<p>I just finished my sophomore year at my southern college. Freshman year first semester was ok. Second semester was absolutely terrible for reasons we wont go into. Finished the entire freshman year with a 2.99. Had a positive start this semester and was going pretty strong at first. Was taking two of my pre-med classes: Bio and Organic Chem. I was acing them up until the very last month. The material got hard and I couldnt do it. Ended up making B's in both of them. Now I only have 3 pre-med classes left and my pre-med GPA is barely a 3.0. These two classes were supposed to be A's and they were supposed to push my GPA up. It's my fault of course. Not blaming anyone else, but its still very frustrating. So now I have a bad GPA and still have no idea what to major in and I absolutely hate my college. I know i want to be a doctor, except i am also really really interested in engineering. The subject itself seems so cool and i would love to study it as an undergrad. I came in as biology but i think i would much rather do engineering not because its a good back-up plan, because i am truly interested in engineering. One problem: My school doesnt have an engineering program and my GPA probably wont get me into the engineering school nearby as a transfer. I am just physically sick of this. I cry every single day/night. I just want to drop out of college and never look back. I dont even know why i am here and why i am taking the classes im taking. The thought of having to go back to my school next semester makes me wanna cry....again. anyone have any advice?</p>
<p>If I were in your situation, I’d consider taking a semester or year off and just work and think about what you really want to do. There’s no reason to pay to take classes you hate and aren’t helping you.</p>
<p>By any chance do you go to Emory University? There are plenty of less competitive state flagships that would gladly accept you as a transfer into the engineering department. Some of them are in the South, while others are in the Mountain West. Depending on how much financial aid you get, some of them might be cheaper.</p>
<p>You should transfer to a Community College to raise your GPA and then transfer into a college of your choice. CC’s generally have much more lenient teachers and MUCH smaller classes so you may really enjoy it and it should raise your GPA. </p>
<p>Hard to be helpful with limited information. We can try to guess what school the OP attends and suggest the cooperative programs with Tech or possibly Southern Poly, but agree that perhaps a semester off is in order, or attending a less rigorous school , as was also suggested, to pull up the GPA (assuming they will be accepted by a school to which you plan to return) to step back and regroup.</p>
<p>One of my s’s thought he wanted to go into medicine. Took all the premed courses and did well. But realized it wasn’t what he wanted, even though he first though he really did, and is now a very happy, employed engineer.</p>
<p>Please go see a mental health counselor as soon as possible. Your school no doubt has one. The fact that you are crying every day strongly indicates that you are depressed. It is very hard to make decisions or think about the best way to deal with tough situations when one is depressed. </p>
<p>The suggestion about taking time off is a good one, but based on my experience, your first priority should be counseling, either at your school, or, if you drop out, via a community mental health clinic or a referral by your family physician. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Hi guys.
Thanks for all your responses. I can’t go to a cc because I’m pretty much done with all my core classes so there would be nothing for me to take there. I can’t transfer to Georgia Tech because like I said my math/science GPA is not so good. The school im at really isn’t that hard or rigorous in terms of work. I just had a really rough semester freshman year and it’s hard to come back from that. It caused me to lose my scholarship which made my parents super mad, and rightly so. I did alot better this semester, but that doesn’t really help considering I made B’s in my science classes. Oh and I go to a flagship state university.</p>
<p>Point of clarification- if you are attending a state school near tech, it would be a state school but not a flagship, as UGA , the flagship, is about an hour and a half or so away. Can you clarify?</p>
<p>From what I gathered, the OP goes to either UVA or UNC Chapel Hill (I don’t believe any other Southern state flagship doesn’t offer engineering). Since NC State is only about half an hour away, I presume OP attends UNC Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>Science GPA can keep going up if you take more science designation classes. It is not limited to what is set by premed core but expanded based on any additional classes you take based on Math, Bio, Physics and Chemistry.</p>
<p>To focus on the medicine angle, how is it you know you want to be a doctor? Have you done volunteer work in a medical setting? Or is it just thinking that it would be a job that is a fit for you?</p>
<p>Here’s why I asked. If there really is some solid experience behind your desire to work in medicine, as opposed to just thinking that it is something that would be right for you, then there is no reason to give up! Medicine is a huge field and there are all kinds of jobs in it. Jobs with different education and training requirements. When you come to these boards, if somebody is interested in medicine it’s always “I want to be a doctor”. Probably that’s because most HS kids can name very few careers in medicine other than being a doctor, just as few can name many jobs in the business world.</p>
<p>From reading your post I get a sense that what you’re going through is “I don’t have the grades for getting into medical school, now what to do with my life?” That you don’t have any direct experience in the medical area. But if I’m wrong then it’s time to start exploring some of the other career avenues in medicine. And in fact many doctors would say that in retrospect they wish they had done a different branch. It takes 7 to 10 years or more of training after college to become a doctor! There are many well-paying jobs in the medical setting that require a fraction of that.</p>
<p>I agree with the above post. If you want to work in the medical field, there are scores of other things you can do besides being a physician, and many of them involve direct patient care. Nursing - especially becoming an advanced practice nurse - is one of them; you could also be a physician assistant. There’s also stuff like occupational or physical therapy. Although getting into these allied health fields is competitive, they’re not nearly as competitive as medicine - but they can be just as rewarding, and the pay is good.</p>
<p>Another thing is that you don’t necessarily have to give up on medical school. Many people come back from a low GPA to get into medical school - maybe you do a post-baccalaureate research program at the NIH, or maybe you get an MPH or a master’s in an allied field (here at my Ivy university, the master’s in nutrition was a big feeder for medical school hopefuls because it was only one year, but a lot of my friends in the MPH program were also pre-med hopefuls who worked for about 2 years and then did the MPH). Maybe you retake some of your pre-med classes to get higher grades, if you got Cs, or take more advanced versions of them. There’s no law saying that you have to go to med school right after undergrad, and increasingly even more competitive students are taking time off. I have two RAs right now who are pre-med and are planning to take at least 2 years off: one is going TFA and the other is trying to do consulting.</p>