<p>My son goes to a large (46K students) university and is starting his 3rd year. He started as a Zoology major, thinking that he would go on to Veterinary school. He's very capable and intelligent but he keeps failing some of his science classes and his GPA is now a 2.0. College has been a tough adjustment for him from the beginning. First, he battled homesickness and depression. He was losing weight, not sleeping, and generally miserable. I took him to counseling, he joined an intramural sports team, met a few friends, they rented a house together and things started looking up, although he still had doubts about his chosen major and had to go to General Studies since he couldn't remain in the College of Science with such a low GPA.
Three weeks into the new school year, his roommates got arrested for dealing drugs and are now awaiting trial. Needless to say, that threw him into a tailspin. Now he's not only questioning his choice of friends, college and major, but he will have to move again and try to make new friends. He wants to switch majors to Psych but is having trouble connecting with a good career counselor at school to help him find direction.
I'm afraid he's going to throw in the towel one of these days and I'm trying desperately to help him. Any advice out there?</p>
<p>That is really tough. 
I don’t have any comments, except that I’ve heard it is very, very, very difficult to get into veterinary school . . . harder than getting into med school. I am not a vet pre-major myself and so I don’t know if he has a shot of still becoming a vet with that GPA, but it’s something you might look into. I hope he finds the right path for him, whatever it might be.</p>
<p>His university has a counseling center. Urge him to go. They offer psychological counseling to help him deal with his depression and career counseling to help him find his path.</p>
<p>From what little you’ve told us, it sounds as though his depression needs to be dealt with before he’ll be able to achieve academically as well as make and sustain good relationships. I’d concentrate on that first, even if it means he needs to step out of school for a while. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you both for your replies, they are very helpful.</p>