I’m not sure if this is the best place to post this question, so please let me know if there’s a more appropriate forum on the website to ask. Also this post will be super long, so I apologize in advance.
Okay I’m looking for some advice. Some background info: I attend a top 15 university located in the midwest. Partly due to my dad’s insistence from having a PhD in the field (not blaming him at all for my predicament) and partly due to actually liking the subject in high school, I went into college pretty sure I wanted to be a physics major. It’s a fascinating subject, applicable to a variety of fields, and has fairly good job prospects, so perfect right? Well now I’ve gotten to junior year, and I’ve realized I don’t particularly like physics, nor am I very good at it. In my school classes are structured such that I took introductory calculus based physics freshman year, then took math prereqs sophomore year, and now can take the more advanced physics classes as a junior. I’ve realized I don’t really like the subject and find every class I’m taking extremely boring. Also, I’m not particularly talented compared to the other people in my classes, and I only mange to make B’s due to attending office hours and working on the homework for hours so that my score on it is almost 100%; I usually do really poorly on the in-class tests. Most of the other kids seem to have an inherent talent and don’t struggle like I do, and seem to have no issue getting 90+% on tests. Now senior year is coming up and it’s pretty much a given that I need to start applying to grad school, but I can’t imagine having to go to school for a few more years and then having to work in the science field for the next 40 years or however long.
I find myself wondering whether there is a subject I enjoy more and am better at. For example, I’m minoring (possibly double majoring) in psychology, and I love those classes. I actually look forward to going to those classes, and I do really well, easily making A’s in the 200 level classes and making A-'s/B+'s in the 300 level classes. Perhaps I could go to grad school for psychology? I liked my history classes and made A’s and B+'s in them as well even when I took 300 level classes as a freshman and sophomore, so obviously my writing skills are fairly strong. I like reading and analyzing texts as well. I’ve been thinking maybe I would enjoy law school?
My issue is that my GPA is a 3.1 which is good for a STEM major at my school but pretty abysmal compared to psychology/history/sociology/etc majors. Also due to my tunnel vision with physics, I only have research experience in physics labs, and will most likely have an internship in engineering this summer.I feel like if I apply to a graduate school in the social sciences or something like law school, my application would look extremely noncompetitive compared to other applicants due to the low GPA. How can I work on finding a future career that I’m good at, enjoy, and that I would be able to get into grad school for? How would you proceed if you found yourself in my situation?
Maybe a MA in psychology would be a good bet provided you double-major and do well in psychology courses, if you eventually want a PhD in psychology.
As for the PhD in psych itself, ask @juillet about what it truly entails; after all, she earned a PhD in an area of psychology. (She is a Columbia graduate btw)
It is too bad you didn’t decide at the end of sophomore year what to major in because you are a bit stuck now. I think you should graduate and work for a few years to figure out what you want. Your goal seems to be grad school, but grad school is not a goal, just a means to a goal. Many people don’t work in the area they studied for their undergrad degree. The engineering internship sounds like a good start to see if you enjoy the work experience. The problem with enjoying taking classes in this area or that area is that you don’t get paid for enjoying classes and taking tests with good grades. If you want to try a job in another field you can look for areas where quantitative skills are useful and start there. Once you see the work a bit more you can decide on grad school.
You don’t need a pre-law degree to go to Law school. Your physics degree would be fine. Furthermore, you might want to look for employment in a patent law office where you can use what you know about physics in a less scientific setting. By all means do not go to graduate school right now. Certainly not in physics since you are not so enthusiastic about the prospects. A Ph.D. is a 5-6 year commitment and you don’t need that right now.
My oldest son had much the same situation. He started in physics and in first semester Junior year realized that while he was pretty good at it, he really did not like it. He switched to General Biology and took some time off after his B.S. before deciding that graduate school was the right thing for him. He is just finishing up and has actually taken advantage of the fact that he knows much more physics than most biologists to build a career in biomechanics.
just keep in mind that you have not wasted your education. You can put what you have learned to good use in many fields and you don’t need to restrict yourself to going to graduate school.
Wholeheartedly agreed with @BrownParent. You sound very unsure about what you want to do, but also under the impression that you have to go to graduate school, and that you have to go now. Neither of those is true. You don’t have to work in science or physics. In fact, since you don’t know what you want to do, I think graduate school is the worst choice you can make, particularly if you go to a program you have to pay for. (Spending a few years in a PhD program only to drop out isn’t necessarily a totally bad thing, if you are funded, especially if you get an MA along the way. But it’d be better to spend the time working towards a goal you know you want.)
Since you go to a top 15 university, the career services office should be decent to excellent and maybe there are even recruiters on campus from different fields. A BA in physics gives you quantitative and analytical skills that would be useful across many sectors, and potentially lucrative. A visit to career services might be in order. They don’t only help you find a job; they also help you figure out what you want to do, through advisement and career tests and discussion with career counselors. But you don’t have to have it all figured out at 21. Many people find their best career by accident, by moving through a couple of jobs in their 20s and progressively figuring out what they like and what they don’t like.
Grad school in psychology leads to one of I would say about three-ish pathways. One is counseling, which you can do with an MA in mental health counseling or school psychology, or a PhD in clinical, counseling, or school psychology. The second is research, which you need a PhD to do in some subfield of psychology. The third is industrial/organizational psychology, which you can do with a master’s - this is usually helping employers and companies hire personnel and figure out how best to motivate their workers, among other things. Liking psychology classes is a good first step, but there’s a big difference between liking the content and the professional practice of psychology in one of those settings. I would suggest volunteering to get some experience in those areas. If you think you might want to be a psychological researcher, then volunteer in a psych lab at your university (if you are at a top 15 university then there is almost certainly good research going on in the psych department there). If you think you might want to be a counselor, then volunteer at a mental health clinic or hospital or shadow a counselor.
Then I’d say your decision is made. Better to recurve now than in the middle of an unhappy career.