Sophomore in College; Still Undecided; Need Advice

College Life
1

Hey guys,

I’m a current sophomore in college and in a dilemma because I’m still undecided.

When I first started college, I thought I’d like to do Engineering (specifically Civil/Structural), since buildings/bridges/structures have always peaked my interest. After not doing so well in my first classes (C+ in Calc. 1 // B+ in General Physics 1), I got scared because my GPA dropped to 3.22 (I needed a 3.20 to keep my scholarship). However, other people in those classes were doing fine and pulling off A’s, so I figured that I might not be cut out for it since the curriculum would only get harder and I likely wouldn’t be as lucky to get over a 3.20 again. In addition to this, I didn’t like the school I was attending and dreaded being there, so I switched schools midyear to commute from home and save money.

After moving back home, I felt a lot better and realized that I hated the dorm life. Once at my new school for the Spring 2015 semester, I enrolled in Calc. 2, but I filled the rest of my schedule with gen. eds. since I wasn’t too sure about Engineering anymore. I enjoyed a lot of my classes, but nothing really stood out to me. I ended up getting a B+ in Calc. 2, but I stopped there with the Calculus courses. I also managed to bring my GPA up from the previous semester to 3.5 (cumulative), which felt a little relieving. I did a lot of research that semester by looking into things like Computer Science, Biology, Pre-Med/Pre-PA, Business/Finance, etc. I knew that helping others is something I could see myself doing as an occupation, so I tested the Biology/Pre-PA route for Fall 2015. (In this semester, I took General Biology 1, General Chemistry 1, Statistics, and a Gen. Ed.) While I enjoyed classes like Chemistry and Statistics, I hated Biology. Every time I would sit down and study it, I would feel overwhelmed by the amount of material we had to absorb for an upcoming quiz or exam, and I would feel completely unmotivated to care about something that clearly didn’t interest me. (I still pulled off all A’s that semester, but goddamn). At that point, anything that wasn’t Biology seemed like a better alternative, so I obviously got out of it. And with that, I wasn’t sure of the Pre-PA route anymore either since that deals with a lot of Biology. Plus, they have to go through a ton of classes in PA school that are packed with information that needs to be retained. Although, I have shadowed PAs and I do like their work environment and their interaction with patients. I think a job where I can consult others would interest me, even if it’s not in the healthcare sphere.

Right now, I’m struggling with making a decision between the Pre-PA route, the Business/Finance route, or the Engineering route (I’m re-considering it since I will have completed the first full year of Engineering at the end of this semester). For this semester (Spring 2016), I’m taking General Chemistry 2, Financial Accounting, Macroeconomics, and a Gen. Ed. I still enjoy Chemistry, and I’m liking Accounting as well. However, I need to make a decision soon, and I don’t know what to do anymore to help me decide. I’ve met with advisors numerous times, which helps, but I’m still hesitant to pick something. I don’t know how to determine what I want to do for a living. I’m so sick of being undecided, but I’m scared to make a decision too because it might be the wrong decision. I know I have to suck it up and just do something, but it’s hard when there’s no goal in front of you.
If anyone can offer me any insight/advice, I’d greatly appreciate it! Thank you for reading through all of this!

2

If you like the part of healthcare that involves interaction with people and helping them but not the part of learning about anatomy, physiology, and diseases, problem solving, diagnoses, etc., then I wouldn’t go pre-PA. Not every premed likes General Bio, especially related to ecology, zoology, etc., but some enjoy upper-level, more specific and human-focused biology courses. PA school will require a lot of memorization and regurgitation, so that’s something to think about, particularly whether you would be more inclined to do it knowing that the information you’re learning will actually be relevant and useful.

There may be other health-related career fields that don’t require that style of learning that you could look into: http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/home

I’d do more research as to what careers in business or engineering might look like and whether they pique your interest. If your school has a career counselling center or a department that can connect you with professionals and alumni who can give you information or let you job shadow, that would be great. You really have to differentiate between liking the course material and liking the career it will lead to.

I also struggled a lot with deciding to be premed, as well as choosing a major (I didn’t settle on a major until the start of my junior year, and I’m still not 100% committed to going the premed route). I made a lot of “wrong decisions,” too. But even though it feels like the end of the world, you can always change paths later if you change your mind. Sometimes the only path you can take to figuring out what works for you is to try out all the other paths and see that they don’t work for you.

3

Thank you for advice! (I’m sorry for responding so late). I’ll do what I can to figure things out, but like you said, I’ll have to get some exposure in one of the fields that interests me to see if I like it. The PA profession does fit a lot of the criteria I’m looking for in a career (which is perhaps why I’m hesitant to let go of it). However, my disinterest in Biology and Anatomy probably says otherwise. I’ll take a look into some of the other health professions that you linked. Next week, I’ll be meeting with some career advisors in my college’s career center to find out a little more about the Business and Engineering routes (and perhaps figure out how to find an internship for the summer). I’m also considering a double-major in Chemistry and Business since Chemistry interests me and I’m already a good-ways into the Business curriculum. But I don’t know, we’ll see. Hopefully I can come to a consensus soon as to what I want to do with my life. I’m just so torn between everything that I’m not sure what I really want.

I hope that things go well for you!
If you don’t mind me asking, Were there any determining factors that ultimately led you to choose the Pre-Med route?
Thanks again!

4

I’m pretty sure that there is a sizable contingent of allied health professionals who have no great love for biology and human anatomy. While you do have to learn those things well enough to practice, lots of allied health professionals trudge through those classes so they can get to what they consider the good stuff - interacting with patients and engaging in health education and direct are. Only you can decide whether your aptitude is enough to at least get through the classes with good grades so you can apply to graduate programs in the field.

Keep in mind that most master’s level PA programs require 1000-2000 direct patient care hours in some kind of clinical role. Most PAs were nurses, certified nursing assistants, paramedics/EMTs, or some other kind of allied health professional before becoming a PA for that reason.

You might also consider other health professions - nurse practitioner, optometry, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology and audiology, even dentistry. Nurse practitioner is a similar role to PA, but there are more entry-level programs for it that don’t require clinical hours (in three years you can do a BSN/MSN program after college and become an NP.) OT programs are usually 2-year master’s degrees, and physical therapists do three-year DPT programs. Dental school is four years and I think optometry school is too. SLPs go to a two-year master’s program, and audiologists need an AuD which I think is a four-year program. There’s also a profession called genetic counseling, but obviously that’s full of biology as well.

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However, it sounds like what you really crave is the day-to-day one-on-one interaction with others in a consulting expert type role, where you can impart some information to others to help them. There are a lot of jobs in which you can do that - both in a provider-client type relationship and an employee-to-business or employee-to-employee relationship:

Math/applied math/statistics
-Accountants can do this for individual clients or for business clients, either as in-house or in their own accounting firm. Actuaries, too, to a lesser extent.

-Statisticians actually do this a lot in most of their jobs. Statisticians usually work along with people who want to do research and help then plan out out to collect the data most efficiently so they can analyze it, and then do the analysis and share the results with the client and help them write it up in whatever format they want. (If you’re interested in health, biostatistics might be the way to go here.)

Sciences

-Meteorologists and atmospheric scientists may do the same for airline companies, private businesses that trade in commodities, and government agencies.

-Many legislators have science and technology policy advisors in their offices to give them advice about how to vote on policies and laws that have to do with science and tech, especially if they don’t have experience in that field themselves.

Social sciences

-Social workers can do this, either in a community case worker role or a more formal therapist role.

-Psychologists counsel and treat clients - clinical, counseling, and school psychologists do this for clients who face mental health challenges and disorders as well as rough times in their lives.

-In addition to that, industrial-organizational psychologists may consult with businesses to help them restructure their organizations or select personnel.

-Market researchers, especially those who work at market research firms, do consulting work for businesses. They may be asked to track a specific part of a market or watch a market as a whole and provide data and strategy advice for marketing to businesses.

-Economists can do this too, especially for private corporations or government agencies. They may evaluate economic decisions and policies and advise government officials or private executives about economic choices/decisions to make based on the market.

Any major

-Strategy and management consultants obviously do this!

-Lawyers can also do a lot of consultation - in fact, a good lawyer spends more time in consultation and doing paperwork to keep their clients out of court.

5

You should not be considering the classes you need to take in order to guide your career decisions. The question isn’t whether you like the classes but whether you like the tasks associated with the profession. Then, you need to power through classes you don’t like in order to get to the point where you are doing the tasks of the career you chose. You are not choosing what classes you have to take for the rest of your life. You are choosing what profession you want to work in. You will probably encounter classes you hate regardless of which career you choose. Since you have shown yourself to be able to cope with that and end up with decent grades, you will probably be able to successfully complete all the courses required for any career-but you may not like them. Luckily they will end when you get your degree and you’ll be free to pursue the aspects of your career that you enjoy.