<p>Hey guys!
So I was just wondering if you guys could give me some advice on how to tell my parents that I don't want to be Premed anymore. I was a Bio major and my g.p.a. went low after my first Chem classes and I kind of lost interest in it. I want to be High School teacher, but still go to Grad school first. I switched my major from Bio to Geography/Environmental Studies with a minor in Spanish. I want to inspire and motivate students just like I had done to me by a high school teacher and so coming from an underserved community I want to go back and help the students there get to where I have gotten so I am kind of nervous and scared of telling my parents because they always had these hopes and dreams of me being a doctor and making a lot of money and helping others. I am a current Freshman at UCLA.</p>
<p>You’re helping others in a very direct way as an educator. It can be a very demanding but rewarding profession.</p>
<p>I think you need to be honest with them. Say, look I know you had these hopes for my future, but they’re just not working out exactly as we had hoped. My talents don’t lie in basic science. I don’t really ‘get’ chemistry (or whatever you had difficulty with). Many people just don’t and apparently I’m one of them. Studying chem/bio/physics/math made me unhappy and disinterested in school. I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you, but it’s better to find out now rather than after you’ve spent thousands of dollars on pre-med classes.</p>
<p>Do what you want, not what others want. After all, it is your life… not theirs.</p>
<p>you’ll do a lot more good for the world as an educator for the underserved than as a physician.</p>
<p>Have you tried just telling them what you’ve told us here?</p>
<p>You want to help and inspire students and give back to your community. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, and that’s doing a lot more for disadvantaged communities than most doctors will do.</p>
<p>Tell them that it’s your dream that THEY go to med school, become a doctor, and make lots of money.</p>
<p>I would tell them that you did not do well in your first Chemistry classes (regular or Ochem?)
Hopefully you tried various strategies to improve your grades? Tutors/study groups/prof office hours?</p>
<p>So your new plan is to be a high school science teacher even though you are not good in science?</p>
<p>Anyway, I would approach my parents with a plan. Tell them your new major, how you are doing in your classes (hopefully better?), and layout what you will be planning to take over the next couple of years. Tell them you then plan to go to grad school for education. Also make sure you have talked to your advisor about your plan. Also tell them that you do want to give back to your community, but being is a doctor is not the way you will do it.
In addition, they may not understand what you need to do to become a doctor. Explain to get into medical school there are prerequisites, and you are having issues doing well in the first set of chemistry classes, and that there are worse ones next year, so that is indicating that med school is not for your. Fortunately you have found out early and can easily change your direction and still graduate on time.</p>
<p>Tell them the truth. What is wrong with that? Tell them that you have lost interest (along with about 85% of all who started as pre-meds), in fact, you are a great majority in this situation. I bet you just ask around and find out very quickly how different students approached the same situation, so you can have many, many suggestions right around you among your fellow pre-meds (who are not any more)</p>
<p>Do not go to grad school before starting teaching. It will put you in a higher income level and some school districts may not be able to afford you. It’s better if you do it part time while teaching, this way you can also fulfill the credit requirements to renew your teaching certificate 5 years later too.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>