Ok…so you are paying $11,000 per year or so to attend Purdue, where you will get a bachelors degree in a couple of years. Sorry…I misunderstood!
OR
You can pay the cost to attend a community college to,get something…that’s pretty unclear to me…with the possibility of then working 10-20 years (that is what 1-2 decades would be) and THEN between age 30-40 enrolling in some LAC someplace for something.
Here is my final suggestion.
See if you can take a ONE YEAR leave of absence from Purdue, with your scholarship remaining when you return, AND get some counseling to help you with the anxiety. Get a part time job…or two…in an area of interest. Perhaps then you will be in a better position to actually decide what to do with your future.
ETA…if you are transferring because you got. B in calculus, I would suggest you discuss THIS with your counselor as well. A B in calculus is fine. No, it’s not an S…but you know what? Most college students do NOT get all A’s…even ones who did so in HS.
As for transferring because of a B, that is because if I stayed in Math, it would have a heavy influence on my GPA since most of my credits are transfer from AP and dual enrollment. Purdue only counts grades given by Purdue. If I barely get a B in Calc I (a class I have already taken and came in knowing the material quite well, I passed the AP test without a Calculator and it “requires a Calculator”), I don’t think I’d be able to hold up to Calc II, which I am told around 50% of students HAVE to retake.
My math advisor says that math classes at Purdue are graded hard and only get harder. The pressure never lightens up. If I barely survived a class I knew very well, I could quite easily destroy my GPA doing a class I know nothing about and is made to intentionally weed out (mostly engineering) students. Math classes are worth a lot of credits, so they will always dominate your schedule and will always dictate your GPA.
As for social issues, I have joined a few clubs relating to my interests, and I don’t really like the people in them and I guess they don’t like me. All their events are basically social gettogethers that involve a few formalities before going off campus and drinking and other such hooliganism, which I am not really into.
I think OP means $20, not $20K, which is why it’s “basically full tuition”, because $20 is not much.
I wouldn’t withdraw. I’d ask for a leave of absence.
Can you annul withdrawing and ask your adviser how to ask for a leave of absence?
(The difference is that, if you ever wish to return, you don’t need to reapply).
I second going to the counselling center. Don’t accept being sent back or being served bromide about how “all students are stressed during finals”. Prepare what you want to say, write it down, and read it to the counselor. Make sure they get the urgency and necessity of them providing counselling.
It sounds like OP isn’t stressed by the B but rather by the class environment.
Purdue’s Calc1 class is weedout and has a vicious curve meant to discourage engineers. It’s not designed to encourage people but discourage them. Same thing for Calc 2 and 3. That’s how they control entry to major and anyone who happens to be in the class is just swept along.
As for the transfer idea: the adviser must have seen how stressed out OP is
and suggested a way out. Not all colleges are similarly weedout/high octane.
If OP wants a more laid-back, non weed-out college that offers financial aid, there has to be a couple, right?
OP: are you low-income? what’s your college budget?
what’s your expected GPA at the end of freshman year, is it possible for you to transfer somewhere?
What kind of grad school are you thinking about-- and towards what end? If you think a B in Calculus Freshman year means anything- you are wrong. A B in anything freshman year when there is so much to adjust to is something to be proud of.
And there’s also no shame in deciding that majoring in math is not for you.
And there’s no stigma attached to switching to econ (something which many mathy type kids love, and has many professional opportunities for Aspie’s) or urban planning. The goal of college is not to wrack up points- the goal is to find something you love and are good at.
There’s also no shame in transferring. But you don’t really have a plan to transfer- you have a plan to get the heck out of Purdue with a heavy dose of magical thinking that somehow it’s all going to be better. Even LAC’s have weedout classes. Even LAC’s have clubs which involve kids going off and drinking. And a smaller college may make it harder for you to find your peeps- just because with fewer undergrads, there will be a lower concentration of kids who might be prospective friends for you.
I think the CC route is a plan of last resort, not something you should be contemplating now.
MYOS- of course there are more laid back, no weed out colleges that offer financial aid. But the OP will be a transfer- so there are no guarantees that the aid will be sufficient. And even laid back colleges can have toxic environments. And the OP’s social issues are going to travel with him-- transferring isn’t magic fairy dust.
Again- you want out because you got a B, and think that more math is going to destroy your GPA? So major in econ. You likely have one more math class you’ll need to take but it won’t be filled with engineers- it will be filled with other social science majors.
Yes, I think going to a LAC 10-20 years from now should be off the table.
If you major in Econ at Purdue, what other math classes do you HAVE to take?
A change in scenery isn’t magic fairy dust, but if a student really can’t stand a college we often advise them to transfer if they can afford it. There’s no reason to be miserable at a college when the college makes you miserable - and it’s not a given that all colleges would have the same effect, even if social anxiety and apserger’s do travel with the student. Environment DOES have an effect, that’s why we often speak about “fit” on these forums.
Some people can react negatively to a large university and/or weed-out classes.
Here the issue is finding a less stressful affordable college, which is not easy (less stressful exists, affordable is another matter). But I don’t hear the student say “I want to transfer because I got a B”. Rather I hear “I’m miserable, help me”.
I agree visiting the counselling center is urgent.
I’m thinking of colleges like Earlham, which are known to be rather laid back and math or econ are not weedout. Not sure if it’d be affordable but it’s worth looking into.
OP- for sure if you are miserable- transferring should be one of several options to consider.
But developing a plan which might allow you to stay at Purdue doesn’t preclude transferring- and might make a transfer less appealing to you.
What is that plan? Something you and your counselor would develop together.
1- academic. Find a discipline you like and can do well in without ruining your mental health (note- this might mean getting more B’s and you should be prepared for that).
2- social. Find a club, volunteer work, activity that gets you out of your dorm and with people who might become friends. Volunteer work is great- it’s hard to spend the evening getting drunk when you are serving dinner at a homeless shelter with other students.
3- financial. Make sure you aren’t scrounging for food, feeling vulnerable every time you have to take $20 out of the ATM. If this means more hours at work, finding a summer job which pays more, seeing if any of the faculty need someone to house sit during summer vacation for a few extra dollars to supplement your job? Explore the options. And there may be additional funds available from financial aid for students in distress.
I know this seems hard right now. But you will need this plan even if you transfer and show up on a campus without knowing anyone. So figuring it out now with a mental health professional (and input from your academic advisor) puts you ahead of the curve whether you stay or go.
Yes, graduate economics does. Undergrad econ usually comes in two flavors with one less math heavy. For graduate work, multi variable calculus and econometrics plus stats is recomended at a minimum.
But, weed out courses are just that. While the concepts are hard, upper level courses not weed out courses.
Math is hard anywhere you go, and Calc I is just the beginning of many semesters of math for a math major or related major. Why do you want to go to graduate school? What is your actual career goal? Or are you thinking grad school because it helps you avoid the working world for a longer period of time?
I don’t see transferring as a solution to your problems, nor time abroad. I agree that you should go to your school’s counseling center. If you decide to stay in a math-heavy major, you NEED to get tutoring and help beyond just working the problem sets. (Which you can do) Your state flagship is going to weed, too – you need to find sources of extra support if you want to get through a math-heavy curriculum at any school.
Have you considered CS or IT professions? It is a place where a lot of Aspie type individuals find work.
There are definitely smaller colleges where students can get a math major in a more laid back, less competitive environment. I wouldn’t become a history major because I was afraid of the grades I would get as a math major in Purdue - I would go to a smaller school , maybe one where the average ACT was a bit lower than Purdue.
I agree that studying abroad won’t help you with the math and anxiety issues.
@intparent CS at Purdue is just as weedout, if not more so, than Math. I’m not really a fan of programming, I find it truly boring.
@Sportsman88 my counselor actually says the opposite. According to her, math at Purdue starts off hard and only gets harder, including how hard it is graded. The weed out and intensity never stops. She says people who transfer in are often recommended to drop back a level or two to retake math classes. She told me if I were to take Calc II or Calc III somewhere else, I’d do poorly because I would not be exposed to how hard math is at Purdue.
@MYOS1634
To do Econ at Purdue and go to graduate school, I would be expected to at least minor in Mathematics. That would be Calc II, Calc III, Linear Algebra, Statistical Theories, and Differential Equations. My adviser has made it clear that these classes/curves/grading never get easier, never get more relaxed, never stop being hyper competitive. In fact, they get harder as you go on because only super STEM students are in them due to the weeding. That alone is enough to make me run from anything related to Math at Purdue.
Just to do Economics, on its own, is Calc II and Calc III, along with some Economics classes that are really math classes in disguise.
I agree with finding a less stressful college, but I am not sure if a college such as Earlham would be affordable. My family has a ~19k EFC but is only contributing 5k at max. My savings are basically a joke.
My academic adviser is moving to another university and is currently unavailable for me to consult with.
Rather than an expensive LAC, how about a small public university? I went to a public university of 3000 students, and I’m guessing the personalized attention was similar to what I would have gotten if I’d have gone to an LAC.
Is there a public LAC in Indiana? I don’t find one on the COPLAC list but it doesn’t mean that doesn’t exist.
In terms of academics, Truman State and UMN Morris are excellent academically and not weedout. Truman State’s application is free so I don’t see what you have to lose applying there. http://coplac.org/members/#midwest-region
Can you find a job on campus?
First shift in the cafeteria is typically always looking for workers. That’d help start your savings.
Why grad school? An undergrad degree in econ can be a terminal degree, and not every econ major takes upper level math courses. You can take a more laid back econ major if you aren’t obsessing about GPA and fulfilling the qualifications for grad school. Focus on third world development, econ/poli sci, behavioral economics (very hot right now for employment opportunities- basically econ married to psych- why do people behave irrationally when it comes to money-- and usually more stats based than calc/diff eq based).
You are on a path leading to more stress and I’m just trying to point out that you can have a productive and happy career staying in econ but getting off the econometrics/grad school marathon…
I teach math at a regional public university. I think that would be a good bet for you, as @MYOS1634 suggests. Faculty at the smaller public unis are usually thrilled to have decent math students - and it seems like you are one. I don’t know what Indiana’s state college system looks like, but I think there should be some options along those lines.
Do you have an ultimate career in mind that would absolutely require a masters? If not, you can focus totally on finding a school that fits YOU and has a decent but not necessarily outstanding program in a field you would actually enjoy (or maybe you would enjoy math at a less competitive school). Given the stats for how often people change jobs over their lifetime - and quite often end up in fields unrelated to their major or interests in college - maybe a masters isn’t as necessary as you might think.