UCLA Academic Dismissal - What are my next steps?

I've been through this. While I won't go into detail, I had mental health issues similar to yours during my first two semesters of college (right out of high school) and ended up being dismissed by the university due to poor academic performance. I ended up not going back to school for a few years, tried working different jobs, took a few classes at some CCs in the meantime when I felt like I was ready, and now I'm back on track at a regular uni and graduate in less than a year before heading off to professional school.

The reason I tell you this is because it's not the end of the line. Ours is not a unique situation. High school -> college is such a HUGE adjustment and if you already have underlying mental health issues they're likely to take a hit while you figure things out. And I want you to know that you're not a failure because of it. That's how I felt when I had to return home, ashamed and having felt like I wasted so much money and time. It gets better though, and you'll heal if you take care of yourself and keep on top of counseling, medication, etc. Give yourself time, and when you're ready to return to school you'll know.

Take a semester off if you can while you try to regulate your anxiety and (potentially) depression, because you'll be doing yourself a disservice piling on more pressure in regards to schoolwork right now. See if you can have those classes retroactively withdrawn due to mental health issues (I'm not sure what your school's policy is on that but you should be able to attempt an academic appeal) and you *might* be able to return to your original uni with a fresh start (ask your psychologist about it, they've likely dealt with similar adjustment issues before and know a bit about the appeal process).

As far as online classes go, I tried this right after I was dismissed from uni years ago, and it didn't help me in the slightest. If you had no motivation before with the in-person classes, online isn't going to help, because you have to kind of keep yourself on track and it's harder to do that without the routine of going to actual class. That said you may be different, just though I'd mention my experience with this.

I wish you the best and you WILL get through this. And it'll suck for a while but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck!!

/r/college Thread