Leaving university

[Somedancingtodo]

I'm not sure this is in the right place so apologies if not. I'm in my first year at uni and for a few months have been having doubts about my course but have kept these to myself. My course involves placements and I kept telling myself that I'd feel better once I'd started these. However, I'm currently on placement and really really struggling. It's not the work that's hard, I just feel like it's not what I want. Although I'm still only quite young I gave up a good job to return to education and my parents have helped me a lot so I feel it will all just be a waste if I leave now. At the same time though I just feel sick and I'm panicking constantly and I don't know if it's worth it. I'm just wondering whether anyone's got any experience of this themselves or whether anyone has children that's felt this way?

[senua]

having doubts about my course but have kept these to myself

Talk to someone!
The whole point of University is the transferable skills you learn. One of those skills is learning to ask for help. We all have stumbling blocks. You can either suffer in silence or find where to get sources of help.
Talk to people: your cohort, your placement, your family, anybody. But mostly your tutor and student support. They will have seen it all before and be able to advise that everyone feels awful after Christmas of Year 1.

[senua]

oops. Hope that didn't sound too bossy.
Go do it and tell us how it pans out. It won't be as bad as you think.

[Andfaraway]

It's not the work that's hard, I just feel like it's not what I want.

Can you use this experience to articulate what it is that you do want? sometimes this is harder than knowing what we don't want, but you're now in a good position to work from what you don't want to sort out what you're actually looking for in a course.

That said, I'd strongly counsel (academic tutor here) getting through your first year, and 'banking' those credit points, so that you have something in hand if you decide to go for a different course eventually. You can get up to 4 years' funding for your first degree, so while you may have to start again in First Year, you might be able to request some recognition of prior learning.

And also be open to the possibility that you're just going through the adjustment from working life to university. Good deep learning in a challenging course is hard, and takes time. It's a process. Maybe you need to sit with the process a little longer?

[What2]

I agree with Senua. I think it would be useful to talk this over in real life. The Uni will have seen this a kabillion times before. They are there to help you. You also need to know what your options are. It might be there are similar courses at the same Uni that would suit you better or it might be you could move Unis.

How is everything else going? Is it just the course that you are struggling with?

[ThatEffingCreakyFloor]

I'm a university tutor and would feel so upset if I had a student feeling like this but they didn't come and talk to me....as said above, we've heard similar before & will listen, & might even be able to offer some advice eg a change in direction, a year out? There are always possibilities.....
Good luck

[Headofthehive55]

Don't be afraid to make a change. I didn't enjoy my first degree, I knew from the beginning it wasn't me. However when I tried to discuss it with people, they all said give it a bit longer, etc etc. Well it never got better and I ended up retraining in a different field.

I think you know deep down, but sometimes it's hard to make a change.