Why I dropped out of college

With blog posts, I tend to try to make them “less about me” or more generic so others can partake in the tips and tricks to find success.

However, sometimes I like to diverge from my average blog posts and get a bit more personal.

Disclaimer: All of the views and opinions in this post are solely my own and are not sponsored. This post includes affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission through links at no cost to you.

I will likely go into depth with this more in a video or something but for now, I wanted to cover my main reasons for dropping out of college.

But first, let me give you some background knowledge.

Why did I choose to go to college?

My dad always envisioned I’d go to college. In fact, one of his greatest regrets was that he didn’t continue his own schooling. He wanted better for me. Both of my parents did. 

Additionally, college was kind of drilled into my head from school. It was expected that everyone would go to college. If I’m being honest with you, I honestly had no clue until my senior year that there were any other options aside from going to college.

I thought, you either go to college or you become stuck at a fast food or retail job for the rest of your life.

In my senior year, I learned about military programs, trade schools, police academy, and much more. None of them really required you to go to college. However, none of those professions really appealed to me either.

So college was expected of me and I went with it. Even when I took a gap year (which you can read about in my post: Why I decided to take a gap year).

What college did I go to?

I have never been one to settle. I’m very much an all or nothing kind of person. When it came to college, I needed something that was perfect for me. My senior year, I also decided that I didn’t want to stay in central Indiana. My hometown was boring and I craved adventure.

I chose Columbia College Chicago in October of my senior year and toured it in March. 

The school was an art school and had a wonderful writing program. I chose to major in Creative Writing because writing has always been my passion. And minored in marketing (mostly as a backup/additional skill set). 

Sometimes I lied to people and told them that I was double majoring in Marketing and Communications because I was ashamed to admit that I was majoring in “writing.” 

My goal for college was to do a few things:

1. Get in and get out as fast as possible
2. Get a degree (a BA in Creative Writing)
3. Get a job in writing (for a magazine, or a website, or a company site. I wasn’t picky)
4. Gain skills to write a well written novel

These goals are pretty ordinary and nothing too crazy for someone who loves to write.

However, as I began attending classes, my whole outlook began to shift.

I began to love my marketing classes A LOT and was considering changing my major. Additionally, I was questioning whether my writing classes were really making me a better writer or if they were eating up my time.

And of course, trouble brewed beyond my classes.

    

	
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What is the main reason why I dropped out?

Money. 

This is the MAIN reason most people dropout of college. 

During my gap year, I witnessed my roommate struggle financially through college, but in the end, she made it work. 

I had this weird fantasy that college expenses would be a far away problem. They would only cause me trouble in the future once I already had a good, well-paying job to pay them off.

That was not true.

During my first semester, I owed $3000 that hadn’t been taken out in loans. I could no longer get government student loans and my credit was too terrible to take out loans on my own. Both of my parents had terrible credit and couldn’t help me get what college calls a parent PLUS loan. 

I reached out to other relatives at the time and no one was able to help.

I honestly thought I would have to drop out of school after one semester. 

Instead, my boyfriend and best friend chipped in to help me pay off $1500 so I could stay in school (the other half would roll over to the next semester).

I thought things were good, that I had it all worked out. I applied to dozens upon dozens of scholarships during winter break with the hopes that I could pay off both semesters with the money I’d earned.

I did not receive any scholarships.

Now, you might think that perhaps it’s my own fault that I did not get any scholarships. Maybe it is. But I’ve been a straight A student my whole life. Holding a 3.8/4.0 GPA in college, and (at least i believe) I have better than average writing skills.

I didn’t get any scholarships.

Second semester caught up to me and I went to my advisor to ask about transferring schools. He pushed me to find a better job than my retail one, that I might be able to raise the money to continue schooling.

Naively, I thought I would apply to maybe ten jobs and hear back from one immediately and make enough money in three months to continue schooling.

It took me three months to find a job and ten applications A DAY at that. 

Needless to say, financially, I could not continue school. 

What are other reasons?

Some other reasons include:

• realizing that my job market doesn’t really need a degree
• Discovering that I can get a better education outside of school
• Saving money for my future self
• Having more time to work

These are all reasons I discovered AFTER I chose to drop out. But they stand as fair reasons. 

Most of the jobs I applied to in my niche (marketing and writing) did not require a degree. Furthermore, I discovered online courses not affiliated with colleges and universities that taught me more in three hours than one class could offer in forty-five.

Also, saving money and time for myself was hard to resist!

Why not just transfer schools?

So, I actually gave up on transferring. Crazy right?

I spoke with a lot of people who left their dream school for a cheaper community college. Originally, that was my plan. 

In all honesty, sometimes that idea still appeals to me. I’d love to be able to say that I have a degree. 

I’m a huge nerd. Believe it or not. And I would love to say that I studied my butt through college and earned a fancy piece of paper as proof. 

However, due to how broke I am, I can’t go to Columbia for that. 

As far as transferring goes…remember when I said that I wanted to “get in and get out” of college? 

Well, if I transferred to community college, I’d have to start all over on credits/classes. 

At Columbia, I walked in with 19 credits from highschool and earned 30 during my time there.

At community college, I’d walk in with 0. 

So I chose not to go.

What did I learn from this experience?

Gosh. So many lessons were thrown at me one after the other. I think overall, I learned that life is unpredictable and sometimes it’s better to just go with the flow. 

I realized that it’s okay if things don’t live up to our expectations. That it’s important to understand that things will happen as they were always meant to happen.

Inevitably, this experience has made me wiser and stronger than I was before (as cliche as that sounds).

What does my future look like?

So, as I mentioned above, after a few months of continuous searching, I finally found a job. I am able to work remotely now as a virtual assistant and the job pays more than my retail job ever did.

Things are looking up for me. I’m able to work a job that suits my lifestyle, can work on my blog more, and have opportunities to continue studying through online courses.

I don’t think I’ll go back to college…yet. Maybe I will one day. For now, I’d rather save up and invest my money and work on building a life I love.

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If you like this post, check out some similar posts of mine below:

Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know any good Chicago restaurants you’d like me to review and try! 

You can also email me with questions or concerns you may have at info.amelia.wilson@gmail.com

Also, check out my poetry book, The Lights are on but Nobody’s Home, available now on amazon for $6.99!

Disclaimer: All of the views and opinions in this post are solely my own and are not sponsored. This post includes affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission through links at no cost to you.

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