any college dropout here?

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i can't finish college and this is my 4th attempt and i dropped out again... the point is i'm afraid of the lecture room and have zero friends... any suggestion or experience about college? i don't want to end up unemployed anyone experienced the same situation are welcomed

I dropped out three times and haven't been back for a few years. I completed most of a math major so currently I tutor math at a local community college.

I don't know what advice I could give as I never finished school but I do have an idea of how stressful things must be for you.

Even if you graduate, you might still end up unemployed.

I'm currently in school, but I want to drop out. I'm earning an associate's degree at a snail's pace and I feel like I won't even use it. I'm not at all interested in my current major and can't think of anything I rather be majoring in that will help me get a good job. I'm scared that it isn't worth it and it is slowly destroying my mental health, so I might just stop taking classes.

I'm trying to come back from my effectively-but-tacitly-drop-out ashes. Twenty-one seems tragically young to give up.

Yes, dropped out quite a while ago...had a lot to do with mental health, which is now doing better....but I have no interest in going back at this point.

Dropped out 3 times and I can't afford to go back anymore. The first two times were one semester paid by my parents. The third was me for two semesters. I had so much trouble in the first but I REALLY did not want to fail so I took out loans for a second and failed worse because you are supposed to know stuff from the first semester. I am envious of people who are have free or basically free public college due to taxes. In America it's a big financial burden. Basically a gamble that this debt will pay off with a job and I lost this gamble. I wish I had just quit after one semester and not doubled the debt. But even though I failed being in school made me feel confident. Like I was going someplace. I didn't want to loose that feeling.

Dropped out twice, the demands I encountered the second time utterly flooded my ability to cope after countless years of keeping my head above the water with no support and a very bare existence, all I did was study, work and then isolate, everything else was done in a kind of stunned haze or like I was stuck in treacle, I had no idea I was tarred in some terrible pollution until I looked back on that period. I certainly learned I am no multi tasker. I tried so I could have a better life but I never got there. Psychologists I've been under the care of were surprised I even got that far in the first place and attempted what I did for so long with the extent of the mental health issues I had and obviously the recently discovered autistic condition compounds everything further. It left a lot of scars and misery which gave way to invaluable terrain where I gained a lot of wisdom and conducted lucid examinations that I hope can be used in the future if I feel far along enough to rectify what I never had the chance to explore in the world of studying.

I am in my first year of college currently but I am so close to dropping out. If the lecture room is what scares you online school is always an option. Or online classes if your school offers those itself.

The amount of aspies I've seen who've mentioned dropping out a few times or are interested in it has made me want to avoid jumping into university study altogether, which is unfortunate because we live in a judgmental society where people think you're 'lazy' and 'not doing anything with your life' if you're not studying at college even though it's in my experiences probably at least half of all 18 year olds who begin university studies straight after high school have no idea who the heck they even are yet, let alone what they want to or should be studying for a career in the future.

Another downside is the lack of a social life and opportunities, but it's no guarantee things will get better once at uni.

It's a real gamble, a shot in the dark to start college so young without time to really think about what you actually want to do.

I'd start age 20-25, at this point you've got things a little more figured out. Since you're not spending most of your money on tuition fees, you'd be able to save up your money easier if you have a job or are on welfare benefits, you'd have extra free time to dedicate yourself to whatever you want, you could also pay more attention and focus on achieving independence such as learning to drive, getting a car, moving out to live alone, etc.

How N.T.s even barely survive it is a mystery to me.

All the stuff I hear about the way uni students actually live - cheap crappy apartment, eat nothing but 2-minute noodles not only because they're broke but because they simply don't have the time to cook, no car, staying up till 4am finishing an assignment only to wake up at 6.00 because you have class at 7.30 and it's a 1hour walk/bike ride, etc.

Dropped out twice and currently am going for the third time. So far so good, I graduate within a year and hopefully it's on to my Master's!

This topic hits pretty close to home. Also I am shocked but certainly not surprised that so many people who have replied to this thread have dropped out of college. Some--no, quite a few more than some, several times.

I dropped out once. It was due to all the usual reasons. I wasn't an academic failure, but my social skills and problems overwhelmed everything else. My transcript looked absolutely awful, by the time I finally dropped out.

Almost ten years later while working, i started taking night classes. By that time, I had not improved all that much socially, but my academic focus and determination was much greater. A year later, I started back full time. The school would have never let me back in, but for a rule in effect at the time that basically anyone who left in good standing could re-enroll, regardless of grades.

The contrast in my academic performance was startling. I excelled in many difficult technical courses, and eventually was accepted into an engineering program. I graduated with a bachelor's degree, and went on to complete two masters degrees.

At least I finished. By the end, my social problems were again starting to creep up on me. Fortunately, my resolve lasted long enough to finish, for the last time.

So many of us Aspies are just baskets of wasted potential. Aspies can be so amazingly intelligent--and this means trememdous academic potential. However, our social difficulties cause us to be held back, both by ourselves and by others. I do volunteer work in a program that feeds the homeless. The last conversation that I had with one of the Aspie clients was completely shocking. He indicated he had a physics degree, so I started asking him some questions about what he studied, etc. His answers indicated to me that he was an exceptionally intelligent individual, but it also was obvious that he struggled to find work--any kind of work. This kind of story is repeated over, and over again. It is a tragedy that makes me sick sometimes.

I have to be really thankful that I was able to finish my education, and also find a halfway decent job. I realize just how lucky I was. In the end, I just wouldn't take failure for an answer. I was going to finish those degrees, one way or the other. Of course, like a lot of Aspies I enjoyed school a lot. I could have made a career of it (a "professional" student), but it's obvious that it doesn't pay, and there's no retirement at the end, either. But what is easy for talented people who happen to have social skills can be a nearly impossible challenge for Aspies who lack those skills.

i can't finish college and this is my 4th attempt and i dropped out again... the point is i'm afraid of the lecture room and have zero friends... any suggestion or experience about college? i don't want to end up unemployed anyone experienced the same situation are welcomed

maybe go to a different college, change majors, online college, office hours, private, tutor, kahn academy

myself i graduated college, just not with the degree i wanted. just cognitive science, bachelors. all the jobs i have had were minimum wage.

if you major in social sciences or humanities, the job openings are seriously limited for someone with just an AA or BA. unless you have internship experience, a large social network, or something like that.

but anyways, after the recession the value of college is not that great anymore.

having said that, my cousin got a Bachelors 10 years ago, and unemployed since then.

a 55 year old man told me he worked at Oracle as a Software Engineer. he got a Masters in Math. then his whole division got downsized. and he worked @ trader joes stocking shelves for one year after that.

likewise plenty of college (bachelors) graduates are baristas at Starbucks.

thus, college is neither necessary not sufficient for financial stability.

College dropout? Pfft. I dropped out of high school.

Same here

It's so hard living among NT's in an NT world. I think the best solution is to move towards setting up our own communities (in real life). Self sufficient Aspie villages with individualised education could be the future.

Although that would be nice and they actually do have one in the UK for people on the lower end of the spectrum, I don't believe it will be able to suit the more higher functioning autistics purely as our range of interests are diverse. Then some of us are people persons and others like solitude, then how would the ones who wanted to work, work. Plus we would need to communicate to NT's to supply goods to our village, unless your propossing we grow our own food and get a couple of chickens in. But no one is going to kill my chickens. I guess its possible if enough people want to do it, and once I finish or get further along before dropping on on my Business and Japanese degree I might look into it. However, it would make an interesting paper if I could do something like this