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Hi Queens, seeing another post today about getting certified motivated me to ask for some help/advice. I know this is a long post so tldr: Had poor mental health that resulted in an overall bad cumulative gpa and not making the most out of my time in uni. I understand now every mistake I made and know exactly how I would correct it if I could go back. Is that no longer a possibility?
Here is my situation:
I have recently been really wanting to level up my life. Since I was a child, I was always very ambitious and career-oriented in the first half of k-12. However, in the second half, a scrote bullied his way into a relationship with me and abused the crap out of me (I said no but he kept persisting so I just gave in cause I was bad at asserting boundaries). After that my grades suffered a lot because I was very depressed and I also had undiagnosed ADHD that spiraled out of control (it was never a problem before being abused; in fact, I was a workaholic and high achievier because of it. The first time I ever failed a class was after being tormeted by the scrote. I was a Straight A student prior to that).
This didn't get much better when I went to uni. My first 2 years went really poorly, but after swapping to a major I enjoyed my grades skyrocketed, resulting in consistently ending up on the dean's list. I also got an intership and started going to therapy which lead to me realize all the mistakes I made during college due to just having poor mental health overall.
However, now that I have this bad cumulative gpa, I'm constantly worried about whether it's too late to get my life back on track to being career oriented. Despite knowing all my mistakes and exactly how to correct them now, I'm left wondering if my gpa will be held against me. Is there no way for me to get back on track to higher education and a well paying/rewarding career? I'm currently studying for the LSAT and hoping to be able to get into law school. Alternatively, I would like get a bachelors or a higher degree in a different field if I can't get admission into law school (I feel like I need a near perfect score just to get into an average or even below average one), but I am scared every school will reject me and I have no pathway forward...
I'm sorry this is my first post and its really messy, but this is something that hurts me a lot and I would be so grateful if any queens could give some input on what I could do. Is there anyone who has been in a similar situation who was able to turn it around?
I really don't want my life to be doomed to working random jobs that don't actually fulfill me all because of my dumb past (which could have been avoided had I been allowed to go to therapy before univeristy or had parents that actually raised me with good boundaries/social skills and protected me from predatory scrotes).
I think sometimes when we're young we think things like this are the end of the world and we'll never get a good job or anything like that.
I went into university when I was 19, I failed because it wasn't for me.
I thought that was the end. But I went back to school at 24 and now in a career that I love and I'm working on starting my own business.
If things aren't going well for you, it's ok to take time off. It's the end of the world to fail , take time for yourself and think about what you actually want to do.
There's so much pressure to get post secondary education RIGHT AFTER HIGH SCHOOL. At that age we don't know what we want to do. There's nothing wrong with taking some time to figure it out.
I don't really understand the situation in the US (with student loans etc), but it sounds like you're young given you're still an undergraduate student. And so I would probably say, like a recent post said, get as many quals as possible. Definitely don't resign yourself to jumping from one low-paid job to the next. It sounds like you've already started turning things around, which is great. I didn't really start earning a decent wage until I was nearly 40 and I'm doing fine now - I own my own place (with a mortgage that I probably won't pay off until I'm 60 or so, but that's fine) and live a good life. But to get a job that gives you good earnings and a nice lifestyle, you do need the quals, so get those quals, no matter how long it takes or how much work you have to do.
Try not to think that there is 'no pathway forward'. There is always a way forward.
The same thing happened to me, in a way. I didn’t take college seriously, didn’t choose a very lucrative degree, and my grades were pretty meh (C+ / B- range). I was a mess and didn’t understand or even care how much impact that time would have on the rest of my life. I’m now back in school again for a better degree and taking it seriously, so I think I’ll be ok.
Even if your grades are low, I think your LSAT score will really make an impact. You will probably also have to write an essay for admissions. Just explain that you made some mistakes in the past and are ready to turn your life around. If you are your LSAT, that will prove to them that you are serious.
Worst case, maybe you get accepted into a law school that’s not so great. If you maintain a great GPA for a couple years, maybe you could transfer to a better one. What really matters is the college you graduate from, not the one you started out in. Your life definitely isn’t over because you had a bad GPA. My brother makes close to 7 figures and never even went to college. There’s plenty of paths to success.