Careers/Education Questions - Weekly Discussion Thread - August 21, 2025

[u/AutoModerator]

This is a dedicated thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in physics.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future, or want to know what your options are, please feel welcome to post a comment below.

A few years ago we held a graduate student panel, where many recently accepted grad students answered questions about the application process. That thread is here, and has a lot of great information in it.

Helpful subreddits: /r/PhysicsStudents, /r/GradSchool, /r/AskAcademia, /r/Jobs, /r/CareerGuidance

[u/smooshed_napkin]

So I'm wanting to go back to university for physics in about a year. I really love physics and its always been a passion but i never believed in myself. Unfortunately my gpa is bad (2.2) because i was struggling with intense depression while working full time and doing school full time plus i was hard addicted to pot then. But I have 92 credits, so my gen eds should be mostly done with by now.

I want to transfer to a school, but they require gpa of 2.5 to transfer. I've quit pot, I'm living with family so i can drop to part time and i want to take classes part time so I can manage it. I'm also on medication and therapy now.

For about a year and a half ive been self studying randomly for fun, i dabbled in calculus, taught myself set theory, even taught myself projection matrices and general physics equations. Ive started a self study plan to learn calculus and read some physics books to help with the concepts. Should I go to community college first for my gpa? Or do you think they might let me back into uni? Im very determined to do this