Advice for an Undecided College Grade

Hi,
About a month ago, I graduated summa cum laude with a double major in women’s studies and sociology. I loved my degree program at first but became less excited about it toward the end of my college career, which solidified my decision to not pursue graduate studies in these fields (or at all maybe). I have absolutely no idea what I want to do. I thought maybe I could try something STEM related, so I enrolled in a chemistry class for the summer, and I’m already failing assignments in chapter 1. I’m beginning to realize that I have absolutely no passions or interests, and I’m worried I’m going to continue to work retail like I currently am for the rest of my life. I am not unintelligent; like I said, I graduated summa cum laude and from the Honors College at a good university and was even at the top of my class in high school. I just have no idea what kind of professional career I would enjoy or be good at, including the prerequisites to get to that. I am so burned out from school as well since I just graduated, so I think that’s contributing to my low scores in chemistry. I have been to therapy for this problem and resolved nothing. Can anyone lend some advice? Anyone been in this situation before?

What you are facing is relatively common.

I think that the best approach is probably to get a job and work for a year or two. This will give you time to experience the real work world, and to also “decompress” a bit. At this point “get a job” might involve something that you could have done without university, but it still will be a useful experience.

It takes most of us time to figure out what we want to do. You are obviously a very smart person. Over time you will figure this out.

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Your college should continue to offer career advising and job assistance for a year after you graduate. I suggest you take advantage of the service. They can help steer you to jobs that might suit you better. And remember, you are young. You don’t have to have it all figured out right now.

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Hey,

I’m an incoming college sophomore so I don’t really have any useful advice for you, but I wanted to ask what you did with your summers in college. Did you work retail? If not, were you ever in an internship? Is it possible to go back to that position?

Your major doesn’t have to define what you do.

Rather than thinking about what academic field you are interested in - since you’ve already graduated - I’d think about what kind work you want to do. Do you like to write? Speak publicly? Manage prorgrams or projects? Run a unit of a business? Numbers/math? Look into careers that require skills that you like to use. Try a career inventory like the RIASEC (there are free ones online, and also your college’s career center may have some).

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