Dropping out of college due to “out of sync” choices

According to Mr. Pham Manh Ha , students who "don't know what career to choose" and don't know what career is suitable for them in the future are quite common. But instead of choosing a career path that suits their qualities and interests, many high school seniors only set the goal of "passing the exam", at least getting into a school, even if the major is not suitable for them.

Failure in college journey

In admissions consultation sessions for parents and students in grades 11 and 12, the questions experts receive most often are "which school is easy to get into", "which method is easy to get into" and "which major has high employment opportunities". But there are very few questions like "What financial preparation is needed to study this major, this school?", "How to identify careers that are suitable for your qualities?".

What many parents and students do not realize is that "high job opportunities" are equally distributed to all professions, provided they are suitable. When there is a passion, students will study well and have a high ability to grasp new job opportunities.

Candidates in the 2024 high school graduation exam.

But the journey to understand that is often very long and far. There is a large number of high school students who choose to follow the crowd, according to their parents' wishes. Many times, parents' expectations are "out of sync" with their children's wishes or strengths and abilities.

Pham Minh Thanh (Thai Binh), a young man, once registered to study at a school of the Ministry of Public Security following his family's direction. But Thanh increasingly realized that this was not the path he wanted.

While studying at the police academy, Thanh worked as a tutor, shared his study and review experiences on his personal page and unexpectedly attracted the attention of many students. Thanh found his work meaningful and realized that he had another dream: to become a teacher. Thanh dropped out of the police academy, retook the exam to study pedagogy and his choice was met with strong reactions from his family.

Thanh's story is not uncommon and there are many young people who are not brave enough to choose like Thanh but accept to study according to their parents' orientation and then fail in their journey of studying at university.

Dropped out because realized "wrong path"

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Tu, Principal of Hanoi Medical University, shared that there were students who got into medical school with high scores but could not continue their studies. Medicine is one of the majors that requires students to have a lot of effort and perseverance. If it is not a dream and if you do not have the qualities to stick with it for a long time, it is easy to give up after only one year.

Hanoi Medical University usually has very high admission scores. To be admitted to the school, many students must have good academic performance in high school and study hard for the exam. Because it is "difficult", this school has become the dream of many students. However, the cases of "dropouts" like Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Tu shared are often students who enter the school and realize they do not like the medical profession. Because they do not like it, the pressure to study becomes even heavier.

At Hanoi University of Science and Technology, according to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Phong Dien, there were times when hundreds of students were given academic warnings due to not meeting academic requirements. Many students had to give up their studies due to the very high academic requirements, which they themselves realized were not suitable.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thanh Chuong, chairman of the council of the University of Transport, also recounted that many students entering the school fell into a state of psychological instability due to choosing the wrong major and lacking the skills to change and adapt to the new learning environment.

The "lost" situation is not only found in prestigious schools but is even more common in many lower-ranked schools. Many students accept to study at schools they do not really want just because of the "fear of failing the university entrance exam" mentality, and then when they enter school, they feel discouraged and neglect their studies.

An economics lecturer at a university in Hanoi shared, "There was once a class he was in charge of that had nearly 30% of students drop out after the first year." The school recruits students based on high school transcripts with low scores. "Easy to get in, easy to drop out," the lecturer commented.

Take a detour

Tran Van Tuan (Nam Dinh), a young man who passed the Economics major at a university with a score of 18.5, shared that this was the school he had applied to "prevent failure". After failing his other wishes, this was the only place he was accepted.

"The more I studied, the more I felt that it was not suitable for my economy and I had no motivation. At first, I thought that maybe the school was not famous, so the quality was not good, and it did not give me motivation or excitement. But gradually I felt that it was really not suitable for me," Tuan said, adding that he planned to stop studying to find another suitable major before it was too late.

Another case, Dinh Vu Tuan (Quang Binh) took the 2024 entrance exam and was eligible for early admission with 5 wishes for different majors and schools. Tuan officially passed his first wish to study Information Technology at a prestigious school. But after the first year, the pressure of poor academic results made Tuan fall into depression.

Sharing her son’s story, Ms. Thanh Kim, Tuan’s mother, said that because of his mental health, the family had to consider letting him stop studying. She had researched and learned that some private schools have a mechanism to accept students transferring to related majors, so she planned to apply for a transfer and accept for her son to repeat the first year.

"Sometimes it's not good to get into university too easily. My child qualified to get into 5 schools but now he has to transfer to a private school because he made a mistake from the beginning," Kim shared.

(To be continued)

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/bo-hoc-dai-hoc-giua-chung-vi-lua-chon-lech-pha-20250403170739667.htm