College

Tomato97

Hi all, I just came to get some advice. Currently im studying commerce in college. I absolutely hate it. My parents are no support as they believe college is the be all and end all of life. Id love to take a year out and find myself (cliche I know but it's true). I know i cant do this at home and my parents will kill me. I'm thinking of WWOOFing for a year. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

silverharp

do you specifically hate the course or just being in college? if you pass your exams you might be able to transfer into something else? commerce is only 3 years right? so you probably only have 2 years left I'd be incline to push through and finish it off and go find yourself after.

Airyfairy12

Its easier to go off and 'find yourself' if you have a good qualification to fall back on. Id suggest you finish the course. Im assuming your parents have paid for your fees and are funding you through college? If so theyre doing you a massive favor and do have a certain amount of say in what you do. Its their money after all.

Teyla Emmagan

Commerce is a great degree to have. Find yourself doing it, you don't have to take a year off. Take a break over the summer and go back guns blazing.

Lady is a tramp

As someone who did multiple drop-outs/course transfers/years out while in college ... I wouldn't recommend it. Even just from the social side of it, it's f*cking hard to start into 2nd/3rd year of a course where everyone knows each other and has their friends and social circles etc sorted out already, especially when it comes to group projects and the like. I managed it in the end, and had a really good group of friends by final year, but it was still a little bit sh*t feeling left out when all the reminiscing about first year, freshers week, etc happened!

Just get stuck in and get your degree, once you've that behind you then you can do all the "finding yourself" that you want!

baby and crumble

I wouldn't normally advise someone to stick with something they really hate and have no passion for but tbh not many people stick with their base degree for their career these days. Mine is in a pretty useless subject (although a lot of the skills were transferable) but I really only figured out exactly what I wanted to do after I finished my degree. I've now done postgrads to get where I want to be, career wise. I'm also pretty happy with my personal life which developed afer college too. I don't hang out with anyone from any of my undergrad classes- I have school friends and after college friends.

My advice would be stick with it but with an eye to the future. So fill your time outside college with hobbies to see what you like. Volunteer with a charity that you feel is important, start a blog, start a video channel on YouTube, whatever you want to explore what you like. Then, once you've your degree and the folks are happy and you have something to fall back on, head off and see what else is out there for you.

Good luck!!

Ursus Horribilis

The risk with heading off to find yourself is that you'll not come back. That year out can easily turn into two three, four years. Working in bars and selling ice cream in sunny far-flung locations is great craic for a few years but eventually the holiday has to end. Then, suddenly you're 25 and no better qualified than you were when you left school. Once you leave the full time education system and get used to not studying, going back can be very very tough. I'm also not sure if you'll find what you're looking for in your time out, other than an escape from a course you dislike.

While college isn't necessarily the be all and end all, not having that piece of paper in your hand will hinder you. All you have to do is look at the jobs adverts. Definitely do what you can to pass your first year exams. Even if you decide you hate your course do much you can't finish it, it'll be something you might be able to use to transfer into another course.