I feel trapped by my academic decisions.

[MonkeySage]

I have been performing really poorly for several semesters. I've gone too far to stop, but there's no way any graduate school will ever accept me. I've received only 1 scholarship, I've barely done anything worthwhile beyond classwork, and I've used up all my credits- I can't even get financial aid anymore.

This is the last semester I have any form of financial aid, and there's no guarantee I'm going to pass Calculus 2. At this rate, I'm going to fail my second attempt at calc 2. I study my ass off, and I fail, every single time.

Worst of all, I'm not even sure I WANT to be a chemist anymore. I just keep going because I am not good at anything else.

So yeah, if I keep going I will fail, but if I quit then I can't think of a way to recover from it. I should have graduated years ago. I should have started graduate school by now.

All of this has left me feeling extremely depressed.

[Zhentarim]

I have been performing really poorly for several semesters. I've gone too far to stop, but there's no way any graduate school will ever accept me. I've received only 1 scholarship, I've barely done anything worthwhile beyond classwork, and I've used up all my credits- I can't even get financial aid anymore.

This is the last semester I have any form of financial aid, and there's no guarantee I'm going to pass Calculus 2. At this rate, I'm going to fail my second attempt at calc 2. I study my ass off, and I fail, every single time.

Worst of all, I'm not even sure I WANT to be a chemist anymore. I just keep going because I am not good at anything else.

So yeah, if I keep going I will fail, but if I quit then I can't think of a way to recover from it. I should have graduated years ago. I should have started graduate school by now.

All of this has left me feeling extremely depressed.

Start your own business. If you are in Arkansas, Shaved Ice should be easy to get into with the hot weather there.

[KeeperOfSecrets]

I can definitely sympathize with you. Indeed, I can relate to your situation more than you would think. Let me share an anecdote with you.

Years ago, I was in college to be a forensic toxicologist. Without tooting my own horn too much, I was considered brilliant by most of my professors. I devoured all the knowledge in the field that I came across, I was diligent in my work both in and out of class, and I did most of it without any effort whatsoever. Everything was going good, at least until problems began hitting me one after another.

I developed a blood sugar problem for no explicable reason that saw my mental faculties decline immensely due to almost constant low blood sugar despite eating a meal every 3-4 hours to keep it up and that caused my grades to tank for two semesters. My GPA plummeted so far from failing literally every class for two consecutive semesters that I was put on academic and financial aid probation. After a year or two of struggling with that, the problems seemed to self-correct despite no real input on my part.

I enrolled in college for the next semester, thinking everything was going to go swimmingly. I started my semester with great enthusiasm, only to have my aunt, who had basically served as a surrogate mother during my childhood while my real mother recovered from her PTSD and alcohol abuse problems, be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I tried to stick with college, but the stress became too much and I just stopped going to class. I didn't withdraw either, because I kept telling myself that I would go back the next day. She died and I then took a two and a half year break, seeing as how my academic probation had been extended to another two years and I had to jump through a lot of figurative hoops because of three consecutive semesters with an F average, despite proof that two semesters of that was due to a medical concern.

Then my long-standing relationship, which helped to keep me together over the years, crumbled due to my girlfriend's depression over her mother's death years back and ended with her breaking up with me to, as she saw it, spare me any more pain. I began to feel that I was cursed. Every time I tried to pursue the career of my dreams or to make something of myself, life came in and gave me a big middle finger. I began to doubt myself and my abilities. Knowing that you have an IQ of 189, an eiditic memory, and such is one thing, but when you don't have anything to show for it, doubt seeps in regardless of said knowledge. I questioned myself, wondering if I was really all I was cracked up to be or if I was a miserable failure. I questioned society and the flawed institutions that it held, where a piece of paper means more to an employer than any actual knowledge or skill that one has. I questioned the world and how unfair it is, how people trying to make something of themselves end up getting torn down.

To say that I was bitter after all this happened is an understatement. After I worked through all the pain and frustration of the last few years, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that, whether or not I succeeded in getting my career was pointless. Despite what society tells you, life is not measured by how much you have in life or how spiffy of a title you hold. Life is measured by the joy that you have and the people who stand by you. Whether or not you are what society deems as a success is irrelevant. As long as you have your basic needs and are happy, having a 'college job' is not important. Indeed, you have to ask yourself if such a job would make you happy. I know many people who graduated in their respective fields and ended up quitting their 'dream job' because it was eating away all the time they had to live life.

My life is nowhere near where I thought it would be, but I am happier for it. Missionary work and medical care are not what many consider glamorous jobs, but those are where I find the most fulfillment. If life had not ran me from my course, I may have ended up in my dream mansion with my dream job, drinking half a bottle of expensive wine a day, and frittering money away on pointless diversions, sure, but I would have been alone and miserable.

My advice, such as it is, is just to go with the flow and see where life takes you. Look at your life and all the things that you want, figure out what is truly important, and compare all of that to what your goal of being a chemist is. If it's compatible, then really look at the job and determine if it's right for you. If so, figure out what you need to do to get to that point. If not, look into alternatives. If you do look for alternatives though, don't worry about what other people want you to do. Look at what you want and go from there.

I'm starting to sound like a cheesy self-help book, so I'll cut this post off here. If you need to parse things out with someone or ask for advice, just message me. Maybe the Easter wine will be worn off by then and I'll be much more coherent with my points!

In any case, I wish you the clarity that you need to figure things out and the well-being to see it through. Keep your chin up and Happy Easter!

[Comrade]

Not sure how old you are or at what point in your academic trajectory you are, but a lot of what you've said-- performing poorly, being uncertain of what you want to do, being generally depressed about school-- resonates with me because I was in a similar place about three or so years ago, so maybe I can offer some kind of perspective.

At the time, I was majoring in physics, and if my grades were any indication, I wasn't teeing up to be the next Richard Feynman. It just wasn't my forte, despite my genuine interest in it in the abstract. My GPA was taking a beating, I'd failed to get into the universities I'd applied to, and I felt lower than a footprint. I decided to take some time away from school to a. focus on work and putting more money in my wallet, but mainly to b. figure out who/what I wanted to be without the stress and pressure of school complicating things. A good few folks said it was a bad idea, that-- as you say-- I was 'too far to stop', but I went ahead with it, and it did wonders. When you're in school, there's a constant pressure-- study for this exam, do that homework assignment, prepare for this project, apply for that class-- and being freed up from that gave me a lot of space to really reflect on what I wanted to do for the first time since I actually entered college. It also gave me time to work on the extrinsic things that were making me unhappy alongside the academic factors.

Now I'm back in school with a different major, with classes I both enjoy and do well in, with a firm plan for the future. And I feel a hundred times happier. Part of that can be attributed to other things, but a significant part of it was because I took that time to step back and figure myself out before jumping back into the fray. I have no clue where I'd be if I hadn't done that and had kept labouring away towards a major I just wasn't happy in or good at.

I don't know if this is a possible solution for you, but I wanted to share my own experiences with academic disillusionment in the event that some part of it does resonate with you. When I said I was thinking of taking a hiatus I got a lot of the same arguments you yourself seem to be propounding-- that I wouldn't be able to get back into it once I stopped and that I'd fall behind-- but I was able to get back into it, and was in a much better position to do well academically when I did, so there's no reason you couldn't, too. As for falling behind... don't guilt yourself if you haven't reached some arbitrary point at which you 'should have graduated'. It's a distraction. Figure out where you want to go, and focus on getting there at your own pace rather than getting caught up in where you are now and where you 'should' be.

If you really don't want to put down school for any amount of time, the only other thing I can think of is really taking advantage of every resource you possibly can while continuing through school. Tutoring, assistance from helpful professors, maybe talking to a professional if it's really taking such a severe emotional/mental toll. A lot of professors, if you impress upon them just how much it means to you to master the materiel and get a good grade, will do what it takes to meet you halfway (or even more than that), so if you haven't been taking advantage of that before, you should definitely start.

Since you mention you're not sure you want to continue with chemistry-- what else could you major in? Is there anything else you have a passion for, anything you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life?

EDIT: KeeperOfSecrets makes some great points too. It's not about where you are relative to others or where you 'should' be-- it's not bad to keep those in mind, of course, but if you make them your driving force you're setting yourself up for unhappiness. Make being happy with where you are and where you're going your barometer, if only because (as I myself have found) you do a whole lot better by all the other metrics when you're happy.

[Algeh]

I have been performing really poorly for several semesters. I've gone too far to stop, but there's no way any graduate school will ever accept me. I've received only 1 scholarship, I've barely done anything worthwhile beyond classwork, and I've used up all my credits- I can't even get financial aid anymore.

This is the last semester I have any form of financial aid, and there's no guarantee I'm going to pass Calculus 2. At this rate, I'm going to fail my second attempt at calc 2. I study my ass off, and I fail, every single time.

Worst of all, I'm not even sure I WANT to be a chemist anymore. I just keep going because I am not good at anything else.

So yeah, if I keep going I will fail, but if I quit then I can't think of a way to recover from it. I should have graduated years ago. I should have started graduate school by now.

All of this has left me feeling extremely depressed.

I admit that I'm not particularly familiar with the degree prerequisites within chem, so I might be misunderstanding something here. Are you on track to finish all of your chemistry and other required courses successfully and would otherwise be graduating this spring, but it looks like you'll fail Calc 2 (which is required for your degree) while passing everything else?

In that case, talk to someone at your school about whether it is at all possible to re-take calc 2 at a community college this summer and get your degree at the end of summer term. That would give you one more shot at finishing your degree, and community college summer classes are usually fairly affordable. Some schools may even let you walk in the spring graduation ceremony in this situation, although not all. Then devote yourself full-time to passing that sucker during the summer when you have nothing else you're trying to get done.

Then, after you get this degree finished up, do NOT try to go to grad school right away. You need a break from academia to figure out what you want to do and to get some distance from the whole thing. Get some random job for a while (a temp agency may be able to help you out here) and just try out not being a student and being a worker of some kind. Then, after you've got some distance, you can either try to find a job related to chemistry that might re-open doors to grad school in the future based on your work experience or you can use your references from your temp job(s) to try to get a permanent job in the larger world of work that has nothing to do with chemistry. (I suspect that you will need to build some additional math skills for yourself to do well in chemistry grad school, so if you still want to go that route after taking a break, figure out a way to build those skills. You probably could really benefit from taking the time to "get" algebra rather than just "do" algebra, so you can see math as a coherent system that makes sense rather than a bunch of unrelated stuff to remember. For me, taking a 300-level Abstract Algebra course really helped me with that, but I'm deeply weird.)

There's ALWAYS a way to recover from things. Sometimes it changes your future options, but there are plenty of things to do with your life other than go to grad school in chemistry.

Spoiler: My academic journey

Show

Growing up, I was always a smart kid who didn't like school. I had a lot of behavior problems (and a few bad teachers who exacerbated the problem - I'm skipping over a lot of stuff here), so my parents kept pulling me out of public school and putting me into various alternative schools run by hippies. When I was in public school, I missed a lot of school and rarely completed workbook assignments. When I was in private school, I didn't choose to do any math and usually, nobody made me. I missed large chunks of 2nd grade math, all but a quarter of 3rd grade math, all of 7th grade math, and somehow still ended up taking "algebra" in 8th grade in a combined 7th/8th grade multi-level math class in a different hippie-run school where they did require that you take some academic subjects in particular. Also, when I was in public elementary school I was pulled out of class one day a week and bused to the gifted program for special electives, so I missed a lot of instruction in my regular classes. I always came out really well on standardized tests, so no one worried about how much school I was missing.

In high school, my schedule never really worked out to take math properly at hippie school, so I took half of geometry in a regular classroom, half of it as an independent study where I didn't actually turn anything in or have any assignments, just a textbook to read. "Algebra 2" was in the same class period as "pre-calculus" and we only got half a class period of instruction with the rest independent study. I eventually quit and my parents hired a tutor to work with me on an independent study about set theory and discrete math to finish off my second required math credit, because I was so done with trying to take math classes.

So basically, I got to college without having taken a regular "everyone in this class is doing the same thing, and that thing is learning some specific topics in math" class since 6th grade. Even when I'd been in such a class, I'd been missing it once a week to go to another unrelated class in the gifted program. The last time I'd been in a regular math class without being pulled out all the time was in kindergarten.

Being smart and testing well, I placed into a credit-bearing pre-calculus math class rather than a remedial one even though I had some pretty alarming gaps in my math background.

It did not go well.

I withdrew rather than fail, and the professor suggested I go get tested for a learning disability, because I was clearly bright but having an absurd amount of trouble passing the class.

I ended up being able to receive disability services in college under the "discrepancy model" since I had really high scores across the board except in working memory and a couple of other areas, where I was average. (I have difficultly with working memory, auditory processing, and mental calculation.)

I went on to withdraw rather than fail from that math class again in the spring at community college in the evening, and then that summer I tried taking the one before it in the sequence and it again in community college summer school. I did fine in the prerequisite, and again withdrew rather than failed elementary functions (for the third time in a year).

The next year, I fast-talked my way into calculus, because I was tired of taking elementary functions. It didn't go well during the school year (I was also having major life drama that year), but when I convinced the community college to let me take the calc 1 and calc 2 series in summer school a year later I passed with A's and B's.

My senior year, I took discrete math (required because I wanted to take algorithms), learned about proofs, and suddenly math made sense. I'm sure people had tried to connect the dots and explain that math was a thing based in logic and it all fit together to build itself before, but I'd missed that memo until then somehow.

On a lark, I competed in the Putnam Competition that year, and got 10 points on it (several other students at my school did too, but no one at my school scored more than 10 that year).

I went onto graduate school in Computer Science and Engineering, hated it, blew out at the end of my first quarter by drawing an elaborate comic about pirates all over one of my exams (I wish I had a copy of it), and started working at a bank through a temp agency placement.

A year later, I decided to go to graduate school to become a math teacher. I had to spend a year going to school part-time taking a couple of undergrad math classes I'd missed during my first go-round (my degree ended up being a BA in Communication the first time due to being one math elective class short of a double major in Computer Science as well). Mostly, I took a year-long 300-level Abstract Algebra sequence that really helped me get a better sense of why algebra works the way it does. I've been teaching math for quite a while now, and it's not at all what I imagined I'd do with my life, but it's been a really good fit for me. One of these years, I'm going to take Elementary Functions at the community college over the summer, just so I can finally pass the thing. (I have taught the high school equivalent of that course, but still never technically "passed" it as a student.)

I guess my points are, life plans can change and math can start making sense.

[Aliquid]

I’m going to second the idea of holding off on Grad School, and work for a while.

I worked for a few years after my undergrad degree... bounced around from job to job, and ended up doing something I liked and was good at... which wasn’t related to my degree at all.

It was my degree that got my foot in the door for the first basic job, but it was contacts that I made at that job (and future jobs) that got me all the following opportunities.

If I start running out of opportunities, I might go back for grad school, but for now I’m happy I didn’t go.

[ve4grm]

Whether or not to finish the current degree largely depends on how much more is required (and if Calc 2 is required) before you can graduate. If you're close, see if you can take a few easier courses instead of some of the advanced ones. Having the degree in general means more to a prospective employer than what courses you took to get there. I very much recommend talking with your school's guidance counseling office (I believe most of them have some). They can help you plan out your last while at school.

If you have one very packed year of super hard courses still to go, consider splitting that into 2 relatively easy years where you're working part time alongside it. This can lessen the financial burden, as well as the school stress.

There's also the option of switching over to a trade or technical field, rather than the theoretical world of research chemistry. If chemistry is an interest, you could do very well as a lab tech, for example! The training tends to be shorter and cheaper than college, and depending on where you go, some of your college credits might even transfer over.

Myself, I'm currently in a field that's close to, but not quite, where I initially started. After the first semester of my second year, I was on track to be failing out of mechanical engineering. So I stopped. I worked at a factory for a bit, a call center, even tried my hand at the training course for air traffic controllers. Eventually I came back into civil engineering, and here I am to this day.

My dad trained as a draftsman. He eventually found his calling as a firefighter.

So don't feel bad if the first try doesn't end up being what you want. For a lot of people, it isn't. Just be more cautious as you try future things.

[2D8HP]

I have been.....

....feeling extremely depressed.

Sorry that you're feeling down @MonkeySage, I hope your mood brightens!

For what it's worth the majority of American adults don't have a college diploma (I don't have one for example), so if you don't get one you're far from alone.

[PopeLinus1]

Hey it’s not that bad. At least you spend some of your time on a forum dedicated to a webcomic and arguing about the rules of tabletop role playing games.

...I might have just made things worse.

[inexorabletruth]

If you're doomed either way, then go out with a bang.

Either give it your very best shot, or spend your last semester learning something you've always wanted to learn. College is a treasure not everyone can afford. I've always wanted to go, but I grew up poor. I sympathize with your suffering, but I also envy what you have. If I had one free semester to learn whatever I wanted, I'd feel like a kid in a candy store.

Go eat some candy, kid, then describe the taste, so I can enjoy it by proxy.

[Icewraith]

I have been performing really poorly for several semesters. I've gone too far to stop, but there's no way any graduate school will ever accept me. I've received only 1 scholarship, I've barely done anything worthwhile beyond classwork, and I've used up all my credits- I can't even get financial aid anymore.

This is the last semester I have any form of financial aid, and there's no guarantee I'm going to pass Calculus 2. At this rate, I'm going to fail my second attempt at calc 2. I study my ass off, and I fail, every single time.

Worst of all, I'm not even sure I WANT to be a chemist anymore. I just keep going because I am not good at anything else.

So yeah, if I keep going I will fail, but if I quit then I can't think of a way to recover from it. I should have graduated years ago. I should have started graduate school by now.

All of this has left me feeling extremely depressed.

Can you get an internship somewhere? If they like you and you can get through the academic work, you'll have a job when you graduate. If most jobs in the field require a Master's degree you might be in a trickier spot.

Also, Calc II is really about four-ish short classes in sequence. Are you really struggling with all of it or are there particular bits you struggle with (infinite series or differential equations, for instance?).

[EliVasbinder]

I feel so bad for you. As simple as it would sound, you don't have to stick with your degree. Don't just drop out, as you have a little time left. Get your bachelors degree and then maybe you can start your own business. Good luck!

[Cespenar]

Don't sweat it at all. Taking my time with my college education was the best thing I ever did. We even had a saying in my college which went something like (paraphrasing):

"If you finish college 1 year late, you lose 1 year. But if you finish it on time, you lose all 4 years."

Which is of course bit of an exaggeration and more of a "your mileage may vary" case, but still, the main idea is there. Life is not a horse race.

Also, my suggestion: find a part-time job or an internship to change a bit of your mental track. Seeing different jobs, companies, and business life will help you a lot more on deciding what to do with your life than just following the high school-bachelors-masters-phd pipeline.

[veti]

So yeah, if I keep going I will fail, but if I quit then I can't think of a way to recover from it. I should have graduated years ago. I should have started graduate school by now.

You know who I feel sorry for?

Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there's a version of "you" who managed to scrape through calc 2 and, by carefully optimising all their options, squeezed into grad school in the bottom quartile of their intake.

That "you" is in for a hard life. Sure, "you'll" graduate in due course, slide into a job and buckle down to a steady nine-to-five. About three years later, you'll look around and realise that all the bright, inspiring people who started at the same time have moved on now. Five years down the line, your team leader will be someone younger than you. You do OK, you work hard and get stuff done, yet somehow you always end up being the one to write up the negative results, or compare them with some other team's failures - jobs that everyone accepts need to be done in theory, but in practice you soon learn that nobody, least of all your employer, really gives a rat's backside whether they happen or not.

After a couple more years of this, you'll realise that, while the people around you may be curing cancer or reviving coral reefs or scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere, you're basically the guy who reloads the printer. You don't really have the aptitude for this work. You have a choice between struggling on until you inevitably get downsized, or trying to switch now into some other career where you'll have to start at, basically, entry level.

But you - the version of you in this world? You dodged that bullet. Think of all the time you've saved, by finding out now what you can't do.

As the military adage says, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy". You've had your first contact with the greatest enemy of us all, which is time, and you should think yourself lucky to be emerging with the loss of only a few years. I've known people struggle through 15 years or more, before they realise they're in the wrong job.

And I bet you've learned a lot in those years. You'll have learned about scientific method and academic rigour, about system and record keeping and concentration. You'll have learned a bit about yourself, how to look after yourself, managing money, social situations. And not least, you've probably even learned a bit about chemistry. Now is an excellent time to finish up your present course, pick up whatever qualification that gives you, and look around for a proper job. Another big advantage you've got over that parallel-you I was talking about? - you're emerging onto the job market at a high point, it's pretty much never been better than this, and in three-four years time when that person is ready, the next recession will be kicking in.

Don't dwell on the "lost" time. At worst it's a sunk cost, you can't get it back, so go forward from where you are. At best, it's an amazing foundation to launch you into any of a dozen exciting and rewarding careers. Don't think about what you can't do, think about what you can. Not everyone can do that.

[Knaight]

You know who I feel sorry for?

Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there's a version of "you" who managed to scrape through calc 2 and, by carefully optimising all their options, squeezed into grad school in the bottom quartile of their intake.

That "you" is in for a hard life. Sure, "you'll" graduate in due course, slide into a job and buckle down to a steady nine-to-five. About three years later, you'll look around and realise that all the bright, inspiring people who started at the same time have moved on now. Five years down the line, your team leader will be someone younger than you. You do OK, you work hard and get stuff done, yet somehow you always end up being the one to write up the negative results, or compare them with some other team's failures - jobs that everyone accepts need to be done in theory, but in practice you soon learn that nobody, least of all your employer, really gives a rat's backside whether they happen or not.

After a couple more years of this, you'll realise that, while the people around you may be curing cancer or reviving coral reefs or scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere, you're basically the guy who reloads the printer. You don't really have the aptitude for this work. You have a choice between struggling on until you inevitably get downsized, or trying to switch now into some other career where you'll have to start at, basically, entry level.

But you - the version of you in this world? You dodged that bullet. Think of all the time you've saved, by finding out now what you can't do.

While this is a plausible alternative, there's also plenty of others. Industry and academia are two very different environments, and people who thrive in one can struggle in the other. There's an alternate possibility here, where Calc 2 is finally handled*, that chemistry degree is leveraged to go into any number of relevant industries, and MonkeySage thrives there.

*Probably by going heavy on non-class resources to try and learn it. The material is pretty simple, and I suspect the problems here have more to do with struggling to learn from the teaching style of a particular teacher than anything else.

[lex109]

Regardless of anything else, definitely take time before you go to grad school. I had everything planned out, got a bachelor's and was going to get a master's in social gerontology. I went to work with the elderly for a few years and was SO GLAD I had waited because I would be miserable if I hadn't. Unless you're super focused on going into a chemistry/science focused job, most bachelor's degrees don't actually do much aside from allow you to check the box that says "I have a degree".

Waaaaaaay too many people put an emphasis on having a degree that just doesn't really equate to the importance it holds in real life. Do your best, and try to really evaluate whether the hassle and stress and to-do that goes with trying to get your chem degree/passing Calc 2 is worth it in the long run. A degree that may or may not actually help you do what you want to do is not worth risking your health/general well being. Self care!!!!

One other thing that I think a few other posters have touched on - get straight in your head what your priorities are. Do you want to have a really nice, big house or a really nice car? Or do you not care about a big house or having a yard, but you care a lot about the tech in your house? Or do you want to go on amazing vacations and so you're okay with a studio apartment? Do you want to eat your way across America? Not everyone is big on planning super far in advance, but getting a general idea of what you are and are not okay with in terms of lifestyle can have a huge impact on how your prioritize the types of jobs you're interested in. My husband and I want to be able to spend money on food and tech and vacations, and so we end up with higher paying jobs because that's what meets our lifestyle needs. My best friend works in a public library, doesn't really get paid all that much, but he makes enough to pay his bills/put food on the table and buy some video games here and there. Determine what your priorities are in terms of lifestyle and the rest becomes much easier.

[MonkeySage]

So, I took my final exam and afterwards my prof could tell I was worried- he's been watching me struggle all semester, so after I finished the exam he asked me for my phone number. A few days later, he called to tell me I passed Cal2. Next semester I'm back in chemistry, and I plan to get a part time since I've already taken the lab I need for that class.

If I can't get into grad school, there's still a lot I can do with a bachelors in chemistry.

[Peelee]

So, I took my final exam and afterwards my prof could tell I was worried- he's been watching me struggle all semester, so after I finished the exam he asked me for my phone number. A few days later, he called to tell me I passed Cal2. Next semester I'm back in chemistry, and I plan to get a part time since I've already taken the lab I need for that class.

If I can't get into grad school, there's still a lot I can do with a bachelors in chemistry.

THAT'S AWESOME! Go Monkeysage! Hope you feel better about your academic career after all that.

[MonkeySage]

I feel a whole lot better now, chemistry is home turf for me.

[Peelee]

I feel a whole lot better now, chemistry is home turf for me.

I know you'll probably run screaming from this suggestion... but I hear a lot about how Calc III is like coasting downhill after getting through Calc II. Have you thought about minoring in Math?

[MonkeySage]

I do have a minor in Physics, got one class left for it. I had a plan for exactly which physics course I was going to take too; not Modern, I'm not making that mistake again. XD Something more relevant to my major.

[Peelee]

I do have a minor in Physics, got one class left for it. I had a plan for exactly which physics course I was going to take too; not Modern, I'm not making that mistake again. XD Something more relevant to my major.

Oh, nice! My uni doesn't offer Physics for a degree, which makes me sad. Those were the most fun courses I've had so far.

[Jera]

Regardless of anything else, definitely take time before you go to grad school. I had everything planned out, got a bachelor's and was going to get a master's in social gerontology. I went to work with the elderly for a few years and was SO GLAD I had waited because I would be miserable if I hadn't. Unless you're super focused on going into a chemistry/science focused job, most bachelor's degrees don't actually do much aside from allow you to check the box that says "I have a degree".

One additional benefit to this is that in my experience grad school are much more lenient with applicants who have a few years of work experience than those straight out of school.

I was actually in a very similar situation to you several years ago, UArk specifically, with a bit of luck I was able to scrape by graduate after 5.5 years with a 2.32 undergrad GPA in 2013, which in my mind at the time meant I would never go to grad school. Then in January, 2017 the company I work for had a career growth expo and there were a few representatives from some local Universities, where I learned that every major university in the area, University of Nebraska, University of Iowa, Bellevue University, and even Creighton University had provisions for working adults seeking advanced degrees. The first three specifically had provisions for people whose undergrad GPA was less than stellar like mine.

Thanks to my work experience I was provisionally accepted as an MSAcc student, where I was required to first take three introductory MBA courses and maintain a 3.5gpa. Now I'm a year in and am on track to graduate with a Dual MSAcc/MBA degrees next March.

It may not work out like you originally planned but with a little luck and dedication on your part, it will work out.

[Scarlet Knight]

Nice to hear you passed. Remember a profession is often referred to as a career path, and paths take many turns.

Think about a typical chemical company; sure they need pure chemists who can work in a lab, but they also need chemists who can work in Marketing or Regulatory or Public relations. You'll be getting an entry level position, so they'll teach you what you need and you can change as opportunities appear.

Or you can go opposite, like working for an environmental group or the government. They need to understand chemistry also to protect the public .