I feel like dropping out...

Hi everyone,

I am a first year student who has been at university for 2 months now. However I really dislike my course which is making me want to drop out. I'm studying History which I thought would be interesting because I liked it at A Level, however I don't find it interesting. I don't think I want to stay 3 years at uni.

I have felt like dropping out from about 2 weeks into my course, finding the workload stressful, I have lots of coursework and reading to do and it's not what I want to do in my life. I have belief that it's making me chronically ill as I sometimes cram late in the night, getting 6 hours of sleep and often worry if I am doing enough work.

I have 2 part time jobs which I both enjoy far more than my studies. I don't wish to give these up.

I also haven't made many friends, I'm not into partying which my ex flatmates were (I moved out 3 weeks ago in the hope of finding flatmates that I would click with) but I haven't really made any friends. My coursemates are decent but I only see them once a week as my course is mostly online, so I can feel lonely some of the time.

I love living away from home but I feel uni isn't the right environment for me. I feel like I could be better off in life if I dropped out as I want to work full time so I have enough money to find somewhere else to live.

Any thoughts?

From what you've written, it sounds to me like the work is a culture shock and rather than addressing that culture shock you want to bin it off completely. See this every year without fail, and it is understandable. But you can make practical changes to ease the burden and it'd likely help. Working 2 jobs whilst doing a history degree is a recipe for disaster from the off. Reading for a history degree involves a great deal, and other commitments are bound to get in the way and make life difficult.

With that said, if I'm not getting that right and you genuinely aren't arsed about the course for reasons other than 'oh **** this is more work than I expected', then you should talk to your course lead and academic advisor about the withdrawal process. Sometimes working out what you don't want to do is as important as working out what you do want to do.

From what you've written, it sounds to me like the work is a culture shock and rather than addressing that culture shock you want to bin it off completely. See this every year without fail, and it is understandable. But you can make practical changes to ease the burden and it'd likely help. Working 2 jobs whilst doing a history degree is a recipe for disaster from the off. Reading for a history degree involves a great deal, and other commitments are bound to get in the way and make life difficult.

With that said, if I'm not getting that right and you genuinely aren't arsed about the course for reasons other than 'oh **** this is more work than I expected', then you should talk to your course lead and academic advisor about the withdrawal process. Sometimes working out what you don't want to do is as important as working out what you do want to do.

Fair enough but I enjoy my jobs way more than my studies, and I need the money to pay off my student debt (that's if I do continue, like at the moment the student debt isn't too much)

You don't need to pay jt off now, however. Enjoying it more, I sort of get. But I wonder if that is largely because you're just finding it hard and, with all other things being equal, you'd get on with the course if you had a little less on your plate. But this is my work head, and like I always tell my lot - only you really know, and you really have to trust your gut in the end,

Tbh I do find it hard but also I feel like I chose the wrong degree, so I may be better off quitting anyway. It's just that when I was in Y13 I felt like I didn't know what I wanted to do in my life so I chose one of my A Level subjects to study at uni, found myself to be not doing the reading each week, hardly have the motivation to watch lectures/attend seminars now.