Having doubts during your studies?

First of all, it is important that you acknowledge your doubts and deal with them in depth.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What are the things that play a role in my doubts?
• What makes me want to stay in my subject? What keeps me in my studies?
• What pulls me away?
• Can I influence the factors that pull me away—and do I even want to? What exactly can I do to achieve this?

For a first assessment of your own current situation, you can use the Student Self-Reflection Tool (SRT)External link. The tool guides you in analysing and reflecting on your own study situation in a structured way based on more than 20 factors. The assessment takes about 15 to 25 minutes. Afterwards, you receive feedback in the form of a PDF document, which you can bring along to a counselling appointment at the Central Student Advisory Service.

Talking to a neutral person about your own situation, doubts or uncertainties often helps. That is why we encourage you to make use of the personal and open-ended counselling services offered by the Central Student Advisory Service or the subject-specific academic advisors de. You can see who your subject-specific academic advisors are in our Study Programme Database (select your subject and go to the contact information section).

When you are experiencing doubts, turning to others for help is often not an easy thing to do. Too often, you will be trying to sort things out on your own, though friends and fellow students can offer valuable support. It is often enough to be able to talk about problems. In this regard, your studies are no different from other problems in life. Here, parents and relatives can also be an important source of advice.

If you prefer to seek professional help, there are many counselling options both at and outside the University. Professional distance often helps to get perspective on your situation. This can be very useful, especially when working out new solutions. Depending on the concerns, there are different points of contact, such as the Central Student Advisory Service, the subject-specific academic advisors de or different counselling centres at the student services organization External linkStudierendenwerk Thüringen.

This question is tricky, because it usually only becomes clear in retrospect whether a decision was right or wrong. Nevertheless, even in the current situation there are criteria that make it possible to make the right decision. What is important is that you listen to yourself and above all focus on the subjective things. The new thing should suit you and you should feel good about it. Reasons that are supposedly objective and that speak against your feeling are often not well-founded and only of a prognostic nature. This does not mean that you should not inform yourself! Being clear about what you expect from the new is crucial. What is important is to check whether the information and visions appeal to you. You can only draw motivation from attractive goals that you want to achieve; and this motivation is essential, especially when it comes to treading new paths.

One more tip: Don’t use your head to prove your gut wrong. It is actually easier to think about why the gut is right and why a decision is actually good.

The Federal Ministry for Education and Research also supports you in identifying your optionsExternal link.

Many students ask themselves—sometimes even throughout their studies—if university is or was the right choice for them.

Do you also sometime wonder if you are skilled and knowledgeable enough to study, or if a vocational training or an intermediate form (a dual study programme) would be better? There is no easy answer because every one of you has different prerequisites for studying. It can happen that the choice of a subject can have you question studying in general, even though the problem actually more rooted in the subject. Giving general statements about what skills and abilities you need for studying is difficult, especially because many competences can be acquired or improved during one’s studies.

So the question is perhaps rather whether you are motivated to improve the skills and abilities you may be lacking and what ways there are to do so.

Why not take a look at our course offer for students de? Talking to someone neutral, for example someone from the Central Student Advisory Service can help you get a clear picture of your situation.