<p>I am posting this for my roomate, who really has no idea what to do with her life at this point. </p>
<p>Last year she was a freshman at UCSD. She failed most of her courses and ended up leaving a quarter early with a 2.0. Now she is back home, living with me, working, and taking classes at the local University. She elected to take a few music classes, to try something different. </p>
<p>Her major issue is that she really don't know what she wants to do. She has no idea what career she will be interested in 5 years, and doesn't know what to major in. She is super indecisive and even though I tell her undergrad doesn't matter too much, she can't pick anything. She also gives up really easily and I am afraid she might fail and/or drop out of college again. She is miserable here and hates the fact that she is going to her local Uni. She wants bigger and better things. She is really smart and deserves better. She just lacks focus at this point. I am sort of urging her to take some time off and explore job possibilities, but I think she is afraid that she will loose more direction.</p>
<p>I am going to be trying to transfer to some Unis this year and she is hoping to follow suit, but is this even possible with her stats? </p>
<p>She really wishes she could just start college over again with a clean slate. She got into some really nice places as a freshman but now it looks like that won't happen again. Are there any Unis that are reasonably good that give you a second chance?</p>
<p>It's no fault to be uncertain now about what she wants. She needs to give herself time to find that out. That time can be out of college or in college.</p>
<p>What is her definition of "bigger and better things?" She may not be able to answer this yet, no matter how hard she tries. And that is ok. But she may be able to go somewhere quietly by herself, sit with a pencil and paper and write down as many visions of what those "bigger and better things" she wants for herself are. No limits or rules on what she writes down. Then, she can see if there are any patterns she or you see that might point her in a direction.</p>
<p>If they don't point to "a" direction, they should at least point to some things she'd like to try.</p>
<p>I have seen it said that the two most successful groups of students in college are those who performed very well in high school and those who took time off between high school and college. So continuing on her "time off from college" is one good plan. The longer she takes off, the less her GPA at UCSD will haunt her future applications. And during that time she can "try on" some of the ideas she comes up with in the exercise above.</p>
<p>If she wants college right now, returning to UCSD may be her best bet if she is still welcome there. Transferring elsewhere is not impossible with a 2.0, but that GPA will be a determining factor in where she could go.</p>
<p>If she's dead-set on transferring, we would need to hear more about her criteria for a school and her financial situation to consider recommending any possibilities.</p>
<p>The combination of being indecisive and giving up easily may go together. Persistence is a key factor in most every successful career, but it often comes from knowing what you want and where you're headed. When the going gets tough, knowing what the goal is can help all of us get over the humps. Once she has a desire for something specific, she probably won't give up so easily.</p>