Question by : I screwed up. Took it easy in college, now 75k in the hole, and worried about my future. Help?
I dropped out of high school due to emotional problems. My family was in the middle of a divorce, and my mother and father used me and my brother to battle things out for them. Messed up, but it happens. I attempted suicide four times and dropped out of school. Then was home schooled by the county Board of Ed. and worked out a way to get my HS Diploma (not GED). I went to community college and did great- I had a 3.9 GPA, was in an international honors society, and got accepted into several very good schools. I transferred to the toughest public school in the area to save money.
I was not prepared for the level of rigor the schools curriculum had. My first semester I got two B-’s and a C+, which destroyed my self-esteem since I had never gotten anything lower than an A- since graduating HS. Plus, I realized how badly I screwed up in HS- I had never taken math above Algebra II, and had never taken Chemistry, Physics or Biology (except for an intro course at CC). So I was limited as to what major I’d choose since picking a science related major would require me to do all of those remedial mathematics, chemistry, and biology courses and would set me back a year and a half. So I became a psychology major, and the next semester I did great because it was my passion. But then, I started having serious insomnia and later found out I had bipolar disorder. It was in this time that I got a slew of C’s and then tried to kill myself. I was hospitalized for a month. I am a senior now, with a 2.8 GPA (not counting 3.9 CC gpa, but who cares about CC anyway), and I don’t have much of a chance for grad school, might have to settle with working a minimum wage job, and am in debt with very little means to pay back. I have one more semester to go, in which I hope to bring my GPA back up to a 2.9.
After that, it would take 1 year of courses to bring my GPA up to maybe a 3.2 or 3.25.
Cumulatively, I don’t think people give the same worth to community college GPA. My courses there were 3 credits each, and here they are 4 credits each. I didn’t know how to study, I broke down with high stress, and now I’m scared I’ll be living on welfare.
Best answer:
Answer by PE2008
If you want to avoid a career at Taco Bell, you need to get some serious vocational training, preferably an apprenticeship in some decent trade.
Perhaps you could look into one of the demanding trades such as Tool & Die Maker, or Machinist.
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I’m a community college graduate, I’m doing ok. You’ll be fine. It will be amazing to yourself how many doors there really are to go through. Use your degree and branch out creatively when looking for a specific job. Your degree may cover quite a few areas – explore them all. In the meanwhile work what you can, where you can to survive. You sound intelligent to me, and remember you have a degree, a great accomplishment.
You need to gain some career-related work experience, in a field that you can get into directly out of a bachelors degree, with a psych major, and which has some demand where you live/plan to live. I might also have you consider staying an extra term to complete a minor in that field.
For example, one field that’s a logical fit with psych is marketing. So you’d start doing marketing-related work for clubs and activities on campus right now, this week, and do it for the rest of your time there. You’d also apply for summer internships (start looking now) in marketing or related. If possible, you’d stay one extra term, and complete a marketing minor. Then you’d get a job in marketing or related when you graduate – marketing, customer service, even retail management. You could also look at the marketing/sales/management training programs offered by companies like Hertz and Sherwin Williams, or the retail buyer training programs offered by places like Macy’s.
I assume you’re still in treatment for your bipolar. Make that a priority in your life.
Work for a while, and during that time, look around you. What careers, inside your field and outside it, interest you? What is needed to enter those fields?
With your GPA, certain grad school fields are not open to you; but others are. An MBA, for example, could happen if you work a couple of years first. A JD could happen, if your LSAT score is strong enough. If you can get your GPA up to a 3.0, you may get into some MSW programs. You’d get into some masters in teaching programs.
So all is not lost, but you’ve got to make some choices now, to prepare yourself to enter a career when you graduate. Get a job, and use that time to evaluate your potential options. Then pursue the options that are open to you.