1.5 GPA Freshman Year Help!

<p>Okay, I have a 1.55 GPA after finishing my freshman year of college. I am completely committed to getting 4.0's from now on but is that enough. Will I still get a job, will I get out of probation? My major is petroleum engineering. Any advice or comments would be helpful thank you!</p>

<p>If you got 4.0s the remainder of your time in college then I’m sure you can do the math to determine you’d be fine. On the other hand, if you can’t do that math, perhaps you ought to consider brushing up on that before worrying about getting a 4.0. I’d be a lot more worried about that than what will actualy happen if you manage to pull it off.</p>

<p>I think it goes without saying that you probably need to take school a little more seriously.</p>

<p>Do you think its doable to get >3.75 gpa if you are 100% committed and dont work and Only study? Do engineering colleges like Cockrell purposely set a quota to the number of courses that they allow one to get an A in? I am worried about transfering into Pet. Engineering and being totally unprepared for upperdivision courses.</p>

<p>Speaking from personal experience, going from 1.55 to 4.0 is like an obese couch potato saying they’re going to run a marathon within 3 months. You didn’t get D’s all of a sudden, there has to be a structural problem that will take time to repair. Not everyone who gets accepted to an engineering program has the maturity and discipline to hit the ground running. The new found freedom of a college environment can lure even top students into bad habits. </p>

<p>Now if I’m completely off base and you really did spend 40+ hours per week between going to class, studying, and homework for 30-32 weeks (two 15-16 week semesters) consistently, then you need to reevaluate your choice of major.</p>

<p>However if I’m right and you spend a good portion of your time on non-academic activities (gaming, clubs, fraternities, etc), the “trick” that turned me from a 1.75 (end of freshmen year) to 4.0 student was dropping out of school, getting a job and supporting myself. I did that for about 3 years. The ability to show up to work on time every day and be fiscally disciplined and organized enough to pay bills is lot like what it takes to succeed in school (show up to all classes on time, plan ahead and stay on top of homework). </p>

<p>You may think that taking a break from school is an even bigger sign of failure, but trust me, you do not want to rack up any more bad grades. Transcripts can act like prison records just as easily as they are bona fides. I stuck it out after freshmen year saying I was committed to getting 4.0s and ended up with a 1.67 cumulative and 83 useless credits. It’s an absolutely tremendous hole. Only IF I can keep up a 4.0 through next Fall (118 new credits) can I finally get over a 3.0 cumulative.</p>

<p>tl;dr prove your organizational abilities first before returning to classes.</p>

<p>Like other people stated, the 4.0 goal is a bit unrealistic and I will tell you why.</p>

<p>Grades are not 100% based on how hard you work, there is always a 20% that can be affected by luck, unreasonable instructors, underestimating the difficulty of a course and other factors that may be beyond your control.</p>

<p>I have taken quite a few classes where getting an A was extremely hard, perhaps only given to the top 5%.</p>

<p>I think a 3.0 GPA would be a more realistic goal, yet I know quite a few bright students who just went under 3 this semester sometimes due to taking more courses than they could handle.</p>

<p>A perfect gpa in any major, is difficult, but in a stem major it will be more difficult. Since its your first year, you’ll probably have another year of math and if you’re not finished with your physics, more physics and you’ll likely have to finish your advanced chem series. </p>

<p>These courses can be difficult on their own and can be even more difficult due to: work and familial obligations, more difficult than average instructor and tests, incompetent book, horrible (as in all classes are back to back, thus no study time) schedule etc… </p>

<p>That said a perfect gpa is unrealistic, and if your heart is set on reaching that, you have little room for error and might stress out that you aren’t reaching your goal. </p>

<p>You should concentrate on earnestly doing your best. If you can do that, your grades will naturally rise and it will reveal if engineering is really a good fit for you. </p>

<p>The good news is, its not too late. You can still recover from this since its only your first year. Get good grades and you should be fine. Additionally you can use your bad year as a leverage point.It can serve as contrast to how different the old and new you are in work habits. It’s doesn’t have to be a death sentence. </p>

<p>However like the other posters mentioned, you need to reevaluate why you received your grades and how you’ll fix them. You do have a summer to figure it out though. Good luck</p>

<p>

The second part is a matter of university policy, but I would guess that you may already be headed towards expulsion - most universities in my experience will kick you out after 2 consecutive semesters where your cumulative and semester GPA’s have all been <2.00.</p>

<p>The first part is much more forgiving - you can still get a cumulative GPA >3.00, especially since I presume you will have to retake a lot of credits. By the time you are a senior, they will not care about your freshman year GPA, they will care much much more about what has happened since.</p>

<p>

Other posters have said this, but I will repeat it: Figure out what you are doing wrong, and don’t take another course until you have fixed it. You are down at the bottom of a hole, and doing nothing is better than digging deeper. If you can get it together over the summer, great, if not then take a semester or two or ten off until you have gotten it together.</p>

<p>I had a lot of problems academically when I started in college, but it still took several years to get to the point where they kicked me out. Recovering from that and getting back into school was a long and painful road, and I would have been much better off taking a couple of years away from school rather than continuing to spiral downward. But I did recover, and am now at a top PhD program for my field, so I can say from experience that you can come back from this… but I do not think that most people *would[/]. Will you?</p>

<p>Regarding employment, if your GPA constantly improves semester after semester and you show your transcript, the HR recruiters might overlook your freshman GPA, though they will ask questions of what caused your poor performance during freshman year.</p>

<p>However, submitting resumes online can be more difficult since it is harder to appeal and they’re more likely to auto-toss resumes with low GPA.</p>

<p>Simply stating that you are committed to a 4.0 from here on out is vacuous and potentially dishonest to yourself without a deliberate plan of action on how you are going to improve your grades. Speak honestly with your advisors and professors on how to improve yourself.</p>

<p>Im not being mean but, grades like that show me you are, either uncommited to learning the material and maybe should change majors, your teachers have a lack of communication, or you are very stressed, or have a mild learning disability. Or need to switch from a fulltime to a part time student.</p>

<p>That said you need to fully commit to school. That means no parties, no bars, less weekends at home, less time with your significant other, etc. Unless you can hit a 2.7 by sophomore year you will have to retake classes to even get accepted to most engineering programs (unless you are already accepted, they have no minimum gpa, etc) because your gpa won’t be high enough for admission.</p>

<p>Good luck, you can do it if you bunker down.</p>

<p>Bro I’m currently at a 1.9 for my 1st year I think the most important thing we can do is work on it inbox me I have a plan </p>

<p>OP, IF you can turn it around, then future employment should not be an issue. Why? you ask. Because freshman year is getting the STEM basics out of the way. Upper division classes utilize those basics with a heavy dose of applied math. So, if you can do the upper division classes and do well, then, sometime between now and then, you will have learned the basics. There in lies the problem. You have to go back and learn what you were supposed to learn last year. You can do it. It will just probably require some major changes to how you approach college.</p>

<p>I dont know man, 1.5 GPA freshman year probably means you dont have a firm grasp on the fundamentals that are the building blocks of more advanced courses and/or have poor academic discipline. Those gaps on your fundamental knowledge are gonna come back to bite you in the ass in more advanced courses that draw upon those basics.</p>

<p>If you have poor academic discipline da6onet probably has it nailed. Work a couple years in crappy jobs earning min wage and you get a glimpse of what life will be like if you slack off now. That’ll get you motivated in a hurry. Or engineering might not be your thing.</p>

<p>OP, don’t give up, at Christmas time my son was on academic probation, well three weeks ago he just graduated, and three days ago received his first job offer, starting out at $55k per year, with 5k relocation bonus, who would have thought? He in now a computer engineer, starting a job in his field, do not give up!</p>

<p>“I am completely committed to getting 4.0’s from now on” - Many students are committed, but few pull off a 4.0. As others have said, that is probably an unrealistic expectation. If you have significant improvement, it seems the upward trend would be a good sign. Just make sure you are up for the challenge. (I say this as mom of a kid that dropped out of engineering college… twice.) </p>

I saw your post from 2014. My son is in the spot right now. What was your plan. Did it work?

Hello I’m responding to your post from 2014 my son is in the same situation what did you guys do to help him succeed

First of all, regular posters tend to ignore posts that have been long dead. Second of all, you can simple read the thread and see what advice they offered rather than ask them to regurgitate their already typed responses. Respectfully, that’s what old posts are for.

MODERATOR’s NOTE:
And third, the original poster is long gone, so an answer will not be forthcoming. Closing thread.