<p>Hi all, Junior year is about to finish in a couple days. Ive been a Bio - Premed major for 3 years now. As for medical school, I've realized this might not be the path I want. I don't enjoy having no free time, I don't enjoy spending all my times studying, and despite everything my grades have slipped. I have been scoring right on average of my curve which will translate to a C in my Mamm Phys. class despite my work. There is 'too much competition' in a way. I have applied to a few internships and was not surprised I didn't get in with my grades. I have a couple connections to do unpaid work outside my research as a Psych RA or get a retail job but none of are any interest to me. Ive experienced both in past summers and have experienced the slothlike state of having no obligations at all the entire summer. I felt a lot of shame and frustration of literally just waking up with nothing to do everyday while my family worked hard. Yet that feeling really did not go away when I went away as an RA every day doing something I didnt really enjoy. Im at a loss at what to do. I really wish I had some sort of experience as a business major or accounting major or computer science major so I could get a internship and feel productive. All I have is 3 years of Biology and sure, its good, and sure I have made a few small connections (i.e. I was offered a spot to help with research on lizards) but I felt so interest in the topic I did not want to at all. (the man who offered me it sensed my severe disinterest and told me you shouldn't do something you're not passionate about)
I do enjoy making youtube videos and computer science but I just dabble and the chances of those taking off and razor slim. </p>
<p>TLDR: Im at a loss at what to do and I fear my summer will be just as bad as before: sitting in my ghosttown of a hometown feeling like a useless unproductive sloth with nothing to do and just waking up at noon everyday. (My town is so uninteresting that anything I have tried to do to make a productive interesting day has turned boring i.e. the gym is empty of people my age, as is my local mall, etc.)</p>
<p>Have you considered taking a CC class on video editing, website design or introductory computer programming?</p>
<p>It would give you something constructive to do over the summer and also offer you a structured introduction to the CIS field. Having a few computer technology classes under your belt may also give you an advantage when it comes to finding a job after graduation.</p>
<p>CC classes are usually relatively inexpensive and some CCs have open enrollment sections–where you do not need to be admitted to the school first to take a class.</p>
<p>You could also investigate taking an online class in introductory level programming from you own college. Since you’re a bio/psych student, consider taking a MATLab programming class. MATLab is used for a variety of science/social science/engineering applications. Introductory MATLab requires no previous computer programming experience.</p>
<p>OP, You mentioned CS as something you wished you had done. I am very familiar with that field, because I have been in it for a long time. In spite of all the outsourcing, that is one field where there are still enough jobs to absorb most of the output from the schools. These are some of the highest paid jobs you can find.</p>
<p>What’s stopping you now? You are still in college. If you stay there a little longer, and get your act together you can still do it. Alternatively, quite a few lower tier schools admit students from non-CS majors into MS, provided you get decent GRE scores. They will force you to do a ton of pre-requisites before you matriculate. But, that might end up being a better option because the pre-reqs are not nearly as many as you do for an undergrad major.</p>
<p>Honestly, it may just be an excuse I liked to use each time I got sick of studying for Bio. Now that Im actually looking into the fact I wont make it into med school, I realized how hard and complicated and unnatural advanced computer science was to me in high school. I don’t know if thats the right path. I am already signed up for a 100 level comp sci. and web page internet course which I think really will be interesting since I have made a few thousand dollars from blogging about a game on my own website via ads. The courses in Comp Sci you guys suggested seem to give the same mentality that I have about Bio right now if not worse: fairly interesting but the meat of which is boring, grinding, and tediously hard, which is partially why I am no longer fully committed to ‘med school’ as a choice.
I honestly dont know what I want anymore.
I really feel I want something like a life of a youtube personality where you’re constantly productive and busy meeting people, fans, other amazing personalities, networking, and doing fun stuff (filming videos, traveling, meeting good looking people, etc.). I dunno… I guess what Im saying is I see a lot of people who have their entire days filled with exciting and productive stuff on instagram and facebook and Im like stuck at home the entire time doing nothing and Im really scared that this will be my summer…</p>
<p>All I can say is that, you first need to clear those cobwebs inside your head over the summer. When you do that, may be you will stop looking for short cuts, 'cause there aren’t any. Good luck, kid.</p>
<p>I’m afraid that the internet has been lying to you… Most of life is not a thrill-a-minute. There’s alot of necessary but boring stuff you have to do. (Or as my DH used to say–if ______ was fun, they wouldn’t have to pay people to do it. That’s why they call it work.)</p>
<p>There are a lot of really cool jobs out in the world, but only very, very tiny percetnage of people who get paid to them. And getting into the position of being one of tiny percentage who make an actually living doing any of those jobs takes a ton of luck, connections, and a whole lot of very, very hard work. (You never see that part on youtube.)</p>
<p>Instead of sitting around staring at other people’s lives–you need to turn off the tablet/laptop/iPhone and actually go do something. Take a class, get a job, find some volunteer project. (Not a volunteer project ‘for med school’–something you genuinely care about, Especially consider anything where you help other people–mowing lawns for elderly neighbors, teaching kids to swin at the county pool, cleaning up graffiti/trash at the local park, walking dogs at the humane society… ) Get outside of your own head for awhile.</p>
<p>Take a look at this article, it discusses the unrealistic dream Millenials have that life will be a constant fascinating YouTube video, and that they are entitled to success</p>
<p>This is the challenge for your generation. Life is not a YouTube adventure. It is boring and hard and not much fun for years on end, until you have some good luck and end up in a place where your grit and determination and hard work pay off…or not.</p>
<p>Sorry it is a disappointment that pre-med did not work out. Consider many of the other medical fields that involve caring for people who need you - nursing, physical therapy, psychology, education, if that is what gives you joy.</p>