<p>First of all, thanks for taking the time to read my posting. </p>
<p>I am currently a sophomore at a local university. I have always done great in grade school. I graduated high school with a 4.1 GPA. I decided to stay in town because I didnt see the point in my parents spending more money for me to go out of town to college. I thought to myself why should my parents spend $20,000 on another college when they could be spending less than half of that? I did fine in my first semester. I obtained a 3.0 average. I went down a little in my second semester (I got 2 Cs, 1 B, and 1 A). I decided to take all the summer courses that I could take since at that time I didnt have a job. I took a 2 week, five-hour a day computer class. I got a C in that class. I then took a history and a political science class for Summer I and II. I obtained a C and a B. I think my mistake was that I took too many classes in the summer. I was exhausted by the end of the summer session; I was tired of school. </p>
<p>About 3 weeks after that, school began again. This is the worst semester overall in all my years of schooling. I had no energy and no drive. I will most likely be failing two of my classes and getting Bs in three of the other classes. I know that I can do better, but I just dont have the energy.</p>
<p>My question to you parents is should I worry? My overall GPA is going to be about 2.5 at the end of this semester. I am only going to take 13 hours next semester to get back into gear. My goal was to graduate with honors, but I know now that there is no possible way that I can do that. Now I just hope to graduate with a 3.0-3.2.</p>
<p>Credit wise, I will be behind one class to graduate in four years. My counselor hasnt said anything about me being behind so that is a plus to me. I read that at our university only 4% of students graduate in four years, so I will feel proud of graduating in four years. I know that I can get all As and Bs in all of my classes, but I just have to be more focused.</p>
<p>Has any of your children faced these challenges and what did you do to help them overcome this roadblock? I am asking you this because my parents expect me to get all As in all of my classes since I do not have many responsibilities. My father said that you wont get a good job with a 3.0 average. They only look at the negatives, not the positives. In high school, if I got 4 As and 1 C they would go on and on for months about the C.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for your comments. They are greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest that you get a physical and visit your college's counseling office. You may either have a physical illness that is causing your lack of energy and motivation or you may be suffering from clinical depression, which is not unusual in stressed college students.</p>
<p>If your term is not ended, run, not walk to your advisor and see if you can take an incomplete in those courses and salvage them. Let him know your situation. It is wise to take a lighter load next term, in terms of credits and course difficulty. Take a look at your major and decide if this is a direction you can support and do well for the next two years because the hard part is yet to come. Many kids do very well at the intro or core courses, and get slam dunked when they take those upper level courses. Those are often true college level classes with higher standards. Many of the intro courses have review components in there to get everyone on a level playing field coming from different schools and curriculums. My son fell into this category where he did ok until junior year. I would look at the content of future classes you will have to take, peruse the texts, talk to some students, your advisor, and perhaps the dept head. You may want to line up some help from the dept ahead of time. By all means, do not study this summer if burnout is a possibilty. Enjoy reading some good challenging books, do a community service, and work. I would not overly worry about graduating with a 3.0 right now. Your current courses are your priority. If it seems like things are getting out of hand, you may want to go part time next term. If you can get an incomplete in your problem courses, you may want to work on those subjects with someone in the dept. Knowing you can do something and doing it are two different things, and stress can really hinder your achievement.</p>
<p>Crashing and burning first term is pretty common, especially if you are living on campus. I have several friends who succumbed to the temptations of college life, and then spent some time academically recovering. Don't sweat it. Unless you are applying to some psychotic medical school you have plenty of time to pick your grades.</p>
<p>Do you participate in study groups? I presume that you live at home, in which case you may be a bit isolated from your classmates.</p>
<p>The next semester will be a new beginning. It is, however, important to figure out why you have not done better so that you can improve. It is hard to make suggestions without knowing what are your courses and what sort of difficulties you are expereincing.</p>
<p>Do you live at home? I would have flunked out if I had. Your parents need to be told that even straight A students are unlikely to do the same in college. Are you sure you can't get an incomplete this late?-talk to someone. I remember a college friend who was a National Merit Scholar and went through the spring graduation ceremony, with Honors, but needed to make up a failed course the summer after. You have taken the first step by asking for our advice, follow up on all of the good ideas above.</p>
<p>First there is no reason to fret about what is past because there is nothing you can do about that. This semester is coming to a close, so focus your energies to try and pass each course you are now failing and try to raise the others by a half grade. If you really focus and dedicate yourself for the next few weeks you can do it!!!!!! Its only about 14 days of solid work you need to put in. If it is so important to you, which it seems it is, as the NIKE commercial says, "Just do it".</p>
<p>Going forward do an honest self-evaluation. Why are you not performing up to your expectations? It could be a myriad of things, burnout, lack of dedication, time management, medical, or maybe you actually are doing as good as can be expected. Once you pinpoint the problem area(s) do something to change that.</p>
<p>Not graduating in 4 yrs is not a big deal since you are living home. And neither should tuition since you are only lacking one course, a course which probably be made up between now and graduation. Talk to your advisor about this.</p>
<p>Finally the job issue. Yes, you sub-3.0 gpa could impact that entry level job. But only that!!!!! The many other things you have to offer your employers will have so much more impact on your career down the road that you will scoff at your current angst. However a cautionary note. If you bring a personal flaw that is adversely impacting your college work into the workplace, that will impact your work career. That is what you need to address asap.</p>
<p>Depending on how strong you are in whatever field you plan to enter after graduation, the employer may not care about your gpa. Having had strong experience as an intern would trump your gpa. Often, the best way to get internships is through participation in ECs related to the field that you wish to enter.</p>
<p>For journalism, for instance, entry level jobs are based on students' participation in internships -- something that students obtain by having done exceptional work in the student media at their college. A student with a stellar gpa would be passed by in favor of a student with a below 3.0 gpa with very strong college journalism experience.</p>
<p>The exceptions are things like science fields, where gpa is what can help you get an internship.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your replies. I am majoring in business management and marketing. The classes I failed are quanitative methods and economics. I am not too worried yet because those classes don't have much to do with my major (eventhough they are business related). I am going to work on an internship in the spring. I calculated everything and I figured out that I just need 17 B's and 9 A's to obtain a 3.0 average. I know I can do it. I am going to use my time more wisely and tell myself that I can do it. I am not going to let myself get behind. I will do my homework first before I concentrate on other things. This next semester is going to be "now or never" for me.</p>
<p>Utep, I don't want to give false solace, as it is true that your gpa in some circumstances could be an impediment. An example would be if you wanted to apply later to professional school. And I am sure there are jobs out there that may scour that transcript. But I want to tell you that I never had that issue with any jobs I had or applied for, and neither have many others. And if your grade problems are in the first few years of college, made up by a strong showing when you take your upper level courses, I don't think it is going to be much of a problem. </p>
<p>I had lousy grades in college. But I went back to school to take some courses that were job related and did exceptionally well in all of them When I applied to selective law schools a few years later, and got high LSATs, my poor primary college transcripts were overlooked, given subsequent high performance and directed recommendations from attorneys with whom I had worked. My work experience and knowledge also figured in strongly. I was not looked upon as one of the applicants coming directly from college, and in cases like that other factors become more important.<br>
So at this point, you need to finish up this term the best you can, and strategize as to how you can improve your performance in the future. Mistakes early in college are not going to be catastrophic if followed with stellar performance once direction is found.</p>
<p>My comment above was mistyped -- I meant to write "first term of sophomore year." The sophomore slump doesn't just affect baseball players. I actually have an "F" on my transcript from sophomore year. I stopped going to a course and forgot to turn in a drop card (clueless son story...). I had to explain this when I applied for grad school, and still went on to earn an MBA. Honest, it's not the end of the world. You could even better that 3.0, too. I managed to eke out a 3.4 by carefully choosing upper division classes that I could excel at (not easy ones, but interesting ones). </p>
<p>This is going to sound really cynical... Professors love students with initiative. I did 20 units of individual study projects in my last two years of college. For writing five papers I earned 20 units of "A" credit. It sure helped the GPA.</p>
<p>Utep: I second the first post by Northstarmom: get a physical to make sure that your health is OK and see your counselor or advisor right away. It might not be too late to get an incomplete or some other accomodation.</p>
<p>Next: it's good that you feel confident that you can get all those As and Bs from now on. However, first check your health to make sure that you will be able to stand the prssure and don't have any hidden obstacles. Then, sit down with your counselor and try to figure out whether doing very poorly in those two courses might be an indication that you are in the wrong major. Maybe yes, maybe no, but this is the perfect time to check into that. </p>
<p>Next, when you have figured out whether you are in the right major, then do the best you can to get good grades without killing yourself. You also should be looking into summer jobs or internships that could give you work experience that in turn could give you (a) an understanding of what people in your preferred field actually do for a living and (b) experience that would be to your benefit in competing for jobs after college.</p>
<p>I don't know enough to have an opinion about whether taking Incompletes in some of your classes is a good option for you. Someone above suggested it and you responded that you thought it was too late, as this is finals week.</p>
<p>I just wanted you to know that it may NOT be too late if you want to explore that option. My S had mono during finals week last year. He took the first final in the throes of the illness, as it didn't occur to him that he could take Incompletes. After talking with me, he visited his Dean and, with the Dean's sign-off and the records from Student Health Services, he did take Incompletes in two of his courses. He took the final exams later and got good grades in both course.</p>
<p>Of course, the situations are somewhat different. But, although it is too late to Withdraw, it may not be too late for Incompletes if you want to consider them.</p>