"Washout" Thread

My husband and I are both PhD washouts from a B&M R1 university. He only did one semester past the masters (sociology) but I racked up 40 credits past my MS (experimental psychology) before I cut & ran.
I considered Walden (with UNISA as a close second) and went so far as to get admitted, enroll and buy books before backing out. I still think that they are the most "valid" of all of the online doctoral programs but an online PhD is not for me. I started classes at WNMU's MAIS instead (even though I have ALWAYS questioned why in the world people would get two master's degrees) in history and political science. I am loving taking classes in a different discipline than psych.
I'm going to apply to a different department at the same B&M university this year to complete. Feel very conflicted about it.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your washout stories. I'm psychcomm on PhinisheD, which is an excellent forum for doctoral students & recent postgrads.

 

I washed out of resident college and that's what pointed me to distance learning.

Caltech - Too ADD and not mature enough to handle enough courses. I also hit the wall in math at contour integrals and Greens&Stokes Theorem.

Cal State - I had to move for work and by the time I could get back I had lost continuous matriculation and the GE requirements had changed.

By the time I learned about Regents College (now Excelsior) I was so burnt out on course work I was ready to quit Cal State because of how long it would still take to get my degree.

Excelsior - When I looked at my own transcript my first guess was I qualified for a BS/L on the spot. Their official evaluation said I still needed one course. I chose carefully and got my degree before complete burn out. An extremely positive experience.

My wife - She was in an MBA program at AIU. After layoffs we could not afford to continue so she cashed in her coursework for an AA in Business. In the end a positive experience.

 

I washed out of Park University years ago. Their degree (BA in Information Systems) was something I was not really interested in, but decided to go there anyway. I got frustrated with how their classes were; 8 weeks, and finally left after 4 classes. I wanted 16 week classes to understand all the subject matter.

English Literature was my passion.

 

When we could no longer afford more courses (check out plenty of AIU discussions) my wife cashed in her MBA coursework for an AA. Now she has a residential Bachelors and a distance Associates.

When he decided to go into business instead of academia my nephew cashed in his PhD coursework for an MS. Now he's got two Masters degrees. Hmmm, maybe three. He was talking about getting a business degree.

It's a matter of asking, filling out an application, paying attention to how your courses map to degrees other than the one you are specifically targeting. It also matters if your institution offers a degree at all - My first residential college didn't offer Associates degrees at all so it wasn't an option there.

So if you're in a situation where you may need to drop out, be open to your options! Ask if your work can be applied to some other degree. An Associates/Bachelors/Masters/Certificate in the hand is work more than coursework in the bush.

 

Well, that certainly didn't take long. I've officially washed out of the Certificate in Business Administration program from K-State. Financial & Managerial Accounting proved to be too much for me. It was awful. Instead, I'm just going to take various psych & business courses as I see fit. My work is still going to pay for it (knock on wood that I survive the next round of layoffs), & in the end it might amount to something useful. I may not get that fancy certificate, but at least I'll be able to concentrate on courses that I actually LIKE!

 

Hi. I'm new here... I washed out of the University of London External Programme for a B.Sci. in Mathematics and Economics. I am not taking Calculus at a local community college and planning to apply for the Mathematics program at UIS.

 

I quit the Ph.D. Program in Religion at Bethany Theological Seminary. I was working very hard as a volunteer in a State Senate race which took up all my free time.

 

Was it an online or on campus program. Perhaps you can re-enter at a later date?

 

I think my time at Bethany was 1989-1990 or so. It was a pre-computer age correspondence course of study. Bethany is a Baptist School. I would much rather at this point study at a Lutheran institution, but Lutheran seminaries offer very little in the way of online courses of study. Still, I will keep my eyes open for something else someday. Right now, I do so much adjuncting in my spare time, I have little time for much else.

 

I washed out of undergraduate school back in the late 70's. I was a journalism major at Ole Miss. I'm now in the process of exploring programs at both Excelsior and Charter Oak--major not important, but I'm guessing it will end up being English Lit--and will enroll next year at whichever school offers me the shortest route to my Bachelor's degree.

 

Premed: game over. Physics is my brick wall, I dropped out yesterday.

 

Sorry to hear that Jennifer. Were you taking other courses at the same time or was the material too hard to grasp? Have never taken a physics course myself, so...

 

I dropped out of the master's program in Online Teaching & Learning at Cal State-East Bay after two classes. I tried to stick it out for at least the four classes required to get the Graduate Certificate first, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Now I think I've decided that a J.D. and two master's degrees are enough for one lifetime and will spend my time and money doing more fun things than take online classes. Probably.

 

You reached for it. That's admirable. Seems like I remember you have a pretty good fall-back option, though. Good luck!

 

You're so talented and driven I'm certain you'll bounce back into something great!

 

No, but at the end of the day, I lacked the mathematical intuition necessary to just function. For instance, if someone asked you how many minutes were in a day, you'd have to know
a) what a minute is/what a day is
b) multiplication and division
c) how many minutes per hour/hours per day
d) unit conversion forumulas
THEN you could answer the question. Yeah, imagine me in physics class not knowing what a minute was but someone showing me the forumula...and going "huh?" I had plenty of tools, including some great online resources and the Idiot's Guide, a tutor, and a really interesting text. I seriously am interested, but by chapter 2 I knew I was out of my depth. I could retry if I spent ~year just doing science type math. Being comfortable with all algebra and trig then the nuances of math rules only science people like to use- funky rounding rules, significant figures, everything in scientific notation, only metric, etc. I'm sure that seems pretty basic to anyone whose been through the gen chems or physics, but it gives me hives. I'm not even close.

 

Thank you, I do. I have acceptances to 2 nursing programs, I've likely made my decision. Now I won't have to wonder, so it's actually not bothering me like I thought it would.

 

Awwww, thanks

 

you mind saying which 2 schools the 2 nursing programs are ?

are they AS degrees ? BS degrees ? accelerated 2nd degree programs ?

I'm sure these nursing programs had prerequisites. Did you fulfill the prereqs with online courses or "in-class" courses ?
if online, where ?

I just did A&P and Mirco online at Cayuga Community College | Home Page They also have nutrition online. I haven't been able to find a chemistry online that anyone will accept.
I'm not even sure sure how many nursing schools will accept the cayuga A&P and micro credits.
New York University definitely won't.
Columbia University will.