Shitty first semester

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by potam

Well, I'm just about done with my first semester of college, and I fucked up.

I'm going to be ending the year with a <2.0 GPA most likely, unless my teachers love me or I'm forgetting something.

Basically, I'm in a shitty position now. I'm going to be working up from the bottom. And to add to all this: my parents are gonna kill me when they find this shit out.

Basically the point of this thread is this:

Were you in a situation like this, and how did shit work out for you?

I promised myself I would do well when I went to college. Maybe I was a bit insane, but all I did was go to class and study. If I wasn't in class, I would lock myself in my dorm room and study. I took it a bit too far, but I made a 4.0 my first two years of college. I went to Penn State (which is a big time party school). I had people knocking on the door asking me to party EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK. I would tell them to go away, no matter how insistent they were for me to join them. For some, the temptation was too much. A friend of mine (who was in my high school), couldn't handle the temptation, and flunked out. Last time I checked he is painting houses for just a little over minimum wage. Let's face it. On average, in the US, a college degree is worth about one million dollars more in a lifetime than those with high school degrees. The data supports this. It is the strongest causal link in this country to income levels. In contrast, there is no data showing that graduate or Phd's add to wealth (unless you are going to a top 20 program in certain fields).

I look at it this way. Getting a degree is your job. Not partying, messing around with girls, or playing MMO's. And if I am gonna have to study for hours, I may as well make straight A's.

I never studied in high school. I thought it was stupid. But in college, I was going to do better. I had no social life, but many of the people on my floor that had a lack of focus were making C's, D's and F's. In my junior year, I discovered being social (and started being more well rounded, and got more excercise).

Did I go too far? Probably. Did I even kiss a girl my first two years of school? Maybe two. I was anti-social as hell, since I was always in the damn books.

It did help that my parents had me working for minimum wage for everything I needed since age 11 (under the table, I might add). If I wanted clothes, a haircut, even a pencil to take to school, I had to pay for it with my own money. And just when I thought I was doing well, my Dad would show me a utility bill that was more than I made in a month. He wanted to show me how tough life was at minimum wage.

My advice to you is to take class serious (and don't miss it), and then study until your eyes hurt (and then study some more). If it is not happening for you, it is squarely the person in the mirror's fault.

The good thing is that if you can get your cumulative GPA past a 3.0, many employers will not look at individual semesters. Maybe 50% of them or more will never know you screwed up.

The ball is in your court. Make great grades for the next couple of years and you will laugh at these times.

[Ichu]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. Although my grades at a C right now, but I did fuck up big time and ended up withdrawing from one of my courses today(the only I really didnt do anything in), just a week before the final. I'll just tell you what I ended up doing.

Number 1, and the biggest point I could possibly make. I decided to be honest. With myself, with my family, even with my teachers. Things have become so much easier since then, it's not always easy right away, hell it took me 12 years of school and a semester at university, but it's better than having everything come down on you in the end at once.

I had my dad(who is a teacher) read the paper I was supposed to reply to for an essay, and when I told him it was due the next day(it was 5pm the day before), sure he was disapointed, even a bit angry, but whatever, he got over it. If you tell them everything is fine and then give them a bunch of D's they're going to be confused. The least you can do is be honest with them.

I went to see the teacher who's class I ended up dropping because I only ended up getting 50-60 for most of the semester. I thought about doing what I did in highschool and make up some crap as to why im not doing well. Instead I just told her the truth, I wasn't doing the homework, and I wasnt putting in the effort. Oops, I fucked it up, I do enjoy the course though, even plan on repeating it next semester.

I told my mom I was going to drop the course today, I AM passing it, but I know i'll bomb the next test and the final because I havent done anything. I know I won't put in the effort inbetween now and next week to succeed, so I dropped it. Another hard ass thing to do, but I feel a lot better since I told them.


I guess my second point is do what you do for yourself. You're doing shitty in school, fine, don't go next year. Don't say to yourself or your family that you will do better next time if you still have the same attitude, you will just fall into the same hole again.

I actually ended up pretty depressed when I was out with a friend one night, and she just told me; If you don't like what you are doing, why are you doing it. If there is something that you want, why arn't you working towards it? I just needed the kick, and then suddenly everything became so much easier.

It wasn't just school that had me down, also a bunch of emo girlfriend moving away crap, but as soon as I had that conversation I just started to take control of everything else also. Needless to say she's moving here from Germany in March and we're going to get a place. Just be honest and do what you do for yourself. Honesty, honesty..

I also told my parents that i'm going to take 3 courses next semester(minimum ammount to remain a full time student) and also get a job(although they don't know im moving out yet). My mom said that I would be in school forever then and I should just grind it out. I just told her that I can't just go to school full time, it's killing me. I'm so much less happy then I was just a few months ago.

Anyway, I ended up writing so much and deleting half of it so some of this is probably a little garbled. Just be honest with your loved ones, and do what you need to do for yourself.

In any event, I have 4 essays due on thursday that I really need to get back to(because im a fucking idiot and need to grow the fuck up and start getting things done). Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

[Grimble]

I don't know what the fuck people's problem is with college. I thought it was easy as hell and the best 4 years of my life. I had a serious gf, plenty of friends, partied 3-4 times a week, played EQ fairly consistently (not hardcore but lvl 60 pre-luclin), worked 20 hours a week, and was involved in extracurricular stuff and still managed a 3.7. Its just a manner of being able to manage your time. It really only takes about an hour a day max of studying/homework time and making sure you go to class most of the time. Thats like 3-4 hours max of class and homework time which is less than half of a full work day. If you can't manage to do that then you are pretty much a waste of life.

But law school fucking sucks...try and find a job after college because grad school sucks ass.

[Regime]

shit man take some loans out

Unless your dropping out fucked ya lol

[cwestt]

I've read through this and its kinda freaking me out. I am almost halfway through my senior year of highschool and am talking to schools for football scholarships now. Nothing big just smaller D3 schools Hampden Sydney being my #1 choice. I've been a fuckup all through highschool. I've ended up with a 3.0 somehow when I should have had a 3.5 or greater all along. My biggest problem is I just don't feel like doing any work. I hang out with my girlfreind, occaisonally party, and play wow. I always tell myself im going to get my work done and get my grades up, but it never seems to happen. I'm really worried this is going to happen to me at Hampden Sydney unless I learn some serious time management skills. I don't think there will be a way to fit in education (being the most important), a social life, football, and gaming into one schedule.

[Ibliss]

The military really helped me out. I went to college before and did the same thing, I couldnt even be bothered to go to class. Dad told me to get the fuck out and I joined the Navy. I did 8 years there and now Im back in school. Its amazing what that experience gave me. I have a 4.0 so far and I really feel like I could be working harder. If you had told me when I joined the Navy that the discipline would really help me out, I would have been like, ya right, I did it for the pussy and beer. It has, though.

[Samus Aran]

Originally Posted by cwestt

I've read through this and its kinda freaking me out. I am almost halfway through my senior year of highschool and am talking to schools for football scholarships now. Nothing big just smaller D3 schools Hampden Sydney being my #1 choice. I've been a fuckup all through highschool. I've ended up with a 3.0 somehow when I should have had a 3.5 or greater all along. My biggest problem is I just don't feel like doing any work. I hang out with my girlfreind, occaisonally party, and play wow. I always tell myself im going to get my work done and get my grades up, but it never seems to happen. I'm really worried this is going to happen to me at Hampden Sydney unless I learn some serious time management skills. I don't think there will be a way to fit in education (being the most important), a social life, football, and gaming into one schedule.

That pretty much described me in HS. At my school, I believe all atheletes are required to goto study hall. I'm not sure if you're one of those borederline ADD people who will just sit there and stare at the table and doodle during study hall (like I would), but I'm sure that helps out a lot.

[Ashes Emberblade]

I made shitty grades my first two semesters and lost my scholarship. Over the next two years (4 regular semesters and 1 summer semester) I brought my GPA up to a decent level.

Then I switched to another university, one that accepts senior transfers, and one that also, if you are accepted, does not factor the grades from your previous institution into their GPA calculations. That is, I had a clean slate GPA wise, while most of my classes (those above a C) transferred.

I then finished my last two semesters and graduated with a 3.7. The university to which I transferred was also of much higher quality than my first one.

[Ronne]

Get a brutal, back-breaking manual labor job, like go be a teamster. You don't need the military, just go load trucks full of water heaters and buckets of paint all day, nothing in the world is as sweet as a classroom after that shit.

[Kevincheese]

Heh I'm in the same boat right now...

fuck, I need to start going to class again. -_-

[Ibliss]

Get a brutal, back-breaking manual labor job, like go be a teamster. You don't need the military, just go load trucks full of water heaters and buckets of paint all day, nothing in the world is as sweet as a classroom after that shit.

I just mentioned the military because he also mentioned losing a grant. I get my tuition paid for and I get my GI Bill money each month.

[Bralkan]

Originally Posted by potam

edit: Also forgot to mention that right now I have the HOPE scholarship, which takes a huge fucking load off my parents and me. Requirements for it are a 3.0+ GPA, but they only check it every 30 hours I believe (unless they've changed it already). That means I get a free semester out of it at least. But I got to number crunching today, and realized that it'll take me at least two years to get back a 3.0 GPA. Frankly, the way I feel towards school right now, I wouldn't want to have to take a student loan out just to pay for a thing I don't want. So I have a feeling sometime soon, I'm gonna have to decide between dropping out and not.

Life's very tricky right now.

Retake the classes you bombed. It will replace the grades. However, they WILL count towards your HOPE credit hours. IE Its still going to cost you however many hours you need to retake out of your 120 hours possible (For most majors. Some majors get some extra hours). The bright side, is it will be easier to fix your GPA to keep hope period. Who gives a shit if you still have credit for 105 hours of hope if you don't have the GPA to use it.

[AngryGerbil]

"Just joining the workforce" sounds all fine and good when you're 19. Wait until you're 30ish or 40ish and let me know how you feel about having dropped out of college.

Be a man, go to school and get your shit done and stop making excuses. You're smart enough to realize you have a problem so you're smart enough to fix it.

A man is meant to do what he's meant to do when he's meant to do it, even if he doesn't really want to.

[cwestt]

Originally Posted by potam

That pretty much described me in HS. At my school, I believe all atheletes are required to goto study hall. I'm not sure if you're one of those borederline ADD people who will just sit there and stare at the table and doodle during study hall (like I would), but I'm sure that helps out a lot.

Well instead of just drawing and staring into nothing in study hall our school gave us new dell lap tops. Im sure you all have heard of the ibooks we had before and all the chaos that took place when they tried to sell those. So during study hall when i should be doing my work I read these forums or play Half life since I cant play WoW without a direct connection. Im actually in physics right now writing this instead of doing a test review.

[Fammaden]

How fucking lazy and unfocused do you have to be to skip fucking classes? Your first semester you are most likely taking a bunch of 101 horseshit, including the stuff that is in your major curriculum. Going to class is at least half of the battle in passing that shit. If you are stupid you might have to study harder for exams or get help with any papers you might actually have in those classes. Really you have to be some combination of disgustingly lazy and incredibly stupid to average anything less than 2.5 in your first semester. If you can't even be bothered to go to class then why the hell are you even in college?

My job requires a degree, but I could have performed every aspect of it equally well straight out of high school. What I might have lacked was the maturity to buckle down, get out of bed, show up everyday and not quit. Unless you are entering a very specific technical field and/or planning to get advanced degrees, then the bulk of what you learn in college to prepare you for the work force is how to balance your time and keep your priorities straight. That and memorizing your social security number.

So get over it, you will NEVER have it this easy again. Get an alarm clock, go to class, take notes when the teacher says something salient, start your papers a week ahead of time, study when you have a test the next day and you should still have assloads of time to goof off even if you hold a part time job!!!! Stop being a lazy ass pussy, or if you can't handle it because you are stupid get the fuck out and stop making a further mockery of higher education by expecting entitlement.