Feeling lost late in my college career.
I’m 22 years old, and will be finishing my cs degree in 1 year. My first passion has always been art, but I chose CS for the comfort, and stability, thinking that the fact I liked it and the possibility of going into game design would be enough. It no longer is. I’ve grown to hate the classes, and struggle to connect with my peers. I’ve made no close friends in this college, and find myself constantly drawn towards the people pursuing a fine art. All my friends are graduating, and I just feel so lost.
My final year is when I go into all of the game development classes. I feel like I could find joy in game development, so I want to complete this year and just get my degree. I’ve failed to find any internships for this summer, and have never gotten one. My work history is also very strange, and most of my jobs have been friends, family, and neighbors paying me to help them out with something. I have this summer and fall to make any exit plans or to keep this going.
First, I'm going to continue to put my best foot forward in school. I am currently doing well on a purely technical basis(3.6 gpa, officer in two clubs, teach a helper class and will be a ta), but my projects/ actual coding skills are lacking.
Second, I will continue applying to jobs. The market is kinda bad right now, and I have many moral quandaries with the job options available to me (so much of it is ai, oil, insurance, and military, which I personally really struggle to be ok doing). I’ve struggled to find my niche, so I’ve been applying to anything that says software and intern.
Third, I will be applying to art schools this summer. I am not awful at art, so I might be able to make at least a decent portfolio. However, If I try to get a second bachelors, I will be in school essentially until I am 27, and insurance once again becomes an issue. I have health problems and expensive medication I have to take, so I need stability by the time I am fully separated from my parent’s benefits. If I could get the degree done in two, I would feel much more ok with this decision. Masters is also an option, but I fear that I don't have a versatile enough portfolio/am not qualified enough to be certain of my admission. I also will have to find a way to ease the financial burden in any way possible (scholarship, jobs, roommates, etc). My parents have already put me through one degree and, although they are willing, I am not comfortable with them paying for two.
All in all, this summer will consist of two summer classes, game dev prep, applying to jobs, polishing my portfolio, and submitting college applications in August. I still have some things not fully worked out (dont know if my game idea will work for the structure of the class. Have not called schools to see if they even will accept a post bacc or a masters in an unrelated field. I do not know if the core credits I have taken will transfer to my new degree.) But at the very least, this plan helps me sleep at night.
Does anyone have any advice on something I could do differently or something else I can try? I find myself utterly alone in being so lost this far in my college career. Most of my friends hammered out their indecisiveness years ago. The hardest part of this is the loneliness, so if anyone was/ is where I am, I would love to hear from you. I just need someone to really talk to about this.