I’m a senior who’s 21 years old. I will be 22 in July. I today found out I have to retake two college classes. And it sucks because I see on social media where some of my classmates that I graduated with in high school graduated college this spring. They got their bachelors and are moving on. I feel left behind because now I have to wait until the fall. I just hate the thought of being the last person to do something. It’s the worst feeling. I have to wait 7 months. I have never been good in school! I have always struggled. But it seems so easy for others. I hate the feeling.
I graduated when I was 30. Not a problem! (That was 30 years ago)
I didn’t graduate until I was 28. I think you’ll be okay! I get how it feels like you’re falling behind though!
This stuff is SO insignificant in the context of the rest of your life. It took me like 5 or 6 years and 3 different colleges (1 of them twice) to get my degree. It was a waste of money, and has had no impact on where I am now in life; which is actually in a pretty good place. That said, I completely understand how this seems like the be all end all of your world right now. Just realize that that is because of your age, and that will virtually vanish as you progress through life and gain perspective. I also completely understand that all of that probably won’t make you feel any better right now.
Truth 👆
It could make things slightly more difficult straight out of college, but beyond that? Not really. It took me 8yrs to get through college. The fact that you’re almost done means you’re doing great!
My class was set to graduate right around the time the pandemic hit and a lot of people ended up graduating late because the school literally couldn’t offer the classes they needed to finish their degree. Anyone to whom your date of graduation is actually relevant likely isn’t going to bat an eye at anyone who was in college within the last 5 years graduating a couple months late.
And, of course, there’s that old stand-by moral of “the only reason it seems like all your peers are doing better is because the ones in the same situation as you aren’t going on social media to brag about it.” So don’t rely on that as a metric too heavily.
I was 2 years “too late”. I had an extra test in accounting to determine if I were allowed to attend the finals. It was only then that I understood a subject I didn’t understand for the whole time at college. I got an A on that test and crushed the finals with a B.
No, it’s not bad in the least. No one of any importance will even notice it, let alone ask you about it. I’m great at school and I took 5 and half years to finish college. It had no impact on my life at all
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. Some people don’t even start college until their mid 20s or even later, if they have the opportunity at all. Finishing a few months later than some of you peers is a minute difference in the grand scheme of things and you should try not to stress about it and focus on doing the best you can with the work that’s left. You will look back on this and find it amusing you were concerned about it - enjoy the extra time you have studying before you move on to the working world where you most likely be for the next 40+ years. Good luck and all the best.
I started college at 16, and completed my first degree at 39. Don’t feel bad, the timeline works differently for different people.
Listen to the other folks, but also if you graduate in the fall semester you have way less competition for a job since most people graduate in the spring.
So you’ve got that going for you.
Once you’ve got a job in your chosen career, 99% of situations don’t give any shit about what happened before that.
Exactly. I was in the same boat as OP because my GPA was trash. I probably missed some opportunities because of it when trying to land my first job. But after I got one in my field, I was never asked for my GPA again, or even evidence that I went to college. Employers only want to know what you did in your last job, and only default to grades or diplomas if you have no relevant work history.
If you’re like me, when you were in high school, wasn’t it really important what grade someone was in? Like you’re a junior, you’re not going to hang out with some FRESHMAN, right?
But then, when you got to college, there was this sudden shift, and now it doesn’t really matter what year someone is in? I remember that feeling, like “oh, we’re all just college students, who cares if I started a year before someone else.”
If you can relate to that experience, feeling that shift of “oh, turns out that didn’t really matter” then I promise you have another one coming soon, when you get out of college and get a job and go “oh, who cares when someone graduated college, even if they started at the same time. We’re all just doing our thing now.”
Nothing to worry about whatsoever. My high school cohort and I ended up all over the world - some in countries with 3 year programmes, others in countries with 4 year programmes, others who dropped out or changed fields and started over.
I promise you that it does not matter. What matters is that you achieve your own goal of getting a bachelor’s, at your pace. :)
No. I swear it doesn’t matter.
I’m in Québec. Here we have 6 years of elementary school, 5 years of high-school, 2 or 3 years of Cegep (college) depending if it’s pre-university or a vocational degree, then 4 years university to get a bachelor’s degree.
I was pulled back from advanced math to regular math back in my last year of high-school because the teacher hated my guts for some reason, and had to redo my advanced math to get into Cegep in computer science. Then, when I graduated after 3 years, my degree wasn’t good enough and I had to go to university. At uni we had 3 semesters a year instead of 2 because it was an engineering degree and because of internships. But I worked in the summer to get some money to pay for my school expenses. Ended up finishing uni in 5 years instead of 4.
Yeah I got set back a couple of years, but it’s okay. And honestly nobody cares if you failed a year in high school. As long as you finish, that’s all that matters.
On your cv/resume, are you putting the month-year you started and finished college, or just the end month year, or just the graduation year? As time passes, it’ll be just the year you graduate. (Some day you might just say you have the degree from school name)
