Why do so many young people regret their choice of studies?

“I couldn’t project myself into any hospital service. Nothing made me want to continue, I had no passion, ”recalls Cécile, 23. Arriving at the end of her nurse studies, she realizes that she is not being exercised this profession. The hospital world stresses, healing does not motivate it, to be confronted with diseases and injuries depresses it every day. It is one of the 54% of young people between 18 and 24 who regret having made bad orientation choices for lack of information (1). They become more or less quickly aware. After a year of studies, almost one in five students registered on Parcoursup changes training (2).

Cécile realized that she had never taken the time to know what she really wanted. “In high school, as I had too weak results to go to the general sector, I went almost by chance to the ST2S technological bac (sciences and technologies of health and social),” she recalls. In the final year, at the crucial time of wishes on Parcoursup, she thinks that Infirmière is the only possible way. After “hung” for three years, she became aware of the dozens of possibilities that were nevertheless offered to her. “I regretted that we did not have more information in high school,” she says.

Rhyme, she considers herself a victim of the “good student syndrome”. In view of her excellent notes at the Lycée Benjamin-Franklin, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, she decides to go to the preparatory class. For his teachers, this is the best possible orientation. “I chose according to their eyes and their requirements,” she analyzes, a path tinged with spite. Finally, she joined the Faculty of Law after a year of preparatory class, put off by courses “disconnected from the concrete” and “too competition”.

“Young people only look at the goal and not the way to go”

Some have however matured their decision. Luc’s dream, 22, was to become a physical preparer of football teams. On Parcoursup, he only asks for STAPS licenses (sciences and techniques of physical and sports activities). He gets them all, and chooses the best, in Orsay (Essonne). But after three years of study and several internships, the young man ends up abandoning, discouraged by the distance between the trainer and the team during competitions, precariousness of employment and the lack of weekends and free evenings.

“It is very difficult to position yourself in the face of the dreams of young people,” says Philippe Beuchot, principal of the Carnot high school, in Paris, and deputy secretary general of the Snupden-FSU, one of the unions of school leaders. “It is not an exact science. Sometimes we try to discourage them from following their dreams, and finally they were right and succeed very well in the superior, ”he explains.

Sometimes it is the content of studies that poses a problem. The lessons are too difficult, not interesting enough. Sylvie Amici, president of the Association of Psychologists and Psychology in National Education, criticizes an official discourse too centered on the outlets of the training. “Young people only look at the goal, and not at all the way to go to get there,” she notes. We must not do the right to be a lawyer, but do the right because we like it, and perhaps that we will become a lawyer, “comments the psychologist of national education. Registration in unsuitable training lowers lower success rates. Among the students registered in license in 2020, only a third has its diploma in 2023. In the remaining two-thirds, 5% reorient, 37% leave the university and 34% redoubled (3).

Lack of means and information

In addition, young people find themselves today in the face of a particularly complex choice to make. “Fifty years ago, when you were the son of a worker, you were a worker. Today, everything is possible, ”sums up Marie Duru-Bellat, a sociologist specializing in education. The student has hundreds of possibilities in front of him, which he must select according to his supposed tastes and capacities. The relationship to work has changed too. “The company is increasingly designing the professional universe as a place of self -development,” notes Sylvie Amici. With such a wait, we are faster dissatisfied ”.

Support by a third party is particularly important. At the end of the nurse school, Cécile meets an orientation counselor found thanks to word of mouth. The professional directs her to the profession of interior architect, to which she reoriented herself. “Little, I was drawing my room a lot. I virtually redeveloping the pieces as soon as I went somewhere. She put words on my passions, ”says the girl, still grateful. These information and support times have been organized since 2015, from the college, as part of the future of National Education. He “must allow each student to understand the economic and professional world” and “to know the diversity of trades and training”, but remains insufficient. 47% of young people say they have not had all the information necessary in college and high school (1).

In question, the lack of means. “Our National Education psychologist has only three half-days per week for our high school in 2,000 students,” sighs Philippe Beuchot. The principal teacher is responsible for following his students, “but does not have overtime for this,” said the principal. His investment is therefore variable, according to his personality and his possibilities.

Learn from course errors

Young people need more support, but also more concrete. Experiences are often much more useful than Onisep brochures – an official information site on studies and trades well consulted by students. Luke, after dropping his future physical trainer career, reread his career. In college, he had been a youngest civil security with the firefighters. Then in parallel with his studies, he became a rescuer for civil protection and rescuer at sea. “I saw what could really please me: to feel more useful, to save people,” he said. At the start of the 2025 school year, he hoped to join the 7th regiment of training and intervention of civil security.

Small jobs, internships, meetings with professionals, or learning, much appreciated by students, help to know each other better “in conditions”. And sometimes, the “course errors” are necessary to live these experiences. Pasters exist between training to make these detours less penalizing. A student can for example enter directly in the second year of license in a field close to his first year. It can also branch off to professional studies or post-baccalaureate schools.

Alas, these solutions are little used. Often, there is a lack of places in the training where the student would like to redirect. Young French people are very stressed by their orientation – for almost half of them, concern was the first emotion felt when they started to think about it (1). Giving a real right to error would surely soothe them. Finding your way sometimes takes time.

1) OpinionWay survey for Edumapper, June 2025.

2) Dorian Vancoppenolle, Parcoursup data between 2018 and 2023 on rewriting after a year in the superior.

3) Sies, Ministry of Higher Education and Research.