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My daughter wants to drop out of university

She is coming to the end of her 2nd year of a Psychology degree at Cardiff University. She says she hates the degree and is unhappy. She says she has felt like this for the whole of the academic year. What are her options?
Original post by Anonymous
She is coming to the end of her 2nd year of a Psychology degree at Cardiff University. She says she hates the degree and is unhappy. She says she has felt like this for the whole of the academic year. What are her options?


She should speak to someone at her university/look at her student handbook about the process for withdrawing or suspending her studies.
I would ALWAYS recommend suspending for a year instead of withdrawing straight away. It leaves more options available.
I would encourage her to finish the year then dropout if she isn’t happy.
Hi,

Just wanted to say I hope everything gets sorted for your daughter, I understand how stressful this may be to hear that your daughter is unhappy at university and it's great that you are helping her out. This support will be extremely beneficial while she goes through this time! 🙂

I would recommend she talks to her university and asks for guidance on next steps as soon as possible so her mental health gets better as soon as possible.

Best wishes,
Katie (graduate)
University of Wolverhampton
Original post by Anonymous
She is coming to the end of her 2nd year of a Psychology degree at Cardiff University. She says she hates the degree and is unhappy. She says she has felt like this for the whole of the academic year. What are her options?

Anon,

It might be worthwhile to find out more about what it is that is making her unhappy. Has she fallen out with some friends? Has she struggled to make friends? Is she worried about her results this year? Is she not enjoying this year's modules?

There might be changes that can be made to help her finish her degree, especially with one more year to go (!). Perhaps that's moving back home for the year if she's been living with other students, accessing more support services from the library, regular meetings with her tutor, help with time management if she has struggled with going to societies and part-time work, or just making time for some well needed rest over the summer.

It might be good for her to wait until her results come out for this year before she makes any major changes. (She may be fearing her results and may have done a lot better than expected!)

All the best,

Oluwatosin 3rd year student University of Huddersfield
Original post by Anonymous
She is coming to the end of her 2nd year of a Psychology degree at Cardiff University. She says she hates the degree and is unhappy. She says she has felt like this for the whole of the academic year. What are her options?

Hi there,

I'm sorry to read this. What was her initial interest in Psychology? Has she sort advise from her professors/ tutors on how to change course/ suspend her course/ find a way to enjoy her current course? If not, I'd suggest that she do that before taking any further steps, I think that this is relatively common and there is support out there 🙂

All the best,
Jaz - Cardiff student rep
Hi im a fellow second year psych student at Cardiff uni so I completely understand where she's coming from and have often felt like dropping out myself. perhaps it may be helpful to remind her that after these exams we only have one year left (provided she's not doing a placement). in our final year we have the freedom to choose our own modules, so we dont have to learn about things we aren't interested in anymore. I hope she is able to push through :smile:
Original post by Anonymous
She is coming to the end of her 2nd year of a Psychology degree at Cardiff University. She says she hates the degree and is unhappy. She says she has felt like this for the whole of the academic year. What are her options?

HI there,

This is a tough situation and can be tricky for all involved!

I would encourage her to speak to people at her university and see what her options are. If she has a personal tutor or academic advisor, it might be worth speaking to them one on one and explaining how she is feeling and then see what options they can give her or help her out with. Other people she could speak to include the university wellbeing team and help/support teams.

It might be a good idea to see if she can suspend her studies for a year before she make the decision to drop out as this way she has the option to go back after a year if she feels like she wants to carry on. Another option could be to see if she could possibly transfer universities if she would rather be in another city. It might be an option to move to a uni that is closer to your home so that she feels closer to friends and family as this might help her to finish her degree if she wants to do this. It's worth looking into as she may feel happier if she could live at home or at least closer to home.

It's also worth trying to find the cause of why she is unhappy. If it has something to do with the city, then moving may be a good idea. If it is just the course then dropping out might be the best idea for her. It's easy to say to just keep going and finish the final year but this can be tricky and third year is hard and there will be a lot of work to do which can be hard if she is already not enjoying the course. Being happy is the best thing and prioritising mental health, so if the best thing to do is to drop out, then this is the best idea.

I hope some of this helps,

Lucy -SHU student ambassador.

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