Did you fail or succeed in college?

DX'd - Sz/SzA
21

i got symptoms of sza when i was in college but i was just four classes short of graduating for an associates in computer electrical engineering.

everyone i know thinks i should go back someday and get a degree as a vet assistant. i remember hearing getting into vet school is harder to get into than med school to become a human doctor.

i honestly don’t think i’m smart enough, i love animals, specifically exotics like birds, reptiles, amphibians and small animals like guinea pigs or rabbits.

maybe some day when i am better and can do the courses. my partner doesn’t think i can do it but she has seen me at my worst so her opinion is valid. she worries i will try and fail again and this time be deeper in debt because i don’t think i could get another disability loan discharge again.

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22

I’m currently in the first year of university. At the end of first semester my symptoms got really bad. Am getting some support and slowly getting back on track, but relapse is a constant worry really. I guess our best is all any of us can do.

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23

I went from getting a’s to getting d’s.

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24

yes, I was close to graduating, which is the frustrating part. I suppose I could eventually go back and finish school, but I’m not in the right state to do so

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25

My college career started out pretty good. I was going to AA, drinking very little coffee, doing transcendental meditation, and getting about the right amount of exercise. I had a GPA above 3.5, but I was still in torment. Due to my psychological problems I couldn’t imagine getting a good job. Then I started drinking again. My grades plummeted. The rest of my college career was shockingly bad. One semester I had a 0.00 GPA. I did do a lot of reading during that time, but that was the only good thing about it.

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26

I had my first psychic break in HS but was diagnosed psychotic depression at that point. Went to college and was in and out of the hospital enough that I had to drop out after 2.5 years. It was supposed to just be a semester break, but I never went back. It wasn’t for me anyways. Had I known then what I know now I would have skipped college and gone to a trade school.

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27

Well, I was sort of “in a well period” in college in that my delusions were less strong but still there. I graduated college magna cum laude, iirc. I plan to start a new BS this fall in computer science, so we’ll see how that goes.

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28

I wasn’t well in college and my grades suffered.
I had to drop out.
But I did accumulate enough credits equivalent to an associates degree.

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29

Failed. I lasted two weeks.

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30

I did well in undergrad, despite being very depressed the first two years and hypomanic the last two years. I changed majors halfway through and still managed to graduate on time with a B.S. in biology.

The following spring, during my one and only year of med school, I had a psychotic break that drove me away from that path. That was 2003.

By 2005, I had gotten myself relatively healthy (though a little manic again) and started a master’s program in biology. I was able to complete coursework and the lab work for my thesis project in 2007, before moving away for a job. I succumbed to my third psychotic break in 2008 and returned home.

I finished the remaining requirements of my degree (thesis, orals, seminar) while I was still recovering and quite sick, in 2009. I was hospitalized twice in 2008 and twice in 2009, but I got my degree without using any kind of accommodations.

I now use my graduate degree, as an adjunct professor of biology.

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31

I forgot to mention I started school in fall 2013 as a pre-RN student at my local community college, but flunked out, largely due to depression. Maybe it was negative symptoms, whatever, hard to tell the difference sometimes. The point is, I flunked out, despite having a 4.0 my first semester. I don’t think I can do that stuff anymore, don’t have the desire, anyway. Going into nursing would have been a mistake, anyway; I wanted to be a psych nurse.

32

I sometimes wish I had never gone to college. Sometimes I wish I had just learned a trade after high school, like welding or something.

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33

THIS. If I could go back, I’d go to trade school during high school instead of going to college and leaving with nothing but debt and a drinking problem

34

Yeah, I have a ridiculous amount of student loan debt, I’d be embarrassed to say how much. Let’s just say: four years undergrad, one year at a private med school (ridiculously expensive), two years grad school (though my tuition was free due to my teaching), and a year and a half at a community college. With borrowing for living expenses and everything, yeah, that ■■■■ adds up.

35

Failed doing a bachelor of arts. I was smart but disorganized. I couldn’t focus properly and already suffering depressive episode second time I went back! Ended up getting kicked out with a low gpa!

36

I’m a work in progress. Been going off and on to community colleges for awhile. I got diagnosed when I was 19. I first went to college in 1983 and took just 3 or 4 classes, one at a time. Then I stopped going. I got a couple B’s, a couple C’s

I didn’t go back again until 1990! I was 30 years old and started community college again. I was in a board & care home and I would take the bus to school. My pattern was that I would take one academic class and one physical ed class each semester.

I didn’t really have a goal or plan. I had no major, I was just taking classes because that’s what people do.

I took general ed classes; English, history, science, health, etc. So I did that for the five years I was at the group home. I had kind of a good time at college while there. I used to talk in certain classes, people were friendly. I guess a few people liked me.

Even in the classes that I didn’t talk much to anybody, no one really bugged me. Maybe they all harbored a secret hate for me, lol, and despised me but to their credit they hid it well and no one really bothered me. But I did fairly well academically, A’s, B’s, C’s. In fact several A’s. So I stopped in 1995.

Which leads me into 2010. I don’t know why I stopped for so long but in 2010 I was living by myself at age 50 and I decided to take more classes but I tried online classes this time. I was pretty successful and manged to get more A’s and B’s but I also failed a few classes. I retook a couple that I failed in and improved my grades. And so I have been taking one class at a time since then and I am currently in a Media- Current Trends class. I need 5 classes more for my degree in Humanities. I just turned 57 in March. I really don’t feel less intelligent than before schizophrenia, in fact I discovered I am a pretty good writer which my family and other people have told me.

I’ll get my degree in a year and a half. It won’t get me a job in any humanities related field of employment but I want a degree for my own satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment. I’m employed now as a janitor but if I ever go job hunting again a degree will look good on my resume. A college degree in almost anything even if it’s not related to the position you’re applying for, shows an employer several things. It shows you have commitment, persistence, intelligence, dedication, stability, motivation etc.

An employer most likely knows what it takes to get a degree and they like those qualities in a person and that is the type of employee they want working for them.

37

starting this fall and honestly glad i became symptomatic and then put on medicine BEFORE rather than during college. now im on stable ground controlled by medicine. the big goal is med school, plan b is clinical psychology doctorate. not entirely sure what plan c is, though…

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38

I had to leave my doctoral program around the time of my diagnosis. On one hand, it’s really frustrating that I wasted so much time, effort, and money on a program that I didn’t get to complete. On the other hand, it’s okay because I don’t want to be in that field anymore. I would have devoted years to the degree only to have it go unused. Nowadays I’m setting my sights on an MBA.

39

A lot of high functioning people here…

40

I switched majors three times in two years and then dropped out.