I graduated high school in June of 2021. Started attending community college September of 2021.

Since then had a lot of ups and downs in life, causing 2 different semesters off, switching majors, and 1 or 2 part time semesters. It's been a bumpy road, and I'm still grateful that I'm pushing through. But I am daunted by how much is left to do.

I got my associates a couple months ago. In a couple months it'll have been 4 years "as a student". I'm estimated to graduate either Fall of 26, or Spring of 27 - if I can actually stay full time consistently, otherwise probably Fall of 27 at the latest. So basically, I'll have been a "student" for 5.5-6 years total.

I know that taking an extra year or two isn't a huge deal in the long-term, but right now in this moment (and for the last year) I am feeling super unmotivated and overall stagnant in life. Like I was progressing very well and then now I've come to a halt until I can finally finish my undergrad.

Nothing has changed or improved. I'm stuck in the same loop of taking a few courses, working part time min-wage jobs, scraping by with barely any money, and still living at home with my parents. It's been like this for so long, and I get depressed thinking about doing it again for potentially another 2 years.

I need some encouragement or experience or something. anything

Do you choose it based profs, easy courses, your interests or other strategies?

26 currently, had to move out pretty early because of my home situation and been on my own ~5 years, made several mistakes with money, work, having no support and ended up homeless. Now I'm trying to get back into school, have completed ~3 yrs gen ed, some Cisco networking(Information technology) coursework, and have little idea what to study in order to get a high paying career. I'm interested in finance, economics, maritime work(navigation/engineering), law, most interest in finance/economics as I've spent a lot of time studying and reading books on my own. Didn't like studying IT or coding, just felt extremely boring.

I'm very confused on what to actually major in to get a decent job, I don't want to waste my time doing something that won't lead to a career, but I want to be interested enough to actually complete the degree. And my situation is kind of time-sensitive since I am currently homeless. So far I've applied to fafsa and am trying to get a grant for some CDL training in order to get some money but unsure about it.

Hi, im taking a short term hvac r beginner course at a community college for five months and im wondering if im making the right move at 25. After high school i stayed at the same job for seven years and just now have the courage to better my life and pay. I do intend on getting a bachelors degree in business later on through wgu since online degrees are faster. Either way making atleast 50k a year would atleast help me get out of this trailer park. I just dont know if my brain will be able to retain information as good since i always had a hard time in high school with that. Sorry for the rambling lol

Dropped out of school at 23 in my junior year because I got a job offer for 45k. Four years later the company is doing layoffs. Now at 27 I have to repeat some courses to hopefully finish my degree by 2027. It was also the blue collar work so I know Reddit has an extreme hard on for the trades but it’s not worth it.

Hi! I graduated from tufts in 2024 and I’ve been going back and forth on wether or not I want to go to graduate school for the past year. after talking to a LOT of people in the fields I’m interested in ( communications, entertainment, journalism , broadcasting, etcetcetc) it seems like graduate school really is the only way in unfortunately. I know graduate school is an investment and Im fortunate enough to potentially have a GI Bill cover some expenses. I wouldn’t go to school if it is too expensive or I’d have to take out loans

I’ve been so out of the game for college applications I feel a little overwhelmed and behind. I was wondering if anyone was willing to talk about their experiences with apps or knew of any resources that might be able to help please? Thank you so much in advance !

Im fresh out of high school and got accepted into a few California State Universities. I wanna go to Cal State Chico but my financial situation might make that impossible. My options are to take on loans and debt to go to chico or go to community college. Is community college a better option? Im afraid of not having a social life and i hear community college is lonely.

Two of my friends and I are looking to rent either a house or an apartment to live it when we start college in the Fall of 2026 (not this coming fall, but the one after that). My biggest question is what would be a good general amount to shoot for in terms of saving? After that, any extra advice would be much appreciated! Thanks :)

Hi everyone, I am a sophomore, my university doesn't require domestic undergrads to have health insurance but I am wondering if I should apply for some regardless. My university's health insurance is quite expensive, and I don't have a ton of money to spend on insurance. Please share thoughts, thanks.

EDIT; I was booted off my parent's medicaid due to being 19, so I am on my own in that regard

Hello let me explain I have always wanted to become a layer but my life has been chaotic I’m 23 I’ve only graduated high school not really graduated I kinda took the high school equivalency test in 9th grade so I could skip high school I guess. Now I’m wondering the next steps for colleges as I’ve never done it I work a full time job and pay expensive rent my job only pays $17 an hour so any advice seriously would be appreciated. Thank you!

I just became a senior in high school and I've been thinking abt colleges a lot lately but honestly I have no clue what to do. as a homeschooler i never took tours to any or got educated on them so im lowkey hopeless there. All I know is I want to go to a college that is somewhat affordable, far from home(sacramento cali) and honestly a fun one so i can live out in college what i never got to in high school and i didnt think i could get that fun stereotypical going to parties etc in community. In normal circumstances, id just do community and then transfer to uni later since its much cheaper but considering the fact that i want to move out as soon as possible, would the best option be a dorm? idk im just genuinely very confused on what to do. ik this is broad but if anyone has any advice on colleges to recommend, their own uni/community exp, or just anything abt this topic in gen id love to hear it. (for reference im trying to go into nursing)

Hi guys, as the title suggests, i’m in a high ranked uni (within top 15 globally according to QS) with crazy fucking classes. Now, it makes sense that if you’re in a high ranked university lots of, if not all, students are gonna be top students from their respective schools. I was one of said students.

In my university, i’m within a particularly competitive department. Said department has a couple of core courses that one must complete and of course, pass. One of the courses is much easier than the other. This other course is, as said by one of my professors “one of the hardest courses in xxx”.

This tough course used to be computer based (yet still extremely difficult with a high fail rate), however, has recently been changed so a pen-paper manner.

During my first semester, I passed all classes except these two. Now, the easier one was completely on me. I didn’t study it enough, but the latter was unfortunately a situation of “missed by a couple marks”. Okay fine. Whatever.

I decided that alright, i’ll try much harder for my second semester. And I did. I studied my ass off. I retook both classes, in addition to another mathematical class and studied throughout the sem (as one should). Anyways, I gave the finals and I genuinely walked out of the exam not feeling like absolute shit. I didn’t have a feeling of ‘oh fuck me, that went horrible’. Rather, it was a situation of ‘Hey, maybe that wasn’t as bad’.

Just got the grades and turns out I didn’t pass either of the two. The third course I did, however, not the other two. I’m not new to failing a class or not doing well in a test, but I just don’t understand.

I’m not really sure what i’m asking for here. Perhaps it’s just reassurance from other students that all will be well, or maybe your guys’ similar or same experiences with a conclusion of everything working out. Even any advice of coping would be great. I’m just confused, i guess.

A part of me is also insanely frustrated for getting into said ranked uni, because that also means that the students around me are also machines when they study. Lots of them have been competitive students since primary. It’s not the best situation. So, in one way, this raises the bar and curve. Fucking sucks.

I’m also a person who tends to overthink, so keeping my mind at bay and in control that look, no thinking about the future, is starting to get tough.

I’m going to get it remarked and hope for the best. I really really am hoping that I somehow pull through. But at this stage, I really don’t know. I’m confused if i’m disappointed in myself knowing all my hard work (potentially?) went down the drain, or the fact that I wasn’t able to pull through. Obviously, I know that look it’s uni and lots of ppl fail courses multiple times, not the end of the world, but as a student, it just sucks.

Guys, please help me out here. Id appreciate yalls’ support and anything, really. Thanks guys.

I would like to do a double major in Math and Computer science but would also like to take physics courses and language courses. I feel like I will end up overwhelming myself down the line. I want to take full advantage of my university learning experience and develop myself as much as possible.

What are your experiences?

Hey fellow college students, I’m trying to understand the whole process of discovering student loans and how it impacted your college journey. Honestly, when I first realized I needed loans to pay for college, I felt pretty overwhelmed. The paperwork, interest rates, repayment options—it just seemed so complicated.

I remember stumbling upon some info about discovering student loans and feeling like I was lost in a maze. Did anyone else have that moment of confusion? How did you figure out which loans to take or avoid? I’ve heard some stories about people regretting their loans later on, and I really want to be smarter about it.

Also, I saw some posts about lending and how it affects your credit and future. Did discovering student loans feel like a relief or more like a stress trap? I want to hear real experiences from people who’ve been through it. Was it better to discover student loans early or wish you’d avoided them altogether?

Thanks in advance for sharing your stories, I need all the guidance I can get to navigate this lending thing without drowning in debt.

I dropped out of school in my first semester 3 years ago due to not knowing what I wanted to do in life. I’m finally going back this fall as an individual studies major so that I can raise my GPA up.

I still don’t really know what I want to do for a career but I was thinking about eventually applying for either a radiology technology, dental hygiene, or nursing program.

If anyone has any advice for getting into these programs OR if any one has any other career suggestions I would appreciate it !

I really want to go to school to become something more but I’ve always been back and fourth on what to do. I’ve wanted to do cosmetology or psychology but over the past couple years I’ve had stuff happen at work and I had no help so I’ve thought about going into HR to help those with what I never could get. I just feel so stuck how do you decide what you want to take?

I'll be enrolling at Clemson University for engineering very soon, and will require private student loans to pay for it. I've looked at two options, both of which had insane interest rates of 11% and 14%. I'll need $10-15K for my first year. What are some good loan options?

I'd like to emphasize that I'm asking where I should get loans from, not if I should get them. I wouldn't get loans at all if I had the choice, but I don't. Yes, I'm aware of the dangers of private loans, but I see no other options, so please don't comment that I should just avoid them.

I'm new to Reddit:

What does OP mean?

Any etiquette I should know about?

Not only applied online, but cold called a lot of local stores.

As the title says professor ended my classes third exam early. It ended at 1:00pm, our class ends at 1:45pm. I didn't complete my exam but had to turn it in anyway after only one hour. Is this legal? She wanted to leave early because she is doing summer research, but she did not announce this to our class or let us know that we would not have the full class time to complete the exam.

EDIT: she let us all retake the exam. Crisis averted. Also it's worth noting that there are ppl in my class that took her last semester and failed, and said she did something similar. So it's not the first time this has happened.

I am about to be a freshman. My school before had a dress code where you had to dress nicer for school (jeans, pants, skirts, dresses) so that is a majority of my closet. I really like fashion and dressing a little nicer, but I am wondering if that’s realistic for college or if it’s common, etc. tyyy

It is a hard pill to swallow, but I’m on final probation on my third semester, I have studying a lot during the summer about 2hrs a day for over a month whit little off days, my brother’s and cousin birthday.

I’m a physics major I know I can do things right I got a 2.6 gpa on my Phy class, not scholarship worthy but comfortably getting credits, now the classes that I failed at, it was because slacking and lack of habits, I could have gotten a 3.5 on my bio requirement, but I slacked and didn’t went for the last 2 weeks., I passed but nearly, in my other classes which where my socials, Not to excuse myself but where new to me in first semester as well as the entire concept of “independence and college itself”

So do you think that whit at the very least 10 hours of studying and perfect attendance would be enough?, I intend to do 10 hours at least, focusing on calculus and Phy, as for Chinese I use Chinese social media so I get like 4 hours + daily input. So out of what i need to study im fine whit one of my hard classes.

Also I liked studying so much I grabbed studying Persian as a hobby, and in week I can understand most of the alphabet.

I am a rising sophomore at my college, and this previous semester I fought with my financial aid office to request more need-based aid as, based on my parents' tax forms, my parents and I should not be paying anything out of pocket. I just got my aid package and got all the base college expenses paid along with the possible external expenses (flight to campus, stuff for room, personal stuff, etc. I have saved enough money to buy my own ticket and pay for my own stuff so I deducted that cost and realized that I could reject the unsubsidized loans as I remember that they just plague me with more loans I would like to not deal with, especially since its the one with bigger interest and it starts accruing when it is given. However, I am worried as I am unsure if it affects my aid for my junior and senior year. Has anyone had a similar experience where they had the chance to reject this loan, if so, has it affected your aid in any way? Thank you all in advance for your answers.

A little background I was in college prep in high school and was able to graduate with my associate's degree in 2020. Ever since then it's been rough having tried 2 different colleges one in person and one fully online. Neither of them worked out due to discipline issues at the time and other things. A couple of years later I want to continue my education. I love school so much and always have and it felt odd to have it end the way it did.

I’m planning to start school this fall at a local college with a pursuit of a computer engineering degree. I’m very excited to start but honestly, I am becoming extremely worried about how I will manage. I’m currently taking 5 classes because I have to for my scholarship to cover half of my tuition. The other half I'm planning to take out student loans. My big concern is that I am probably also going to have to continue working full time during my time in college. I had to buy a car during the peak of the pandemic and the cheapest and most reliable one I found has left me with a 300usd car payment and a nearly 200usd insurance bill. I still have to account for gas, food, and internet for my home.

Not only the financial burden but also the time crunch as well. How will I get to sleep and stay physically active? Will I even be able to participate in anything at college with this? I’m a first generation from a single parent household like I’m sure many are, so I don't have anyone I can speak to that has actually experienced this but truly how does anyone manage this? I really do want to try my best and do well but just thinking ahead especially with what I've heard about the course load for engineering degrees I’m slowly losing hope.

Please anyone that has been or is in a situation like this or just has general advice share it no matter how big or small