u/Unlucky-Response-119

I don’t really know how to start this so I’m just gonna be straight up.

I’m a CS student at Boston, graduating in December, or at least that’s the plan. My GPA is sitting at a 2.4 right now, and honestly I think it’s about to get worse because I’m likely failing some classes this semester. So by the time I walk, it might be even lower than that.

If you look at my degree audit it’s kind of ugly. 13 W’s. Some F’s. A lot of C’s and D’s scattered throughout. I also had to switch from a BS in CS to a BA in CS at some point because I couldn’t keep up with the requirements. And I had to delay graduation by a full semester because I was hospitalized for a month during my degree. so that whole semester of my life was just… gone.

Here’s the part I’m most ashamed to admit: throughout a big chunk of my CS degree, I was dealing with really bad anxiety and depression, and I leaned on ChatGPT heavily to get through assignments and classes. Like, heavily. And now I’m sitting here at the end of my degree realizing I don’t actually know a lot of the core stuff I was supposed to learn. OS, data structures, systems. I can talk about it surface level but if someone sat me down for a technical interview I’d probably blank.

No internships. No real projects I’m proud of. No experience. Nothing on my resume that would make a recruiter look twice.

And right now, with the semester ending, I have zero motivation left. Like I genuinely cannot make myself care about finishing strong. I’ve kind of just given up at this point and I’m going through the motions.

On top of everything, I’m an international student, which adds a completely different layer of pressure to all of this. If I don’t land a job after graduation, I can’t just take my time and figure things out. I have a limited window to stay in the country, and if nothing works out, I have to go back home. There’s no gap year option, no “I’ll just apply again next cycle”. it’s either I find something fast or I’m on a plane. So while other people in my position might have the luxury of taking a breath after graduation and regrouping, I genuinely don’t have that. The clock starts the second I graduate, and right now I don’t feel anywhere close to ready.

And the worst part is I don’t even know what direction to go in after I graduate. Like, I can’t figure out a single path that actually works for me right now. I can’t get a job because I have no internship experience. I can’t get an internship because it’s too late in the season and I haven’t applied anywhere. I can’t apply to a master’s program because most of them have GPA cutoffs and mine doesn’t qualify. And even if somehow an opportunity landed in my lap, I genuinely don’t know how to code well enough to pass a technical interview like I mean that literally, not just imposter syndrome talking. I have six months until I graduate and every door I look at feels either closed or like it requires something I don’t have. I feel completely trapped in a circle where every option needs a prerequisite that my current situation doesn’t allow for. I don’t know what the first step is supposed to be, or if there even is one at this point.

I’m not posting this for sympathy. I just want to know is there any realistic path forward from here? Has anyone been in a spot like this and actually turned it around? What would you even do first? Do I grind Leetcode? Build projects? Be honest on applications? I genuinely don’t know where to start or if it’s even worth starting.

I don’t really know how to start this so I’m just gonna be straight up.

I’m a CS student at UMass, graduating in December, or at least that’s the plan. My GPA is sitting at a 2.4 right now, and honestly I think it’s about to get worse because I’m likely failing some classes this semester. So by the time I walk, it might be even lower than that.

If you look at my degree audit it’s kind of ugly. 13 W’s. Some F’s. A lot of C’s and D’s scattered throughout. I also had to switch from a BS in CS to a BA in CS at some point because I couldn’t keep up with the requirements. And I had to delay graduation by a full semester because I was hospitalized for a month during my degree. so that whole semester of my life was just… gone.

Here’s the part I’m most ashamed to admit: throughout a big chunk of my CS degree, I was dealing with really bad anxiety and depression, and I leaned on ChatGPT heavily to get through assignments and classes. Like, heavily. And now I’m sitting here at the end of my degree realizing I don’t actually know a lot of the core stuff I was supposed to learn. OS, data structures, systems. I can talk about it surface level but if someone sat me down for a technical interview I’d probably blank.

No internships. No real projects I’m proud of. No experience. Nothing on my resume that would make a recruiter look twice.

And right now, with the semester ending, I have zero motivation left. Like I genuinely cannot make myself care about finishing strong. I’ve kind of just given up at this point and I’m going through the motions.

On top of everything, I’m an international student, which adds a completely different layer of pressure to all of this. If I don’t land a job after graduation, I can’t just take my time and figure things out. I have a limited window to stay in the country, and if nothing works out, I have to go back home. There’s no gap year option, no “I’ll just apply again next cycle”. it’s either I find something fast or I’m on a plane. So while other people in my position might have the luxury of taking a breath after graduation and regrouping, I genuinely don’t have that. The clock starts the second I graduate, and right now I don’t feel anywhere close to ready.

And the worst part is I don’t even know what direction to go in after I graduate. Like, I can’t figure out a single path that actually works for me right now. I can’t get a job because I have no internship experience. I can’t get an internship because it’s too late in the season and I haven’t applied anywhere. I can’t apply to a master’s program because most of them have GPA cutoffs and mine doesn’t qualify. And even if somehow an opportunity landed in my lap, I genuinely don’t know how to code well enough to pass a technical interview like I mean that literally, not just imposter syndrome talking. I have six months until I graduate and every door I look at feels either closed or like it requires something I don’t have. I feel completely trapped in a circle where every option needs a prerequisite that my current situation doesn’t allow for. I don’t know what the first step is supposed to be, or if there even is one at this point.

I’m not posting this for sympathy. I just want to know is there any realistic path forward from here? Has anyone been in a spot like this and actually turned it around? What would you even do first? Do I grind Leetcode? Build projects? Be honest on applications? I genuinely don’t know where to start or if it’s even worth starting.