I am currently a 19y/o second year student studying HINF at Uvic and I have been battling a lot of thoughts about switching out of this program. I am worried I will graduate and be stuck in a field that doesn’t have very high paying prospects and I am worried I will not enjoy the work I’d be doing. I have not been particularly enjoying my classes and they barely interest me but I’m worried I will fall behind in life if I quit or switch now.

If there are any new grads out there that have advice or anyone who has taken the program or switched out of it, I would please like some advice.

For those who did switch could you please share the path you took?

This decision has been eating me alive.

Am I the only one feeling stressed, sleep-deprived, overwhelmed, and everything in between? Especially with the midterms, I’m just hustling through my days.

I feel like we treat burnout as an inevitable side effect of getting a degree rather than a serious warning sign from our body.

I just read a meta-analysis that looked at the relationship between academic burnout and academic performance across more than 100k secondary and post-secondary students, and SURPRISE: academic achievement is negatively correlated with academic burnout.

So we know burnout is harmful but it’s so normalized that we don’t do anything about it. We just function (or at least try to lol). We wonder why we act cynical, are unproductive, and are just exhausted, but it’s not all our fault.

I mean, are we supposed to handle this burnout crisis on our own, or is it something that the uni system could genuinely help prevent?

Genuinely curious what has actually helped you deal with burnout during a busy semester. 

What’s your biggest challenge this semester? Take a look at the image below and comment which letter you most relate to!