[WhatMACHI]

Argh, ok ive been in uni for 3 years now, this being my fourth year. And unfortunately after studying my ass of crazy hard in high school, i bummed out and ruined my first few years at uni. Going out, missing classes, girlfriend, family problems and on and on. I just really wasnt on track.

Now my first two years was in a course called Maths and Finance, and because the maths side killed me (i was doing reasonably well in the Finance side) i decided to transfer to a Bachelor of Arts (not painting and such for those who dont know, Arts is a general course with many many different majors as options, from economics, to philiosophy and so on).

Now im going crazy trying to decide whether its worth it to CONTINUE my studies for another two years to finish this course (its a 3 year course, but i only had a few credit points transferred over from Maths and Finance since there werent many finance subjects in the Arts course) which in the end may not be usefull at all. I hate to say it, and i dont mean to offend anyone doing a B Arts, but basically its pretty useless. Or i could drop out of uni (wow i never thought i'd ever consider this when i was in high school

) and try to find some business related work and work my way from there.

The thing is, if i leave uni now i have in effect wasted 3 years of my life in Uni, having come out with no degree.

Many people say, and i take it to be true aswell, that College or University isnt the only way to get somewhere in life. But its so hard to make the big decision and say "Im gona drop out of uni, which i have studied to hard for to get into in the first place, and try to work in the real world".

Anyone else out there been in a situation like this that could give a word of advice?

Thanks
A confused Ed...

 

[uzziah]

are your parents paying for your college? are you working your way though? if they're paying then i'd be pretty loath not to ride it out longer


i think it's almost impossible to advise you to quit; i don't think there's any rational way to say you should


i find your situation pretty confusing; i'm not sure how it is over there, but in the US, any bachelor's degree is good going into the job market; BA, BS etc.


i tell ya, i'm 24 and still working on my undergrad. i've been through a number of universities (from private christian, to community college, to public U) moved states, got married, got very sick, got divorced, changed majors, dropped classes, all sorts of ****. but i'm still doing it because i'm interested in what i'm studying (biology) and i'd like to make a career out of it. anyway, like i said, i think it's practically impossible for anyone to advise you TO quit; if you really want to quit you'll do it, and i'd also guess you wouldn't go looking for advice on a forum. it's your life, don't miss it

 

[Pm@c]

Luckily I decided to drop university after the first term, now I am going to college. I was just aiming too high, im not cut out for university anyways. But my parents never paid a dime anyways (well thats not true, they helped me with groceries and money for res).

 

[3x331m]

Get your degree.

I have to be blunt in this case. If you finish your program and get your degree, they'd think you're winner. If you quit, you'd lose all of your investments and efforts, and they think you're loser. You're at the point of no return.

 

[grawk]

Here's a list of famous college dropouts: (taken from the college dropouts alumni association homepage

website originated Nov 12, 1996 - updated Jan 07, '99



Welcome to the COLLEGE DROPOUTS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION!

Many of you may be asking, What? Read on.This page is either (a) a big joke, (b) a budding support group, (c) a unique listing of successful college dropouts, (d) none of the above, (e) all of the above, (f) don't ask me, I hate tests!


Famous Alums

Authors:
F Scott Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton, Dec. 1915
William Faulkner dropped out of the University of Mississippi
Edward Albee (playwright) dropped out of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, after 3 semesters

Comics:
Woody Allen (Woody Allen) was expelled from New York University and City College of New York
Steve Martin (wild & crazy guy) dropped out of Long Beach State College, where he was a philosophy major; though Steve had excellent grades, he says he became disillusioned upon reading Wittgenstein's view that "all philosophical problems can be reduced to problems of semantics"!!
Rosie O'Donnell (movies, tv, K-mart ads) dropped out of Dickinson College and Boston University
Ellen DeGeneres (tv) dropped out of University of New Orleans
Dan Aykroyd (SNL) dropped out of Carleton University, Ottawa

Computers:
Bill Gates (Microsoft) dropped out of Harvard, 1976
Steve Jobs (Apple, NeXT, Pixar) left Reed College in Portland, Oregon, after 1 semester
Steve Wozniak (with Jobs, founded Apple Computer)
Lawrence Ellison (Oracle Computer)
Michael Dell (Dell Computer) dropped out of the University of Texas

Other Business:
David Geffen (Geffen Records, Dreamworks SKG) flunked out of University of Texas, Austin, AND Brooklyn College, NY
H Wayne Huizenga (Blockbuster Video millionaire, owner of Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers and Florida Marlins) attended Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for 3 semesters
Ted Turner (media mogul) -kicked out, I hear!
Ron Popeil (tv huckster, RONCO)
William Hanna (Hanna-Barbera)

Conservatives:
Barry Goldwater ( berRepublican, Au H2O) Can you believe the anti-hippie himself tuned in, turned on, and dropped out? (Well, he dropped out at least)
Rush Limbaugh (media personality, tie salesman) spent 1 year at Southeastern Missouri State University before dropping out

Movies/TV:
Tom Hanks (actor) dropped out of CalState, Sacramento
Dustin Hoffman (actor)
Warren Beatty (actor)
Richard Gere (actor)
Burt Reynolds (former actor)
Sharon Stone (actress)
Bruce Willis (parody of an actor)
James Cameron (director of "Independence Day")
James Dean (actor, rebel, postage stamp)
Bill Murray (SNL, movies)
Andie MacDowell (actress)
Michael Keaton (actor)
Dennis Quaid (actor)
Kevin Sorbo (tv's Hercules)
Marisa Tomei (actress)
Brad Pitt (actor)
Stan Brakhage (experimental filmmaker)

Music:
David Byrne (Talking Heads) dropped out of the Rhode Island School of Design
Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction, ***** for Pyros)
Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
Yoko Ono (you know) dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College
Burl Ives (appears in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas Special!)
Arlo Guthrie (singer) dropped out of Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana
Charlie Rich (Memphis blues musician, singer, songwriter)

Other Media:
Nina Totenberg (public radio) dropped out of Boston University


Members
We are seeking members who are of above-average intelligence (after all, you had to have gone to college to have dropped out!), former students who grew dissatisfied with their college experiences and ended up... well, er, NOT finishing. We are particularly interested in non-traditional success stories. However, we are not an advocacy group. (Living in a culture where "Stay in School" resonates in our collective memory alongside "Just Say No," it feels like our association almost has to pre-apologize before saying that some people don't finish school and still live acceptable lives. One of the aims of our organization would be to reduce this uneasy feeling.) If our organization is for you, please contact us. Don't worry you won't have to do, pay, or believe anything. This is the web, after all!

Scroll through our membership rolls and read what people have to say about their own dropout experiences.

Job Hunt - new feature not yet implemented, on obtaining a job without a college diploma. To contribute your experiences to this developing page, please write to us at cdoaa@hotmail.com

After these messages, we'll be right back:


Internet Link Exchange
Member of the Internet Link Exchange Free Home Pages at GeoCities


Related Links
(Previous Links)

dude named Jason Miller dropped out to pursue a recording contract for his band godhead.

personal page of a guy who points out, in addition to being a college dropout, that he was born and put up for adoption exactly nine months after Roe v. Wade decision... so he "might not have existed"

PR page for JobDirect, an employment service founded by two women who, you guessed it, had dropped out of college

Anson Williams, "Potsie" of Happy Days, dropped out when he went into acting. I could have put him on the famous people list, but I don't think he deserves it! (Maybe I'll reconsider.)

Sunny Ade, crowned the King of Juju music in Nigeria, is -alas- a college dropout

some people drop out of college in a time of crisis, as did Douglas Campbell to become a flier in World War I

someone else who dropped out to follow his musical impulses

even british chicks named Anita who are fans of Wings and have brothers named Bev can be college dropouts. (let this be a lesson to YOU!) by the way, she seems to think her page counter has been up since November 1977.

last time, the exact phrase "I dropped out of college" produced 1312 matches on hotbot - how many will you get right now?


Thanks for visiting! Please fill out our comment/membership form!

On Vacation all the time!
page went up 11/12/96; latest revision 1/07/99

by ilikegreen@geocities.com // Graphics credits: ILE Banner ‡ 2 goodies ‡ a background

 

[3x331m]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Here's a list of famous college dropouts:

I wonder if anyone has the statistics of dropouts in term of success vs. failure ?

If one drops out without a plan for sucess, then we have another loser without a plan.

 

[rlanger]

I dropped out of University, but after a time, decided to go back and finish my degree. I am very glad that I did as many of the doors I walked through later in life would most certainly have been closed to me, had I not had an undergraduate degree.

In fact, I even went back to school again in my 30s to get a Master's degree.

So, I would definitely recommend getting your degree. But you can also consider taking some time off too. You can always go back like I did.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pm@c /img/forum/go_quote.gif (well thats not true, they helped me with groceries and money for res).

hah

well, i'm not sure what "res" is but clearly they did help you

 

[Dimitris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Here's a list of famous college dropouts:

Imagine that out of all well known business men they could come up with only this small list and they have actors and musicians too which might not need official education. My suggestion would be to do your best and finish your studies.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3x331m /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wonder if anyone has the statistics of dropouts in term of success vs. failure ?

yeah, that website is a REALLY terrible way to look at choosing to drop out of college or not

 

[polvodediamante]

I believe Bill Gates dropped out while he was getting his masters so, I don't think that counts...

Also, Kanye west dropped out (his first CD is basically 'bout how he hates the education system and everyone with a degree...)

Also, don't drop out! If everything in life were easy it'd be a pretty boring afair. I mean look at me, I'm very good at art (check my myspace) well, at least I think so! but you don't see me getting a degree in art since I believe it'd be an easy thing to do (with little or no monetary rewards afterwards!) but instead I'm actually trying to get a degree in aerospace engineering!

Why? well, it'd be cooler to say "I'm a rocket scientist" than it is to say "I'm an artist". Don't you think so?

well, my way of thinking may not apply to you but a degree will definitely look better in your resume than nothing at all!

Unless you have some cool business plan like Gates did before he dropped out...yeah.

 

[WhatMACHI]

At the moment, im trying to find the most reasonable way for me to get into a course which interests me. Its cutting it pretty tight for this semester, thus i might defer a semester do some work the start next semester. Lots of things to consider. But yeah dropping out whether i have a plan or not is the last on my list of things to do

Uzziah: Advice from anyone is welcome, getting different perspectives often widens my view

But just becuase someone says "do this" doesn't mean im going to do it

 

[Wmcmanus]

"The main thing is not to get too excited." A friend of mine used to say that whenever someone was facing a tough decision. You need to think it through carefully and consider all of the implications of your decision.

While there are certainly no gaurenteed routes to "success" in life (and, for that matter, no universally accepted measures of what the heck success means to begin with), some approaches seem to work better than others. It is entirely possible that what you're saying about a bachelor's degree being "virtually worthless" (or to that effect, I can't reall exactly what you said) may be true in certain circles, the counter argument is that the absence of such a degree would make you worth less than the worthless person who has earned that degree (in the eyes of a prospective employer, anyway).

People who have a tremendous talent (such as the actors listed above), or a strong entreprenurial spirit combined with a great plan and the requsite knowledge, skills, abilities to see it through, then by all means, they should drop out of college (which is holding them back from their real purpose in life) and get on with what they know in their hearts and minds will work wonders for them. But these kinds of poeple have fires in their bellies that they can't put out. Bill Gates may have dropped out of his master's program but he had a plan, and was bound and determined to see it through.

If you haven't clearly identified Choice B and have convinced yourself that it's the right thing for you (something that you're excited about), then stick with Choice A unless and until it isn't working at all. In other words, know what you're running to (and feel positive about it), or you may be forever kicking yourself for running away from something that, upon reflection, really wasn't that bad to begin with.

Part of the problem that I see today is that most (not all, but most) of the students that wander into college have no idea why they're there to begin with. I don't know if it's a problem with high school guidance counselers or just a sign of the times, but students today want to be spoon fed more than ever before and seem to expect their profs to take on the responsibility of motivating them. They don't see much of the curriculum (no matter what their major is, although they have chosen it themselves) as being relevant to their lives.

While (of course), a good prof (as well as the university itself) ought to be concerned with motivating students and ensuring that the curriculum is relevant and presented in an interesting and challenging fashion, it is (in the end) not the prof's responsibility to motivate his/her students! Do challenge them, don't bore them. Do set high expectations, don't coddle them. Do care about them as individuals, but don't take responsibility for what is inherently their responsibility - their own learning and their desire to succeed in college and in life. Lost sheep can sometimes be brought back to the herd, but when the herd itself becomes lost, it gets kind of tricky.

I don't think that universities (or what can be learned from the experiences they offer) have become obsolete in today's world. In fact, far from it! Going to college/university isn't the right path for everyone, but that's not the fault of the system. If a student can't find something interesting/relevant to study at a place that offers such a variety of opportunities, then dare I say that same person is likely to have a hard time finding sustaining intellectual (or other) stimulation elsewhere.