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Re enrol after quitting master?

My main question is has anybody quit study and realised it was a mistake and re-enrolled? My termination starts on 1st December so theoretically, I should be able to come back? This is at Maastricht university, Netherlands.

My full story is below

Edit to say that I didn't include any pros of staying. This master is really training us well to be professionals and researchers and I realised I didn't want that anymore. Having quit and looked at other future job prospects etc turns out I am still driven for it and still want and this is the best place for me to do that. I will be able to develop myself really well as a professional, do an internship and do some actual research, maybe a PhD after if I wanted.

I for a few months seriously debated leaving my master's.

I didn't feel personally stable starting from scratch in a master's in a different field, I did an Animal Behaviour and Welfare degree and then Biomedical Science master, and I was living with my boyfriend in a new country and we weren't doing so well as well as dealing with corona and Brexit issues.

It was a really stressful few months, they hadn't even registered me until the 3/4th day of the course so groups and topics had already been chosen and the workload was instant and really fast and hard. As well as sorting out all my personal admin, dealing with my car breaking down, working at the weekend, trying to fix up a bike to make my life easier.

I ended up doing well-ish, passing everything and getting 70% overall. We moved onto specialisations we'd chosen but I still didn't feel like it was it. Corona meant half of it was online and i found it really hard and terrible for my anxiety, although, even in person i was panicking and couldn't speak in discussions. I wasn't sure I liked the structure of the course of discussion journals and case studies.

I couldn't sleep, was having nightmares and panick attacks and overall i wasn't doing well. I decided it would be best to go home, I could walk into my old care work job and do a masters at Reading next September. So I had a discussion with my parents and my boyfriend and felt much better. When it came to actually quit I couldn't do it and I got a second wind to try again, get health insurance and talk to somebody and maybe start antidepressants.

It didn't improve with my boyfriend and we ended up in an argument where I just said what I had been thinking, that I didn't care and didn't want to live here anymore and was probably going to quit anyway. I was planning on going home at Christmas and seeing how I felt. So then that was it, I dragged my feet to actually quit but I terminated my studies and blew off a meeting i was meant to have with my mentor, told my tutor and everyone. I felt ok then when it really came to pack my things and leave I felt awful, so anxious and I couldn't stop crying, I have never felt so bad in my whole life and I've been through some bad depression. Then me and my boyfriend started taking more honestly and he was giving me the support i wanted and i felt a lot better about the whole situation and now realised i made a mistake.

Now I'm at the point of can i re enrol now I've quit?

In hind sight its really easy to say i should've tried more, spoken to someone etc but i felt SO strongly about quitting now i feel SO strongly about staying I don't know what feelings to trust. If I leave I will be in a much better place financially, emotionally, and have my support group at home.

I still don't really know what the right decision is. This was an amazing opportunity but can't tell if it really wasn't right or if i was just being negative.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by Amy Sizer
My main question is has anybody quit study and realised it was a mistake and re-enrolled? My termination starts on 1st December so theoretically, I should be able to come back? This is at Maastricht university, Netherlands.

My full story is below

I for a few months seriously debated leaving my master's.

I didn't feel personally stable starting from scratch in a master's in a different field, I did an Animal Behaviour and Welfare degree and then Biomedical Science master, and I was living with my boyfriend in a new country and we weren't doing so well as well as dealing with corona and brexit issues.

It was a really stressful few months, they hadn't even registered me until the 3/4th day of the course so groups and topics had already been chosen and the workload was instant and really fast and hard. As well as sorting out all my personal admin, dealing with my car breaking down, working at the weekend, trying to fix up a bike to make my life easier.

I ended up doing well-ish, passing everything and getting 70% overall. We moved onto specialisations we'd chosen but I still didn't feel like it was it. Corona meant half of it was online and i found it really hard and terrible for my anxiety, although, even in person i was panicking and couldn't speak in discussions. I wasn't sure I liked the structure of the course of discussion journals and case studies.

I couldn't sleep, was having nightmares and panick attacks and overall i wasn't doing well. I decided it would be best to go home, I could walk into my old care work job and do a masters at Reading next September. So I had a discussion with my parents and my boyfriend and felt much better. When it came to actually quit I couldn't do it and I got a second wind to try again, get health insurance and talk to somebody and maybe start antidepressants.

It didn't improve with my boyfriend and we ended up in an argument where I just said what I had been thinking, that I didn't care and didn't want to live here anymore and was probably going to quit anyway. I was planning on going home at Christmas and seeing how I felt. So then that was it, I dragged my feet to actually quit but I terminated my studies and blew off a meeting i was meant to have with my mentor, told my tutor and everyone. I felt ok then when it really came to pack my things and leave I felt awful, so anxious and I couldn't stop crying, I have never felt so bad in my whole life and I've been through some bad depression. Then me and my boyfriend started taking more honestly and he was giving me the support i wanted and i felt a lot better about the whole situation and now realised i made a mistake.

Now I'm at the point of can i re enrol now I've quit?

In hind sight its really easy to say i should've tried more, spoken to someone etc but i felt SO strongly about quitting now i feel SO strongly about staying I don't know what feelings to trust. If I leave I will be in a much better place financially, emotionally, and have my support group at home.

I still don't really know what the right decision is. This was an amazing opportunity but can't tell if it really wasn't right or if i was just being negative.


Are you asking 'can' you re-enrol, or 'should' you re-enrol - they are very different things. only your Uni can tell you if you 'can' re enrol.

From the 'should' perspective, given that all that message was dwelling on the past and none of it shows a positive reason for remaining or any future planning to resolve issues, then no.

Maybe engage with the Uni and see if you can agree to restart next year, and sort yourself out for the next 10 months?
Reply 2
I also think that but really unsure if it's the right decision

I saw this in another thread:
OP: 'The upside in dropping out now is that I would gain a whole year to actually focus on my life'

Reply: 'Not being a graduate student is neither a necessary or sufficient condition to actually focus on your life. Try focusing on your life while completing your master's degree. Yes, it's challenging...but worthwhile.'


How is not studying going to get me to help myself when i will also still be in full time work? I lost sight of the fact that I was actually doing something while it felt like a waste of time

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