I've had problems at uni since the first semester. My best was my first, and I got a 2.62 GPA, failing one class because I was absent for too many days. My grades have gotten more worse than the last from there out. I'm in my 6th or 7th semester taking three classes. I'm doing well in one, which is dealing with embedded programming on a router. Lots of fun with that. One I have attended so sparsely, I can't even remember th elast time I turned in homework. It's a damn shame, too, because I make great grades on the homework.

The last one is a really interesting course, but I'm not sure what to expect out of it. I've started to become absent in it over the last month or so, turning in no homeworks because he doesn't post them online and I can't bring myself to ask anyone for the assignment. I don't know whether it is out of having bad anxiety or pride. Probably both, one feeding off the other. I found out today that my big project paper was due last week. I have missed so many classes I never even caught the due date or even know the format. I haven't prepared for it at all except preliminary thinking. I can't even bring myself to start writing.

I don't know what the hell my problem is. The same reason I won't ask classmates for help is the same reason I can't ask for professional help. Generally I am a very open person to those I know I can trust, and I can't even trust my own family with my feelings. The only person I'd be close to trusting is my sister, but we don't hardly ever around and the topic would likely never come up.

I know it has to do with not wanting to talk about my failings here. I know I'm going to catch hell if I tell that I missed so much class, but that is the only answer as to why I would fail. I don't go to class because it causes me a shitload of anxiety and stress, and not going to class causes even more. My boss once commented that I looked pretty bad for a while at the starting of summer. I was tired all the time. I still am.

I don't know where it all started. I have had no close friends that I saw on a regular basis, so I had no one to talk to about things. If anyone else needs to talk about things, totse is not a substitute for a warm body. I've had plenty of time to figure that out.

When I started, I came out of a Christian private school. Yea, I'll admit that, and I've made it no secret than I am a semi-practicing Christian. I had a 3.45 GPA and had 29.5 college credits, the most that school will likely ever see. When I got out, I thought I could do anything. Everything came naturally. College is much more like a public school setting where you take your own ass to school. That was something I was wholely unprepared for, and something that has caused me so much shit I am completely incapable of adapting. If I ever have children, they will be attending a public school.

When I got there, I was reading to learn. I say I did rather well. I skipped classes sparingly. My failed class had a maximum of 10 absences before you got an F. I made some of the best grades in there. Somewhere in the second semester I had figured out that college wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Ever since then it's been all downhill from there. Being considered one of the smartest workers for my employers isn't enough to float me a degree, apparently.

So here I am now. The breaking point. One can only take so much until something happens. I find it gravely insulting when someone genuinely fears that I will commit a shooting spree or some shit, now that I have a pistol and want to own an assault rifle. I am even more insulted when someone fears I will commit suicide. It's really hard to fathom for me; the only option left. Everyone I know has been rooting for me to get my degree, despite my increasingly bad grades. I'm burned out, and that is all there is to it. This is not where I belong. Square peg, round hole. I find no enjoyment in it anymore. I know enough to make myself happy through my own amusement, and that's all that matters to me anymore.

It's time to end. I cannot possibly continue on this same path and expect to suddenly do better next semester. It just doesn't work that way for me. Either I need to chill the fuck out for a year or two or I need professional counselling. Maybe I won't even come back. I don't know what I'll do, since my current job has great security, but I can only advance up to a maximum of $34k/year. For around my area, it's not the best in the world, but it will do. I could also take up the family trade which I suppose would be gainful enough, and I could work on a more reasonable schedule. I could also do what I enjoy best and design electronics for my car. There is a huge and lucrative aftermarket demand for computerized gadgets for older autos. Hell, I could become a car mechanic and be dandy.

Which leads me to where I am now. No words written for my project. I'm not one for burning bridges, so I can't just tell him to fuck off with it. I was more likely to write earlier, but now it's past 3 in the morning and I won't do anything. The only thing I can do is talk with him tomorrow about it, because he is going to get on my ass about it. The others? I can take my chances and aim for getting a C with a curve. The other I will do excellent in. I will bet on a B and I might possibly get an A, but I've missed a few classes and quizzes more than I like, so that may not be possible. I have shown myself to know a lot about more technical subject matters than what he has covered and that the rest of the class can easilly articulate, so maybe that will be enough to clinch a B.

It's bittersweet. It's going to be hard for my family and myself to come to terms with me giving it up. It will be great for me since I will finally not feel like complete shit all the day and will have more free time and clearer thinking.

College ain't the world, nor is it for everyone. You have a decent job and your whole life ahead of you. Don't sweat it, you put in a good couple of years and did all you could with what you were given.

College ain't the world, nor is it for everyone. You have a decent job and your whole life ahead of you. Don't sweat it, you put in a good couple of years and did all you could with what you were given.

Indeed. Like I said, I learned a shitload more in practical engineering while working at my last job than I ever did in college. Practical stuff is what I was originally after and never found here. I don't need to know in depth how a field propagates or how to design ICs. I know well enough how to design practical things that I want and need, and in a way that can be profitable, especially if the idea is sold to some company.

I suppose in a way this is more aligned with what I always wanted to be.

You're in your "6th or 7th semester?" Haha, which one is it? Don't you know?

Anyway, point is, you're almost done! Or you should be, by my calculations. You can see the light and it's probably only a few months away. The difference here is having that fucking piece of paper you've gone through 4 years of doing shit you don't like to get. That degree that is forever yours and automatically, no matter what it's in, bumps you ahead of everyone else who doesn't have one in terms of employment. If you can just reach deep down inside and muster up enough motivation to pull Cs in the remaining courses you need to take...you'll be done.

I don't like college either, personally. Hopefully I'll like my career after it, though. Heh, I know all about procrastination too...I'm currently taking a break from a paper that is due Wednesday, that I just started writing tonight.

I implore you to stick it out and finish. Get that "piece of paper." Hey, I got at least a year and a few months, maybe a year and a half to go, and I'm already thinking thank god, I'm almost done. No turning back now.

You're in your "6th or 7th semester?" Haha, which one is it? Don't you know?

Anyway, point is, you're almost done! Or you should be, by my calculations. You can see the light and it's probably only a few months away. The difference here is having that fucking piece of paper you've gone through 4 years of doing shit you don't like to get. That degree that is forever yours and automatically, no matter what it's in, bumps you ahead of everyone else who doesn't have one in terms of employment. If you can just reach deep down inside and muster up enough motivation to pull Cs in the remaining courses you need to take...you'll be done.

I don't like college either, personally. Hopefully I'll like my career after it, though. Heh, I know all about procrastination too...I'm currently taking a break from a paper that is due Wednesday, that I just started writing tonight.

I implore you to stick it out and finish. Get that "piece of paper." Hey, I got at least a year and a few months, maybe a year and a half to go, and I'm already thinking thank god, I'm almost done. No turning back now.

I honestly can't remember which. I can't remember much past last week, just bits and pieces. College has been hell for me. I can't do it, at least not this particular degree. I can shoot for civil engineering, like what my grandfather is and what he had been doing for the USDA for many, many years. But that will be some time away, after I've paid off my current debts and got a nice sum of money for which to pay for it.

I got into this for the physics side of it. I never found the physics in EE. That was childish ambition I sought, and it has gotten me more than I could have ever wished for. Enjoyment in my life is not found in bieng the best, or being the first. It is found by solving a problem that I find to be interesting. Not much more.

Regardless, the least I would have is two more years. I have failed WAY too many classes and fucked my schedule up both through starting on a spring semester and be gaming the advisor secretaries so that I could take what I wanted. I couldn't bear to let my advisor know how badly I was doing. I also got alot of D's where it was required that I have C's for that class to be counted towards my degree.

I am still convinced that grades don't matter when stacked against lots of real engineering experience, but that is no solace when someone who has spent decades in the field and is an important part of IEEE combs over your record. I don't know where I need help, but I need it. I can poke and prod my head all I want to find out where I lack, but it takes something outside to scurry you along.

Take the time and find your own path in life. There are a lot of options out there and this doesn't really close any doors. You'll just shake your head and chuckle about all of this when you look back on it.

Take the time and find your own path in life. There are a lot of options out there and this doesn't really close any doors. You'll just shake your head and chuckle about all of this when you look back on it.

Yep. I might even look back in a decade or two and know that I made a bad mistake. I'm not worried about it. I will just have all the more information to pass on to others.

I know I failed my control systems class today. I don't even know if I'm going to bother taking the final. I missed the deadline for the project paper by a week, and I fucked my ankle up last night when I got locked out of my apartment, so I couldn't walk to class. I didn't even study because I was going to hit the books hard right after I was presumably going to get back into the apartment. I would have failed hard even if my ankle was well. Those two things alone dropped my final grade to a maximum of %68, and I've consistently made between %50 and %75 on homeworks (which isn't so bad). No way I'll pass it. I'll likely not pass the other engineering class because I missed so many homeworks.

I'll definitely take my operating systems final, because I did well in that and I like the teacher. If I return some day, I might as well have one more B and one less F, aye?

Ohh well. I doubt there are more than one or two who could design a system of nonvolatile memory in relay logic like I'm designing between totse and fark. Fuck 'em.

When I started, I came out of a Christian private school. Yea, I'll admit that, and I've made it no secret than I am a semi-practicing Christian. I had a 3.45 GPA and had 29.5 college credits, the most that school will likely ever see. When I got out, I thought I could do anything. Everything came naturally. College is much more like a public school setting where you take your own ass to school. That was something I was wholely unprepared for, and something that has caused me so much shit I am completely incapable of adapting. If I ever have children, they will be attending a public school.

When I got there, I was reading to learn. I say I did rather well. I skipped classes sparingly. My failed class had a maximum of 10 absences before you got an F. I made some of the best grades in there. Somewhere in the second semester I had figured out that college wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Ever since then it's been all downhill from there. Being considered one of the smartest workers for my employers isn't enough to float me a degree, apparently.

Wow. That's basically my exact situation, except I had a 3.1 in high school and graduated with 58 college credits.

Regardless, the least I would have is two more years. I have failed WAY too many classes and fucked my schedule up both through starting on a spring semester and be gaming the advisor secretaries so that I could take what I wanted. I couldn't bear to let my advisor know how badly I was doing. I also got alot of D's where it was required that I have C's for that class to be counted towards my degree.

Well yeah, that's your own fault. God dude, I seriously cannot imagine actually failing a class, let alone "many." The hell have you been doing with yourself? Why can people find motivation to do well in high school, but not college? You're supposed to be, for the most part, taking classes you like, learning things you want to know. If your major wasn't a fit, you could've changed it. You could've gone a more technical, vocational route and changed schools. I don't see why you kept going for 3 or so years, making no progress.

Two more years, though, is not that long to go. My dad drifted through college and dropped out the first time around too, reasoning that it just took too long to earn a degree, and other advanced degrees, possibly a medical one, after that. He went back years later though, and realized time is going to pass anyway, and in say, two years time, you will look back and think "I could have my degree right now, instead I got nothing." He just kept signing up for classes each semester, staying in the school groove while also working full time, and got his master's. He said he knows if he had just signed up for that first class after that, he would've continued and got his PhD.

Well yeah, that's your own fault. God dude, I seriously cannot imagine actually failing a class, let alone "many." The hell have you been doing with yourself? Why can people find motivation to do well in high school, but not college? You're supposed to be, for the most part, taking classes you like, learning things you want to know. If your major wasn't a fit, you could've changed it. You could've gone a more technical, vocational route and changed schools. I don't see why you kept going for 3 or so years, making no progress.

Yea, you can probably take the classes you LIKE if you are one of those faggy liberal arts majors. Everyone else do not get that option.

There is nothing else that I really liked at the time except EE. Switching majors was not an option.

Why can't we find motivation in college? When I wake up, I am almost always tired enough to go back to sleep, no matter how much sleep I get. Then I have to walk a mile and a half to class to take course material I have no interest in. If I miss a class period, anxiety problems makes me much more likely to miss many more. Say goodby to homework grades. Hell, I've missed way more than my fair share of tests because of it. I can barely remember anything from the day before yesterday. It's not exactly easy to learn stuff when you can't remember it.

Yea, you can probably take the classes you LIKE if you are one of those faggy liberal arts majors. Everyone else do not get that option.

There is nothing else that I really liked at the time except EE. Switching majors was not an option.

Why can't we find motivation in college? When I wake up, I am almost always tired enough to go back to sleep, no matter how much sleep I get. Then I have to walk a mile and a half to class to take course material I have no interest in. If I miss a class period, anxiety problems makes me much more likely to miss many more. Say goodby to homework grades. Hell, I've missed way more than my fair share of tests because of it. I can barely remember anything from the day before yesterday. It's not exactly easy to learn stuff when you can't remember it.

Oh boo hoo. So you have to get up, feel tired, and walk a little. Everyone does this, it is not a huge burden.

I guess I just don't get it. I couldn't understand how people in high school could fail classes and I guess I still don't get how those in college could, unless it was a really bad course. I just...how the fuck could you miss so much class, knowing you had homework to do? What a fucking waste of time and money for you to be there. College costs way too much money to just dick around.

Only faggy liberal arts majors are taking classes they like? I wasn't aware of that. I guess I'm one of them though, and for the most part I like my classes. But even before when I had to take general reqs that I didn't like, I found motivation in getting pissed off at the material and that I had to take those courses, and so I became determined to fuck them hard, pass with flying colors, and never look back. And I did.

I realize you're interested in computers/electronics/automotive computer and electronic etc. Which is why it seems like you would be a prime candidate for a vocational or technical career and/or education in such. Seems like you're not the academic type, and don't have the discipline to study or write.

Enjoy your freedom.

Yea, you can probably take the classes you LIKE if you are one of those faggy liberal arts majors. Everyone else do not get that option.

There is nothing else that I really liked at the time except EE. Switching majors was not an option.

Why can't we find motivation in college? When I wake up, I am almost always tired enough to go back to sleep, no matter how much sleep I get. Then I have to walk a mile and a half to class to take course material I have no interest in. If I miss a class period, anxiety problems makes me much more likely to miss many more. Say goodby to homework grades. Hell, I've missed way more than my fair share of tests because of it. I can barely remember anything from the day before yesterday. It's not exactly easy to learn stuff when you can't remember it.

I'm starting to believe that we're twins and were seperated at birth. How old are you?

how the fuck did you get 58 creds out of high school?

how the fuck did you get 58 creds out of high school?

Lots of CLEPs, a psycho mom who made me start taking classes at a community college during my sophomore year of high school because she was determined that I would graduate from high school with an Associate's degree, and not having to go to high school during the second semester of my senior year because I had all of the credits that I needed.

Lots of CLEPs, a psycho mom who made me start taking classes at a community college during my sophomore year of high school because she was determined that I would graduate from high school with an Associate's degree, and not having to go to high school during the second semester of my senior year because I had all of the credits that I needed.

I did the same but a semester earlier (i.e. done by the end of junior year) and with credits in the mid-60s. :p And no psychotic parents either. :)

I did the same but a semester earlier (i.e. done by the end of junior year) and with credits in the mid-60s. :p And no psychotic parents either. :)

I'm only jealous of the last one. :(

You remind me of me when I was going through Uni.

I did the same things you were doing, but I came to the conclusion I developed self-sabotaging behavior. Basically, it got that way I would bury my head in the sand so I would fail, so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

What can I say? You know how to get back on track, but I know you mentally can't. I would suggest doing things blow you out of your rut. I obviously know nothing about your exact situation, but firstly how about trying to fit some sleep in? Try to get your hands on some sleeping tablets and take them 2 hours before you usually go to bed, basically forcing yourself to fit in some extra sleep.

Try to eliminate any cause of distractions for your free time. College isn't a pleasant time for anybody, we all have to sacrifice playing Call of Duty and watching TV and going clubbing. What I did, and it seemed quite effective: Only worry about getting through the next day... Someone once said to me, "If you ever had to eat an elephant, would you try to fit it into your mouth at once, or would you take it one bite at a time?" As incredibly cliche it sounds, take it one day at a time. Write out everything you need to do for that day, give yourself time restrictions and fit in very small amounts of free-time activities (gaming, tv, etc.) in between work and study. Try to structure it to finish early so you have free time to recover. Increasingly wrap things up earlier and earlier in the day in order to fit in more and more sleep. Sleep is paramount, I cannot stress that enough. Do you still live at home with your family? Can you put your computer in a public place (lounge room/dining room table) and try to ensure if you connect to the internet it is only 100% solely for college purposes.

Another thing I used to do when I felt like throwing in the towel was I imaged that it was the future and I failed my degree. I know it sounds funny, but when you think about it hard enough, you actually start to feel what it would feel like to fail and for a nanosecond a thought automatically pops into you head thinking "only if I can go back".... Once you hit that point, you want to do your work.

I ended up doing really well. Applying your new lifestyle will probably be the hardest thing you've ever done for the first week. After that it just becomes routine and you will adapt.

Hopefully I've given you a few tools anyhow.

College isn't a pleasant time for anybody

Why didn't they tell me this before I signed up?

I'm starting to believe that we're twins and were seperated at birth. How old are you?

21

You remind me of me when I was going through Uni.

I did the same things you were doing, but I came to the conclusion I developed self-sabotaging behavior. Basically, it got that way I would bury my head in the sand so I would fail, so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

What can I say? You know how to get back on track, but I know you mentally can't. I would suggest doing things blow you out of your rut. I obviously know nothing about your exact situation, but firstly how about trying to fit some sleep in? Try to get your hands on some sleeping tablets and take them 2 hours before you usually go to bed, basically forcing yourself to fit in some extra sleep.

Try to eliminate any cause of distractions for your free time. College isn't a pleasant time for anybody, we all have to sacrifice playing Call of Duty and watching TV and going clubbing. What I did, and it seemed quite effective: Only worry about getting through the next day... Someone once said to me, "If you ever had to eat an elephant, would you try to fit it into your mouth at once, or would you take it one bite at a time?" As incredibly cliche it sounds, take it one day at a time. Write out everything you need to do for that day, give yourself time restrictions and fit in very small amounts of free-time activities (gaming, tv, etc.) in between work and study. Try to structure it to finish early so you have free time to recover. Increasingly wrap things up earlier and earlier in the day in order to fit in more and more sleep. Sleep is paramount, I cannot stress that enough. Do you still live at home with your family? Can you put your computer in a public place (lounge room/dining room table) and try to ensure if you connect to the internet it is only 100% solely for college purposes.

Another thing I used to do when I felt like throwing in the towel was I imaged that it was the future and I failed my degree. I know it sounds funny, but when you think about it hard enough, you actually start to feel what it would feel like to fail and for a nanosecond a thought automatically pops into you head thinking "only if I can go back".... Once you hit that point, you want to do your work.

I ended up doing really well. Applying your new lifestyle will probably be the hardest thing you've ever done for the first week. After that it just becomes routine and you will adapt.

Hopefully I've given you a few tools anyhow.

I live in an apartment. I don't club at all, and ever since I moved here I stopped playing games except on the weekend.

Sleep isn't my problem. I missed classes alot for the sole reason of staying asleep. It doesn't help. This morning I was rolling along rather well for about an hour and a half and then I couldn't stay awake any longer. During the summer when I just work 40 hrs/week I had plenty of time to iron out my sleep schedule and nothing changed.

I've lost all motivation. Thinking back, I've had loads of ideas of things I wanted to build. I still have stuff I want to do. But when it comes down to doing them, I just zone out or, lately, drink myself asleep. My mom comments occasionally she saw me change when I went off to uni. I don't give a shit anymore, and I can't help myself over it. I need help, but I can't ask for it, and if I had it and my family knew I would feel ashamed and betrayed.

Put down the bottle and go talk to a counselor. They can help you take the next steps. It's nothing to be ashamed about; they regularly help people that are in much worse shape than you.

You aren't in that bad of a position. You just need to get some distance and outside input. You're living inside your head and it sounds like you're almost ready to branch out into life.

It will be a positive thing.