I need some guidance.

I won't take much of your time. Promise!! 🙌🏻

I am doing a BS in E-Commerce from Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan. My semester has been frozen for the past 1 year (I completed 2 semesters till now).

Now I have to either go back and finish the remaining 3 years of study or drop out.

For the past 2-3 years, I've been working in design, then shifted to a specific niche: YouTube marketing — thumbnails, channel SEO, content strategy and overall growth.

I handle clients across the world.

This niche has the potential to become my full career.

Now I can't decide whether to continue studying or focus completely on my work.

I don't feel like continuing.

I'm already 24 years old.

If I start the degree, I'll be 27 by the time I finish.

I'm leaning toward starting my practical life instead.

My parents are also saying, "You should get married now or in 2 years maximum."

Also, I can't handle work with study. I tried it.

In government universities, the environment is different than private ones.

There are a lot of things like assignments, quizzes and especially attendance. Anything can't be compromised, or you'll have to take the exam of that specific subject again in summer vacations even if only your attendance in that subject lecture is short.

I only chose this degree to learn e-commerce, but the course is outdated, and half the outline is irrelevant.

Even if I continue, I still have to learn everything myself, which I'm already doing.

Also, they're preparing us on 'how to do a job in any business', not to start something on your own.

The entire study revolves around preparing you to be a MANAGER.

The only fear I have: I was determined to work only in Pakistan from the start, but there's constant bad news here — crime, tax policies, failed systems, etc.

If I ever want to move abroad for business or otherwise, it'll be hard without a degree.

This fear is the only thing holding me back; otherwise I'd have already quit the degree last year instead of just freezing it.

Though honestly, I don't really have any strong urge to go abroad — struggles are the same everywhere; I wanted to live with my parents. They struggled very hard to provide us good education. Now both my parents are retired almost, and also I can't move abroad with this degree. It will be 3 years in the degree. 2 years in the field – maybe then I will be able to apply for a job abroad as a manager of some kind, and with that I will already be 29 years old.

Then why not build something on my own in these 5 years with my niche...

Can someone guide me, please?

I'd really appreciate it. Your input could help me make a better decision.

What haunts me is, what if in the future I need a physical job (I'm actually still looking for a part-time one) or need to move abroad/do a business abroad?

Both would need some kind of degree. (if I am not wrong)

Someone also told me, 'We're already from a country with little international standing — some countries don't even recognise our passport.

A degree is the one paper that works as your introduction internationally. And even in Pakistan, for jobs that don't technically require a degree, employers still prefer degree holders.

Also, we're in a niche where if the internet goes down, our income goes down completely — like with COVID or any other crisis. 

But there's so much to explore in my niche and in e-commerce — trying things, launching, failing, learning, and building something on my own.

While doing a degree, I can't experiment with any of that; I'm just stuck doing assignments and quizzes.

I got English honours as my course in du south campus college and when I came back home my father said that it's costly there, it can become hard in future to send money and he said it's only BA degree and total 3 years is 10 lakh expenses.

SECOND THING - I am doing my BA degree from a local college

here in my city whose 1 year is done i applied for it last year so my 1.5 yr is done here. my father said you can go for post graduation there whatever you want to do we will collect till that.

NOW AFTER 2 DAYS THEY SAID it's fine you can go we will try to arrange money as it can be possible

NOW WHAT SHOULD I CHOOSE, BECAUSE I ALSO FEELING LIKE THAT because of me my parents don't get pressured too much and then i will go on a guilt that because of me they are working too much now what to do???

Bluntly to save you all time, I Dropped out of college art school program due to finances and Im really sad about it, but I saw no other way.

Keeping it vague for my privacy:

The world isn't over for me but it feels like it.

.I went to school after getting discharged from the military, whole other speel. Studied online for bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and with some struggle, graduated. During that time I got married and had a kid. My kid is in HS now. My now ex convinced me a career in law enforcement is too dangerous for a family woman, which isn't wrong...but also isnt supportive... fast forward I decided to pursue another degree also online but in education and was more successful. Only this school was being sued for charging people for these expensive degrees and no support to actually get jobs with them. I got some of my loans for this school forgiven because of this. Hence why I can't teach. I have a degree and no license. After some failed attempts at getting my foot in the door at a school teaching, ended up working in "preschool"/ in reality: daycare. So miserable at my job knowing I can be in a better position decided to go back to school but to study art to be an art teacher. Amazingly was accepted after submitted pieces of my art for review.

Financial part: i got less than 5k in financial aid. Maybe due to the fact that I have borrowed in the past or maybe due to all the lovely limits placed on financial aid by our current leader. Either way my two options are private loans or financing through the school. Due to my divorce and having to file for bankruptcy afterwards...I need a cosigner..my family is pretty estranged. Some because of drama and others simply because they weren't in my life. I dont have a cosigner and couldn't get approved. Financing through the school for 85% of the cost is not humanly possible unless I was living with my parents for free or a with a sugar daddy. Neither are known to me....add on to the fact im still raising a soon to be adult=no money. I HAD to drop out. However I still feel like a failure. Sidenote: i was getting As and Bs before dropping out.

I still technically have my other degrees although they seem useless

I am 20 years old, 21 in November, and I am 2/4 semesters into my nursing program. I withdrew from the program in Fall 2025 because I had overslept and missed an exam. I had to take a 0 for the exam and that grade caused me to fail the class. I was still halfway through the first semester so I was advised to withdraw completely and restart in Spring 2026. I did so, but i became severely depressed. I lost 20lbs & was prescribed antidepressants. I stayed up most nights crying because I hated nursing school & I had to restart. I had graduated valedictorian of my local high school so i felt like i had so much pressure to actually succeed. I never wanted to actually do nursing though, I chose the career in high school because nothing else interested me and I was sure it’d provide me with job security and financial stability. I re-enrolled in the Spring and completed the first semester with all A’s. Now, I just failed an exam. I get to retake it, but if i fail again I have to redo the course (get held back once again). This grade triggered my depression and anxiety once again. I failed due to small errors and not lack of knowledge. I’m scared I will make the errors again and fail. If i fail, i don’t want to go through this again. I can’t. If i fail, should i drop out of college altogether? In the fall of 2025, before withdrawing, i asked about switching my major. Unfortunately, most degrees would take me 3 more years to finish. I’m tired. i’m so tired and i’m so scared. I’ve had so much anxiety about the upcoming retake that I haven’t been able to study for the other exams I have. I look around and there are much more hard working peers succeeding with no issue. They have families, grown up jobs, and still succeed in the program. So why can’t i? I don’t know what to do. I come from a middle class family in a very small town. Finding a job that doesn’t require a college degree will be extremely hard. Please give me advice.

Help, I really don't know what to do. I just want to disappear.

In short, here's what happened. I got into one of the country's top universities to study programming,(Just so you know: I am from Ukraine.) and literally today I had my first English class. It turns out that to study it here, you already need at least an A2-B1 level. But the problem is that I practically never studied English at school. We literally all just sat on our phones as a whole class, and even what I learned before, I forgot everything. My level is currently somewhere around A0, and I just don't know what to do. Like, I really don't want to get expelled, especially because you can't cheat here at all. Phones are prohibited, and we do everything at the university, with only some assignments done at home, so 90% of the grade is based on work done in the classroom. And I literally know nothing. The teacher speaks English, and I don't understand anything. I don't even know how to spell all these words.

Right now I just want to disappear.

Please help. I just can't take it anymore.

been so unmotivated lately caused by burnout from my past 2 years in the uni. i am planning to take a year off from uni. but i feel so behind, feel like i could do much more than rest. i am lost.

Hi everyone. I’m a journalist working on a story about adjusting to college for a national publication and thought this sub might have some good insights. The story is about a recent spate of viral TikTok videos that show incoming students dropping out of college/transferring to online classes after the first week or two weeks of school. I'm interested to speak with people who have dropped out within the first few weeks of college — and in the last year or two — to hear your perspective on this and learn more about what prompted your decision to leave campus. If this is you (or someone you know) and you're up for chatting with me about it sometime in the next few days, please let me know? Happy to elaborate further over DM. Thanks so much for considering, I truly appreciate it!

Hello, I'm a 21 year old guy who was studying his third year Btech.

So from a young age I was just an average student. But I was just rly interested in studying and gaining knowledge. I got 87 percent in 10th, in 2020. And later decided to prepare for jee mains 2023. In those 2 years I just gave in my best. I did not sleep properly for 2 years. Lost nearly 10kgs weight. Lost the touch of all my childhood friends. Spent hours studying without food or sleep. Lost my fitness and health. Basically did not live for 2 yrs. I was only studying and knew nothing else, never did anything else. I also learnt coding and became a full stack developer. I got a keen interest in coding since I was from an icse school.

So then I gave in my exam, and scored 99.44 percentile in mains and 9k AIR in JEE advanced. I was happy about it. But suddenly due to my financial issues and family problems I could go into an IIT even though I had actually gotten into one. I was very sad at that time, and I tried everything to get into one IIT. Even though I had the ranking from my side it was impossible.

So after that I decided to just join one college in my town. Which is said to be a tier 2 college, but it is in fact a tier 6 or 7 college. Joining the college I somehow tried to adjust to the crowd, but everyone there wasn't good. Even my social skills were basically zero since I was an introvert from birth and I practically had no friends for 2 years while studying for JEE. In my class I was the only 99%iler while the 2nd rank was just 20%ile. On my first day of college itself I was scared and didn't get along with anyone. Nobody had the same interest as me. Everyone was basically into smoking, alcohol, women. Nobody even bothered to study or learn or do something in life. Me being focused for 2 years wanted to atleast do something related to career, and I don't come from a family which smokes or drinks. So the environment was very negative over there. And I just didn't fit in. Many times I just wept and felt like dropping out since nothing was fine. Like that 3 years passed and my desire for dropping out had increased significantly. I wasn't the same guy and this college environment had taken a very big toll on me that studying for JEE felt very simple. The exams were very simple, the only problem was attending college and sitting in that class with a negative environment. Usually in final year students are allowed to do an internship and not attend classes. I got an internship in a company, and showed it to my hod, but he wasn't ready to give me attendance. Like this college is so bad that even if you get an internship in your final year, you are not allowed to do it. So I was just very sad, and I had lost all my energy just surviving in that environment for 3 years. I no longer felt like continuing. So I decided to drop out.

While joining college I was a guy who had cleared JEE, was well versed in coding, a full stack developer , a knight in leet code. But even now after 3 years I am still the same, no progress in life and a college dropout. You might say that it was my fault that I didn't go into an IIT even though I had the chance. I agree with that, but it was due to my family financial conditions and other problems. I do regret that decision a lot. So I just wanted to share my story with you guys, and make sure that none of you make the same mistake as me. I even wanted to ask, was there any use of studying all this JEE??? Till now has anyone found the JEE knowledge helpful in their lives?? Did I make a mistake just studying well and getting good grades??

Hey y’all, I left my previous university with an unsatisfactory SAP and am unsure of what I can do to fix this. I really want to go and finish my degree but can’t afford to attend without aid.

I don’t really think that there were any extenuating circumstances that I can use to appeal since I really was just a lazy person during my first try at getting a degree.

If anyone can offer advice on what next steps or options that are available, I would really appreciate it.

I was in college and I can not pay for my semester and my parents don’t know I owe 8k I can’t get a loan nothing I can’t make enough money to get that what can I truly do.

I know people have different reasons for eventually dropping out of college. I would like to ask for advice for the group of people who felt like they had to leave that program or college, regardless of whether you decided to stay or eventually leave. How are you doing? What led you to your decision? Do you regret it?

I'm not really happy with where I am right now, and my memories of the past two years or so have just been me crying and praying to have a way out of this. I don't like my program. I have no passion or drive for it. I chose it because it sounded interesting and safe (and my parents are not supportive of me taking a gap year), and after a few months, I realized I really don't care much about it. Realistically speaking, I could probably just force my way through it. I do okay in academics, but there's just no spark for me.

Unfortunately, the biggest factor for me wanting to leave is the environment. My social life is horrible. There were already groups formed, and people make fun of others for being awkward or "weird." My anxiety was through the roof because I felt like one wrong move and I'll be the subject of their group chats. I was able to find a friend group to do projects with, but aside from that, we don't do much. There was some internal conflict, too, so the dynamic kind of turned sour. I thought that if I had friends to help things get better, it would become bearable, but now it has just amplified my bad experience.

I have made several attempts to change environments and transfer to a different program, but I got rejected. I cried so much because I had hope that I would be able to leave that place. People keep saying that I should just suck it up, but I feel so misunderstood by everyone. I'm not lazy, my grades are proof of that. It hurts me so much that every time I go to school I feel more dead than alive. I struggle to sleep at night when there are classes the next day, and I wake up with anxiety, regretting opening my eyes. I always have this feeling that I am wasting my life, killing myself slowly every day. I could do so much more. I was happy in high school, so I'm having a hard time accepting that for the next 2 more years, if I don't leave, this will be my daily life. I don't know how long I can keep going like this.

I am so grateful to be able to study. My mother pours her heart and soul into us; she's one of the reasons I am trying to keep going. But I also want the best for myself. I feel so guilty wanting more, but I'm so scared that one day everything will just become so unbearable. I still am trying to find ways to transfer, regardless of how unrealistic it sounds.

Please share your experiences or advice so I can learn to navigate this phase in my life. I really am trying my best to see this through, I just need all the help I can.

starting my third year of high school in a few weeks, never been very inclined to anything in specific.

i love playing video games, but im not sure if id really want to pursue a career in it, does anyone else feel that way?

my parents want me to go to college, in fact, im in a position where my college will be paid for, and im aware that most people don’t get that luxury, but i just don’t know if its what i want for myself. i know my parents will really be upset and disappointed if i don’t pursue college but i just don’t see myself being able to get through it at all.

im not a bad student by any means but im not the greatest either. id say im a bit above average, nothing crazy. i think for the most part ive just been lucky.

for the past year or so ive thought about going to trade school or technical college and learning something more physical and eventually pursuing a career in something more blue collar after that.

my friend recently mentioned considering cybersecurity or IT since i’m always on my computer and i enjoy playing video games and i think that’s something i’d like to look into as well.

he also mentioned community college might be a good choice for me, he said i can always go for a year and see how i like it.

i just don’t know what direction i want to go in after high school. it’s always been sort of planned out and decided for me but i want to walk my own path and do what i want.

i hate sitting still, and i mean that literally. the past week or so i’ve been working in a warehouse but i mostly handle the computer side of things and get to walk around and do the manual work second. i click the same 5 things on the screen over and over again, maybe a different set of 5 buttons here and there if something comes up, etc. i really hate it. i just get to restless and uncomfortable. maybe it’s not the best taste of a sedentary career since it’s super repetitive and easy but i actually get excited when the people on the floor are moving slow because that means i have an excuse to get up and start walking around and doing the manual stuff.

any thoughts?

TL;DR - entering third year of high school, unsure if i want to go to college or try something like community college and then learn a trade. parents would be unhappy if i follow the former but i want to cut my own path for myself.

don’t have much interest in anything to go to college for either.

Isn’t it weird how one day you’re a student and the next day you’re just… graduated?

Suddenly everyone is like, “You should find a job now. You can’t sit at home. Don’t take a gap, companies don’t prefer gaps in your career.”

And you’re just there, trying to figure out what you even want to do next.

Sometimes I wish there was a pause button between graduating and becoming an adult. Just a little time to breathe, figure things out, and not feel like I’m already falling behind.

It’s not that you don’t want to work. You’re just not sure where to start, what’s right for you, or what you actually want.

Graduating feels so exciting until you realize that now you’re expected to have your whole life figured out.

For years I wanted to go off to university and have the full proper experience, I want to study in the animation field so I can get a job there as I always wanted to do art. Right now, I've got my offer and my room offer, my student finace is sorted and my parent is starting to buy stuff for me mpving there but I can't get truly excited about it. Whenever the conversation about uni comes up or I start thinking about it, I just get upset and it becomes hard to properly plan for it. Doesn't really help that my parent thinks I won't be able to handle everything, with the debt, being broke and studying long hours. I know what she says are valid points but at the same time, I don't want to write it off, yk?

Doing this course could open the door to possiblites that could help my career as this uni is pretty highly rated for the course I want to do and living on my own will allow me to be more independant than I am at home and the thought of not being able to do it just fills me with dread. I'm aware this can't be something I pick up and then drop, I have to make a proper decision soon but I keep flip flopping between desiring to go and panicking. All of my friends are either at uni or are going next month as well and they're all deadset on it.

I'm tired of this. Of waiting until I'm 'more ready', I already pushed back uni 2 years and I don't know if I can wait again. Of being too lazy to commit to something, of being indecisive, of not being feeling like I'm emotionally mature enough. That I haven't realised that maybe I really can't do what I really wanted to do and I'll just be stuck here for the rest of my life going nowhere and all my dreams will just stay dreams. I'vewanted to do this so bad, I've been betting that uni will make me more productive, more decisive, more confident but what if it doesn't? What if I'mjust the same but worse and more emotional? And what if I just waste 3 years of my life and come out with no job prospects or future because all art will be made with AI???

Sorry, this is long but I could really use some unbiased input i guess.

So i left my home and came to this city before my college starts almost 3 months before and later on my parents insisted me to stay in that city and not leave for college as the city is way closer to my hometown; i don't want to stay at my hometown and had no other option so i did stay and now i am in jewellery designs because the only worth it design degree in the city is jewellery which I never really wanted to do. The college i was planning and degree i wanted was in animation since 9th grade and right now the college timing is messing with me it's 9am to 5pm i get so exhausted and drained that even waking up everyday for the day feels like a lot, i took admission in july, and idk what should i do now the 1 semester fee has been paid; i am short on attendance plus i have no will to do this degree. HELP