<p>If this is the wrong place, let me know. This is my first post. </p>
<p>OK, I am a little unsure what my options are. I'm from the University of Maryland and despite working over the summer to bring up my cumulative GPA to a 2.0, I'll probably fall short of that by a single letter grade. I was a political science major and struggled for 3 semesters (including this summer semester).</p>
<p>The reality is that I'm not sure what I want to do and this was a big reason behind my lack of motivation and subsequent dismissal. </p>
<p>I saw a thread about dismissal here. So I hope this is the right place. </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Also I'm a 3rd year student. This would be my fourth. I've had a couple of problems with probably what is depression, lack of motivation, etc...it's hard to say but it's been a couple of rough "borderline" academic years.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what your question is but my first advice is to get a note from the doctor, ask for an appointment with the dean and appeal. He may be more willing to do it if you take a semester off. The reason I'm suggesting this is because you're almost finished and you won't lose any transfer credits or have to make-up any requirements like you would if you tranferred. </p>
<p>If you do need to transfer, have you looked at University of Md, University College? Also, you may have some luck with some of the less selective Maryland state schools-- Towson, Bowie State, Eastern Shore. That's where I would put my energies.</p>
<p>maybe you should take some time off, seek counseling, do some self-evaluation. sounds like putting yourself through the meat grinder at school is not working for you in your current state.</p>
<p>My question - and thank you for the constructive advice - is really, what can I do from here to complete college? Some of the threads here on this subject seemed to say that I should go to community college first, for a few semesters and reapply to a 4 year institution with the grades from a community college.</p>
<p>2collegewego, Your advice suggests the Dean would look much more favorably if I took a semester off and got a psychologist note to say that I had x and y issues. My question - how does that reflect on my chances of a successful appeal?</p>
<p>I'm a transfer student from Catholic University incidentally. (I have like 68 credits including 21 from Catholic).</p>
<p>Do you want to finish college at U of M, or do you just want to finish college period?</p>
<p>University of Maryland University College has on-line and live classes and should probably accept all of your credits since you are coming from the U of M system. Read about them at: [UMUC[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Ashford University <a href="http://www.ashford.edu%5B/url%5D">www.ashford.edu](<a href="http://www.umuc.edu/index.shtml%5DUMUC%5B/url">http://www.umuc.edu/index.shtml)</a> has some on-line degree programs and will accept up to 90 semester hours of transfer credit depending on your major.</p>
<p>But more importantly, what are you going to do about the depression/motivation thing? Are you under medical care? Is there a chance that you have an un-identified learning disability (I have friends whose learning disabilities weren't identified properly until they were in college, or even in grad school, so I know this happens all the time) that is the root cause of your academic problems? You need to work on these issues even if it means you stop taking classes for a while. Until your brain is in shape and your emotions are in shape, you are not going to be able to do as well in your coursework as you want to. And, you deserve to be in a position where you can truly perform to your abilities. You do not deserve to suffer, no one does!</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Artful, What I was suggesting is to talk to the dean with your heart in your hands and tell him you've been fighting depression. If the depression is behind you and your grades have gone up, then get a counselor's note saying that. If you're working through it, then take some time off, deal with it and return. I would meet with the dean before I left and explain what is going on, asking ask if I can come back on probation after I've dealt with my personal issues. </p>
<p>However, now that I see your credits, I think if you're struggling with the work, you may want to consider transferring if you're struggling with the work. You actually only have 2 years of credits, not 3. So if in fact the classwork is hard, you might do better transferring to another school in the system where your credits will transfer (University College, Frostburg, UMBC, Towson State, etc). While I think happymom's suggestions are good, I personally would think if you're struggling with depression, you may find it easier to complete classes in the structure of a traditional classroom as opposed to taking online classes where you have to must quite a bit of self-discipline.</p>
<p>As far as depression goes, I think I'm going to try to get a doc to assess me and tell me what's going on in terms of diagnosis. I'm also with a disability (deafness) which I think exacerbates my depression and I think it was a factor. </p>
<p>My question is - would the disability be able to be factored into any decision and secondly, should I look into community college to go to first before applying to Towson, etc?</p>
<p>Are you getting accomodations for your deafness?</p>
<p>Some schools have special programs for students with hearing disabilities. For instance, RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) has the National Technical Institute for the Deaf for deaf or hard of hearing students. Approximately 10% of RIT students are in the NTID. Its students can choose to be mainstreamed, have classes with just NTID kids, or a mix of the two. NTID students are provided sign language translators and notetakers (students who take notes for deaf students, who are busy watching the sign language interpreter). Not only do NTID students have classmates who share the same problems, but the cost is HIGHLY discounted for NTID students (tuition is just under $10,000 or about a 1/3 of the regular tuition).</p>
<p>Perhaps there are other schools with programs like this.</p>