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University courses are getting ever stranger. It’s possible to study subjects like Zombies and David Beckham these days. But then, it would seem that university courses are losing favour on the whole. Statistics show that applications for university courses are down 9 per cent for 2012 compared to 2011. Besides, The Independent reports that over 28,000 of the 2008/09 student intake dropped out of university in the UK. But is dropping out such a bad thing? Three successful ‘drop-outs’ prove not.

Reasoning

As much as it doesn’t look good on one’s CV, hanging in to the end may not seem worth the cost or the effort for some students. Some students drop out because they feel that their academic expectations are not being met. Others realise that they haven’t made the correct choice.

Students may also decide to leave because the university of their choice isn’t a good fit for them on a personal level. They may not feel at ease with their fellow students or with the university staff. Others believe that their studies aren’t going to help them with their future plans.

Dropping out may be the best decision for some people. The Independent sites Jon Snow, Carol Smillie, Simon Callow and Bill Turnbull as examples of successful ‘drop-outs’.

Carol Smilie

Carol Smilie, a TV presenter, went to Glasgow School of Art where she spent the first year wondering if that’s what she wanted to do: ‘There were people with green hair and pink shoes. I got a job in a really nice cocktail bar. Then I took up modelling, which fitted around my study time, much to my parents’ horror.’

Her tutor liked abstract art and she didn’t. Another tutor told her to stick with modeling saying, ‘You can do your art at any time.’ She left at the end of the first year: ‘The stuff that I do now is life drawing and portraits – purely for my own personal pleasure.’

Jon Snow

Jon Snow, a news anchor for Channel 4, enjoyed Liverpool University where he was a union executive. He had no idea what was just around the corner though. He explains: ‘There were a number of issues that I got involved in, pre-eminently investment in South Africa. The university authorities more or less said: “If you want to occupy the Senate House, the door’s on the left.” Two and a half thousand students walked through it. I was sent down for a year, the most lenient sentence. I never went back.’

Simon Callow

Actor Simon Callow took up full-time acting while at Queen’s University in Belfast ‘with the occasional glances at a textbook.’ He then switched from French to English to avoid what seemed like too much hard work. Although his teachers were excellent, he knew that he would never learn to become an actor in the company of his peers. ‘At the end of my first year, I was off to drama school, which changed my life.’

Tags: career, education