I want to quit uni so badly but I’m in too deep

Can you talk to your personal tutor about this? I can see several good reasons that you've given for stopping - would a pros and cons list help, so you could take that to a meeting with your tutor and explain how you're feeling and thinking about it all? Even a few months more can be too many, or could perhaps be manageable, depending on lots of factors, so a pros and cons list might help to identify those factors and help you make the best decision for you. Also, I think it's really important that you think about contacting your GP or student wellbeing just for a bit of extra support while you work through what to do.

Unfortunately I've been to my wellbeing person and they weren't much help. I was hoping to be referred to counselling but they pretty much told me they couldn't do anything unless I was officially diagnosed with mental health from a doctor and had formal meetings with the disability department. Tried to get an appointment with the university doctor and they have been fully booked for weeks. What's funny though is that I don't have mental health issues outside of uni, uni is the cause of my problems so it seems pointless to get a diagnosis when I know exactly what's causing my pain. Made pros and cons lists many times and I just seem to get more confused as theirs good reasons on both sides. My attendance is shocking so I don't really have a relationship with any of my tutors, and my so called personal tutor has made no effort to help me with my struggles even though I emailed many times. Their solution was pretty much "come into campus and it will all be okay", whilst they know its extremely hard for me to do so (I live 2 hours away from campus due to financial reasons and because its so hard for me to get in, i never got chance to meet people on the course which only makes my anxiety worse) i feel like i have tried everything i can, I've contacted all the people I'm supposed to when you are struggling and it's not helped. But if I drop out I will feel like a failure

Okay, so if you 'drop out' (aka protect your mental health and wellbeing), what will you do next? Would making plans for that help, so that you know what the next steps are going to be?

Alternatively, can you defer a year?

I’m 4th year illustration student.
Absolutely hate university, I am struggling so hard to carry on. Only a few months left but I’m so depressed it’s ruining my life. Makes me a horrible person to be around because anytime anyone brings it up I snap at them when I don’t mean to. I try to sit down and do the work but my head physically hurts from stress, I can’t concentrate and I feel hopeless. It seems easy to draw for your degree but when they want 100+ drawings it’s so draining, especially when you aren’t passionate about it - forcing out creativity is causing my burnout to be even worse. Completed my dissertation but handed it in late so it will be capped at 40% so what’s the point anymore. I love my job, I’d rather just work and move on with my life at this point. I have a foundation degree and have enough credits from previous years to get a certificate of higher education, so I have something to show for myself at least. Please I feel at this point I’m not even doing it for myself, I’m doing it to please my family even though I have no motivation. And it’s proven that you don’t need a degree to be an illustrator/artist, just a good portfolio and skills which I do have already without the degree. Please someone help me because I can’t do this anymore, I feel like I’m torturing myself for the sake of a piece of paper

First and foremost you need to look after your physical and mental health and from what you are saying you don't sound like you're in a good place. I would advise as a matter of urgency you seek help from a clinician or otherwise and really sort that out. Raising this to the attention of your university may well help if it means allowing you a chance to re-take or resubmit an assessment without a penalty cap. But you need to raise this urgently.

This is my personal opinion alone but it would seem like a monumental waster of time, energy, effort and money to drop out at such a late stage when you're at the end and it appears you don't seem to have future plans lined up. I accept at the moment you seem unwell and thus when things have calmed down you may be able to articulate better your feelings but I am struggling to comprehend why you expected the expectations of the programme (re: providing a substantive level of artwork) to be any less?

That being said you need to urgently discuss this with the university to avoid a scenario where you either fail the programme or with a low grade than expected or worse have to drop out. You got this far don't give up I know things seem hard but you really are at the end here.

Again this is all part of the life of an artist but then maybe you didn’t make an informed decision? But quit now it would be stupid. Believe me there are more stresses in life than doing some drawings.

Hi,

I just wanted to say that I hope you manage to sort this and get back on track soon with whatever you decide to you, make sure to look after yourself the best you can and I really do wish you the best. It sounds like you've tried you're hardest but of course there is only so much you can do when you're body is rejecting it mentally and then that having the physical effects too.

You mentioned that you feel like your family will be disappointed in you, have you spoke to them about how you feel? This may help them understand what University is doing to your mental health.

Do what you need to do though, and I wis you the best of luck and know that you've tried your best and everything you can!

Best wishes,
Katie (Film graduate)
University of Wolverhampton

Thank you for your message, I am going to try and keep pushing through and hopefully come out the other side with some kind of degree. My family tell me that they won't be disappointed in me, but I know for a fact they are just saying that. My mum would be devastated, my dad paid for one year of tuition fees himself and I can't let him down. My extended family would never understand why I would drop out since none of them are highly educated. I just couldn't deal with them constantly reminding me of what I didn't achieve. I know I shouldn't really care since it's my life and my choices that got me into this, but I just couldn't do it to them

It was an informed decision, at the end of the day I chose this degree because I love illustration and I wanted it to be my career. The issue here is that the final year of university is affecting my mental health to the point where I can't enjoy it. I can assure you this is not the "life of an artist", this is the life of a student. And I'm aware there's more stresses in life than "some drawings" but when those "drawings" are for university that could be the difference between having a bachelor's degree or not it's a big deal in my life. Please try to be a bit more sensitive when responding to people who are struggling.

I am being sympathetic. What you’re going through so many are in the same boat. When the stakes are high inevitably there will be stress that’s what’s involved in life . But if you think the better prospect is drop out and be dependent on your boyfriend who may well tire of you who knows then it’s your life.

Have you come across the Overjustification Effect in Psychology? It basically shows that when somebody who does something because of intrinsic motivation (eg art/illustration) is asked to complete the same thing for a reward (ie extrinsic motivation, eg a degree or grade result), their motivation can wither and die. Could that effect be at play here .....? And if so, is there a way to rekindle the intrinsic motivation, ie your own love of art for its own sake and not for a grade/degree/judgement ...?

Very sympathetic 👍👍👍👍

This is exactly what happens to me, I'll be passionate about something until I HAVE to do it for a required goal and all of a sudden I can't do it anymore. Been like this since secondary school. For example I love history, but refused to take it as an A-level because I didn't want to end up hating it down the line because of the workload. Same thing has happend with my art. I've been thinking of ways to get myself back to enjoying it again, and the only thing I can think of is to wait until university is done and hope that when the pressure is off, I can go back to being freely creative. It's not ideal as it seems the only way I could ever be an artist would be to make art without anyone telling me what to do, which obviously isn't very realistic. I really wish it was different