<p>I think that it will be a big boost to your self esteem when you see that diploma in your hand! Don’t frit away another year searching for the “perfect” major. Just finish!! You will be happy you did.</p>
<p>@ bluebayou</p>
<p>GPA as a tattoo - eh, try telling that to a certain professor I had, who failed (and I mean completely) at college the first time around and is now one of the most renowned professors in his department in terms of both teaching and research awards.</p>
<p>For the naysayers - haters gonna hate. ;)</p>
<p>@ Blossom</p>
<p>I’d be interested in hearing your ideas, no matter how unconventional they are. Any feedback is valuable.</p>
<p>Yes, I have convinced myself that I WILL make the most of this degree. It IS worth a lot to me, even if others hate it. I’m not going to say “shouldacouldawoulda” anymore folks!</p>
<p>Medical school requires an incredible amount of lab work in the basic science first two years. With your dislike of the lab you wouldn’t survive even if you got in. As above- drop the medical school idea. Rethink a physics course unless required for your major. Drop the ideas of certain other majors because you think you might like them. As stated by many others, stop overthinking things and just get the degree. That BA or BS degree in any major will open doors more than doing 5 or more years of college without finishing your degree- you may put yourself in for an additional year of torture/unhappiness if you switch at this date.</p>
<p>Talk to someone in your college career center- all schools will have them.</p>
<p>What questions should I ask the Career Center?</p>
<p>My worst fear is unemployment…</p>
<p>Also, how do I get over “engineer envy”?</p>
<p>An example of my worst fear…</p>
<p>[Bachelors</a> degree in Biology, what can you do with it? - Career Advice | Indeed.com](<a href=“http://www.indeed.com/forum/gen/Career-Advice/Bachelors-degree-Biology-can-you-do-it/t132436]Bachelors”>http://www.indeed.com/forum/gen/Career-Advice/Bachelors-degree-Biology-can-you-do-it/t132436)</p>
<p>The Career Center asks YOU questions. What do you like. What are you good at. What interests do you have. You may want to take a standard vocational/occupational test (yes they are lame but occasionally they can give you insights into skills you have that you might not recognize.)</p>
<p>Then you look at the schedule of employers who are coming to campus this Fall and the career advisors tell you if you are qualified for any of the jobs that they are recruiting for. Banks, insurance companies, consumer products companies, ad agencies, bio-tech, State government, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t think envy of any kind is productive, let alone “engineer envy”. There are lots of engineers who hate what they do. Why envy that?</p>
<p>If you don’t read the Wall Street Journal regularly, start. Take the time you’re spending on this board and devote it to reading The Atlantic or New Republic, New Yorker or even Vanity Fair. Any publication with strong writing about a range of interesting topics. There was an article in the New Yorker a few months ago about the businesses which cultivate and breed better apples- tastier, crunchier, more flavorful, travel better. It was fascinating. I imagine someone with a bio major would be an attractive candidate for a seed company (Monsanto)-- sales rep, customer service, PR, Investor relations, marketing.</p>
<p>You need to get out of yourself and realize how many cool ways there are to earn a living and then figure out how to launch yourself.</p>
<p>You’re living in Boston-- one of the global hubs for the bio-tech industry. And you’re completing a biology major. Have you never put those together? There are companies all along Route 128 doing cool and weird things. There are major teaching hospitals within a 20 minute T ride away from you. There are Venture Capital firms and asset management firms throughout downtown, all of which hire people who analyze the health care industry and new drugs and new devices and new treatment protocols. There’s WGBH which is a pioneer in developing science programming for TV. There are publishing companies (admittedly a dying industry but someone still needs to develop textbooks and newspapers) and there is a zoo and an arboretum and an aquarium and a science museum and a children’s museum… and art museums and a museum of antique cars and libraries and archives and historical societies… and State and local/city government, and if you haven’t noticed, an election year where you’ve got one of the most interesting/expensive Senate races in the country. And you’re asking us what you can do with your life?</p>
<p>Get off the internet and start exploring what your life could look like.</p>
<p>I’d agree on looking at the teaching hospitals in Boston but you’d be better off using networks and contacts rather than going to the online job boards.</p>
<p>My son works in a department with 30-35 lab techs doing bio work. His overall organization is hiring about 50 people per week. Boston is doing moderately better than the rest of the country in that it has a lower unemployment rate.</p>
<p>Not every hospital job is a lab job. A friend of mine runs patient services in a large teaching hospital and has a degree in Hospitality. The spouse of someone I work with manages patient recruitment for clinical trials and came out of the hospital’s HR department. Hospitals hire people to plan events, write their employee newsletter/intranet, develop relationships with foundations and corporations for fundraising and affiliations, do market research on their “brand”, analyze their finances, figure out optimal staffing models (i.e. how many more janitors and orderlies will you need if you expand the pediatrics ward by 50%) etc. Not every bio major has to end up in a lab or as a physician.</p>
<p>Well, I know that there are a lot of jobs in a hospital. I worked in one for four years. But the group that my son works at does have a lot of lab techs - though he isn’t one of them.</p>
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<p>And THAT is a perfect example of someone who went to Plan B. But you also need to recognize that the academic climate was much different in the 60’s and 70’s than it is today.</p>
<p>Put the med school dream on the back burner. Graduate with as high as gpa as you can salvage, even if means taking some easy courses for non-science majors. (Finite Math or intro to excel, for example; others are Core science courses that are targeted to liberal arts majors, 100 level). Sure, they won’t count for your ‘major’ but you will recieve graduation credit and more importantly, an A.</p>
<p>If you can pull out a 3.0, you will position yourself for Special Master’s Programs. (But a 3.0 is sort of a floor for most good programs.)</p>
<p>In the meantime, graduate and get a job. Boston has hundreds of tech firm who need folks. Or hospitals. Start ANYwhere in a hospital and show them how valuable you can be. (This is why I asked you earlier this summer why you were wasting time shadowing docs; a better use of your time would’ve been volunteering at a hospital. You woulda made contacts that might have parlayed into a hospital job upon graduation.)</p>
<p>Ok, thanks again. Assure me, though, that many of those Route 128 jobs are NOT “lab tech” jobs - but something, ANYTHING else?</p>
<p>Also, I’d find working for Monsanto ethically objectionable.</p>
<p>But for everything else, my ears remain open! :)</p>
<p>(Even of the 128 jobs are entry level, which obviously they’d tend to be?)</p>
<p>Yes, I read the WSJ…</p>
<p>Get a life- stop posting here. There are so many better things for you to do with your time after so many good suggestions.</p>
<p>Nice comment…</p>
<p>Sorry, not in the greatest mood.</p>
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<p>Hah! You or anyone else didn’t stop me. Finally got a well-respected internship! Don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but after the crappy situations I’ve been through, is it wrong to feel like I’ve accomplished something at least?</p>