Hi all. Im 22 years old. It has always been my dream and still is to be a adolescent counselor. I have an associates in psychology and have 6 or 7 classes left in my bachelors in criminal justice. Im currently not in school because I had a baby. But I feel like I cant bear to go through one more criminal justice class. Im just not interested and my grades and gpa are starting to show it. Im thinking when I do decide to start school again I should change my major. Is that a bad idea? Should I literally force myself through 7 more classes I dont even want to log into and show no intetest or go through 1 1/2 -2 years of a new major I actually enjoy? My ultimate goal was to have my masters by 26 years old but ivr come to terms that just may not happen. I want to be happy with my studies not just get by. I know i want my masters but cant get there with no bachelors and I just really cant finish this one. Im literally points away from failing classes because im not intetested, cant get interested and just dont care.
If you want to be an adolescent counselor, why are you getting a bachelor’s in criminal justice?
if you have 6-7 classes yet, that’s not far from an entire major. A major is usually around 30-40 credits, and if each class is about 3 credits that’s about 10-12 classes. Changing your major should in theory only take an additional 4-5 classes.
I don’t think you should force yourself to finish, because if you don’t like it you won’t be happy and you won’t do well - which is the most important part. Hating your classes is a recipe for doing poorly. Plus, I think you should major in something relevant to what you want to do - perhaps psychology or sociology would be better for you.
Also, as an additional tip…try not to put time limits or even necessarily age goals on what you want to do. It’s a recipe for disaster - things always tend to take longer than you want them. As added incentive, my mother got her nursing license at age 41, after spending much of her life til them staying at home raising her children. I’m not saying that you will take that long! But I’m saying that it’s very very possible to achieve your goals at any age.
I originally wanted to be a probation officer after my bachelors during my masters. But I no longer have that interest. I know I want to be a counselor because I have never changed my mind or second guessed it like with being a probation officer. I got 60 credits with my associates and 37 with my bachelors. Thats 97. Online bachelors programs need 120 credits. So for that school I need 23. But since I would be transferring to another school I imagine not all my credits would transfer over. Especially not all my criminal justice courses. So I believe it would be a little more than 4-5 more classes. Which I wouldn’t mind since they would be classes I enjoy.