Lost and in a hole. College, 2nd semester junior.

General Advice

Hello. I'm a college student (20M) in my second semester of my junior year. I get I'm still "young" but I'm a bit lost and, admittedly, scared when thinking about what to do with myself, partially because my problems right now seem to be self-inflicted.

I went into college not knowing what I wanted to do other than learn languages, which is something that I've always been interested in. Fortunately, I accumulated a lot of high school credits through APs (enough to where I pretty much didn't have to do any pre-requisites) and got accepted into the business school out of high school at my parents' alma mater, so I figured I'd roll with that. I liked it A LOT, but parents kind of pressured me into going the pre-med route on the pretext that I was their "golden child" for medicine (I am the middle of three sons) and that they wanted one out of three sons to be a doctor, so I switched out my second semester of freshman year and have been doing pre-medical courses since then.

I've reached a point where I don't want to keep doing them. Science classes have always come pretty easy to me and I have a really high GPA, but for the past two and a half years or so I have noticed a lot of indicators that I don't want to be a doctor (I really want to start working sooner rather than later, I'm really turned off by patient care, I'm not really that interested in science at all and am in this because my parents TOLD me to, and I knew from the start that money was one of the biggest reasons why I'm doing it). I have biochemistry and labs this semester but really just can't find the energy to even open the courses. Unfortunately, I kind of screwed myself; I more or less sunk-costed myself into doing these classes up until this semester, where I only have this spring and next year before I can graduate, AND I disliked them enough to where I really didn't apply myself towards out-of-class experiences other than shadowing and clinical volunteering, which both made it more clear that maybe I wasn't cut out for this.

On the flip side, the college I go to offers a business minor, so I do it and have been doing those classes along with my normal science workload. I have enjoyed them so much more than anything I've ever taken for pre-med. In particular, I was drawn to subject matter in my original major (Finance, and International Business). I've also traveled quite a bit and realize I love spending time in places that are unfamiliar to me from a cultural/lingual perspective. I've spent the last year or so trying to figure out how to land in a place where I can travel out of the country for work and practice languages, which are to me two things that I enjoy.

I feel like I'm pulling myself in a ton of random directions. Part of me wants to stop doing pre-med altogether and switch back to finance w/ international business minor since it sticks out so much to me and I feel like I don't see a future in healthcare whatsoever. But as of right now, I'm pretty much done with every pre-med class required for a degree, and when I came here, I was on track to graduate a year early, and now I would have to probably spend another two years minimum doing business coursework. I would also have to be accepted into the business college again.

On the flip side, I have been trying to apply for internships and low-level entry jobs with a business minor, hoping that I can try and connect/network my way up and eventually get something that allows me to fulfill my goals, but continuously get turned away because of my lack of significant business coursework/experience, resulting from my own lack of experiences because I was just studying for pre-med stuff all the time. I think this has taken a pretty big toll on my mental state.

On top of this, during this time, my brothers were both able to find internships, make connections, and work.

I guess it's the point of the sub, but any advice? Are either of my "options" even worth it? I tried to ask both of my brothers, both of whom just said "do what you think you should do", and both of my parents have refused to even think about me switching, citing that "I'm close to graduating" (this one I do get) and that they "need one son who's a doctor". I'm not sure what to do. Any advice is appreciated.

Posted Jan 16, 2026, 7:45 PM UTC

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