I’m a freshman in college and I pretty much hate it here. I have friends and everything, but I go to a really good college (like it’s one of the top colleges in the country), and I get so much work. I barely have time to eat with my friends during the week. I make a schedule for myself so I get all my work done every night and I literally have no time for myself. Last week I had to do work on Friday so that I could get it all done. There are weeks when I go to bed late and get up early so I can do all my work and I have to do work on Saturday and Sunday. I also hate that all my friends go to parties and crap every weekend. I’m all for trying new things, and I’ve gone to a few parties and made myself stay for at least half an hour, but I never have fun. I try to go to club meetings and stuff, but I almost never have any time for them, especially because they’re during the work. I’m so stressed out and tired (I can only sleep for 6 hours a night because I have so much work). I’m doing well in all my classes. I have A’s in all of them except Biology where I have a D and it’s stressing me out so much. I really want to go to medical school, but the bio class is so hard for me. I go to the professor and ask for help and I study for so much for the class, but I still do poorly on the tests. The class makes me feel like an idiot and it is making me so sad. I want to do medicine because I want to help sick people feel better. And to me figuring out what is wrong with a patient is like a puzzle and you get to figure out what is wrong with them. Plus I find Biology interesting, but I just do so poorly in it. I don’t know what to do.
Find something you enjoy doing and do it every day, if only for 30 minutes/day. Join groups of people who share the same interests. Keep plugging away, and worry about the learning, and let the grades take care of themselves. Remember, it’s not what you do in one course or on any one day that will get you in or keep you out of medical school. Keep doing your best and seek out your advisor and parents for their advice. You are not alone!
How many credits are you taking? Can you drop the bio class this semester?
College is hard. There is a thread in this section of the board where someone asked about social lives of college students, and the responses of well functioning students indicated that in order to do well sometimes the social life has to take a backseat. It is what it is. Sounds like if you could figure out how to deal with the Biology class problems that you might not feel quite so discouraged. Are there office hours, TA tutoring, academic support services and/or study groups that could help? Could you withdraw and retake it?
You are not alone. College done well is hard. If it isn’t hard, it is still steady working and being willing to jump through all the hoops put in front of you. You can do this.
Here’s a little secret: The magical life adventure college experience you see on TV and movies is a marketing gimmic. If you’re a STEM major/Pre-med, it’s not easy, especially the first two years. The large lecture science classes are the WORST because they are designed to weed people out.
If you really don’t like it, you’re at a point where you could probably change majors/programs without delaying graduation. Otherwise, you just have to grind it out and work.
A D in Bio is simply not going to work for medical school. Drop it and retake again from the beginning, if it’s not too late to withdraw.