How do I comeback from my screw ups? Should I change majors? Forum

[realDaredevil]

Hi everyone, so a little about my background, I'm 19, in my sophomore year of college and am 100% set on law school (I want to go into The FBI apt DEA one day so law is not only my back up but also my qualification into these). I'm an Econ major but I'm heavily reconsidering. From what I've seen on this forum, it sometimes makes a difference, so I'll also say I'm half black and over 10% Native American, not sure if it'll make a difference but thought I'd add that.

Anyway, I'll admit I'm not the best student, even though I really want to be. I was a very good student in the beginning of Highschool, but like many laziness and other things got in the way. My family also was painfully poor for a bit (btw trust fund will be helping me with law school, long sorry) and I held a job to help out. Come freshman year of college I'm doing decently well. But then I just messed up and this time it was on me, purely me being at a school I didn't like, and also because I was going through a rough time with my family (emotionally).

Later on in the second semester though I once again had my family go through a rough time, but this time I wasn't there to help out so that made me feel crappy. So get this, I take 10 credits the first semester w/ one withdraw. Second semester I take 12 credits w/ one withdraw but then I fail pre calc (I like math believe it or not) so that turns into 9 credits. 19 credits for my freshman year. That makes it that now I have a 2.5 GPA cumulative

I transfer back to my state to a pretty solid school, and I really enjoy it, it's in state so I save money and any safety net I have can go towards law school. Everything's great and I'm taking 19 credits to build myself up. So honestly if I told you all the drama and crap I've had to go through we'd be here all day haha but a lot happened, including my father (who abdandoned me and my half siblings) dying of cancer (which he didn't tell us about so we wouldn't be able to settle things with him) and that hit me like a train because I'm a person who really believes in families sticking together and the fact that I wasn't able to confront him (the bastard also took my social security number way back to get tax cuts, and he also stiffed me and my mom on child support). That happens and once again my mom who's self employed is going through a tough time, but I'm here now so it helps. Look, I'm not trying to act like bad stuff only happens to me, and woe is me, but this just really messed me up.

I've withdrawn from a class already and now have 16 credits to complete. I'm not doing too hot and because I've been depressed or whatever you may call it, I've been skimping on my studies. I'm expecting to not get good grades this semester. I've even considered withdrawing from another one (that would make 4). That last one I'm considering is Spanish and it's giving me a lot of trouble. I guess the point is, I have been majorly affected by outside influences and that's not right of me to make that as an excuse but I've let it get to me. I do indeed love economics, I do, but I don't think I like math enough to follow it. My second semester of freshman year I dropped micro and am now retaking it, and I'm also taking macro. I do enjoy math but I'm taking pre calc again, and though I like my new teacher and I do enjoy it, I don't love it like I used to. It's a useful major and if I were to give up law then it'd help with job aspects but then again, I don't think I'm ever really going to do anything outside of law/law enforcement.

The thing I hear is major in something you're good at/ love so then you'll get a good GPA and have those 4 years free to also study for the LSAT(which I haven't don't yet because I've been overwhelmed with school so I'm screwing that up too). The thing is, is that I am interested in working out and then science behind it (exercise science?) but I don't truly like a lot of science but I also had bad teachers for it in high school. I am really good at English (I aced it freshman year) but I don't know if I really want to major in it. I am interested in marketing and advertising but once again, I don't know if I want any more math. I have other interests for sure but what should someone who can't really put their interests into a major do if they want that high GPA? Can I repair the damage done with my academic career like with maybe taking classes at cc during summer or something? Also what are my chances to get into a top law school? I will say my EC's are decent(part time job, boxing and athletics, over 400 hours of community service and I'm sure I'll build up more, and hopefully I'll get good internships throughout my years. What else could I do? Thanks

TL;DR I didn't do well my first year of college and now it's happening again in first semester in sophomore year. What can I do to fix this and should I change majors? GPA: 2.5 cumulative

[AJordan]

Hi everyone, so a little about my background, I'm 19, in my sophomore year of college and am 100% set on law school (I want to go into The FBI apt DEA one day so law is not only my back up but also my qualification into these). I'm an Econ major but I'm heavily reconsidering. From what I've seen on this forum, it sometimes makes a difference, so I'll also say I'm half black and over 10% Native American, not sure if it'll make a difference but thought I'd add that.

Anyway, I'll admit I'm not the best student, even though I really want to be. I was a very good student in the beginning of Highschool, but like many laziness and other things got in the way. My family also was painfully poor for a bit (btw trust fund will be helping me with law school, long sorry) and I held a job to help out. Come freshman year of college I'm doing decently well. But then I just messed up and this time it was on me, purely me being at a school I didn't like, and also because I was going through a rough time with my family (emotionally).

Later on in the second semester though I once again had my family go through a rough time, but this time I wasn't there to help out so that made me feel crappy. So get this, I take 10 credits the first semester w/ one withdraw. Second semester I take 12 credits w/ one withdraw but then I fail pre calc (I like math believe it or not) so that turns into 9 credits. 19 credits for my freshman year. That makes it that now I have a 2.5 GPA cumulative

I transfer back to my state to a pretty solid school, and I really enjoy it, it's in state so I save money and any safety net I have can go towards law school. Everything's great and I'm taking 19 credits to build myself up. So honestly if I told you all the drama and crap I've had to go through we'd be here all day haha but a lot happened, including my father (who abdandoned me and my half siblings) dying of cancer (which he didn't tell us about so we wouldn't be able to settle things with him) and that hit me like a train because I'm a person who really believes in families sticking together and the fact that I wasn't able to confront him (the bastard also took my social security number way back to get tax cuts, and he also stiffed me and my mom on child support). That happens and once again my mom who's self employed is going through a tough time, but I'm here now so it helps. Look, I'm not trying to act like bad stuff only happens to me, and woe is me, but this just really messed me up.

I've withdrawn from a class already and now have 16 credits to complete. I'm not doing too hot and because I've been depressed or whatever you may call it, I've been skimping on my studies. I'm expecting to not get good grades this semester. I've even considered withdrawing from another one (that would make 4). That last one I'm considering is Spanish and it's giving me a lot of trouble. I guess the point is, I have been majorly affected by outside influences and that's not right of me to make that as an excuse but I've let it get to me. I do indeed love economics, I do, but I don't think I like math enough to follow it. My second semester of freshman year I dropped micro and am now retaking it, and I'm also taking macro. I do enjoy math but I'm taking pre calc again, and though I like my new teacher and I do enjoy it, I don't love it like I used to. It's a useful major and if I were to give up law then it'd help with job aspects but then again, I don't think I'm ever really going to do anything outside of law/law enforcement.

The thing I hear is major in something you're good at/ love so then you'll get a good GPA and have those 4 years free to also study for the LSAT(which I haven't don't yet because I've been overwhelmed with school so I'm screwing that up too). The thing is, is that I am interested in working out and then science behind it (exercise science?) but I don't truly like a lot of science but I also had bad teachers for it in high school. I am really good at English (I aced it freshman year) but I don't know if I really want to major in it. I am interested in marketing and advertising but once again, I don't know if I want any more math. I have other interests for sure but what should someone who can't really put their interests into a major do if they want that high GPA? Can I repair the damage done with my academic career like with maybe taking classes at cc during summer or something? Also what are my chances to get into a top law school? I will say my EC's are decent(part time job, boxing and athletics, over 400 hours of community service and I'm sure I'll build up more, and hopefully I'll get good internships throughout my years. What else could I do? Thanks

TL;DR I didn't do well my first year of college and now it's happening again in first semester in sophomore year. What can I do to fix this and should I change majors? GPA: 2.5 cumulative

Tough to answer you as none of us are you. I'll give you a response, though I'm going to qualify it by saying that I'm just one guy with one opinion.

I think you're not ready to be in University. You're struggling emotionally, making excuses, setting unreasonable goals, taking classes that have no real meaning to you, and doing poorly. You're not good at English. You may have gotten an 'A' in a Freshman course but you're a poor writer. This is kind of secondary, though, to the fact that you aren't doing well.

I was in this position after my Freshman year of University and now, at 30-something, I wish I had dropped out and done something else instead of continuing down the bombing road. Imagine being 50 hours into 4.0 work and being anchored by 80 hours of 2.0 work from your 20s that you're ashamed of. It doesn't have to be your future. You need to get yourself right. Seek counseling, go work a real job for a year or two, live your life, see the Grand Canyon, read, do anything but piss away money getting very little value from a University while spending a bunch of money. Law school isn't going anywhere. Your time is. Stop being a shitty undergrad student. It's not worth it.

[icechicken]

I was in this position after my Freshman year of University and now, at 30-something, I wish I had dropped out and done something else instead of continuing down the bombing road. Imagine being 50 hours into 4.0 work and being anchored by 80 hours of 2.0 work from your 20s that you're ashamed of. It doesn't have to be your future. You need to get yourself right. Seek counseling, go work a real job for a year or two, live your life, see the Grand Canyon, read, do anything but piss away money getting very little value from a University while spending a bunch of money. Law school isn't going anywhere. Your time is. Stop being a shitty undergrad student. It's not worth it.

Checking in as someone else who ran into unexpected difficulties my freshman year and agrees exactly with this advice. If you stay in college, with the way things are going, you won't be getting closer to your goals but farther away.

[realDaredevil]

Hey, I'm sorry for the late reply guys. So first things first, I apologize for the way I wrote this. I know it wasn't easy and definitely messed up some of the things I was trying to explain. I wrote it haphazardly and wasn't trying to be grammatically correct and I also wrote it fast so my points became disatoriously crappy. If I make a post again, I'll put more effort into it. I completely understand your points. I'll say right now that I disagree but I'll explain myself shortly.

Yes, I definitely did not write well in this post but I've excelled in my writing classes throughout my academic career and enjoy it. Of course I'm not a master at it currently but I do enjoy it. I agree that using "I got an A in freshman year English" was a bad back up, I should've put more thought behind it. Honestly, I'm probably going to make a ton of mistakes in this one too but since I'm doing it on my phone, while at the gym, I can't really care about it. However I still appreciated the feedback nonetheless, definitely a wake up call.

I agree that I'm not doing well and I'm definitely a shitty undergrad student. However, I wasn't trying to make excuses but I agree my post made it seem that way. I was really just adding more about myself and my quick bio. Maybe that doesn't make sense but in the moment, I wanted the readers to know that during this time in my life I put more priority onto my good and bad family affairs versus school. I tried to make it clear I was accepting responsibility, but I do see that my post didn't reflect that. So to hit the reset button so to speak, I am a crappy student looking to start over by beginning with changing my major.

I'm sorry you were in the same boat, but that's cool that you can look back on it and reflect and thank you so much for the feedback. For me personally dropping out wouldn't be a good idea. If I didn't have any job experience I'd probably agree, but I've been working usually about 2-3 jobs since I was 12, part time of course during the school year but full time during summer as most kids do during Highschool.

With traveling (Grand Canyon) I wouldn't have the money nor the desire to to be honest. I know that would work for some people and who knows, I may end up doing so. However right now, I can't do it. I know I made it seem like I was a pussy in the first post and i know you may still think that, but I'm not and I want to see myself through these 4 years and on. I'm taking your advice and seeing an academic counselor and a more emotional type counselor via my school. I made this question more about changing majors but it kinda turned into something different so I'll just ignore that for now.

If it were up to me and I was born 20 years earlier I would probably just go the law enforcement route into FLE to become an 1811, but today is different and it happens that I do indeed love law so that's the career I'm choosing because it'll be my back up. That said, law enforcement will always be my back up because that's always been what's interested me, besides (don't make fun of this) acting. I probably will not end up in BigLaw and wasn't really planning on it either. I know I asked about t14 but it was more just for side info. I guess what I'm trying to say is that whether I'm ready for college or not, it's what I'm doing to get to the final stage of my life. As I said above, I do have a trust fund and it'll cover my law school expenses wherever I choose to go. I know it sounds stupid and also spoiled but these are the opprtoniuties given to me and I want them. I messed them up but I'm prepared to pay for those mistakes, write an addendum, or whatever I'll have to do.

For The FBI and DEA as you probably know, you need a bachelor's degree, and what's basically a qualification track. For both of the agencies, law is a popular and very much coveted one. I'm using my interest in law to my advantage to make myself more competitive for those agencies, and even more agencies that I am interested in. For me, law is a backup, a stepping stone, and one of my only interests besides the above mentioned and also maybe fitness and advertising. My ideal major would be criminal justice, but because it doesn't do a great job preparing oneself for law school and it's pretty common I've decided to trash that idea.

I've gotta run for now, so I'll end it there but feel free of course to disagree and bring up some more! I do appreciate the feedback. I hope maybe I clarified myself a bit? Mostly with the fact that BigLaw isn't completely necessary to me and that I have many back ups.
Thanks!

[april_ludgate]

I find it interesting you consider law a "backup."

[realDaredevil]

I know that's what I said, but it's more so that it just so happens that I would thoroughly enjoy doing both of them. Don't get me wrong, FLE is my goal and that's what I aspire to do, but I would be happy doing law as well. There are many ways to go into FLE and the "law track" is the one I've chosen.

[cavalier1138]

I know that's what I said, but it's more so that it just so happens that I would thoroughly enjoy doing both of them. Don't get me wrong, FLE is my goal and that's what I aspire to do, but I would be happy doing law as well. There are many ways to go into FLE and the "law track" is the one I've chosen.

There aren't less expensive routes?

I know that JD-to-FBI isn't entirely crazy, but it still seems like there have to be less costly and more efficient ways to get there.