Dropping out is not the end of the world
ETH Zurich does not abandon its students. For almost all problems there is always a port of call, for instance an academic adviser or coach. However, the fear of failure is still considerable.
Anyone who fails their first year examinations is confronted with the feeling of failure, in most cases for the first time in their lives. At any rate, this is the impression that many students have. For them it’s a shock to their system, says Mirjam Kandler, Coach in the ETH unit “Student Orientation and Coaching” (SoC). Before going to university, most of them had ranked amongst the best in their high school and had easily passed all their exams. Then, things don’t go so smoothly, “The students suddenly question themselves and have doubts about their abilities.” This is something the coach knows from numerous conversations.
The goal of the SoC staff is to support students in their choice of courses and in their first phase of study, but also during any potential reorientation – if, for example, it turns out that they made a mistake when choosing their courses, choosing to study at ETH or even choosing a university career in general.
Mirjam Kandler and her SoC colleagues offer various activities early on to avoid students opting for the wrong course, only to drop out later. In their travelling exhibition “ETH out and about”, high school pupils can already gain an advance impression about what it means to study at ETH Zurich. To this end, ETH professors and students visit Swiss high schools, giving lectures and showing experiments from their respective disciplines. Furthermore, the SoC staff organises project weeks and study information days together with ETH departments. Anyone who is still unsure what about he or she would like to study can have the differences between the various subjects explained to them in a personal interview with a study adviser.
Speed and level too high
After registering for a course of study, the future students are invited to a “Prestudy Event” a few months before the term starts. This is where students find out what awaits them at ETH and what they should pay attention to when studying. They make contact with other future students and know to whom they can turn if they feel lonely or out of their depth.
The latter happens particularly in the first weeks at university. In most cases, freshers feel that the speed or level is too high when compared to school. Then the coaching team gives them tips, for example on how they can study more efficiently or how they can make contact with older students.
Finding alternatives
The coaches have to show a great deal of empathy when students fail their first year examinations. It’s all about listening and finding out what the problem is. However, it’s not about making suggestions, but about providing food for thought. For instance: what were the reasons why it didn’t work out? Perhaps the wrong study method? Did the job on the side take up too much time? Turning negative emotions into positive energy is the task of the coach. And in most cases they are successful. “Many students turn this ‘failure’ into a wake-up call”, Kandler knows. True to the motto “Now more than ever!” they pick themselves up and start again. Experience shows: years later, former students even say that failing an exam was all just part and parcel of studying at ETH.
If the second attempt to pass the first year examinations is unsuccessful, many students feel as if they have had the carpet pulled from under them. This is particularly true of the ones who don’t have a plan B and who have placed all their bets on a Bachelor degree”, says Kandler. In this kind of situation, the SoC coaches are important ports of call when it comes to helping and finding alternatives for the students. The student advisers offer support, particularly when the students would like to stay at ETH and switch to a different course of study. Or they help them to find a new pathway outside ETH, for instance at another university or a university of applied sciences. “For example, we advise the students to go and listen to a lecture, and refer them to the appropriate study adviser”, says Kandler.
Above all, it’s very important for them not to put pressure on themselves. Their path might indeed take them in a non-academic direction. Sometimes, it emerges in the course of conversation that the student from the start didn’t have the right motivation for a course of study. Perhaps parents were the driving force behind a decision to go to ETH. Deciding to withdraw from the course doesn’t mean that the student has failed, however. “It is important for us to put across the message that they can continue on their path successfully, even without a ‘university seal of approval’”, says the coach. Just how successful that can be has been demonstrated by numerous celebrities like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Steven Spielberg or Mick Jagger, who all decided against getting a degree.
The article was originally published in the current issue of Globe and was slightly abridged for online publication.