What’s your biggest academic regret?

31 comments

1. Taking Electrical Engineering instead of Software Engineering.

2. Not studying properly?

3. I wish I had never taken English at university, as I’ve never used my degree. It would have been better if I had taken something like Accountancy instead.

4. I wish I would have used better judgement when choosing which college to go to

5. not graduating.

6. That I didn’t go into architecture/urban planning, I pursued an education in marketing.

   Nowadays I am working in an architecture adjacent field with little connection to my actual education. Architects and urban planners are surprised by me though, as I can discuss things with them on an equal footing. They naturally assume I have a formal education in the field but I am all self taught.

   The best compliment I have ever received and that I will cherish forever, was from a very experienced architect who told me he found my insight invaluable, because I am more open minded, than the actual architects who worked for him. He also encouraged me to go back to school and study it formally. I did not take his suggestion though, not until now at least.

7. Not going for a masters but at the same time I don’t think it would’ve helped. Just a thought

8. Pursing a masters degree….crushed all confidence, self esteem and im now anxiety and stress ridden and started taking medication for it and I still have issues not to mention sleep deprived.

   I view research as one of the most important jobs one can pursue as your literally on the edge between what is known and unknown and discovering new things but the work required and how unfulfilling it can be most of the time is brutal not to mention the constant expectations and supervisors always wanting more to put on your plate when your already at max capacity. You never feel off the clock as there is always something you could be doing in the lab or at home

9. I wish I’d taken more risks and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I had a really bad pre-calc teacher in high school, and it was a weird situation because she was the only pre-calc teacher. So if she was a bad fit for you, and you didn’t pass pre-calc (or in my case, just refused to color inside the lines for her) then you just didn’t get to take calc. Full stop.

   If I could do it all over again, I would’ve pushed myself harder to study math and physics in college. I really enjoyed physics, and I think I could’ve done a lot more if I hadn’t been holding such a grudge against math due to that one teacher. Definitely a case where I was only hurting myself.

   I guess on that note, I kinda wish I’d just colored inside the lines for that teacher. I found out that after I graduated that the pre-calc teacher was so hated that one day her cat died (she had no family, so the cat was kind of all she had and was her whole home life), she came in to school crying. Her first class of the day asked her what happened, and she told them that her cat died, and they laughed at her and spread it around the school and all of her classes brought it up and laughed at her.

   I feel kinda bad that I hated her for years after I left high school. We all hated her too much. I should’ve found some way to let go, and just do the work, and get on with my life.

10. Not going to Penn State after my mother and I drove all the way to visit the campus and I was like…nah.

11. Going to college. Biggest waste of time and money of my life.

12. I regret the whole university experience. With the exception of an internship, I have never worked in my field, instead I was an over the road truck driver eventually building it into a company. I sold it to satisfy terms of my divorce and I retired at 54.

13. I reckon I should have tried harder at university. Things have turned out well for me, but the skills I learnt in my degree are only very vaguely related to what I do for a living. Looking back, I’d have liked the opportunity to combine my science interests with a job that I do, rather than have it on the side.

14. Never went. No ragrets

15. Wasting my time with getting an academic diploma with AP courses instead of going vo-tech and learning something more useful.

16. Shouldn’t have tried to become a teacher

17. Missing the chance to make friends with other students in class from university due to being too shy and insecure to come to class

18. Not reaching out to more people in my college classes from day one. I ended up making a lot of friends but having them from the beginning wouldve been a lot better

19. Not graduating. Got to work temporarily instead… 35 years ago.

20. Being a goth at school.

    Got targeted by other kids for it which made me not want to go to school so I went to the park everyday from age 14 instead. Or when I did go I got sent home for fighting. Scraped through until age 18. Got into university (just). Dropped out to work in fast food after a week and ended up in debt for the next 10 years for that one single week.

    Had to essentially restart my education as in my late 20s whilst working a full time job and maintaining other adult commitments.

    I got there in the end but really regret not making the most of it when it was free and life was easier because I was too focused on looking like marilyn manson.

21. Avoiding asking questions in class due to low self-confidence and concerns about how other students might perceive me.

    Time wasting

22. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and got into my first choice university. During my frist year my girlfriend at the time j9ked that we should get tested for learning disabilities so we could qualify for additonal scholarships. I felt a little creeped out at her wanting to game the system lile that so I never did it.

    I barely finished my bachelors degree, struggled the entire time and spent the next 10 years thinking I was pathetic and laxy and wasting my potential. I can speak multiple languages, taught myself to play a half dozen instruments, sing, code, build machines and robots, but I can’t remember to brush or clean my room so I’m clearly lazy and just doing whatever the fuck I want.

    Then I went to therapy when it came to a head and I tried to end it all…turns out I had ADHD and Autism…I cried for weeks realising that I wasn’t lazy.

    Maybe if I’d been a little more selfish 10 years ago, I could have saved myself a decade of self loathing and letting down everyone that ever dared to take a risk on me because they believed in me. If I’d just known earlier, I might have been able to do more than just a bachelor’s degree that I just barely completed. Maybe I could have actually helped someone instead of stumbling through textbooks, jobs and relationships my entire adult life.

23. Going to university before getting put on my current medication and some recent breakthroughs in therapy. My executive function is the best its ever been (organization, planning, focus, memory) and I’m far better at tacking hard problems head on rather than avoiding them.

    Of course that is also something that came with time and the advancement of medication. So I don’t really regret it as much as I could if I dwelled on it. I just sometimes wonder if I should go back, then I think I’m probably a bit old for it these days.

24. Not trying. Grades came easy to me. I could always study at the last minute and manage Bs or Cs. So I never tried to do better. I never pushed myself to actually learn material being taught. I skated by and wasted 4 years.

25. I was a smart kid man. I had so much potential but I succumbed to the chaos of my life and stopped caring. Through most of middle school I just barely got by, I’d actually do all my homework and just never even turn it in id just shove it in my desk. And this cycle continued until the first week of 9th grade where I finally just said fuck this I’m not going back. Really regret that. I’ve become such a braindead Neanderthal. I honestly miss how much socializing I missed out on more than the academic aspect but still.

26. Not learning a second language. I had the choice of French, German and Spanish but smart arse 13 year old who knew everything did the bare minimum to scrape through a basic German course. (GCSE). If I could go back in time, I’d punch teenage me squarely in the face and tell him to put the effort in.

    Kids.. learn a second language, any other language. Pretty much everyone outside of the English speaking world manages to be bilingual so you have no excuses!

27. That I focused on academic subjects at A Level and went to University in the first place and not on a vocation that would lead to employment and financial security.

    Academia is a joke nowadays full of worthless degrees and people who think they’re morally superior to others. My opinion anyway, there are plenty of worthwhile things to study, there’s just a load of things that aren’t.

28. Going to University instead of into an apprenticeship. Most degrees are useless when it comes to the world of work, apprenticeships serve you much better.

29. Going to college, going to grad school.

    When you’re growing up as a literal kid, people will fill your immature mind with nonsense like studying = good. Working = bad.

    But only after all the rugs are pulled — parents don’t support you, no more financial aid from colleges and loans thar fund your living expenses….

    When uoure in the real world — you realize the end goal is to make money. That’s the reason you studied

    Welp, when uou get to industry, you realize no one cares about your grades. Some shithead who cheated and partied and got a 2.9 after graduating…. guess what? He’s literally your coworker now, making the same entry level salary.

    In fact, I saw it: in my last company, one coworker’s linkedin profile said he went to Vanderbilt, went the certification route, did research abroad and research during his summers off.

    But in the end he’s not even in management. He’s just a level iii, and the level i’s are all graduated from local state colleges with straight up just a piece of paper and no exp.

    It’s then your eyes are opened… education is a scam ponzi. They sell their shit to impressionable teens thinking the real world loves it. But it’s snake oil.

    The real world cares about your work experience and not if you took the heavily shilled higher coursework.

    And every year they add new majors and courses that professors think “are fun”

    And they have no real world value– it’s just the university trying to bring jn more tuition money. That’s why they started touting grad programs.

    If I could redo it all, I’d do what others suggested — just learn software engineering at home when I was 18 and land a tech job for xxx,xxx. Or some other technical path that wasted less years of my life.

    Or I’d go to a 4 year college and do the bare minimum to get that degree. Instead of studying and research, I should have just been out doing something fun.

30. Not going to therapy earlier so that I could get on ADD and anxiety meds so that everytime I take an exam, I don’t have a panic attack and forget everything that I studied

31. Choosing science instead of art by thinking that it would be more rentable. I mean, studying phisics was really interesting, but art was my true love and I ended up making a living out of it.