Hopefully, college is going great. You’re making progress. You’re feeling confident.
But what if it’s not going great? What if you’re struggling? What if you’re wondering what the point of all this is?
If you’re thinking about dropping out of college, slow down to give it considerable thought before you act. There are serious consequences – certainly not life-threatening, but impactful for your future financial stability and for choices in your work life.
The main problem, in a nutshell, is that if you’ve gone to college for a year or more, it is likely that you have taken out some loans. Usually, at about six months after you leave college, you are required to start paying on those loans. So on one side of this situation, you are already in the hole. You have debt.
The other side to be aware of is your ability to pay off that debt. Without the college degree, your job options may be limited, and your potential income may be low.
Think about where this leaves you: you decide to leave college because you just want to get out there and live your life. You need to support yourself financially which may mean you want your own place to live, and you will have other expenses like your phone, a car, food, etc. Unless you’re independently wealthy, or your parents are willing to pay the bills for a while, it will be difficult to set up a lifestyle on your own while having the debt from college hanging over your head.
Choosing to leave college now will affect the lifestyle options you have because of financial instability, and years from now, not having a degree may limit your career options or possibilities for advancement as you move forward.
The bottom line is that while emotionally you may feel discouraged and want to quit. In very practical terms, you have to choose your path carefully so as not to create long-term problems for yourself. So, what do you do?
Explore and consider your options. It’s always a good idea to write these things down so that you remember them and organize your thoughts in a meaningful way.
You might start with a “Pros and Cons” list on “why I want to drop out of college.” The list may include Pros such as:
-I’m sick of school
-I don’t like the college/professors/whatever that I picked
-I don’t know what I’m doing in college
-I’m tired of being poor and just want to make some money
-My family doesn’t understand college so I have no support and just feel pressured all the time
On the Cons list, you may write:
-I do like the friends I’ve made at college
-Some of my classes have been interesting
-I met a guy in a profession that sounds cool and is high-paying and I’d like to learn more
-I have no idea what else to do with my life
-My parents/family/the people at home will be disappointed in me
These are some thoughts that students have shared with me. You will have your own criteria of Pros and Cons about the dropping out decision.
With this list, you can dig a little deeper in thinking about the weight of each of the factors you’ve written down. For example, are there things you can do to “tweak” your situation to make it better? Can you have a serious conversation with your family about where things stand?
This doesn’t have to be an either-or decision: either you stay in college or drop out of college. There are other options. Here are a few.
1. Are there changes you can make at your current college to make it better? Things like:
-Choose a better mix of classes for the next semester so that they don’t all require so much reading, for example
-Change your living arrangement
-Find your campus’s learning center or tutoring to help you do better in difficult classes
-Join an organization or participate in a fun activity that will even out your lifestyle between work and pleasure
-Find a job to supplement your income so you aren’t “poor” all the time
2. Instead of completely dropping out, what about transferring? Research some other schools or perhaps go home to your local community college for a while till you figure out a direction for your education. Be sure to make use of the admissions and advising people in the other schools who are there to help you with this.
3. Can you take a semester off to take a mental break, while also figuring out what you want to do after the break? You would need to talk with the financial aid office to get the details on how this would affect any loans or scholarships you may have so that you don’t cause problems for yourself, like having to start re-paying loans, or losing scholarship money when you return.
4. Do you have an incredible talent or groundbreaking idea that you have to pursue, and that has the potential to make you a billionaire in the future? For example, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg (both dropped out of college), Taylor Swift or Beyonce (neither attended college). Are you that one-in-a-million talent? If not, carefully consider the risks of your decision.
5. Take some time to really think through what is going on with you. As I’m writing this, most of you will be going into your winter break. Besides the holidays, you’ll have a few weeks to take some time for yourself. Maybe sit down with your parents and tell them what you’re struggling with. Find out where their expectations lie and decide how much that will influence you. Talk to other people who are farther along in college, or have graduated from college, to ask them how they made their way through.
Do some research on YOU. Write out your wants and needs and struggles. Analyze what you can do about them. The U.S. Department of Labor offers some interesting tools to get you thinking about career paths. Start with this: https://www.mynextmove.org/
Once again, as I’ve mentioned in other blogs, it’s important to PAUSE, take a little time for yourself and reflect on where you are. Also, how you got here, and where you want to go from here. Do not hesitate to reach out for help from others. Give people the opportunity to be helpful to you. It’s a gift you can give to them.
On the Edvisors website, an article addresses in some detail the consequences of starting college (and incurring debt from student loans) and not completing the degree: https://www.edvisors.com/blog/cost-of-dropping-out-of-college/
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reports on the data surrounding this sizable population of former students in its report: https://nscresearchcenter.org/some-college-no-credential/
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