I myself did. I've always found it puzzling that the English Language doesn't have a special word to distinguish those who drop out to work/pursue another path, and those who drop out because of poor academic performance. Please, news outlets, don't compare me to Steve Jobs.<p>I'm looking to go back to school, but I still don't know what I want to pursue. I'm looking for inspirational stories about people who went back to College after their first time didn't work out due to bad grades.
I lost the will to continue and grades were bad. I had about 1.5 semesters left. I worked for several years and then felt I needed to finish (math major , minor CS) only I had to change schools. The new one did not recognize any of my “prerequisite” courses from the old school. So instead of needing to take a hand full of classes I had to take an extra year worth of filler classes. I was going at night part time so this took years to do. I finally finished and within a short time I was promoted and my salary was doubled. Be young that many other doors opened much more easily. I had not been thinking that the lack of a degree was a big hinderance, and I’m in no way suggesting that lack of a degree makes you less skilful. It just appears that having the degree meant more to others than I expected. What I found on this journey is I was a lot more focused the second time around. Compared to work, school was easy and actually enjoyable.YMMV
I dropped out of Stanford in my senior year because I couldn't continue to ignore the negative effect that severe ADHD had on my classwork. While I did come back and graduate a few years later, my PhD ambitions were in ruins. While I spent over two decades working my way up to a junior research position, I never overcame my lack of graduate education. Perhaps I would have done better to re-asses my goals and select a new career, but my drive to overcome my feeling of failure by attaining my original goal got in the way of choosing a better course. You are right to give new thought to where you want your career to go.
<i>special word to distinguish those who drop out to work</i><p>We say those students are "on leave." Gates and Zuckerberg often
commend Harvard for its flexible leave policy. Given Harvard's
overambitious undergrads, the bureaucratic overhead of granting a hiatus
is a small price for the glory-by-association of a potential Microsoft
or Facebook. <i>Come to Harvard. Even if you don't graduate, you'll be
rich and famous!</i>