I'm going to drop out of college.

[d00d989]

The only thing this diploma can do for me is get me a higher level, higher paying job. I don't want the stress and responsibility of a higher level job, and I can't see how having more crap is going to make me happier. I'd rather save some money and start taking control of my life now.

having ANY diploma will help you get ANY job you want. Say that there is a fucking kickass job that you totally want. Theres 3 people that the company is considering hiring. (you behing one of them). The only difference they see between you 3 is that YOU have a college diploma. Who do you think they will choose?

If you want to be an interpreter or translator, having a diploma for that will almost ensure that you get a job doing what you want to do.

[Ripper]

Can u not take a break for a year and go back.....or is that totaly impossible.......It would give you time to think about.......Just an idea but i wouldnt wanna thow away years of work.......I had to walk away from a college course cos well probs and that was only half a year of work i wasted and it still bugs me

Take a break or stick it out but dont give up completely.

As for the need to be more social why do u think you do, Thats some kind of shit put down on people with few freinds by the Popular crowd.

Being a Loner or whatever is not all bad. Im a total drifter, although in drifting from scene to scene pub to pub town to town does actualy build social skills.

If you wanna be more social be more social but dont do it cos u think u need to... Loner does not mean Loser.....its gave me a freedom of movement that all lot of other people don't have and the ability to expess my opinions with no outside influence on them.

Plus i learned the hard way its better to have few freinds you really like or even no friends rather than wasting on time on people who will not return your friendship. Like load you up with there probs then ignore you when you have them.

"Take a load off Annie, Take a load for free.......and you put the load right on me" The Weight - The Band

[Kitty Kat]

I agree with the others, what the hell hang in there & get it. In the long run I think it may be the wiser of the two choices. Who knows you may use that diploma to fall back on someday.

The choice is yours.

[geonagual]

All I can say is "sliding doors"

Do what you want to do

and dont look back

and of course....don't regret anything

[higher4hockey]

do what you want mate, you can always go back to college!!

[toke it up 420]

read the first half then just stoped
sorry, im only in eighth grade
lol

[daima]

Sorry for the long post, but there's a lot on my mind...

I've been here at college for three years, and if I wanted to continue I would only have to study one more year for my diploma. I've gotten excellent grades here (never below a B). I've been on the dean's list every semester and last semester I even got straight A's. So why am I dropping out?

First, you've got to understand a little about my situation. Three years ago I decided to go to college, but it wasn't really where I wanted to be. The only reason I did go was because my parents had always expected me to. I was (and still am) an intelligent person, and they didn't want to see a mind as bright as mine deprived of a college education. And since I don't like confrontation, I just went along with their expectations without even mentioning that I didn't want to.

For the past three years I've been living in the dorms, and I've been lucky enough to live without roommates every time due to my good grades. However, this time I forgot to open up a piece of mail and now it's too late to register for a room next semester. I'll either have to find an apartment near campus, or settle for what's left in the dorms after everybody who's allowed to register picks a room. One thing is for certain though: I will most likely have to move in with some random strangers, something I'm not too keen about since I'm a pretty introverted person and I go crazy if I don't get several hours of solitude every day. But that's not the only reason I don't want to come back next year. Before I learned that, I was having a hard time deciding whether or not I want to drop out. That was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

There are three reasons that people go to college: social reasons, intellectual reasons, and occupational reasons. After examining these three things and their relevance to my life, I've figured out that college isn't doing anything to make my life better.

1) The social reasons. People go to college because they want to hang out and party with people their own age. However, I don't have a social life here. I don't have one single friend. True, this is probably my fault for not going out and meeting people as often as I should, but I could go meet people anywhere. I don't need to be at college to do that. My mom seems to think moving in with random people is going to improve my social life, but I don't agree. I think I need to start meeting people and befriend the ones I like, not move in with a bunch of random strangers picked for me and try to see if I can tolerate living with them before I leave them forever.

2) The intellectual reasons. People go to college to study the things they're interested in. That's why I chose linguistics as my major. However, I don't feel intellectually stimulated and I most definitely don't enjoy learning here. Even when I take a course on a topic I'm interested in, the forced readings, tests, quizzes, and homework are more than enough to suck all the fun out of it and turn it into hellish, grueling work. I can't have fun doing something when I'm being coerced into doing it. Most of the information forced upon me is boring anyways, and I'll probably end up forgetting it once I'm not required to know it anymore. As for the few interesting things that I'm learning here, I could easily learn them on my own just by reading some books.

3) The occupational reasons. This is the only conceivable reason why I might want to spend another year here. A college diploma is supposed to get you a good job, right?

I know for certain that I'm not getting anything at all out of my education in linguistics. Besides the fact that I hate it, I'm not learning any practical information that can be used in any job that I can think of. Knowing the psychological, social and structural properties of human language isn't a profitable skill. You just can't get a job where you have to know this stuff (except for linguistics professor).

It is important to recognize the difference between linguistics and languages. Getting a linguistics diploma here doesn't require that you do any special study of foreign languages besides the basic general education requirements which I fulfilled before I even got to college. Linguistics is just an intellectual pursuit with hardly any real practical use. The foreign languages I'm learning, on the other hand, are a real practical skill. However, I feel I could learn them much better and faster on my own, if I didn't have to learn at the same pace as the rest of the class.

My only real marketable professional skill is my knack for foreign languages. There are only two things I can think of doing with that: teach foreign languages and translate. I don't want to teach, because that requires special extra training that I don't really want to go through; I want to get out into the world as soon as possible. However, I could see myself translating. But what does it take to make money translating? I've been reading material by professional translators about what it takes to get into translating seriously. There seems to be three things that people hiring translators look for: 1) a near-fluent command of the necessary languages, 2) good writing skills, and 3) experience in translating. A college degree isn't going to land you the job, and not having one isn't going to really influence anything so long as you can produce quality translations. I could easily be outdone by a natively bilingual high school dropout.

Currently, my translating skills aren't nearly good enough to translate for money. My best foreign language is French and I still have difficulty conversing in it. I am far from being near-fluent. This isn't going to change as long as I live in an English-speaking society. My skills just aren't going to be applicable until I can move to another country and learn to speak a foreign language really well. The sooner I get out of college, the sooner this can happen.

As for other jobs, the US Department of Labor says that by 2010, two-thirds of the projected job openings will require only on-the-job training. As for the remaining third, most of them are going to require some sort of specialized college education like medicine, teaching or business.

Also, the jobs that require a college diploma are higher-level jobs which require more effort. But I'm happy not having a lot of money and staying at the bottom of the corporate ladder, since I don't have a lot of needs. I'd like to live a frugal life and be happy where I am instead of wasting my time in the rat race constantly chasing more money and material possessions. I don't really want a high paying job since getting a lot of money and accumulating a lot of shit just isn't one of my life goals. I'd much rather be a truck driver or a mailman than a rich but stressed out university professor or business manager. I don't think that having more money or a higher level job will actually make me happier; psychologists have shown that people have the same average level of happiness no matter what income they earn. At least as a truck driver or mailman I would have my brain to myself for the day.

Dropping out is going to be the easy part. I just have no reason to stay here. I hate it here, and I'm not getting anything out of this place. The hard part will be telling my parents. They think having a college diploma is really important, especially for people as bright as myself. They also seem to have some fantasy that I'm going to become the next Bill Gates (not realizing that Gates himself is a college dropout). But I just don't want a lot of money.

It's going to break their hearts, and there's not much I can do about that. This is my decision to make and I'm going to do what I think is going to make me happiest. I just need to find a good way to break the news to them. Any suggestions?

I never stepped foot in a college class and my income averaged about 200g per year. If you have a different idea on what to do with your life then mom and pop had for you, do it. Remember, everything in your life is there because you put it there. What you choose to do with it is up to you. Let your life proceed by its own design. Playing music has always paid my bills, raised my kids, and bought the properties i own. I didnt even know WTF a time-card was until i was 40.
What ever you decide i wish you the best of luck.:thumbsup:

dai*ma:stoned:

[tokinggreg]

You think a diploma won't help you out in life, and honestly, it may or it may not. But the idea is that having a diploma is a kind of job insurance. Just like we all have car insurance to take care of the "what if..." circumstances, we don't intend to get into car accidents, but as many have pointed out before, we never know exactly what life has in store for us. If you were in your first year, I would be telling a slightly different story, but you're almost there. To quit now will not be a testament of strong will (ie fighting the social pressures), but rather you will be a "quitter"-- nothing else.

As to the social situation, I am quite introverted myself; I was really nervous about moving in with random people when I came to college, but I realized it's actually quite an amazing experience. Once you're in the right environment (ie with other people your own age), you'll be able to discover that college has another side to it; there ARE parties, there ARE people, and at that, there are many really friendly people out there.

And.. if your parents are paying for your tuition, then you should finish out of respect, because then that would be three years worth of tuition that they invested in you, and you would just be an ungrateful kid if you dropped out on them. If you have been paying for tuition all along, then this truly is your own decision, but think really long about this; it's a major decision.

[Oneironaut]

You think a diploma won't help you out in life, and honestly, it may or it may not. But the idea is that having a diploma is a kind of job insurance. Just like we all have car insurance to take care of the "what if..." circumstances, we don't intend to get into car accidents, but as many have pointed out before, we never know exactly what life has in store for us.

I know the future is uncertain, but I don't see uncertainty as a good enough reason to stay here. If I find for some reason that I need a diploma to get by in life, I can always go back to school. But I just don't see where I'm going to get with this diploma that I wouldn't be able to get on my own.

If you were in your first year, I would be telling a slightly different story, but you're almost there. To quit now will not be a testament of strong will (ie fighting the social pressures), but rather you will be a "quitter"-- nothing else.

I don't see what's wrong with quitting something I'm not happy doing, something that I don't think will ever contribute significantly to my happiness or well-being.

As to the social situation, I am quite introverted myself; I was really nervous about moving in with random people when I came to college, but I realized it's actually quite an amazing experience. Once you're in the right environment (ie with other people your own age), you'll be able to discover that college has another side to it; there ARE parties, there ARE people, and at that, there are many really friendly people out there.

So? I've also heard lots of horror stories about horrible roommates. I can't tell right now that they're going to be people I can tolerate. I've met lots of people in my life that I know for a fact I would not be able to stand living with.

And.. if your parents are paying for your tuition, then you should finish out of respect, because then that would be three years worth of tuition that they invested in you, and you would just be an ungrateful kid if you dropped out on them. If you have been paying for tuition all along, then this truly is your own decision, but think really long about this; it's a major decision.

I know that. You think this is just a fleeting whim? I'm not one to just jump into something without thinking about it first. Every time I sit down to think about this, I come to the same conclusion: I have to get out of here.

[slave2thagroov]

this issue seems alot bigger than whether or not you should stay in school. it seems like you have some 'personal' things to work out. you are still young and trying to figure things out. i say drop out if you want. getting things right in your life will always be more important than college. i just graduated last summer and i'm 28. i quit after goin for 3 years and took 5 years off and i thank god i dropped out and figured out where i wanted my life to go. figure out your direction before you make your plans. if you do decide to go back-you only have 1 year left and if you are older the government will pay for it. (as many bad things as i have said about the US-but you gotta love those student grants)