I wanna know what the anons in this board are doing and what they had to let go in order to get one step (or multiple steps) closer to making it big in their respective fields. I was pretty underachieving in undegrad physics (think 3.4-3.5 gpa) and things turned around for me during my senior year.
Fill out the following format
>Field
>Subfield
>How it started
>How it turned around
>What you had to give up on/ sacrifice

>underachieving
>3.4

nigga shut up

>>16695836
naw, it was way worse at the start, that's what I got out of undergrad with

>Field
Physics
>Subfield
Complex systems
>How it started
Spent most of my first semester biking around campus and occasionally getting high with other retards. I didn't fail any classes but I did get a fair share of Cs and Ds in the courses we shared with math majors. I didn't bother learning how to code properly and mostly pulled through courses that involved coding by copy-pasting snippets of code that I barely managed to smush together. Nearly failed the one course physics majors have to take to get a feel for the math in qm, stat mech, etc in the last 3 semesters and I was so retarded I had to look up the volume of a sphere multiple times a day for e&m.
>How it turned around
God granted me entry into my college's physics summer school and I approached a prof after a lecture. We hit it off, he became my thesis advisor and forced me to take 5 dynamical systems classes to wrap up my due credits. Made a thesis on how a strain of fungus spread on wood and after that he got me an office at the physics dept with a big computer I barely know how to use because idfk anything other than windows.
Then he made me go to the national complex systems congress and apply for the gradschool entrace exam. I got in and now I'm cooking up the wood fungus paper.
Idk how it got to this point but that guy pulled me out of the dumpster, helped me turn my life around and gave me a position as T.A.
>What you had to give up on/ sacrifice
My hairline, 20$ a day on cigs, social interactions, women (never had luck with them before, and its even worse now) and sleep.

>>16695845
Based glue sniffing third world wood fungus strogatz. I hope your hairline grows back.

>>16695835 (OP)
>Field
Physics
>Subfield
Plasma Physics
>How it started
Did miserable my first year of undergrad, was getting C's and D's and was in danger of failing some of my classes the second semester.
>How it turned around
Talked to one of my professors at the time and he was pretty blunt that I either needed to get my shit together or it wasn't going to go well. Buckled down and pulled my grades up over second year and did well third and fourth year. Went on to grad school and it was very much a repeat of history, was on and off of academic probation for most of my first and second year, but eventually pulled my grades up enough, passed qualifiers, and remained in good academic standing for the rest of my PhD. Got a contract faculty job for three years and I'm starting a tenure-track job this Fall.
>What you had to give up on/sacrifice
Time is the biggest one, I was a nontrad student when I started the undergraduate degree, and doing a doctorate take a minute. I'm in my late 30s now and there's a lot of shit I've missed out on because of that commitment. Some people can balance romance and sociality and hobbies and shit in school, but I couldn't. I've got a few friends, but not a huge social life; haven't dated in years; missed out on a lot of what was going on with my brother's and sister's lives and their families, let a lot of my hobbies fall by the wayside. Working to turn all that around now that I'm somewhat established, but it's another hill to climb. Also my hair. Jesus, I miss my hair.

>>16695835 (OP)
>>Field
Physics
>>Subfield
High energy physics
>>How it started
Mediocre. 3.6 gpa, no research, phoning it in and getting B+ or A- in my classes.
>>How it turned around
Had a nasty breakup, so took more classes, buckled down, read my textbooks, got 4.0 straight As on all my advanced physics courses. Bombed my GRE subject test, twice. Still got in to a good grad school. Couldn't find anyone to do research with. Cozied up to the new hire and did such great work he got me into a faculty position right out of my PhD.
>>What you had to give up on/ sacrifice
Honestly, nothing. My PhD was wonderful and when I blossomed into a human. It's when I was dating the most, when I started lifting weights, built up confidence, forged a strong social circle and have lifelong friends. Okay so I'm not married but I don't want that anyway. I'm content being single. I mean, have you seen the dating market today?

>>16696097
Subject GREs were the biggest meme. In the time between me starting and finishing grad school every single one of the schools that rejected me over my GRE scores phased out GRE scores as a criteria for admission.