I thought about dropping out. I was prepared to follow her advice, but my declining GPA precluded that option. So I did some time in the Air Force, taught electronics, and wrote a pretty amazing argument and set of promises to get readmitted to Reed. They bought it. I switched to political science and made a decision to try to live up to the lies I'd told the admissions office.
Maturity helps too.
Did a bang-up last two years, graduated well and went off to Stanford to pursue economics. Standards were lower in those days. Eventually I discovered transportation economics, turned out an oft-quoted thesis, and escaped from grad school. I arrived in 1966 when the School of Social Sciences was trying to implement every intellectual goal I held sacred, and most of the faculty were working together in pursuit of those goals. So it seemed pretty natural to spend time working on tasks toward the common good.