Feel lost after dropping out.

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Hi everyone. Let me give you some background info about myself before I begin:

- Diagnosed with ADHD when I was about 6 y/o. I stopped taking ADHD medication when I was 10. I never needed any counselling.
- Always did great in school. I had a couple tutors, but I'd quit being tutored out of frustration (I absolutely hate studying) shortly after.
- I completed high school with awesome grades and minimal effort.

Now here's where things started to go downhill. My first year of university was a little tough since we never had any weekly quizzes/frequent homework to keep the knowledge fresh in my memory, but I managed to complete it with decent grades (some As, some Bs, a few Cs). I would always study for my exams w/ all-nighters (sorta), studying from 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM type-of-thing. I'd do the same with my essays and assignments.

You could tell that I've always had a self-discipline problem. Even now, being 20 years old, I keep putting off my driving lessons/test and job searching just to play video games and hang out with my friends (who were all way better off than I was when it came to the practical aspect of life). Many people who meet me get the impression that I'm a very smart guy and my peers/parents would think of me as an exceptionally wise guy. Cockiness aside, I even consider myself wise too! But my lack of discipline really hit me hard this time. I'd barely study compared to my peers, but I was able to hang by a thread in school. I was studying Psychology with a minor in Chemistry after my GPA dropped below medschool requirements. This year, I dropped out completely after failing a couple courses that I could have easily aced if I at least studied an hour a day. Now my GPA is too low to get into any university, unless I go study abroad.

If I get lucky, my uncle can get me into a European medical school (of course, I'm going to give it my 100% effort this time). But for now, I'm stuck in a rut. If I can't get into that medical school in Europe, I'm going to have to wait 3 years before I can re-apply to university with a clean-slate. I really don't want to do that, as I've already been wasting my life and money (most of which is my parents').

My parents were immigrants who worked very hard for their degrees and jobs to set up a foundation for me, which I completely wasted. I really don't know what to do at this point; don't worry, suicide will never be an option for me. I just want to make use of my life and I fear not making an impact on this world before I die (let alone making my parents proud and bring more purpose to their lives). I hear success stories about autistic children who end up proposing academic-level physics theories and such, these stories are so very inspiring as I've always had an innate passion for astrophysics, consciousness, and the universe. If I were to pull an Einstein (apparently him failing school was only a myth? Regardless...) of some sort, that would really be something, but I have no clue how to even follow up with my passion (Internet/YouTube lessons?).

I'm stuck, I feel like I have a lot of potential with this huge brain of mine, but I fear it will go to waste. Help?

Does your university offer any sort of remedial courses or anything? Have you talked with an adviser at the university about your options? I'm sorry to say, but I wouldn't even consider the European medical school thing as a viable option for two reasons. One, medical schools typically require an absolute minimum 3.5/4.0 GPA to get accepted, and if you flunked out I assume you're far below that. Secondly, even if you were able to be accepted, a medical school that would accept people that didn't complete college and had a failing GPA would probably not be accredited or taken seriously (basically, a hack school). That's nothing against you personally, but medical school is really darn difficult and rigorous, and if you had any difficulty at college, then medical school will be infinitely more challenging for you.

Now hopefully I haven't scared you off by now, but my advice would be to contact your university to see if there is anything you can do (perhaps a probationary semester or something) to continue studying there. But the larger issue is that if you do manage to get back in, you HAVE to correct the original issue of not studying. Maybe see a therapist or see about getting back on ADHD medication if you feel it's needed, but even the brightest people have to study in college.

The second option that comes to mind is to start looking at vocational/trade schools, associate's degrees, certifications, that sort of thing. There are a lot of great, stable, and good paying jobs out there that don't require a college education, but most will require some sort of training or certification (often only 1-2 years). There are even a few jobs and careers that don't require this additional education, such as the military or construction.

Hey Stargazer

If I want to return to my school, I can only do so through a diploma program as my BSc dreams are completely shattered at this point unless I wait for 3 years. I spoke to an adviser at a lower-level university in my area and that is basically what she told me. This year I just dropped out of was my probationary year, so that pretty much seals it I could also go into open studies and individually re-do every course that I failed in attempts to bring my GPA up (so I can get back into the minimum for my program and continue studying again). This kind of sounds like a decent option at the moment.

As for the European medical school, my uncle is a CEO of a pharmaceutical company and is trying to pull some strings for me by contacting his colleagues at the medical school there (which is rather prestigious. My uncle is one of those rich, wine-sipping golfer academics). If I can get into that school, it'll be a life-saver for me and I'm already grateful that my uncle is using his time and effort for me in doing so. Of course, I'm going to have to take transfer exams and whatnot to be able to work in Canada but that's not my main concern at the moment. This European medical school thing is my lottery ticket right now, so I can't fully depend on this.

And yes, thank you for that option. If all else fails, I think I may as well apply for a radiology diploma/certificate program. There's some big bucks there, so I've heard!

Please do not give up your dreams of medical school.

Okay, I really think pre-studying is the royal road. I mean, it's so effective it's almost cheating, just an entirely legal firm of cheating. And I hope a doctor attending a conference, say, on concussion nanagement pre-studies some the week leading up to the conference, get a heck of a lot more out of the conference that way.

And sometimes I multi-task during a class writing down both what I already know about a topic and what the professor is saying. In that way, both ADHD and pre-studying* may play to strength.

*And I mean almost running a semester ahead. The only exception might be the occasional class in something like history where the professor is an excellent lecturer.

With flat out honesty...get to work on fixing your lack of self-discipline.

There is NO POINT to going to medical school (or any school) if you can't put your skills to work. If you can't manage self-discipline, you won't ever hold a job or excel at a profession like medicine which will require a lot of executive functioning and discipline.

Once you improve your self-discipline, you need to be honest about what options in life are REALISTIC based on your abilities. There are things I will not consider as occupations because I know I can't handle the stress it puts on me to cope.