Is Dropping Out of College a Good Idea?

So you’ve spent a semester in college and found that what you’re majoring in isn’t really something that you want to do. Now what? Most students go for the route of just changing majors and doing something else instead, but what happens then is that after each semester you end up changing it to something else because you really don’t know what it is that you want to do. So what do you do then? There’s always the option of dropping out. You go and bring it up to your parents, but they end up pressuring you to keep moving on with it and finish your degree. Then you speak with your college advisers and they end up advising against it too (why wouldn’t they?). You’ve already sunk the time into it, so why quite now?

While it’s better to move forward and finish your degree, a study has shown that those who have completed some college make more on average compared to those who just got their high school diploma. According to the study, those who have completed some college make on average $8,000 more than those with just a high school diploma. If you think about it, even if you just went to community college and got your 2-year degree, you’re in better standing with employers than someone with no degree at all. The point I’m trying to make here is that you shouldn’t allow people to lead you to believe that you would be wasting your life by dropping out of college. Sometimes, it can be the better decision because it allows you to take a break and discover for yourself where your passions lie.

When going for my degree in Information Technology, I found dropping out to be a very difficult decision to make. I put so much money and effort into it and it felt like such a waste just dropping the degree and moving on to something else. I mean, how was I going to get a high paying job if I didn’t get a degree in something? Okay, so I don’t have a high paying job, but that’s not the point. The issue was that working with computers wasn’t something I was very good at and wasn’t something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life, so pursuing to the end a degree that I already hated after only going a semester into would have been a waste in itself.. While I agree with the belief that getting a Bachelor’s in something, anything really, is better than nothing at all, I still believe it’s a waste of talent, as well as time and money, pursuing something that you don’t have your heart set towards. I could have just changed majors, but I believe that picking a major is a lot like picking a girlfriend: if you keep on sampling different ones, you’re only making it all the more difficult to find the one that you really love.