- #1
Fizz Bomb
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Hi everyone. I am hoping to get your opinions on what my future prospects might be as I've had a really rough struggle with school and any advice you might have for me.
For background, I joined the military right out of high school. After five years I got out and attended a local community college. My grades were pretty good, but nowhere what I can do - I was struggling at the time and didn't really understand why. There I found my love of science, especially geology and physics, and decided to complete a double major in both to go into geophysics. I transferred to a state university with a very good geology/geophysics department and then everything fell apart. I found that I have very severe depression, anxiety, dysthymia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from my time in the military; however at the time it was undiagnosed and untreated. I struggled for two years, kept taking classes while failing the vast majority of them before I was taken to the hospital and finally got treatment. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough and after several different hospitalizations, I left school completely and entered a long-term program with the VA. Now, a few years later I've improved greatly and have been stable enough to hold a decent and demanding job for about a year and a half.
I desperately want to leave this job, return to school and study geophysics, but I'm not sure how much my past record will limit me. I have four semesters of almost exclusively Fs or Ws followed by a three year break from school, after which I'll be returning to at 29 years of age. I'm still thinking about doing the double major, which will take four years since my failing out completely screwed up the sequence for my physics classes. On one hand I hate wasting even more time on the degree, but on the other maybe the extra time will give me more classes and time to help repair my GPA. My career goals aren't huge. I don't want to become a professor after getting a Ph.D fron an Ivy League school - I just want to get into a decent geophysics graduate program and complete a Masters, then hopefully get a good job in industry. I'm still accepted at the University, just on academic probation, so I don't need to reapply. On the plus side as well, I have great evaluations, references, and awards from both my military service as well as my current job, which is in the Mining industry (so something somewhat relevant to a geophysics career). I also find the material relatively easy to learn and keep up with, at least when I'm healthy. Of course, on the down side I still have several severe mental illnesses and while I have gotten treatment for them, I'm have almost a 100% chance of going into a severe episode again, although I now have tools and medications that have helped already to prevent the really bad falls.
Even if I get fantastic grades from now on, do I have any real chance at graduate school with that record? Or a decent job? Especially if they find out my failures and absence was from mental illness? How can I fix this? I know without a doubt that I'll regret not going back and finishing this for the rest of my life, but, on the other hand, I don't want to set myself up for failure again. Thank you for any advice or help you might have for me.
For background, I joined the military right out of high school. After five years I got out and attended a local community college. My grades were pretty good, but nowhere what I can do - I was struggling at the time and didn't really understand why. There I found my love of science, especially geology and physics, and decided to complete a double major in both to go into geophysics. I transferred to a state university with a very good geology/geophysics department and then everything fell apart. I found that I have very severe depression, anxiety, dysthymia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from my time in the military; however at the time it was undiagnosed and untreated. I struggled for two years, kept taking classes while failing the vast majority of them before I was taken to the hospital and finally got treatment. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough and after several different hospitalizations, I left school completely and entered a long-term program with the VA. Now, a few years later I've improved greatly and have been stable enough to hold a decent and demanding job for about a year and a half.
I desperately want to leave this job, return to school and study geophysics, but I'm not sure how much my past record will limit me. I have four semesters of almost exclusively Fs or Ws followed by a three year break from school, after which I'll be returning to at 29 years of age. I'm still thinking about doing the double major, which will take four years since my failing out completely screwed up the sequence for my physics classes. On one hand I hate wasting even more time on the degree, but on the other maybe the extra time will give me more classes and time to help repair my GPA. My career goals aren't huge. I don't want to become a professor after getting a Ph.D fron an Ivy League school - I just want to get into a decent geophysics graduate program and complete a Masters, then hopefully get a good job in industry. I'm still accepted at the University, just on academic probation, so I don't need to reapply. On the plus side as well, I have great evaluations, references, and awards from both my military service as well as my current job, which is in the Mining industry (so something somewhat relevant to a geophysics career). I also find the material relatively easy to learn and keep up with, at least when I'm healthy. Of course, on the down side I still have several severe mental illnesses and while I have gotten treatment for them, I'm have almost a 100% chance of going into a severe episode again, although I now have tools and medications that have helped already to prevent the really bad falls.
Even if I get fantastic grades from now on, do I have any real chance at graduate school with that record? Or a decent job? Especially if they find out my failures and absence was from mental illness? How can I fix this? I know without a doubt that I'll regret not going back and finishing this for the rest of my life, but, on the other hand, I don't want to set myself up for failure again. Thank you for any advice or help you might have for me.