Failing College Thread

[babybepeezy]

Loans piling up. Grades are whack. I drink too much.

Anyone on this boat?

[jwsach]

i feel your pain

[squirtlepk]

i've been there too

shitty days

[Fycus]

Ive been on academic probation 3 different quarters, almost got kicked out of my major, and here I am- graduating this saturday!!!! You'll be fine just stick it out.

[jackg]

i feel your pain! i have sent way to much time in the 24 hour labs trying to make up for my lack of work this semester!!!!

[rapdancin]

try doing work

[Dropt]

Follow your dreams.

[broneck]

I failed 2 consecutive years of university before I finally dropped out. There's a reason you're failing at what you're doing. Figure that reason out and then take another stab at it.

If you're failing because you party too much, either a.) stop partying to so much (hard to do), or b.) reduce your courseload until you're done with your newfound ability to drink as much and fuck as many girls as you can. Not everyone graduates in 4 years. Hopefully you get tired of it sooner rather than later.

But a lot of people just can't seem to get out of bed in the morning, can't force themselves to get to class, can't complete the assignments required until it's kinda too late. In this case, ask yourself:

"Do I give even a little bit of a shit about what I'm doing? Is there something else I'd rather be doing right now? Is there something else in my life that's fucking with my ability to handle this?"

(edit - I did graduate, eventually. just not from English)

[DaBestSpoona]

I went to a commuter school, no partying, no pretty girls, no hard drinking. =(

[t3hcoke]

But a lot of people just can't seem to get out of bed in the morning, can't force themselves to get to class, can't complete the assignments required until it's kinda too late. In this case, ask yourself:

"Do I give even a little bit of a shit about what I'm doing? Is there something else I'd rather be doing right now? Is there something else in my life that's fucking with my ability to handle this?"

QFT, one more final and I'm ready to graduate, assuming I pass...

[mapclub]

Long story short..less than a month before starting my first year my dad died very suddenly.

Tried to start anyway and it didn't work.. went back and it was just as hard but I got there eventually and in the end did very well.

All you gotta do is make it through first year. That was the hardest for me.

(I assume we are talking about university here? .. College is yr 11 + 12 in Australia..)

[okonomi]

College is yr 11 + 12 in Australia

Huh? What? It is? I've never heard that before...

[Spastic_Koala]

Depending on how severe things are, a leave of absence may help. Go travel and take stock of your life. Figure out what you want to do.

Another option is to take that leave of absence and go get some shit job (which is all you'll be able to find with a high school diploma). Work at that for a while until you realize that working a shitty job isn't what you want to do for the rest of your life. Then return to college reinvigorated, knowing that the alternative to getting your bachelors sucks.

[mapclub]

^

Yea I agree. Travel is something I wish I had done..so is work hard at a shitty job haha..

Huh? What? It is? I've never heard that before...

OH I keep forgetting our state has yr 11/12 as a separate school we call college.. haha.

Actually..to make things more complicated my brother was accepted ANU college of mathematics while he was in high-school to do an invite only prep course..another went to college of music for the same reason.. both of them were accepted into degrees without the proper entry scores because they did well in their courses ..it's like college is some weird grey area..maybe that's just Canberrans for you? idk

[broneck]

australia been fucked up

[southfive]

Depending on how severe things are, a leave of absence may help. Go travel and take stock of your life. Figure out what you want to do.

Another option is to take that leave of absence and go get some shit job (which is all you'll be able to find with a high school diploma). Work at that for a while until you realize that working a shitty job isn't what you want to do for the rest of your life. Then return to college reinvigorated, knowing that the alternative to getting your bachelors sucks.

yeah the work a shit job method is my favorite. nothing more motivating than working with people your parents age for the same amount of money.

[wut_a_foolio]

Ive been on academic probation 3 different quarters, almost got kicked out of my major, and here I am- graduating this saturday!!!! You'll be fine just stick it out.

I'm dying inside cause this was the same scenario I was/still am currently in. Although I'm not a senior yet :\

And I actually did get kicked outta my major.

Double :\ :\

[haploid]

yeah the work a shit job method is my favorite. nothing more motivating than working with people your parents age for the same amount of money.

yeah, watching a 45 yr old 5'5" chubby bald man sit in a beat up van in a parking lot and pound a six pack on his break can be really motivating (i was working at a bagel/sandwhich shop)

[destructodisk]

I feel like I've always been an autodidact, and leaving college was the best decision of my life. I was disillusioned with the whole process, both the academic and social, and choosing to liberate myself from that early on sent me on a path that made me realize what I need to do with my life.

Now I'm happier, more inspired, less filled with rage, and spend each day doing what I love to do most. If you're in college and are either unsuccessful or unhappy, my advice is to leave. You can always go back, but you can never take back the time you spent suffering in the fog of academia.

[southfive]

so what exactly do you do destructo?

unfortunately a college degree is like graduating from high school these days. better to just fuck around and get one while you're young

[Spastic_Koala]

Yeah. In all honesty, you're likely to get a shit job even with just a bachelors. Gotta either be clever with internships, or get a masters/phd.

[destructodisk]

southfive, I'm an aspiring music producer/drummer. don't really believe in the college level music degrees unless you're trying to teach. I figure practicing on my own every day and getting real world working musician experience is more beneficial.

[southfive]

yeah i agree with you about college degrees for things like that. i feel like you could walk up with an incredible portfolio and they wouldnt care if you even went to highschool. same with fashion design/ graphic design/ whatever.

i might be wrong though.

[16steps]

if you're not failing at one point during your college experience, you're doing it wrong.

Fuck graduating in 4, its all about taking the scenic route

[sawn-off chef]

I feel like I've always been an autodidact, and leaving college was the best decision of my life. I was disillusioned with the whole process, both the academic and social, and choosing to liberate myself from that early on sent me on a path that made me realize what I need to do with my life.

Now I'm happier, more inspired, less filled with rage, and spend each day doing what I love to do most. If you're in college and are either unsuccessful or unhappy, my advice is to leave. You can always go back, but you can never take back the time you spent suffering in the fog of academia.

I cannot second this enough, I did the same thing.

I originally was going to go to fashion school and transferred in, all that jazz, but prior my grades were awful, maintaned a mediocre at best GPA and just really had no heart in it. Once I transferred into a Major I thought I loved I realized it wasn't right and there were complications with my courses so I dropped out. I upped my hours at my job at Odin, worked my way up there and was happier. This lead to heavy networking and getting a job offer from one of my clients (current job) to which I may be moving onto even bigger things this year. Honestly, don't waste time doing something that your heart isn't in and isn't working out. I feel nowadays a degree is equally as important as who you know. I find college to be a great networking tool and an easy means to prove yourself without working inside an actual industry, it vouches for your experience as opposed to getting said experience. Everybody is different but some people just work better in a looser or different environment, I know I did. Anyone feel free to PM me if they want advise or anything, I'd love to help.

[shufon]

I feel nowadays a degree is equally as important as who you know.

I think this has always been true.. I actually think who you know far outweighs the importance of a degree.

[sawn-off chef]

I think this has always been true.. I actually think who you know far outweighs the importance of a degree.

I mean personally for me connections will always outweigh any fucking piece of paper, I just don't wanna urge people to drop out prematurely or anything. not tryna be a troublemaker, I just know everybody is different, but networking is the most important thing thats ever happened to me, or anyone regardless of degree or no degree.

[goat]

There's a huge commonality in the posts in this thread:

your heart isn't / wasn't in it.

I'm humble and fortunate that I knew what I wanted to do when I went to school, so I enjoyed the work that I did. But all too often I ran into people that were unsure of what they wanted to do with their life / their degree or that went to post-secondary school because their parents / society expected them to. Sadly, a lot of the times that was the majority.

You need to find out what path you really want to take in your life and most of the time that isn't discovered until you start going to classes and figuring out that what you're doing isn't for you. Hopefully at the point that you figure out it's all wrong, you've found something that really peaks your interest and you go down that path. If not, take some time off from school and work and explore. There is a direction for everybody, you just need to find it.

From my experience, I saw a lot of people change programs because they realised that commerce was not for them. School is not for everyone and you really have to be passionate about path you're taking because you will be doing that for your entire life. Figure that path out now instead of when you're close to 40.

[shufon]

I mean personally for me connections will always outweigh any fucking piece of paper, I just don't wanna urge people to drop out prematurely or anything. not tryna be a troublemaker, I just know everybody is different, but networking is the most important thing thats ever happened to me, or anyone regardless of degree or no degree.

Yeah good call. That's actually the main reason I'm transferring to uni in the city.. I want to finish my master's since I've already started it but I want to be in a place where I can actually network on my own while in school as opposed to relying on meeting people through my university's network (which is a shitty way to network imo).

Anyway, don't mean to derail the thread.. I failed my first two semesters of undergrad miserably and ended up graduating with honors. OP, it's like Clopek said, you just have to figure out something you actually want to get out of bed in the morning and go to class for.

[southfive]

scott m is entirely right. any career/ anything is about who you know. sounds like you had a cool gig at odin and i would have done the same.

i still think taking some classes is a good idea if you dont exactly know what you want to do.