I severely regret dropping out of UCL

I got accepted onto a competitive masters course at UCL that suited my interests. My initial plan was to wait a year though as I was REALLY burnt out from undergrad and wasn’t 100% sure if I wanted to do the course, but I bowed to pressure from parents and applied for this year.

About two weeks in, I couldn’t keep up, wasn’t feeling the course and made the decision to withdraw.

Now I severely regret my decision to drop out. I’m looking for a masters course for next September and I can’t find a single one that merges my interests like the one at UCL did. There’s a similar one at UAL, but it seems that no one has a high opinion of UAL (which I know shouldn’t matter but.. I guess it says a lot when everyone is saying that it’s not a good Uni with poor post-graduation opportunities…)

UCL was my dream Uni and I just didn’t apply at the right time. I should’ve applied for next year when I was feeling better. But I can’t anymore, because you can’t apply to the same course that you dropped out of.

Any advice….?

Just mention mental health - seems to be a magic word for universities nowadays- - just make sure your mental health is due to exogenous factors and not due to uni life or workload.

Hi there
I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I would still get in touch with UCL again, even if it may seem pointless, and explain your situation at that time. I suppose that if you've done that then you can't regret not trying.

Best wishes.

I think I’ll try, though they seem to be quite strict about not being able to reapply for the same course twice...

They are, from what I know. There's not really much chance of you being readmitted to the course if you've abandoned it.

I don't really understand why you didn't interrupt your studies, rather than withdrawing from the course. Had you done that, you could have take the time off you needed and then re-enrolled when you were ready. Too late now, I guess.

To be completely honest, I didn’t do proper research and wasn’t even sure what interrupting entailed. I see now that it would’ve been a good option, but I obviously make bad decisions anyways lol......

What course was it? What other courses are you considering? It's difficult for people give any practical advice without knowing this, all that can really be offered on the basis of your post are commiserations...

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. Hindsight is a great thing, and you did what you thought was best at the time.

Apart from UAL, which you're clearly not keen on, have you got any other irons dans le fire?

It was the Bio-Integrated Design course, so a good blend of my interests (design) and my academic studies. Aside from UAL, I’m aware of one other London Uni (Imperial) that does something similar, but I got rejected from there last year pretty much instantly so I don’t have faith.

So I really have no other options.....

Thank you, definitely learned to not be so rash
And not really… there’s legitimately no other Uni that does something similar (I think Newcastle does, but I’d want to stay in London)

I appreciate your opinion, though I don’t think it’s too fair to assume my situation like that...

I appreciate your opinion, though I don’t think it’s too fair to assume my situation like that...

Bio-inspired design isn't that uncommon. Pretty sure Cambridge have a fair bit of work on that in varying departments for example.

If you constrain yourself to London you're probably going to find your options limited regardless. That said I'm pretty sure the RCA has some people working on bio-inspired design as well.

Just a polite note not engage with trolling comments as it makes tidying the thread up more onerous for the mods.

Agree with Reality Checks comments about a temporary withdraw seeming suitable. I’m surprised this wasn’t at least suggested by UCL at the time. Appreciate that’s it’s all done now, but there’s no harm checking in with them. Worst case, you’re in the same position as you are now.

Just a polite note not engage with trolling comments as it makes tidying the thread up more onerous for the mods.

Agree with Reality Checks comments about a temporary withdraw seeming suitable. I’m surprised this wasn’t at least suggested by UCL at the time. Appreciate that’s it’s all done now, but there’s no harm checking in with them. Worst case, you’re in the same position as you are now.

I may give it a go, thank you for the advice. I just don’t think it’s very likely as I had a discussion with some of the course reps before I dropped out and I specifically mentioned that I just didn’t feel as though the course was “the right fit for me”

I definitely wasn’t mentally set either, but seeing as I straight up said that I just wasn’t feeling the course, I doubt I could bring up the mental side of things at this point...