Hi, I am currently a freshman attending UCSD. At the moment I am an Engineering major and am taking the Physics class that I need, Physics 2A. However, I’m not doing very well in this class and I’m afraid that I will get a C in the class. I’ve never taken a Physics class before, so this was a huge struggle for me.
However there’s also a few more factors that I feel will ultimately factor in this decision. While I am an engineer major, I’m beginning to have doubts about my choice of major, so if I do end up changing my major to something else, this C might have ended up hurting me for no reason at all. I would have gotten a C in a class that I didn’t need to take.
Now, I know I’m going to get a bunch of comments such as “You could’ve just studied harder” but I would appreciate it if I was not remarked on about this. So for through this year, my GPA hasn’t exactly been the greatest. I was never good at taking exams because of anxiety issues, so I’ve gotten some average grades in my classes. I don’t want this Physics class to drop my GPA any further, so there’s also that fact that I would like to take into account.
I really do not want to force myself to get a W because I never know if I’ll need to get a W sometime in the future due to a real emergency. So I ask what you guys think I should do. Should I get the C or W?
Thank you for taking the time to reading this post. I know it’s long, but I just wanted to make sure I got all the factors that contribute to my decision in.
Take the C. You won’t be the only engineering major with a C in that class. And, if you do end up switching out of engineering, you won’t be the only person with a C in physics because you used to be an engineering major.
But the really important issue is this one: “I was never good at taking exams because of anxiety issues” Go to the counseling center and get help with the anxiety. You need to find out how to work around your anxiety so that you are able to do your own best job in all of your classes.
If you take the W, won’t you be unable to progress with the engineering sequence of courses, if you stick with the engineering major?
If it were me, and you were relatively sure that you are going to get a C (and not lower), I’d take the C. One C in your freshman year is not going to kill you, especially if you change your major later. However, you don’t want more than a few Ws in your transcript, so I agree that you should save them in case you really need them later on.
I agree, as a faculty advisor to students in an engineering school, a C in a first year physics class is not going to hurt you vary much in the future no matter what your major.
I’d definitely get that C bud, because you can always take following, harder classes and get better grades down the road, but otherwise you may derail your progress. Besides, honestly, grades to some degree depend on the instructor, so I wouldn’t try my luck with taking it again.
I had Cs in TWO physics classes and TWO chemistry classes. Don’t sweat it if you get a C. They aren’t a big deal. And trust me I know exactly how you feel. I studied/worked on problem sets 10-30 hours a week and still got Cs in those classes. Some courses will just be hard. Btw why is this in the grad school section? A C in grad school wouldn’t be good for future reference.