aFireInside Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 I’m having second thoughts about school. The thing that turns me off is that this is Academia and I’m here to compete and play the game. Like the football players. Just how football players end up with injuries because their bodies are beat up so bad. My brain and my soul are beat up. I’m exhausted. I’m typing this while I should be studying for my Calculus course that I have been working at nonstop trying to play catch up with; the pace of the professors is not human. Don’t get me wrong I’m a good student with an impressive GPA. Im just tired of this game. I want to drop out start working and start a business. I don’t know exactly what. I have many ideas like a dating website for freedomain radio listeners and voluntarist. I want to create video on YouTube. I want to create, software, games, anything. Im a beginner when it comes to programing I still have lots to learn. Should I hang in and wait another two years? When I look at people like bill gates and Steve Jobs I say Hell yeah ! When I look at other people I look up too like Ellon Musk, I think twice. He at least got his BA degree. Maybe times have changed. I just want to create. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejester Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 I feel the same way Ivan, but I'm talking about further postgraduate studies. For me, its more like I disagree with a lot of the content and approach of the particular course structure I am undertaking, I get the feeling that I am being either exploited so my lecturer can earn his PhD or the field is so unstructured that you can basically claim anything and its considered valid (which I am ok with.. to appoint). Anyway, suggest completing your undergraduate studies if you feel the field you want to make a contribution to in life is relevant, and this learnings will give you some tools you may need when undertaking. Everyone comes to a point and wonders if they should continue or not, I guess thats the dropout point. I suspect most people who do dropout kind of flounder for awhile unless they dropout to take a job or are highly motivated and ready to start a business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panoptic Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 I'm a senior engineering undergrad. There have been a bunch of times where I felt like dropping out over the past 3 years. I couldn't stand the methods by which they teach. I mean seriously, taking differential equations in a classroom of 300 people? They don't care about you at all, the money goes to new additions to the football stadium, new dormatories for honor students that are full of 3D TVs and useless crap, new everything except quality of the education and roads. I ride my bike to school looking up at all of these beautiful new buildings while having my back broken by every pothole I run over just to go to class to get grad students as teachers. The roads are falling apart, there are no priorites (not saying that government should do roads, but you get it). Dropping out would have been a good option for me, except by the time I decided I wanted to drop out I was already $60,000 in debt. It wasn't logical to drop out since I was already enslaved. The only option was to get more debt and finish so that I could get a good paying job that would allow me to pay it off. So I'm essentially being forced to stay in college and graduate. My point is that the biggest issues to think about when it comes to college are funding, and time. If you're going to be pulling out federal loans for your whole time to pay off school, don't do it unless you are becoming a scientist, engineer, lawer, or doctor. Even then, time is a huge issue. School is absolutely merciless when it comes to time. It fills me with apathy and stunts my free thought. You go to class for a few hours a day only to go home and do homework all night, never feeling fully confident for the test you studied for. Is this what education is supposed to be? I feel like I have been stabbed in the back by society. I've stumbled through 3 years of math and physics, only to realize that I understand none of it that well when it comes time to use it in upper division courses. I could have not gone to college, got a job, and studied math in my free time at my own pace and learned much more, and would have been making money, not making debt. Of course, some companies require a degree, but who the hell cares if you start your own? Its far more fun anyway. Just like Stefan says in these videos: (Jump to call at 4:05) My reply is a bit unorganized, but feel free to ask more questions or you can PM me too if you'd like to talk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makalakumu Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 Finish your degree. If you are in a STEM field, and it sounds like you because of the calculus, it will pay off. This moment of weakness will pass and you'll find your resolve again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh F Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 I hope I can offer some insight.I dropped out of college a year before graduation. I began working, saved some money, and moved to Costa Rica to start my own business.I definitely don't regret anything, I have become more social, learned a second language, gotten in better shape, and started meeting women again after a long funk. I am a developer and entrepreneur. My first business was a Tree House company in Los Angeles. Doesn't work, good money until the government takes down your treehouse for violating zoning laws. Now I am doing freelance web and graphic work while I am building the first free business directory for Costa Rica ( at pongale.com ).In 1 year I am hoping to expand my project to a free-market education platform. So.... for everyone in your life saying no, there is a world of people just like you and they're the ones doing the msot amazing things. Smart college drop outs are the best =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxcattle-nzl-lf078305 Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 Do you have a business plan? Do you think you need to have some (developed) ideas about what you want to do before making a change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panoptic Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 Do you have a business plan? Do you think you need to have some (developed) ideas about what you want to do before making a change? I don't think you have to have developed ideas before making the change since your first attempts will probably fail. It's just like Stefan was saying in the videos. Its risk taking and it takes patience. That doesn't mean that he should just drop out and immediately try to start a business. He can drop out and start working somewhere to save money while working on his ideas in his free time. It might be better than staying in school, stunting your brain, and collecting debt while working on ideas in your free time. Finish your degree. If you are in a STEM field, and it sounds like you because of the calculus, it will pay off. This moment of weakness will pass and you'll find your resolve again! I am in a STEM field and I just told him he might want to drop out ha. If you are in a STEM field, it doesn't matter how much money you'll be making after you graduate if you can't find any motivation to get through. This is what I have experienced. I was a day away from dropping out and the only reason I'm still in college is because I switched majors the next day to a more interesting engineering field for myself. You really have to know what you want to do in order to get motivated to get through college. Of course, engineers get paid a good salary, but if you don't know if that's what you want to do then you will probably slip up at some point. Knowing what you want to do is the most important thing about getting through college. If he really wants to be a STEM major, then he should do it. But if you're not sure, or maybe just doing it for the money or prestige (which was the case for me, I had to be quite honest with myself to figure that out), then you may not want to pursue that. I was able to fake my want to become an engineer for two years until suddenly I burnt out and failed 2 core classes when I got to a particularly tough semester. I couldn't figure out why I lost my motivation until a year later when I realized I really wasn't sure deep down that I wanted this. If OP is only a year or two into college, then it will be far easier to get out earlier rather than later if you are collecting debt. It will save you a lot of time as well. This is NOT to say that you will NEVER be able to go back to school. You can do the "take a break" thing like so many people do nowadays. The college doesn't care and will help you to do what you want. This will affect your ability to get federal loans in the future if you come back and you will have to immediately start paying off any accumulated debt you owe to the federal government. These issues are minor though if you have little debt (which you should if you're only a year or two in) and you don't think college will work out. Since you are still probably a bit young and may decide later that your decision wasn't the best, it is good to remember that you can always go back to school if need be. I am 21 though, and I think they're right when they say your brain isn't fully developed until age 21 because I make far less decisions that I regret later on than I used to. You should also read this article about STEM dropouts. About 50% of people who start off in a STEM major never graduate in that field or even ever get a degree. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/04/tougher-grading-one-reason-high-stem-dropout-rate A lot of students claim that "boredom" is the reason they dropout after looking more into the topic. I also don't want OP to think I am some angry college student who hates the world I live in. In my first post I was explaining how I felt when I fully realized the situation I was in. I felt helpless, and I was pretty angry about it. But my best choice was to keep going and finish because there was no job that was going to help me pay off $60k in debt in a reasonable amount of time if I had dropped out. I've changed my attitude about things and am trying to make the best of my last 2 years in school. I plan on getting a salary position immediately and trying to pay off my debt ASAP. But then, I am thinking about starting my own business for myself once I am free from debt. The idea of starting your own business is really motivating because you can do whatever you'd like, get experience in the field you want to, and not have to play by societies expectations of going to school, getting in debt, getting a salary job, and being taxed 20% and up every pay check for the rest of your life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxcattle-nzl-lf078305 Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 I don't think you have to have developed ideas before making the change since your first attempts will probably fail. It's just like Stefan was saying in the videos. Its risk taking and it takes patience. That doesn't mean that he should just drop out and immediately try to start a business. He can drop out and start working somewhere to save money while working on his ideas in his free time. It might be better than staying in school, stunting your brain, and collecting debt while working on ideas in your free time. I am happy to reformulate my response by deleting "business" from it. If you are looking to make a change in your life - especially when looking to make a decision while under duress - it can easy to assume that any change will result in a better situation, it can also be easy to hesitate due to uncertainty and fear. Here are some questions I would be asking in my "plan": 1. what do I want to do professionally? What do I want to be doing in 6 months, 12 months, 2 years. 2. what means would I have to support myself? Am I burning capital, accumulating debt, or do I have to tolerate some crappy job to pay the rent? 3. if I am looking to first develop ideas to start a business, how long can I continue to support myself as identified in 2? 4. I'm interested in a software development, but have identified that I need to grow my own technical skills. Do I know how I'll do this? How long do I expect to be in a learning phase before being able to capitalise on these skills? Can the courses I am currently doing help provide me with skills (sounds like science/engineering?) - at what cost? 5. what is my risk profile? Am I young with little/no debt, and no wife/kids? Therefore do I need a backup, or can I just get on with it? Bottom line for me is: if you can analyse your situation objectively, and see where you want to go and what you need to do to get there (questions like 1 - 5) then back yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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