were part of the program). I was interested in doing English related courses, then you have someone telling you, that you NEED to take a course in anthropology. Complete crap. Now I’m in the work force, and could be making double what I am now, if I had that stupid piece of paper saying I graduated from College. Needless to say, there is alot to be said about being a College Graduate.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:53 am
You people are going to the wrong colleges and are severely misled about what college is for. Everyone that succeeds knows that the purpose of classes are to force you to explore what you are interested in and to get you to teach yourself. If you are sitting in a class, and could care less about what is being taught, you are in the wrong class. If you expect teachers to force-feed you an education, then you are delusional. In my experience, having had bad teachers has forced me to learn on my own and has motivated me to be self sufficient. The purpose of college is to learn about yourself and to learn that if you want to do something, you have to do it yourself. It always has been. I do not need a college degree in the field I am going into, but my experiences at college have been priceless. Best of luck to you all…
November 26th, 2007 at 10:54 am
And the football players are kicked off the team and go to jail when the rape girls at my school…
November 26th, 2007 at 11:16 am
These are great points. I am currently in my first year of university, with finals approaching and I still don’t feel like this is what I want to do for the next 4 years. I never had to study in highschool and got 90’s but now that I am here I am basically screwed. All students are to these schools are numbers.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Pretty much EVERYTHING # 12 says .. with emphasis on ““Teachers” know less than you do about their subject”
Most of those teachers (at a college ironically called BSU) were the most inept people I had ever seen in my life. Everything from the campus coordinator to the teachers I had were just terrible! In the end it seemed that the college I went to was nothing but a scam. When the average amount of time students were spending at a 4 year college was over 8 years. . It should scream red flags. It means that you can’t get into any classes you want/need unless you get seniority. To get seniority you have to be there for 4 years.
There was just so much wrong with that school, after 5 years I am still bitter about it. I want to go back to 4 year school but I doubt I ever will because of that experience. On the bright side, I went to a technical school for the same course and it was a world of difference for the better
November 26th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
First off you have to enroll in college 2 drop out, second off, parenting is a big factor (although i have no parents i found my way through 3.5 years of video game design coarses) Another is funds and how ppl manage themselves, some students that graduate through high school are destined to be stupid the rest of their lives
November 26th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I could either work for experience and good cash with normal amounts of spare time, or go to school and work for crap wages until done while spending all my time working or studying. Then try to find a job quickly to start paying off my huge debt.
I work in IT, where experience is typically equal to schooling when applying for work. The education is useless for the most part, since what you learned is obsolete by the time you graduate.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Some are true but its mostly cause im lazy i have 2 papers due tomm and i havent done both of them man my life sucks lol
November 26th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
The main reason I quit: Irresponsibly high expectations of the students. I have friends to this day who still get far far too little sleep because of papers and homework and that junk. Theres little education in those things, its a stress test. Just as my friends 8 hour exit exam had nothing to do with what he had learned, but was a test to see how he withstood stress, which has no place in a “school” as far as I am concerned.
November 26th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
The best thing you can learn in college is how to learn. You need to learn how to teach yourself. In the real world your business will buy new technology products (both hardware and software). No one will know how to use it. You will be expected to figure it out - don’t count on tech support, etc.
The piece of paper is a ticket that says you know how to learn. Nothing more.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Wow, I was just about to say almost exactly what Mike said above. It seems to me that almost everyone in the comments section is going to the wrong college. To everyone saying they are dropping out of college due to not being prepared from high school or because they cannot stand the 1, 2, or 5 BS classes they are are forced to take, yeah dropping out definitely sounds like the right move to me. You are obviously ready for the real world and cannot learn anything from college. I mean in the real world, you never have to put up with BS and you’re never confronted with any situation that you’re not prepared for.
OK, I’m sorry, there was a lot of sarcasm in that paragraph. But seriously, I would say people really need to put a lot more thought into picking their schools. Don’t go to a school just because your high school “bff” is going there, or because it’s the closest one to home, or because it’s the cheapest. Pick the one that fits you. Go tour the campus. Talk to the students. It works. I ended up turning down acceptance offers from two big engineering schools (MSU and NC State)to go to a small private school where the program and students more closely mirrored my values, and it was a great decision.
Am I pretty burned out on school now? Yes. Do I want to be an engineer anymore? No. But I’m only a semester from graduation and I wouldn’t trade the experiences I’ve had here (good and bad) for the world. Pretty much any executive at a successful company (and we have a lot from our school) will tell you that the real value of college isn’t necessarily what you learn in the class, but the skills you pick up along the way and the network of people you create.
In the end, you really have to do what makes you happy. For me, I wouldn’t be very happy with myself knowing that I had admitted defeat and dropped out. And I’d come to feel like any reasons I had for doing so were just excuses for taking the easy way out.
Of course, it really is not right for some. Check out some options at the end of this pdf article.
http://www.timeoutassociates.com/washingtonian.pdf
There was also a really good article showing a cost-benefit analysis of a college education that concluded college actually doesn’t make financial sense for half the population, but I can’t seem to find it.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Some university classes are only there to test your mettle; this is not High School. Learn from your failures and persevere. The real purpose of college is to push yourself - learning how to quickly acquire knowledge. This skill will separate you from the majority of all other people.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:07 am
[...] Students Drop Out Posted on November 27, 2007 by Mike F. Go College has a list of 11 reasons students drop out of college. While they try to be positive (”Hey, this [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am
There is one thing that most people do not realize concerning a person going to college. I went to college 4 years but didn’t graduate. Graduating was never going to be because of my lack of knowing how to effective study and retain information for a test (I only discovered this to be the problem later in life). However, I did gain something that people who do not go to college never acquire. I gained much maturing and social development. People who only go to college for one year gain some of the same.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:11 am
This list mostly contains things faulting the student. It grossly neglects how colleges can be at fault too. You can always redirect the blame back to the student somehow, but this practice makes me sick. Like the system can’t be at fault sometimes too?
November 28th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
[...] Source [...]
November 29th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I am a Prof at a major University. The common, and incorrect, theme to many of these posts is the disappointment of college and your career goals. Universities are not designed to give you a career, Profs do not care how much money you want to make. The goal of a “universal” education is to supply the country/world educated citizens, period.
A majority of incoming freshmen lack the most basic skills to do college level work. After 4 to 5 years of cramming the night before type of studying, most of them will get a piece of paper, yet lack an education. And the funniest part is that you allowed the college to do that to you, take your money and give you nothing in return (well 4 years of free internet access). We thank you for your money that we use to educate the minority of students who are college skilled and will become future leaders.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Peter, you’re welcome to provide your thoughts on why the system is a failure and we can consider it for a future post.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
i am a freshman at a university. i did not want to attend a college right out of high school because i knew i would be burnt out on school. my parents forced me to go. i am 18 now, i want to leave my parents house, because i know as soon as i get one D on the transcript they are going to attempt to discipline me, so i have been thinking of ways of dropping out. i mean i thought if i had some money i could just leave, move somewhere and work for a while, get some cash built up and come home in 2 or 3 years. i just dont want to leave behind my girlfriend. college is the most depressing experience i have ever had, the classes are so boring, i read and read a stupid ass quaker history book, which is not going to affect me in the future, i really just want to be a newspaper columnist. i love to write, especially if something pops into my head. but for now i am going to try to find a new job and a place to stay this winter/spring, because i have a feeling i will not do so well. im having surgery monday and have a final wed. the surgery is tommy john surgery, and i think the pain will be a bit much but i am going to attempt to study this stupid history.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I was lazy and immature.
I only had one semester from graduation but blew it off.
I am really regretting it now after 10+ years.
If any one of you are still in college, please finish it off. Drop-out lingers in you for quite sometime.
December 1st, 2007 at 1:08 am
To ASD - Great advice. It’s worth the turmoil.
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:22 am
I totally agree with #8! high school was so easy til i never had to study & didn’t develop good study habits and now i’m trying to cope with learning how to study!
December 4th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
[...] Why have your peers dropped out of college? Source [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Why do people expect others to hold their hand in college? College is the time to grow up, besides no one holds your hand through life. I think college is a business and they make cool subjects like art history boring with dense texts.
Anyway, I’m tired of shit jobs and so I’m going back at 24 and trying to get it over with asap. The toil and grind will be worth it, I don’t want to work $7.50/hour for the rest of my life. Nah thanks. And after college it really is up to you to make it and with a degree it’ll be easier to navigate through the real world.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Basically, if I had to grade Northwestern University, the college I attended, I would give them an F. Freshman orientation the speaker said, look to the left of you, now to the right, 2 out of 3 of you won’t graduate. In the sick gut of my stomach, I knew it wasn’t me. I turned out to be right. A college with that kind of failure ratio should have gone out of business long ago.
1. Homesick: Not only homesick, I was so homesick I stole a car Thanksgiving of Freshman year, just to drive across the continent to get back home. How messed up is that.
2. Education burnout: after 12 years of being tested to death, yeah, I was sick of f**king school. If they didn’t know I was smart by then, they’d never figure it out. And the system didn’t fundamentally change, it was just more of the same crap, only harder.
3. Academic Unpreparedness: this was the biggest, and cruelest joke of all. The private high school I went to, miles above public school, didn’t even come close to preparing me for the Ivy league college I went in to. Basically, I didn’t even stand a chance, even if I had been in the best of health. There was just no way.
4. Personal issues: I had severe diabetes, and had no idea what it was, and thought I was going insane… from caffeine and sugar poisoning in the soft drinks I was drinking. I was lucky most days if I could tie my shoes. The school counselors were clueless about this, and yet, diabetes is so commonplace every councilor should be able to identify it, particularly those at a college that charge $17,000 a year.
Northwestern failed me, and worse, scarred me so much I vowwed never would return to college again. And I was an A+ honors student in high school, SAT 1380, and a really smart and creative guy. I didn’t deserve that hell. Twenty years later.. no… that poor kid didn’t deserve that.
December 11th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
High school, college, both create panic and stress inside a person. Its not a healthy environment at all, and certainly not an environment conducive to learning. Tests, assignments, reports, grading, rules, conformity, homework, its all about controlling you and your time and creating internalized pressure. Eventually you will get sick from this. Stress causes sickness. That is why I got out in college. I had an ephiphany. It was all a rotten, insidious lie. There was no change from high school to college, it was the same old pressure, testing, and grading, only 20 times worse.
Mandatory education enslaves you from birth in this thunderdrome competition to claw your way to the top, and parents unwittingly perpetrate this on their children. If they could only see the face of the psychological horror they were putting inside their kids, they wouldn’t let their child near a school. Twenty years later I’m still so conditioned to the panic and stress loops that they initially put into me, that I live in a nightmarish world from day to day.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I can’t decide wether to go to college or not. Reason being that I am a junior in highschool and I have yet to decide exactly what it is that I wanna do with my whole life and time…and teachers here don’t ever make me WANT to go to school anyways. Most teachers a my school think that just because they are teaching the class, they can act as if they are your parent…and when they are having a bad day…students like myself usually end up having a bad day as well…not FAIR!
December 12th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Basically, that is why I feel that many other students drop out of highschool/college: too much shit from teachers. =)
December 17th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
[...] dropouts. Men, especially black men, are prime candidates for dropping out. From GoCollege, comes 11 possible reasons why. Here’s a viable reason. 3. Academic unpreparedness. Sometimes, high school didn’t [...]
December 20th, 2007 at 8:02 am
because of being idle!!!!
March 6th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
The philosophy of education is to teach atheism, and to punish those who believe in God (with defeat and high interest loans). Also, college is to defame character by deceiving others with stuff recorded in your records. With God all things are possible. Without God all things are not possible.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I am currently a freshman at Missouri State University, this semester (my 2nd) ive realized that college is complete bullshit. I hate it here, everyone is 2 faced. Its the exact same as highschool i dont have the drive anymore to even attend classes because all the teachers do is talk about nothing and the test questions all come out of the reading. So really what is the fucking point. And assigning 30 pages a class to read for the next class period is complete bullshit. I have to work and make money in this hell hole. I do not have the time to read almost 120 pages a night. Are you kidding me the teachers all have the mindset that I only attend their class so i will have plenty of time to read all this bullshit which just isnt true.
Another thing is the General Education Requirements at this school. Gen ed? sounds a lot like paying for high school classes. We are required to take a fucking PE class? WTF why do i need to take pe? am i going to be a professional weight lifter? NO im not going to be Richard simmions. I think that is just dumb. Not to mention we have to take a pre civil war history class? For what? WTF do i need to know about the fucking indians, we killed them all okay i got it. I know more than most of my professors and have won debates with them in almost every class. I think its bullshit, i want to goto a school that will actually teach me something. Not push political agendas into my head, i would rather make up my own mind about things and not be told that its a sientific fact smoking causes cancer. And that George bush is a criminal. I can make up my own mind. College is basically brainwashing it fucking sickens me. I think im going to finish out this semester then go to a Police Academy or into the military.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I agree with #18. If going to college makes you happy then do it. If not, then stop complaining, get a job and work, just remember that although you may have your own opinion but the world out there is not acceoting applications from a college drop out all the time. Most of the time its just pure luck but if you are prepared to show education plus your working background, you best believe that you will find a job. IF YOU CANNOT FIND A JOB IN THE UNITED STATES AFTER GRADUATONG FROM COLLEGE IS BECAUSE OF HOW YOU PRESENT YOURSELF TO PEOPLE.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
It seems hard and meaningless sometimes but whatever degree you earn will help you support whatever family you have someday. That is the driving factor for me to stay in.
My biggest temptations to drop out were cause I just thought I was worthless based on my grades in High School and first years of college. It still can be redeemed. In the end… LOVE WHAT YOU DO, DON’T GO FOR THE MONEY BUT IN THE END YOU WILL BE THE HAPPIEST IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:23 am
My reason was purely financial.
The college I went to completely mistreated me. They offered me a 15,000 merit scholarship which I was excited to get (despite the fact that the college charges 40k per year). I filled out the FAFSA and my estimated family contribution was about 6,000 per year. I could deal with that, so I decided to go. However, when they sent me the bill they were charging me 7,000 a SEMESTER. When I called them about it they actually had the nerve to tell me that my SCHOLARSHIP WAS MY FINANCIAL AID. They said that’s all I was getting, despite the FAFSA! So I had to leave, yet they’re still charging me for the first semester, even though I left in October. It’s ridiculous. Perhaps if I went to a different college I’d be less jaded, but the way I was treated makes me wary of any college in the future.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I will drop out after I finish this semester, the schools administration told me I was going to graduate in 2 years from community college and transfer after that to a 4 year university.Well I’ve been here for 2 1/2 years and have another year waiting, I’m running out of money,(don’t have financial aid). And I’m tired of failing the same course for 3 times already (my high school teachers DID NOT prepare me for this type of classes). I regret not joining the military after high school. I waisted 2 years in college for what??Seriously follow your heart and listen to what it tells you…don’t do something just because you want people to think your educated it and have a degree. Do it because you have a passion!
April 8th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
You guys are all stupid. College is not a waste of time. everyone is just too damn lazy to actually stick it through. there are a million reasons to push it through. Everyone knows that if you go to college you will be more successful in life. And going to college does not mean you have to go to a four year school. there are so many options its just people like you guys just feel bad for themselves.
April 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Glad to here there are ther people out there that are adamant with their decisions. Three days ago, one month from graduation - i finally said fu*k it. I couldn’t bear to BS for a B.S. The mental anguish that i’ve acquired by going to school is near brutal and i simply don’t want to contunue forcing myself through hell. I’m tempted to write “Chose not to recieve degree for moral reasons” on my resume. There are far more productive thing i can do upon leaving and i cant wait to have my professors sign my withdrawl papers with a giant grin on my face. Enjoy your life, enjoy your freedom - make your own decisions.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I am now final year and would be graduate very soon. I am a computing (software engineering) major.
But what I want to say is that entering university is really not a good choice in my life.
It is totally waste time, learning from the Internet is even better than learning in the University. What I see is that many teenagers (high-school guy) computing skills is better than Univ. graduate (Comp major) students.
Time management is also difficult, because lecture time is too short, which is not easy to handle assignment and project together with examination preparation in a 3 to 4 months.
However, I am not america, I am from HK where the university generally adopt a mixture of british, america and chinese education system.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:55 am
I’m in College currently and I had dropped out last year. I decided that I wasn’t doing what I wanted so I started a new course. But my opinion on dropping out is that its just the easy way out of the situation. No matter what we do, there will always be a safety net lying there for us, doesn’t matter how bad we fuck up. That’s why I think people dropout so much, no real consequences for quiting.
April 19th, 2008 at 2:44 am
3 words: Perserverence and passion
April 24th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
stay in school and you life will be sucsessesful
April 25th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
In response to #62: I feel your pain!!
When I was pregnant with my son (who is 1 now) I went through the fall semester and even made deans list. I took the next semester off because my finals were around my due date. Then I moved states and in the fall I applied to another college, this time instead of a state school it was a community college. I didn’t decide to go until August and by the time I could get my HS transcripts from another state I just made the deadline to get financial aid, or so I thought. Instead, they took the Friday off early and entered those on Monday and I got automatically dropped from my classes which i found out on Tuesday. I tried to see if they could do anything, and was told two things: #1 get your teachers to sign a paper to enroll you in the class with their permission. and then I was told that I would have to pay the $4k or $5k out of pocket to continue going because it would be three weeks before I would know if I got financial aid.
Needless to say since I had a kid and sold all of my belongings to move back east, I didn’t have that kind of money, and mommy and daddy have NEVER paid for my school. NEVER.
Now, months later, I am getting collections for a 1k bill for the one class I got that signature for. I am filling out paperwork, but since I moved back west, they keep telling me ” we can’t talk about your account over the phone”
I have been through 4 college admissions. This was the worst. The other Community college was nearly as bad. The state school was OK. and the Private college was awesome (but too high of cost of living).
Here are my versions of the problems with colleges:
1. The students coming to both universities and community colleges out of high school lack the educational prepartion for college. It starts in High School, fix that and it will trickle.. well.. up.
2. Students think that this world is catered to them. I actually had a class where the parents complained about their kids failing so that the prof took his tests and dumbed them down. I was so mad. I wasn’t learning anything and getting A’s for it. Some may say “who cares?” that’s the problem. Accept challenges, accept knowledge, and accept responsibility. Mommy and Daddy will die one day and not be able to save your ass.
3. The admission process grabs students in, but financial aid and tuition costs leaves us blind sighted, angry and frustrated. Let’s start with the fact that many students especially in the CC bracket are not associated with their parents. The idea that parents are responsible for their children until they are 24 is ridiculous. Not to mention policies to protect people from abusing they system, especially in my case, are hurting the people who want an education, and now because of the credit stuff, we can’t get any more financial aid or go back to school.
4. It is a myth that is both true and false when it comes to whether or not you actually NEED a degree. To rise to management, or up in most organization you will need some type of secondary education. This is because your duties, even in labor industries require more interaction with others who have degrees. As our technology gets more developed, so will our labor industry. And that is why school that specialize in programs focused on certain industries and careers offer both programs to get into them and to continue education are popular, but are usually the ones with the most admissions problems.
5. It is possible that you aren’t ready right away at the “right time” everyone seems to push. It is someone else’s ideal that has become the norm for HS students to go right to college. and when they get out, they work jobs they could have got without the degree, sure it may have paid $3 less at that time, but you have experience. And it is always possible to go back. we are a rut of a society that while we claim democracy we are strict in imposing our cultural and societal beliefs on everyone.
This is simply my observations and opinions. Take it or leave it. But understand that our economics, politics and every thing else we deal with in life changes, and the best way to adapt is to learn about those changes, parallel historical events and move on with inventiveness into the future.
I would like to note I also have worked full time since I was 17 and in high school. My lowest GPA in the past 3 years of Post secondary school was 3.1. It is not impossible. One must put forth effort.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
The main purpose of college is to graduate so you can get a job with a good starting salary, although many really are interested in furthering their education, that is the main purpose. Dropping out is one of the worst decisions one could make. I realize sometimes a person really has no other choice but it really isn’t that hard to stick it out and graduate, even if some of the classes are dumb, you just apply yourself, if that isn’t enough than it is obvious you just weren’t meant to go to college.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I am looking to go to college but after reading what was posted. I think that I am going to take a year off to find myself and to really know that is what I want to do and I don’t want to leave my best-friend- boyfriend.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I’m an accounting major, and it’s just OK. It’s hard work, but I put in the time and I’m successful at it. My whole life all I’ve ever wanted to do was play guitar in a band. That dream is still very likely. But a college degree is something that pays huge dividends for a lifetime. Finishing up my third year, I have an internship with a very large public accounting firm, and after 3 years I will have my CPA. It has been a long road of hard work, and I’ve changed my major 4 times. Although I do not love college and I do not love what I study, I know that it is worth it to be here. Of all the majors that are out there, accounting is the best one for me.
On another note, I think that “not knowing how to study” is an unworthy excuse. Everyone must re-learn how to study in college. Sometimes you must commit 15-20 hours to studying for an exam (spread it out 4 days in advance if you need to). It’s the nature of the beast. If you really want that degree, no excuse can stop you. So get your balls in gear and stop dropping out of school!
May 28th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Wow, some of the posts on here are just plain demoralizing… I am about to graduate in 2 weeks (computer science) and it has taken me 9 years to do so. I am damn proud of myself having worked through the whole time and not drop out. To some of your points:
College may not necessarily be useless to everyone. There are exceptions (Bill Gates, etc), but you can’t exactly bank on the fact that you know alot and you’ll get that next lucky break.
Yes, I’ve found many required classes to be boring and useless (Chemistry for a computer science major? Biology?) But you know, its not always about the relativity of the courses, but how you manage through them.
The benefits of a full college experience over dropping out?
1. Its a place of networking. And no, I’m not talking about World of Warcraft networking. I’m talking about meeting and working with PEERS that may one day be an asset to your career, which can help you land a cushy job. Success if a combination of not only WHAT you know (which is readily available on Wikipedia and such) but WHO you know. What are the chances of you meeting someone who can help make an impact on your career if it weren’t for college?
2. Dedication and responsibility. Sure, you can quit… who cares? The only person you hurt is yourself. And you haven’t really proven anything to you or anyone else. You really learn how to manage your time if you never learned how to do so in high school. Yeah, high school was a breeze and I’ve never had to study, but when I started college, it kicked my ass. However, I’ve LEARNED how to manage… Its called flexibility and ability to adapt to situations (skills that are highly sought after out in the real working world). If you can learn to manage the piles of homework and exams and effectively knock them out, you’ve not only proven to yourself that you can succeed at doing things that might not be of your interest, but you’ve also proved to potential employers that you have the flexibility and dedication they may be looking for. Don’t even THINK once you get out in the working world and into the industry you want to be in, its all coasting from there… but the fact is, no matter what, you’re going to be faced with situations and hurdles that you DON’T want to (but have to) deal with. Sound familiar? Oh yes, those projects and courses that you found to be a useless waste of time in college is rearing its ugly head in your career. Now you have to manage through them, just as you did (or did not) in college.
College is just a test course. You may not always use what you learn… or you forget what you’ve learned from books, but if you learn HOW to manage your time and learn how to adapt to different situations, then I think you’ve got the main points of going through college.
I think dropping out of college simply because “you don’t like it,” isn’t a valid reason. You’re only trying to make yourself feel better by taking the easy way out. Sure, it works for college, but you can’t just drop out of all your problems out in the real world. I’m sure the majority of people don’t like the classes and the time it sucks out of their lives while in college, but they’ve managed to put themselves through it.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
College is great, it just takes way too long to graduate. They make you take 2 years of crap that doesn’t apply to your major so you have to spend 5 years getting burnt out on school. The further along you get the harder it is to stay motivated, college really shouldn’t take more than four years to complete
June 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Well, after a few minutes of reading what you all imbeciles had to say, I would like to rue that most of you, if not all should go and commit suicide.
I reckon almost all people who have posted their comments here are from US. I have heard about your vainglorious education system. Any high caliber student from my country will make quick work of your entire graduation. Entities are so amicable and easy there, you do not have to even try to succeed. It comes as a free gift with the fee that you pay to enter college.
I wonder what were to happen if you people were to come to my country and study. Even your best candidates shall not last beyond a couple of weeks.
Moribundly : LAWL.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
i just graduate from high school and i have a high GPA but my ACT is below 16 that doesnt make me stupid is just that i cant take the dam test because english is my second language now i am applying to the university of my choice, but they still thinking about accepting me dont you think they should look to see my grade how i did in high school instead of the stupid ACT because no every body can pass that class at leas i want to be something. When i put my mind into it i know i can do it and i agree with all your response.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
huh