Hey Folks, I’ve been in college for six years now and have dropped classes left and right. I had been consistent in the beginning and, of course, Covid had caused a bit of problems with consistency. Since that time, my grades slipped. I’ve dropped classes as well. I should have graduated two years ago however i’ve been working to survive since. I’ve got roughly 40k in student loan debt. each time I try and take classes again, I manage to for about two weeks and then after i have some random event in life come in and just ruin my motivation. (death, sickness, major change in lifestyle, etc.). I’ve been working in a career that was based upon my major and it is a decently comfortable and consistent job (IT), with some stress just due to the human interaction, however I do have issues with debt (working well to get out of but won’t be completely out of non-student loan debt until 2025). I’d consider going back in about six or seven years depending on how life treats me, but is it worth cutting my losses, start paying back student loans, and focus on my job? If I do manage to take classes, i’ll have about two years worth of classes to bust through but I’m not sure if I can push that much effort back out.
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This is a tough decision that only you can make. I have been in and out of college since 2003 and still have a few classes til my bachelor. What worked for me once I was in the field I wanted was to cut back to one class at a time and just gradually churn through. Depending on your school/work/debt situation this may or may not be doable. What really matters is to step back and ask yourself why you are pursuing school, if continuing now will pay off in the future, and if pausing and returning is something you would actually do if you left now. Does your workplace offer assistance for education? That can be a great help if you want to slow down.
Any recommendation or advice you will get here will only be from a very limited view, from what you shared, and impersonal, as we can’t know many things about you, your personality, and your life and life circumstances.
You say you have a decent job, and you consider focusing on that. Which seems like a good and split idea to me.
You tried more than once to get back into it and finish it, but failed, so that doesn’t seem viable. It’d at least need a break, but if you have the alternative, and good prospects in job etc, then I don’t see why you should have to or would try to force what evidently doesn’t work out at the moment.
Surely you got some things out of your studies already, and job experience counts just as much as studies. You have a job, and surely provide value there, so they depend on you to a degree. It’s not like you’ll be lost.
When it is “okay” to drop out is entirely subjective. As a broad answer to a broad question: it’s always okay. Sometimes people notice it’s not what they were looking for, or doesn’t fit them. Unless there is reasons to follow through, it’s better to cut losses and focus on something more fitting.
It might be worth seeking out a psychologist to help you work through these set backs and address the root causes of your grief and think through the ramifications of these actions. It may be possible to develop an education plan that conforms to your unique circumstances, allowing you to graduate. At my school we called those pink slips (a pink document that you gave to each professor detailing how to adjust their training to better suit you that the school has agreed too). Work out an alternative education plan to help you succeed as it isn’t a black and white system, schools work out alternative plans all the time with many students. Remember, that you’re not a bother the school wants you to succeed. Even from a non-humanities angle it helps with their metrics too.
There is no shame in seeking out professional help or helping yourself protect your hefty investment. Any thoughts that contradict this thought should be incredulously examined for merit.
It’s also important to note, that each school may have a different way of handling your departure. Some schools let you keep your credits for a limited time to apply to you coming back. Generally speaking, once someone has left the school system life has a way of keeping you locked into your current responsibilities and its a real possibility you won’t come back. This is especially true if your only experience was negative and you have only debt to show for it. It’ll be really challenging to convince oneself it’ll work next time.
Ultimately, this isn’t a question for the internet but for the professionals at your school and hopefully a medical professional and if you haven’t evaluated these options earnestly I wouldn’t say its okay to drop out just yet.
I’m just a rando on the internet who didn’t drop out, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Since you mentioned you have an IT job - based on my experience, a degree becomes irrelevant in job interviews the longer you’ve worked and knowledge/experience become more important. I personally don’t care where/if a person graduated when interviewing people that have working experience for several years already. However, a degree does get you on top of the pile for HR and some hiring managers who care more about what’s on paper vs actual skills. So you need to take that into account for future career moves if you decide to leave your current IT job and not finish your degree.
As someone who does IT interviews, the degree (any bachelors degree) is what gets you to my interview, unless you’ve got a really good portfolio and a decade of experience.
At that point, the only things I care about are: what do you know, how well do you communicate/work with others, how do you learn and what motivates you. The degree just shows that you have demonstrated critical thinking skills and the persistence to work the system.
If you can do that without the degree… well, you can try wrapping up the courses you’ve got into a certificate or five (often the courses taken can count towards multiple certifications) and then focus on what you actually want to do.
I’ll just give my point of view about college.
I had done about 1.5 years worth of college, repeating classes I had already done in highschool (compsci) and thinking I shouldn’t have started in the first place.
After I had done finished the last semester (not well ofc since I didn’t give a fuck about my grades) I decided to officially drop out and pursue my career full time and self learn everything and gain experience from working.
Can’t say it was a bad decision looking back but I was also grateful to be taken in by a small development shop!
But hey now I can say I have worked for redacted on my resume and built out some of the most robust CI/CD pipelines that company has ever seen! Lol
I could risk a suggestion, but you seem like you are in the US and frankly what you describe does not line up with my experience of higher education pretty much at all, so I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be useful.
I’ll just say that that seems like it sucks, it’s not what higher education should be about and you guys should probably get around to fixing it at one point or another.
Sounds to me like you had a good reason to stop once, and then you gave up for some not as good reasons. It doesn’t seem like it’s a priority to you, so cut the cord yo. Not everyone goes to college.
That being said, not finishing is likely to fuck you twice: once in the money you’ve already lit on fire and once on the degree you didn’t get.
But it’s not the end of the world.
People have covered most of the bases here. The hardest part is that if you don’t go back soon, you will find that door is closed to you - at least to finish what you started, without having to start mostly over again. College can definitely be worthwhile, but whether it is worthwhile TO YOU is the issue. Also, once you get used to receiving a paycheck and not living on like Ramen… it is next to impossible to go back to being poor and spending every waking moment (and beyond) studying, especially for some undefinable end goal. But on the other hand, I’ve seen it done with like 15-year gaps in-between dropping out, joining the army/navy/whatever and then going back to finish up. Definitely think through all the angles here, b/c you don’t want to do anything that you will regret later - including wasting more time chasing something that you don’t really want to begin with.
Sounds to me like you had a good reason to take a break and then you
Don’t plan on going back, that doesn’t usually work out that way. Is your job good enough? A college degree should help you get a career, but if you already have one going then maybe you don’t need a degree. Would your degree help your future career prospects? Why did you start the degree in the first place? Is that reason still relevant?
The commitment to stick with something is valuable in and of itself. Hard classes don’t get easier, they teach perseverance and study skills.
If you are unable to stick with it and/or don’t need the degree, go ahead and bolt.
It’s ok to drop out of college when you and others realize you will already be more productive and learn more by going straight to work. So like Gabe Newell dropping out to join Microsoft, or Zuckerberg dropping out to build Facebook.
Otherwise it’s more of a should never have attempted college.
Accepting you’re in the latter camp there are some important questions. What was your major, how much of it did you complete, and what exactly is your current job.
Those are important to know to as they effect how far you can actually go without a degree.
Unfortunately CEO requires no degree, but head of IT does.
- IT can be a good career without a degree, but it absolutely helps.
- Maintaining a full time job is far more demanding than college. If you can’t stick it out in class, I’m concerned about sticking with the job too. No job and student loans is even more stressful.
- You probably won’t go back, also classes expire if you aren’t actively taking classes. Yes it’s bullshit, but look into this before you decide.
- 40k debt isn’t awful, but 2 more years without payments is going to really balloon that. If you try to finish, doing everything you can to finish faster would be better.
If it was anything other than IT I’d say reconsider.
Keep working in IT, pay your loans. Take cheap online classes to finish up your degree at your convenience, but don’t wait too long or your old credits will expire (or just be non transferrable). If you try to find a new job the degree might give you an edge over another applicant without one, and if you’ve already done most of the work/gotten the credits but then don’t finish it then all the debt you’ve gained is truly for nothing.
