I started off in undergrad as a bioengineering major. Then, I eventually made a switch and decided to do chemical engineering. After 3 years of undergrad, my GPA is struck at a 2.2 because of plenty of mental health and personal issues with little to no internship opportunities. My parents, who were a cause of almost all of those issues, want me to finish my bioe degree.
Given the circumstances, I have two options: 1) Graduate next year against the will of my parents with a cheme degree. Problems: I have no idea if I’ll get a job with no experience and bad gpa.
2) Do a double major in cheme and bioe. I know it sounds kind of like a lot… it is… but because I started off as a bioe as a freshman, I would be able to finish in two years (one more year than just the cheme degree by itself). Ideas: it would help me get my gpa up, find internships and who knows, maybe finally satisfy my parents.
I need honest advice. I am completely inclined towards the second option, because it seems to make sense in the situation, and I don’t know how hard it would be to get a job with the first option. Given the circumstances, what would you do?
With a 2.2 GPA you will almost certainly not find a job in engineering unless you have something else exceptional acting in your favor - a family connection, exceptional research, patents, etc. Furthering your education after graduation would be exceptionally difficult as well, as second bachelors are hard and expensive to get and graduate programs will not want to touch you without significant time and experience in the field… which will, as mentioned previously, also be hard to get.
You are in a difficult spot, and you have only two ways out that I can see:
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Delay graduation until you can raise your GPA to a hirable level. This WILL require a lot of additional coursework (so a second major might actually help you here) but before that you will need to address the myriad of issues that lead to the 2.2 in the first place.
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Get out. Seriously, get out. I say this as someone who flunked out of college and went back later, successfully. Graduating with a useless degree and no prospect of getting back in is worse than dropping out of college now and preserving your ability to return later with the prospect of a clean slate. Check with your school, they may (as mine did) have a rehabilitation program that will readmit you after some time with a clean slate. If not, you can try again elsewhere.
Regardless, address your issues before doing anything else, even if it requires a leave of absence. Good luck!
A quick rough calculation tells me that even with 2 more years getting straight A grades wouldn’t raise his GPA over 3.0. If I was him, I’d take option 2 and get out, saving a lot of frustration and money. His prospects of getting good grades, given that he hasn’t learned the material sufficiently yet, is poor.
The OP needs to learn to separate his personal life from his student/work life. Life throws you all kinds of curve balls (marriage, kids, etc.) and you need to be able to put that aside and present yourself for class/work to do the job you are being paid for. An employer may be sympathetic to your personnal issues but they are charging a customer for a certain quality of work.