<p>Thoughts from a current student about some of this stuff:</p>
<p>I had a long life story typed up but here is the brief one: I spent almost all my free time in high school playing video games (10 hour/day weekends not uncommon). I came here determined to have a social life, and found one because I was willing to try some things I would have never thought I would enjoy. I love it here at A&M, more than anywhere else, have a ton of friends, and only play video games during boring summer days such as today. There are kids who play video games all day here during the regular semesters but there’s no excuse to be one of those people if you don’t want to be. You just have to be willing to try new things and make friends here. It’s pretty easy, even for an introverted person like me.</p>
<p>About grades: As a way to spite my parents who told me all through high school I would screw up and fail because of video games, I didn’t give them permission to see my grades. I told them they would have to trust me. I knew I had to keep a 3.5 or I would be in huge trouble. (I have about $64,000 of scholarships depending on keeping the 3.5.) I guess I didn’t have any real reason to deny them access, besides just being annoyed by their general nagging at me all through high school. I think for the most part though they understood where I was coming from. For me college was/is about leaving behind my old life entirely and starting anew, working only for myself to achieve whatever it is that I want (which are not necessarily all the things my parents think I should be trying to achieve.) And while I do appreciate my parents helping pay for it, my college experience is about me. I take it seriously and feel like I’m the only person I should have to answer to. My mid-term grades last semester were pretty much straight B’s, and the last thing I would’ve wanted was my parents harping on me all semester. I knew what I had to do to correct it and did so during finals time. (Made a 3.75 last year overall as a biochemistry major.)</p>
<p>So yeah, either way I have this enormous pressure to succeed with the consequence being having to go to them and tell them that I lost a few tens of thousands of dollars. (Not to mention the consequences of having a lower GPA when applying for jobs or grad school or whatever… but that is minuscule in my mind compared to having to go to my parents and tell them I screwed up, and that it would cost them.) But I don’t have THEM pressuring me too. At least not in any specific sense. I don’t think they even know what my GPA was for last year, haha. I guess it just depends on how seriously you’re planning on taking college. I mean, I did (probably more than) my fair share of partying on the weekends last semester, but during (most) weekdays I did schoolwork, didn’t skip class, took notes, studied, etc., and turned out fine more or less. It’s all about being mature enough to set aside anywhere from 5-10+ hours to study for a given test and balance that with other stuff that’s going on. This applies to the video games thing too. I could get away with playing video games for 6+ hours a day as long as I attended class, did my homework, and studied for 5-10+ hours for each test. But that’s no way to go through college.</p>
<p>If anyone reading this has any questions about anything I wrote, feel free to shoot me a PM. I’m happy to answer any questions about A&M, college life, video games, etc.</p>