Have you considered taking the AIMS Test in Dallas? My kids took it and it was very helpful!
@happymomof1 In this case, as long as I’m affiliated with a university and not just withdrawn, I’m considered a student.
@AggieMomAgain After taking the aptitude tests, I’m aware of what interests me and where my talents lie, my biggest problem is figuring out how to translate that into a career. And the reason I struggled wasn’t because of external factors or too many activities. A&M wasn’t exactly my first choice, but I originally wanted to be a vet and was offered a sizeable scholarship so I felt it was the best place for me. My social life was alright. I’m not much of a partier so I wasn’t one to stay out all night and neglect my studies. My issues were due to the fact that I have a very hard time focusing and keeping my concentration on one thing. My mind is kind of all over the place so I have trouble staying on track and remembering the things I learn. This may sound like an easy problem to solve, “Just work harder”, but I was working to the best of my abilities and really seeing no results. I’ve been dealing with this since childhood and only managed to achieve such high grades because I had my parents keeping me on track and access to one-on-one tutoring. Going to college made me lose that support system with little to no knowledge on how to compensate for it so things didn’t exactly work out. That, coupled with the stress I felt knowing I had the scholarship to maintain yet not being able to make the grades I needed really made things difficult for me. I think I have ADHD (even while writing this, I’ve gone to 9 different tabs for completely unrelated reasons) but have never been diagnosed so I can’t really do much about it. Part of my semester off will be spent looking for a diagnosis and treatment because, no matter what path I choose to take, I can’t do it if I’m not functioning at full capacity.
@JenniferAggie91 No I haven’t, but I might look into it.
Since your plan is to seek formal medical evaluation, then you might take a medical leave from TAMU. Consider that option as well.
@voovue You are in my neck of the woods. UTA is where my D ended up. She needed more close support than where she was oos as a freshman. My D actually was medically withdrawn second semester freshman year for severe depression. Lots of factors contributed to this, including a bad bout of pneumonia and emergency surgery during finals first semester and was very ill. The whole second semester was lost and only 2 of 5 classes transferred from first semester. UTA didn’t have the major she was in when she started fall 2016, nothing sounded exciting, so her dad told her to get a business degree. Spent a year taking business classes and did very well but wasn’t really in to it. In the spring, she was inadvertently exposed to a major she had never considered, it spoke to her. and she decided to change her major at the end of semester. Took some summer school classes and is excelling this fall and truly feels she has found her place.
Her bother has struggled as well in that he has such an eclectic love of many things. As a freshman, time management was not his friend. He was a national merit commended. He took the SAT cold one time and thought that was good enough. He wasn’t interested in studying for it and doing better to try to make SF or Finalist. He was busy with his other interests. In college, he had to learn that he could not spend as much time on the hobbies as his classes required and he didn’t always put the class work first so when he got to it, it took a lot more time than he thought/had allowed and it bit him in the behind a time of two. Since we are not paying A&M for him to play at his hobbies, he realizes what he must do and has actually incorporated one of his hobbies/talents into his major. Best of both worlds. It just wasn’t exposed to that opportunity last year.
I know you can and will persevere through this struggle. It may not change overnight but you keep working at it and if that path is determined not to be the right one, change it. Just keep working towards it. Persevering though the struggle makes us more resilient and more can be revealed on the other side in walking a path or blazing the trail.
@happymomof1 I’m actually planning on just leaving A&M altogether. I don’t really see the point of staying there and floating between majors when I don’t really know what I want.
@Thelma2 Things have gotten really difficult and very complicated for me, going from a National Merit Finalist to someone who has no idea what she needs and can barely keep her grades up. Things at time seem impossible, but I’m definitely not ready to give up and I’ll keep drumming along until I find something that works.
Even though you have no plans to return to A&M, it is worth asking your health insurers if being on a formal leave of absence from A&M would mean that you can keep your health insurance. That way you don’t have to be admitted anywhere else or jump through the admitted-but-not-taking-classes-yet hoops that you describe above.
Many, many people take leaves of absences and then never go back.
@happymomof1 I’ve already been admitted and I figured this way would be easier because I plan on going to TCC anyway and, after my semester off, I can immediately enroll in classes.
Howdy @voovue
I’m a freshman at A&M and I probably am not the best person to give career advice.
Presently I am a mechanical engineering major and a part time filmmaker and I can say I love both fields despite them being very different. I have a ton of other things I like to do like reading, designing, song writing, planning, etc. Ultimatly most of those things could be found in film-making or in engineering so I decided to try both. However, I never would have known soley from my course work; you need to physically try a career to some extent to actually have a good idea of if you like it or not. For engineering I did took an externship and field trips and for film I worked on feature film shoots.
That’s why I think when it comes to choosing a career, the easiest way to find some is to ask yourself : What am I good at? What do I like to do ? Can either of those things physically produce something for someone else? If so, there is likely a career for it so you can select your major based on the end goal career.
When you get to TCC visit UTD’s departments with programs of studies you are interested in. Don’t just take the semester off, but also look at careers that align with some of your interest though shadowing or volunteering . You likely won’t get another chance like this except during the summer!
Good luck !
@lessonwitch2 Thank you for that advice! I was planning on just working and taking a survey of what interests me, but I think it would be a good idea to look for some volunteer activities during the break. I honestly didn’t think of that.