Is It Possible To Find Internships With My Situation?

[Brydont]

So I'm in my third year of my undergraduate studies and I figured out VERY late in the game that my true love was psychology. This is my first semester with the major and I'm loving it, but I'm very worried about, what I feel is, an impending problem. From what I understand, to make myself stand out when I go for my masters, I need internships and research credits, and my adviser has been amazing about emailing all of his students every internship possibility available, but unfortunately, I don't fit the bill for any of them.

The past five semesters, I had been going to school for Animal Science/Pre-Veterinary Medicine and I was dreadful at it. In high school, I made great grades and did well on tests, then I went to college and started bombing, but I just chalked it up to "college is much harder than high school". But now that I'm actually studying something that I love to do, I realize it was from a lack of motivation. I picked being a vet because my dad said, "You like animals, why don't you become a vet?" and I pretty much replied with a "sure" because I didn't know what else I wanted to do. I'm absolutely terrified that my laziness in the past couple of years is going to interfere with my goals.

I rambled a bit, but has anyone else ever run into this problem? If so, how did you handle it? And even if you haven't had this problem, if you could give me a bit of advice, I would absolutely love it. Am I just up a creek without a paddle?

P.S. After looking around the forums, I realize that most of the people on here have a different definition of low GPA than I do. I'm too embarrassed to say the exact number, but it's between 3.0 and 2.0

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[erg923]

Internships at the undergraduate level are really just work experince, which sometimes one can earn school credits for. I think its entrance to graduate school with GPA significantly below a 3.0 that is going to be diffcult for you.

 

[JustNoticing]

There should be plenty of volunteer or paid work you can do on the research or clinical side regardless of your GPA. It doesn't necessarily need to be an official "internship". You've got enough time left in undergrad to pull up the GPA a little bit, so make sure to.

 

[calimich]

So I'm in my third year of my undergraduate studies and I figured out VERY late in the game that my true love was psychology. This is my first semester with the major and I'm loving it, but I'm very worried about, what I feel is, an impending problem. From what I understand, to make myself stand out when I go for my masters, I need internships and research credits, and my adviser has been amazing about emailing all of his students every internship possibility available, but unfortunately, I don't fit the bill for any of them.

The past five semesters, I had been going to school for Animal Science/Pre-Veterinary Medicine and I was dreadful at it. In high school, I made great grades and did well on tests, then I went to college and started bombing, but I just chalked it up to "college is much harder than high school". But now that I'm actually studying something that I love to do, I realize it was from a lack of motivation. I picked being a vet because my dad said, "You like animals, why don't you become a vet?" and I pretty much replied with a "sure" because I didn't know what else I wanted to do. I'm absolutely terrified that my laziness in the past couple of years is going to interfere with my goals.

I rambled a bit, but has anyone else ever run into this problem? If so, how did you handle it? And even if you haven't had this problem, if you could give me a bit of advice, I would absolutely love it. Am I just up a creek without a paddle?

P.S. After looking around the forums, I realize that most of the people on here have a different definition of low GPA than I do. I'm too embarrassed to say the exact number, but it's between 3.0 and 2.0

Not sure if my response is what you're looking for, but it's real. I finished undergrad (BS psychobiology) with a GPA just over 2.5 from a public ivy. I also had superb hs grades and my low college grades were due to a combo of excess fun, a crazy home life, and lack of engagement with the material (I went into college pre-med). As many of my friends were applying to grad school I knew I didn't stand a real chance. My path would have to be different. I found work, then switched tracks and settled into a career for about six years. I worked hard, did very well, moved up, traveled the world. Later in my 20's I decided it was time to try grad school. I'd long been a good test taker and prepared for months and did very well on the GREs. My letters of recommendation were excellent, imo. I applied to three phd programs in counseling psychology that would consider applicants with only a bachelor's degree and several top MA programs in counseling/clinical mental health. I was accepted into every MA program I applied to and received one phd interview. That interview resulted in a fully funded offer. Now, I'm at the end of my degree and should be heading out for predoc internship this year and graduating next summer. I'm in my 30's, very comfortable with my meandering path, and find I'm able to easily connect with a wide variety of clients partly because of my journey.

Although a low GPA may hurt your chances of going to grad school straight after college, you will have ample opportunity to make up for it in the "real world." Focus on what you can control and what you can do differently in the future to help your goals become reality.