Bad GPA, advice on how to go on?

Parents Forum
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<p>(Note: this is a repost from another part of College Confidential, where it was not getting much attention.)</p>

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I'm a rising junior at Boston College. While it's a great school and I'm happy here for the most part, I've had some psychological issues that have really killed my academic progress. Granted, these issues always affected me, but I was afraid to speak up before college (as I falsely thought people would think I was "crazy" if I told them about my anxiety and such). Only now am I brave enough to seek professional help. (The issues are described in the "LD" forum here.)</p>

<p>But now I'm stuck in a rut. 2.7 GPA, 2.3 sGPA (yes, pre-med...). Yuck. I constantly feel ashamed, even though this wasn't really my fault.</p>

<p>Biology major, by the way.</p>

<p>I've always loved sciences, and I've wanted (not always that enthusiastically) to go to medical school, but I'm losing my enthusiasm as I'm trying to decide just what the heck I should do. Do I REALLY want to go into medicine anyway?</p>

<p>Sigh...</p>

<p>I've never had a strong preference, career-wise, anyway. I can't decide what I REALLY want to do. But I really want to get at least some type of graduate degree.</p>

<p>I always feel humiliated, as if I'll be stuck in mediocre jobs for the rest of my life.</p>

<p>A feeling of "purgatory"...</p>

<p>I'm seeking professional help, and I'm ready to take this on. How will I ever get out of this?</p>

<p>Give me some advice for how to go on with my life!</p>

<p>-Soarer</p>

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<p>Bump. Anyone there?</p>

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<p>Continue discussing your issues with your professional. There are many equally good, if not better, things to do with your life without becoming a physician. Even among those students who have much better grades most will not get into medical school. You are wise to figure out now that medical school is not the best choice for you. </p>

<p>Your school should have an advising service for career counseling. You should be able to take some interest and aptitude tests- maybe for free. These tests are independent of your issues you have been seeing someone for. They can identify fields you may be most comfortable/happiest in. Some tests compare your interests et al with those in given fields- they come up with best matches that show fields people like you do well in. Other tests show where your strengths lie- this may not be the sciences although you like them. Some of us like music and can’t carry a tune, or art but can’t draw…</p>

<p>Many students start college with the idea of becoming physicians- prestige and an advanced degree. Often this is one of the few fields they are aware of. You most likely took many of the usual premed courses but need to discover another direction. Your first two years were not wasted- you got a lot of breadth requirements out of the way. The social sciences may be your way of helping people.</p>

<p>You may make a great science teacher- a masters degree is usual in this. You may have writing skills and do science writing. There are many fields that can use your interest in science plus your other skills. You NEED to get the careers testing I suggest. The exact tests may have changed since some friends and I did it sophomore year in college, but I’m sure the evaluation process still exists and at all colleges.</p>

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<p>Congrats for seeking help. I wouldn’t recommend any grad degree until you know what you want (or unless it’s free!). I certainly wouldn’t recommend the expense of med school unless you’re sure.</p>

<p>A mediocre job doesn’t make you a mediocre person. Any job where you have the ability to learn, to grow, to contribute, can be valuable to you and to others. </p>

<p>I recommend you continue therapy and continue your degree (trying to bring your grades up). You’ve got a year and a half before you need to apply for work or a job. Good luck!</p>

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<p>I agree with GeekMom, don’t worry so much about grad school at this point. For one thing, it sounds like you have some challenges you have to work through, and it’s great that you’re getting professional help to do that. But you may need to give yourself time to work with your professional helper, so you can develop the skills that will support you in college and beyond. </p>

<p>But in addition to that, grad school is a chance to get specialized education in the field of your chosen career. And it doesn’t sound like you’ve chosen a career yet. Which is totally fine. You’re still quite young and you have some time to figure out what it is you want. Grad school will always be there, and going right away after graduating undergrad is not necessarily beneficial. For a lot of grad degrees, being able to contribute and share your professional experiences with your cohort makes you a much bigger asset to the program and allows you to also take away a lot more. So gaining some professional experience will definitely make it a much more meaningful experience for you. </p>

<p>In general, don’t worry about not having it all figured out right now. Almost no one does. Try to take some small, proactive steps to deal with your immediate situation. Work on setting good study habits for the upcoming semester. Visit your college’s career office and ask for suggestions about medical-field internships you might be able to pursue, or just information about other medical field careers. You may be focused on med school-doctor route, but there are lots of ways to be a medical professional that are not related to that. Have you ever considered occupational therapy or physical therapy? pharmacist? nursing? There’s as big world out there for you to explore. One step at a time.</p>

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<p>Congrats on going for help - that takes courage. Perhaps your counselor or the school’s careers office can arrange for you to take a job aptitudes test to come up with some possibilities? You might be happier at a lower prestige position doing something you really have an interest in than making more money/status and being miserable at work.</p>

<p>If you have anxiety issues, and even if you don’t, you need to REALLY want to be in med school to help you stay grounded when the academics and exhaustion can be overwhelming.</p>

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<p>Old thread, I know, but thanks for all the advice.</p>

<p>I’ve decided - GASP ! - that medical school probably isn’t for me. I’ll try to seek out some other field for graduate school.</p>

<p>My parents are fine with this, though I admit it’s hard to tell this to others (who were apparently “expecting” me to be an enthusiastic pre-med, I guess) while looking them in the eye.</p>

<p>Yes, the therapy is making some progress, though I’ve only had one appointment so far.</p>

<p>One thing that’s really bothering me now, though, is a certain family member’s guilt tripping about my academic progress. Let me explain:</p>

<p>Back when I was a senior in high school and knew NOTHING about colleges, majors, etc. (didn’t have a great “college counselor”, either), I applied to a bunch of different colleges. All I thought I was supposed to do was “go to the ‘best’ one you get into”. That’s how I decided on BC.</p>

<p>One of the others I was accepted to was URI Pharmacy.</p>

<p>Remember, I was young and naive back then, so I just thought I should forego URI Pharmacy for BC. All because BC was “better”.</p>

<p>Now, mind you, I didn’t exactly love URI, but it wasn’t that bad, either.</p>

<p>Fast forward a year. I get an embarrassingly bad GPA after my freshman year and literally couldn’t transfer anywhere. (Where it is now - that was actually because of IMPROVEMENT in sophomore year! That’s how bad it was.)</p>

<p>Now here’s the really bad part: a certain family member keeps telling me, “You won’t get to any good graduate schools anymore! (…even though I still have faith in myself) WHY DIDN’T YOU LISTEN TO ME and didn’t choose to go to URI Pharmacy?”</p>

<p>This makes me feel - to put it simply - like crap. I hate guilt trips, and it’s literally giving me nightmares.</p>

<p>What’s worse is that my cousins actually knew what they were doing (to me anyway, I must have some kind of inferiority complex) in terms of college applications and went to “lesser-named” schools, but those with engineering - which are actually “good” majors with or without graduate school afterwards.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, I’m stuck trying to get out of this “pre-med delusion” and pick up the pieces while I’m getting an earful.</p>

<p>I’m just trying to get on with my life. Sigh…</p>

<p>But did I really make a poor decision back then? How do I keep it from haunting me?</p>

<p>(Yes, if it seems like I have an inferiority complex, I probably do. But I need to vent.)</p>

<p>P.S. How do I really feel at BC? Meh, it’s just OK, kind of overpriced. I’m not really into the whole “school spirit” thing at this moment in time.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the update. Don’t let the turkeys bring you down. :)</p>

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<p>Tell said family member to go to URI Pharmacy school himself, if he thinks its so great! You weren’t interested. Case closed. You’ve been struggling, you’re depressed, and it’s a hard hole to dig out of, but there’s no one who hasn’t gone through hard, uncertain times…well maybe there is an occasional person who is so plodding that he or she never wondered about the other options, but really, you wouldn’t want to be that person at all. Reminds me of a friend I had whose grandmother kept telling her she should have stayed in the house, whenever anything bad happened. You wouldn’t have broken your arm if you stayed in the house. You wouldn’t have had a hard time at BC if you’d gone to URI…haha, no question about it. But who knows what your URI experience would have been.</p>

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<p>@ GeekMom63 and Gwen Fairfax</p>

<p>Thanks for the encouragement. @ Gwen Fairfax, you figured it right out that I am having false memories due to feeling depressed. Believe me, I didn’t actually want to go to URI!</p>

<p>But what is hard to let go of is the fact that I chose a “lame duck” major here at BC. (Biology.) If I don’t get into the graduate school of my choosing, whatever that turns out to be (believe me, I have to look at a lot more than medical school, and I’m starting to feel that med school MIGHT NOT be right for me!), I won’t have much to choose from. Reading the “Science Majors” forum on this site is downright depressing.</p>

<p>I am STRIVING to improve these last two years, so I can hopefully get into some - ANY - respectable graduate program.</p>

<p>I technically still have a chance to change my major before the end of the summer, but I would have to go through the whole shenanigans of core/entry level courses again if that were the case.</p>

<p>Besides, I can’t think of any specific major at my college that really speaks to me. I could minor in something, I guess, but I found out the hard way that taking five classes (as opposed to four) is very difficult for me.</p>

<p>Well, what does the College Confidential community think?</p>

<ul>
<li>Soarer</li>
</ul>

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<p>Soarer - good luck whatever you end up doing. There are tons of opportunities out there. If you decide biology isn’t the major for you, change it! You do not want to look back in 10 years and regret the life you may be stuck with. The best time/easiest time to make changes is before you get married and have kids. And maybe grad school right out of undergrad is not the thing to do. Work a little and get some experience under your belt. I have a friend who worked as an engineer for 15 years before going to med school. </p>

<p>BTW, you are going to a good school, talk to your advisor and take some classes that do interest you. Try to find a good fit. I knew what I wanted to do at 16yo. But, I also know lots of folks at 40 who still don’t know. Change is easiest in college. Do it now, take a gap year (BC probably allows it), figure out what you like.</p>

<p>good luck</p>

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<p>ooohhh Yeah! What mamom said - take a gap year. Get a job preferably in some sort of interesting bio field, but if not, just any entry-level job. Give yourself a chance to think. You don’t have to explain to people about your anxiety issues, but just say that you aren’t sure about med school and want a chance to think before going down potentially the wrong path.</p>

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<p>Well, a gap year might not be too bad of an idea. Tell me, will it affect graduate school admissions at all? When I search for “gap year in college”, all I seem to find is posts about gap years between high school and college - NOT what I’m looking for!</p>

<p>How the heck do I explain this to my parents, though?</p>

<p>See, I am more willing to live with waiting an extra year to graduate than I am with rushing out with a garbage GPA and a lame duck degree. I also want to take an aptitude test, but I still need to make an appointment.</p>

<p>I’m really not in a rush, to be honest! I feel like “starting over”, but I know that’s easier said than done.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I’m still trying to get over the past. I just can’t seem to shake this feeling of guilt that I’ve wasted my parents’ money (they are the ones paying).</p>

<ul>
<li>Soarer</li>
</ul>

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<p>Taking a year off won’t reduce your chances for grad school admission at all. If you use that time well, and return to your original college (or decide to transfer elsewhere) with a stronger sense about your life goals, it is almost certain that you will do better in your classes.</p>

<p>Now for a brief rant: Grad school is not just “college plus”, any more than college is just “high school plus”. If you do not have a definite goal for your life that absolutely requires a specific graduate degree, do not go to grad school! You will need much more dedication and determination to get through grad school than you need for your undergraduate degree. Think long and hard before you make that commitment!</p>

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<p>OK, so a quick question: if I decide to take a gap year, how do I find opportunities? (Once again, all of the sites I seem to see are for high school to college gap years.)</p>

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<p>I think the best thing would be for you to talk to your college career counseling office.
You could take a leave of absence for a year or so if you want, or if there is something else you could major in (after talking to the counseling office), you could try completing a degree, then work for a while. It won’t hurt your grad school; as several have pointed out already it could enhance your experience. And if by some chance you decide you really want to go to med school, it’s not completely ruled out either. The average age of the entering class at our med school has been above 25 for years, and I know of several people who have worked in labs/hospitals for 5 or more years before going to med school.</p>

<p>Oh, and at least one of those people had a degree in something like business/econ; took the required science classes part-time while working.</p>

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<p>

A gap year doesn’t have to be a formal gap year program that you pay for. It can be working at McD and thinking about what you want out of life. It can be working as a nurse’s aid in a hospital and seeing how you really like the environment. It can be any entry-level or volunteer job you (and your parents) can afford. It can be a year or two of Peace Corps or AmeriCorps, and they’ll help pay for college when you get out. Or I’m sure those high-school-focused programs would be happy to take your money, but I don’t think they’d be the best use of your time or money.</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, good idea. There are tons of opportunities in medicine/psychology, etc. that will utilize your science heavy background. I got my BSN and 6 years later after working as a RN went to law school. But I knew what I wanted by then. I agree, grad school is a whole “other animal”, and you need a solid plan in place for that level of committment.</p>

<p>Work in a hospital, clinic, free standing imaging center, urgent care, something along those lines, to see the options open for you!</p>

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<p>“My parents are fine with this, though I admit it’s hard to tell this to others (who were apparently “expecting” me to be an enthusiastic pre-med, I guess) while looking them in the eye.”</p>

<p>Why not? It’s no one’s business other than yours and your parents. It matters not one bit what aunts or grandparents or cousins think of your major or choice of school. It’s completely their issue.</p>

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<p>Update:</p>

<p>My parents don’t want me to take a gap year for whatever reason, but they will pay for an extra semester or two of college (pseudo-post-bacc, I guess) if I show an upward trend in grades that will significantly boost my GPA.</p>

<ul>
<li>Soarer</li>
</ul>