Dropped out of what?

I hugely dislike the term ‘dropped out’.  Whilst my outplacement work is largely with people who are established in their careers rather than students and young people, I hear a lot of stories about career ‘non-choices’ based on parents’ expectations and yes, sometimes real pressure.

When a young person finds they don’t like their degree course and decide to leave it, we often use terms like, ‘they dropped out of university’.  No, they didn’t ‘drop out’, they made a choice to change direction.

I had endless good-natured debates with my youngest during their school years. They were a classic scientist, whilst my love has always been languages.  We respected each other’s passions, diverse as they were.

They started a degree in Physics and Astrophysics.  They really started to dislike it and we’re not even going to start blaming remote learning because of the pandemic.  I wouldn’t capitulate easily and as they were in their second year, I felt that they should just ride their feelings out and get on with it.  It wasn’t happening though, and I could sense a change in personality.  They wanted to change to a degree in Illustration.  This total switch from science to arts was beyond me, but they demonstrated to the university that this was the right choice for them and started their new course in September (giving them two freshers’ years which I joked was possibly an incentive).

The university did two things which were hugely supportive. The first was that the Head of Illustration said she would be interested to see what their physics learnings would bring to their work. Secondly, they received a certificate for their first year’s studies in Physics and Astrophysics.  All in all, lots of learning, with some pain and concern on all parts, but overall – so positive.  Some people would call it dropping out…

(permission given by Alex to post this).

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