Bad freshmen year grades: Major? Grad School?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>I'm attending a top 15 LAC this year and will be a rising sophomore this fall. My freshmen year grades were not great and as of now I have a 2.27 GPA. I've gone through a lot of depression this year that hasn't seemed to stop. My mother's been in the hospital for a while in surgery, my family has had massive financial issues, I've had to work long hours to pay for college, not really meshing well with my college or the people and I've become pretty distant with all my friends in college given my circumstances. I know from the get-go that I chose the wrong college and was hoping to transfer out, but given my GPA that doesn't look like that's going to happen. I know I'm just going to have to face this situation head on and make do with what I have. I'd like a fresh start Sophomore Year.</p>

<p>I don't know what to major in. I don't seem particularly exceptional or adept at any particular field and I haven't really found a passion for anything I've taken this year and I took a variety of courses). I'm not great at Math or Science, but I have my heart set out on Economics with the intention of going to Harvard, Stanford or UPenn for Business School. Only problem is I'm not sure how well I'd do as an Econ major, it's hard to maintain a high gpa in this field at my school, but I'm trying to find something lucrative or somewhat stable to major in because I need to support my family. Anything science related is ruled out, I'm terrible at it.</p>

<p>I could major in something humanities related, perhaps Sociology or Rhetoric (I am a decent writer) but getting a job with these major doesn't seem as likely I hear but that may lead to a higher chance at a good gpa.</p>

<p>Long story short: Bad Freshie GPA last year, positive outlook this year. How should I go about next year in preparation for this year? Is a prestigious grad school still in reach?</p>

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<p>After two years at a good LAC with a 3.8 GPA, I transferred to a more affordable state school and screwed up my grades, getting a D, a C, and a couple of Bs. I took some time off, returned to school, managed to achieve a 3.9 GPA in my last year, which brought my overall GPA to a respectable 3.6. </p>

<p>I was an Econ major initially, but then I realized that becoming an economist would entail going beyond a Bachelor’s degree and doing math-heavy work, so I switched to linguistics. I just graduated. I don’t know how my future will work out, but I excelled in a couple of classes, and the professors promised to write me excellent recommendation letters should I ever decide to go to grad school. From what I’m told, GPA and GRE scores are important, but they’re not the deciding factors in grad school admissions; good recs and other non-quantitative things are. </p>

<p>Maybe you didn’t feel a passion for any of your classes because other things in life were too overwhelming? You briefly mentioned depression. Were you diagnosed? Something like that can seriously interfere with school.</p>

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<p>No, I was t diagnosed, I never thought of going through the process of seeking medical help, it’s really difficult for me to bring it up anyways.</p>

<p>My school is affordable, I just haven’t been receiving much financial assistance from my parents. I don’t think transfering to a state school would make much of a difference.</p>