Anyone with SA actually finish school?

[farleyknight]

Those of you with SA: How many of you have actually gone to college and finished? How did you do it? Do you need a large support group? Can you actually go to school for something challenging and deal with failure when you don't make the cut? I'd like to get some feedback from people who have made this journey. I'm running into a lot of issues and I want to know how people have dealt with them. Thanks..

[rincewind]

Well, I got through university without much trouble from an academic viewpoint. I never got to know anyone during my time there, and the complete lack of a social life meant I ended up focusing on my work instead. I'd just turn up to lectures and sit by myself every day. The hardest part of it for me was actually finding ways to occupy myself in the gaps between lectures.

What sort of issues are you having?

[pokeherpro]

I didn't finish highschool. Neither did Adam Sandler. You can still be something without a "proper" education, you just need to be creative.

[toffee]

Yeah i did.. it wasn't easy, but it was something that had to be done..
i dropped out of college last yr. i am in college now doing a new course and i think i'll stick it out..

[chunkylover53]

I have made it through a few courses now, and am halfway through another now. I have dropped out of one course, because I had no support (amongst other reasons). Unfortunately that was the one course I really, really, really wanted to do, and I still have not come to terms with my failure (not academic failure, but the fact that my life was falling apart kind of failure). I have a fear of failure generally.

I love uni. I love to study. I don't know what I'd without study in my life. You don't need a large support group; some people don't need support at all for uni. In hindsight, a good counsellor would have been so helpful for me at uni.

[shadowmask]

I'm planning on going to college pretty soon....hope I don't let my SA get the best of me. Wasting all of that time and money certainly wouldn't be conducive to my recovery, to say the least.

[veryalone]

I'm in med school. It can be done. Education is the most important part of my life and nothing will prevent me from attaining the highest education I could possibly want for myself. I feel that if I don't do that, then I not only let myself down but I let society down as well.

[chunkylover53]

Well done, veryalone! Medicine is the course I dropped out of... pains me to even think of it. Are you enjoying your course? I hope to get my life back together and have another go at med in the future.

[glarmph]

I went to college and got an Associates Degree, but I took every single class online.

[veron]

What issues are you worried about? Academic or social ones?

[Havalina]

I will be graduating in April, thank god.
It has taken me 6 years to do a 4 year degree. I'm too persistant to let a few set backs get in my way.

[Banzai]

I completed secondary school and am now at college (UK) and very much plan to attend university (hopefully the "top" ones if I can hack the interviews...)
I think my intelligence and being near top of the school was how I dealt with failure since I made sure to do well in exams. If I ever were to be one of the "dumbest" people in a class/consistently do bad in an exam, then I would pretty much just give up altogether. Doing well/being top is the only thing that motivates me to learn.

And no, definitely had no support group from either my school or my family.

[anonymid]

I finished college, and got a Master's degree, too. (Then I enrolled in a PhD program, but at that point I was just way in over my head, and dropped out after a couple years.)

For me, school was always the easy part. It's the "real world" outside of school that's always been terrifying. A classroom is one of the few places where I feel (more or less) comfortable.

[its_a_rick]

I'm in my third year of college now, so far so good. The required communication classes can be a pain though.
In all I'm not really getting the college 'experience' on a social level, just academic bit which is the bit that matters I guess.
I can relate to what rincewind said, hardest time is time/breaks between classes, can't really do much besides go sit somewhere and that can make me real self conscious.

[farleyknight]

Originally Posted by Banzai

I completed secondary school and am now at college (UK) and very much plan to attend university (hopefully the "top" ones if I can hack the interviews...)
I think my intelligence and being near top of the school was how I dealt with failure since I made sure to do well in exams. If I ever were to be one of the "dumbest" people in a class/consistently do bad in an exam, then I would pretty much just give up altogether. Doing well/being top is the only thing that motivates me to learn.

And no, definitely had no support group from either my school or my family.

This is almost exactly how I feel.. If I don't do well, it's almost not even worth going..

The problem I'm having is that I've run into a lot of instructors who like to set really high standards. I'm okay with that, but I'd like to at least have some idea as to how to do well in those situations, since the standards may or may not be related to what's in the text book or other classes.

So when I don't make the cut, I start wondering where I went wrong. I think where I go wrong is that I don't always care about the subject and I don't make a genuine attempt to see the broader picture. Sometimes I avoid the tricky problems because they don't seem that rewarding..

I think I'm going to take the next year off of school so I can improve my problem solving skills in those areas that I'm weak on. I see that the students who do better than me are those students who have studied the subject before or who have a lot of experience solving problems in general.

Also I think if I could at least have a friendly relationship with my instructors then I could ask them trivial questions and they won't be entirely annoyed.

[rincewind]

Originally Posted by farleyknight

Also I think if I could at least have a friendly relationship with my instructors then I could ask them trivial questions and they won't be entirely annoyed.

Your instructors should be more than willing to answer questions, even trivial ones - that's what they are paid to do! If you're uncomfortable asking them in person, just email them instead. If anything they'll probably appreciate that you're making an effort to learn as compared to someone who doesn't ask questions and ends up failing

[farleyknight]

Originally Posted by rincewind

Your instructors should be more than willing to answer questions, even trivial ones - that's what they are paid to do! If you're uncomfortable asking them in person, just email them instead. If anything they'll probably appreciate that you're making an effort to learn as compared to someone who doesn't ask questions and ends up failing

Perhaps if my instructors liked teaching this would be true.. Some of the ones I have met, and am implicitly refering to, don't like most students because most students don't have an appreciation for the subject being taught. During a lecture, a less intelligent classmate of mine asked something that was relatively trivial but still not quite clear. The teacher began to answer but seemed very annoyed by his question and basically ended by saying "See me after class". So while asking shows some initiative, in some cases it appears the student is not putting forward the effort to understand the material.

[DitzyDreamer]

Well, the only thing I've "finished" is high school and that was a lot of work on its own. I'm now a first-year in college, and socially speaking, the anxiety has been raised up a knotch. I wish my parents had let me taken a year or two off to really think about something like college, but I was kind of force into it.

[anonymous2]

im in grade 12. and honestly my social anxiety is the worst. my parents aren't understanding so it's not like i can just quit high school. but i just live by the moment. i've been through some pretty bad experiences nobody should ever have to go through. for instance, a few days back i had a panic attack in front of my whole class while giving an oral presentation. and i don't ever do my oral presentations and take the zero for the test grade. i walk the hallways so paronoid, thinkinge EVERYONE is starring and talking about me. i just can't wait for the day i am high school FREE you're not alone in your SA. and thank god for this site for support!

[JFmtl]

I'm not really finished yet with school, but I still manage to get my Bachelor degree (in accounting) I'm doing my MBA, not sure I'll get it done though, my motivation is very low. There was a lot of oral presentations to do lately, but I managed to survive, and apparently, I got better at those.