Changing majors Options

[Melissa]

This is kind of hard for me. All my life, I've been told that I was going to be a doctor. Yeah, I enjoyed anatomy class in high school, I really liked interning for an ENT, I would live an excellent life as a doctor, it sounded like a good plan so I went with it.

The thing is, I'm not really interested in it. I hate chemistry, biology, AND physics. I'm trying to be a Neuroscience and Behavior major because I thought I would be interested in psychology and because its requirements overlap with the premed requirements. And yeah, I do like psych, except it isn't enough to make me actually want to go to class. I have no motivation for it whatsoever.

I was thinking about this through the span of the year and feel that I really ... don't want to be a doctor. I'm more interested in writing and studying human rights, sociology, maybe even political science. The problem is that ALL of my classes I took this entire year go toward the premed/psych path and I'm not sure if it would be wise to switch at this point.

I'm going to email my dean about this and see if it would work out, but then there's the parents to worry about. My mom is crazy and I highly doubt she'll pay my tuition if I decide not to be premed. The one time I brought it up, she bitched at me, saying that if I wanted to "waste my life," I should've just gone to Baylor (I got a full ride there, but seriously... BAYLOR??) instead of choosing Columbia, which is expensive as f**k.

I just know that if I look ten years into my life, I see myself as a journalist, an author, something that has to do with writing and debating. Maybe even a lawyer. I DON'T see me working in an operating room and being on-call nearly 24/7. It's just not me.

I don't know. This is sort of a rant... and me wanting encouragement. I'm not sure how I'll work through this.

[SimplicityGirl]

I went through that this year--except it was from aspiring to be a teacher switching over to (hopefully) nursing.

I simply don't believe that you should be forced into going into a career that you're not interested in. Life as a doctor isn't all its made out to be--yes, good pay, stable source of income, a very well respected job in society, and would likely bring your parents a lot of pride. But honestly, if you just can't see yourself being a doctor, then all that is nothing to you. You may get the prestige, the money, and the honour, but really, I think that it's a horrible way to spend a good...half of your life or more doing something that you don't enjoy. I'm not saying that you have to absolutely LOVE what you do job wise, but it should be something that you find somewhat appealing to you.

I'm sure you can switch out to journalism, and as far as money goes, if your parents won't foot the bill, go apply for student loans. God, I really hate it when parents use tuition as a means to trap their kids into doing what they (the parents) would like the kid to do. I also equally dislike it when the kid wants to do something entirely different than what their parents wished, and have the parents call that a "waste" or something equally degrading. We all can't be doctors or lawyers here. Neither do we all WANT to be doctors or lawyers.

In the end, its YOUR life we're talking about, not your parents lives. I would rather do something that I WANT to do, then have my parents forced me into doing something that I can't even tolerate.