Question people, how should I deal with the shame of not getting the degree that I initial told millions I wanted to get. In my case it is medicine. How do I keep my dignity and head up high?
I know several people who are in my situation too and they feel the same way, shame.

For me, I feel ashamed and stupid because I first of all told almost everyone I talked to that I will be or want to be a doctor and second of all, for believing that I can actually get into med school.

I know that some people who want to feel good about themselves would look down at me and think that I am such a loser and extremely stupid since I wasn't good enough to make it to med school. Oh and also, they will think that I am lazy since I didn't get into medicine or didn't pursue medicine.

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

Biology and Psychology are both interesting enough, but to me university is a place to prepare you for a job. And unless I want to go into research or do more schooling, neither is a great way to land a job.

I also found biology to be a limiting degree. Thats why I am not in the process of getting all the requirements for the CA designation. If i was to go through science again I would probably do environmental science because it seems like the only widely useful biology based degree.

Originally Posted by JeffB

I also found biology to be a limiting degree. Thats why I am not in the process of getting all the requirements for the CA designation. If i was to go through science again I would probably do environmental science because it seems like the only widely useful biology based degree.

I don't want to bash on Bio or anything, but yeah, it doesn't really have any practical applications except research or as a jumping off point for a professional school. I love the material, but I really didn't think it through.

Although I'd think BioChem would be a bit more useful than EnviroSci

Did you actually finish your Bio degree and have trouble finding a job?

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

lol that would totally be EPIC! The only issue is that we don't even have a prof in the department who would be capable of/willing to do that course. I've looked through the Faculty listing and only a new junior Post Doc has anything to do whatsoever with Behavioral Economics!

Health Sci's apparently can design their own courses? :(

I really would have thought you'd have found Von Mises too capitalist

I know its always more fun studying something your interested in, but you can always learn the stuff on your own. There's plenty of resources online.

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

Did you actually finish your Bio degree and have trouble finding a job?

I did finish my degree, but not with a lot of enthusiasm, just trying to get it done. I had pretty much made up my mind to pursue a career in the finance or accounting fields in third year, but if i wanted to switch I would have had to transfer into 2nd year commerce.

I did do a quick search of companies to see if they had any openings but didnt really find anything. I wasnt looking really hard but most of what I found the qualifications they were asking for was environmental science or biology/environmental science. I could have looked into working at the various lab companies but that doesn't really interest me.

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

I really would have thought you'd have found Von Mises too capitalist

Well he does bash socialism alot but at the same time he scoffs at the Capitalist ideals of rational behavior and a magical world of numbers and mathematical theorems with little regard to people their actions(rational & irrational) and beliefs and how they apply value to everything; Even if he isn't directly implying that we can view modern day financial markets from the perspective of his theories. So It sort of evens out!

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

Ofcourse they will be similar! We both are the rare-ish INTJ's aka Rational Masterminds; Most of my friends don't even understand at all why all of this is a concern for me aka why I am not simply happy with just going to class trying to do academically well in whatever content I am being "told" to study and why I have to quesiton everything.

The unexamined life is not worth living, right? After all, we live for reason.

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

Well he does bash socialism alot but at the same time he scoffs at the Capitalist ideals of rational behavior and a magical world of numbers and mathematical theorems with little regard to people their actions(rational & irrational) and beliefs and how they apply value to everything; Even if he isn't directly implying that we can view modern day financial markets from the perspective of his theories. So It sort of evens out!

That's an interesting interpretation. I kindof took it more as him rejecting the idea that we could look at group behaviour in an empirical/mathmatical way, and that we had to look at it as a group of individuals. Not necessarily that they weren't acting rationally, but that they were acting in a way that was too complex to be analyzed at the group level. Which was part of the reason why he favoured laissez-faire capitalism, it didn't require you to try and set values, it relied on the market for that.

Although, I tried reading Human Action while I was in Grade 12, and while it held my interest at first I lost the motivation to clarify concepts that I had trouble understanding, and just pushed past them. So my understanding is probably not the best...

are the students not loving mac the minority?

Don't get me wrong, I love Mac. I just kindof wished I had picked a different program.

im going into grade 16 and then strait through to college

I did a 180 in my final year when I decided med school wasn't really for me. I was originally in Kinesiology, which was a great program (although the tests were mildly unpredictable).

Switched to math, and although I like the material, I kind of dislike the program itself...my courses are all moving quite rapidly, and my hardest course is being made even more difficult, simply because the prof is lecturing at the PhD candidates who attend lectures (even though they're not being evaluated).

I'd learn so much more if he'd just slow down...but no, he's determined to finish the entire textbook, haha.

My rant:

I liked the nursing program last year, but this year definitely dissapointed me. I feel like a lot of the things I am learning in some classes are impractical in practice or irrelevant. I wrote an essay on group process last year, and I'm writing another one this year worth almost half my mark in my PBL (problem based learning) course (WHY?!). Learning about group process theories is alright, but I feel like in real life in the hospital, I would never ever think about them let alone apply them. I don't appreciate the redundancy in topic either.

My Health Science and Society class is chill, but the class structure is very flawed. Every class consists of 1-3 group presentations on a topic (in front of a large lecture hall), yet all the quizzes and the final questions come out of the textbook. There is not really an incentive to listen to any of the presentations, and because the textbook covers so many broad topics (in the form of what seems like journal articles), I'm pretty terrified about the final. Needless to say, no real teaching goes on in this class.

Clinical is getting very repetitive, but thankfully, my placement is over after this term. Every day consists of bedbaths, vitals, a head-to-toe assessment, and the odd dressing change here or there. Mind you, my placement is eight hours long, and I would normally finish all these tasks in 2-4 hours max. I feel like I walk around and do nothing a lot of the time, but I guess this will get better with time as I learn other things in later years. Even so, I feel like most of my time is wasted, and I don't have lots of it in my program.

Thankfully, the only redeeming quality of my program this semester was Pharmacology. My prof is pretty good at explaining things and making it relavent to practice. I felt I learned a lot!

Finally, I feel like I'm having an internal conflict on what I really want to do with my life. Being a nurse is great - a respectable profession and good pay but I have a greater interest in geography and urban planning overall. I guess I was scared to go into it from high school because I thought it might not lead anywhere, but I'm thinking I might pursue urban planning or something in public health (not necessarily a public health nurse) or health policy after I'm done nursing (too poor to switch!). I definitely realized over the year that you gotta do what you love.