Hi. I’ve done some research but I need some help based on my situation rather than everyone else’s that I’ve read.
I’m an Early College student and we’re taught in school that we’re prepared for the college life at a younger age. We’re taught that we can handle it better than kids straight out of high school.
We’re taught wrong.
First semester at UNCG and I am failing every class I’m taking. I have never done this poorly in school. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and always did fairly well in school. My major is Biology and I thought I would enjoy it. I’m currently taking General Chemistry, Ecology, Astronomy, and Genetics and every class is equally as difficult. My advisor even admitted to me that it was probably the worst course load she’d ever seen for a freshman.
I met with my advisor earlier in the semester to discuss my options. I was worried I was going to fail Genetics because I had tried over and over to find someone to tutor me but no options from the Science department or my Genetics teacher. My advisor told me that I had done everything I could and would just have to fail and retake it with another teacher.
My main question is this: how bad is my situation? My advisor seems to be of little help and won’t tell me what will happen if I fail this semester. I know I’ll have to appeal my financial aid but does that mean FAFSA or the scholarships I earned from UNCG? I’ve already gotten this school year paid for by my FAFSA money… if I fail, do they take that away?
I’m genuinely scared I’m going to fail and be kicked out of college and that’s not what I want. I want to go back in the Spring and redeem myself. This is not how I want to end my college career.
First thing is to look up the policies in your student handbook. Especially read about SAP or satisfactory academic progress as federal aid renewal is dependent upon it. Get very familiar with the concepts. The federal student aid pages online can also be read but you will need your own college SAP guidelines.
Then read about add/drop and course withdrawal policies. There should be something you can read to let you figure out if you will owe anything from this semester. One you get a working knowledge you can visit the aid office. Going forward try to balance class load better.
Op, check with the dean’s office to see what options are available for students who fall below the minimum academic standards. JustOneDad made a good point. Usually a year of biology is required previous to taking courses in ecology and genetics.
Since you are taking biology in your freshman year, who advised you to take ecology and genetics?
I’ve taken the prerequisites for all the classes at my Community College while enrolled in high school. That’s what the Early College is about. You combine college classes with high school classes. The difference was that I always took just one science class combined with a history and english and any other subject. I’m majoring in biology so my advisor said that I could just load down on science classes in order to graduate with my bachelors in two years.
Also, I’ve talked to my financial aid office and they said that even if my GPA falls below a 2.0, if I pass 67% of my classes, my financial aid will still be set for another semester so that I can bring up my GPA.
I would look into withdrawing from at least once class if possible so you can have more time to spend on the other classes. But you would not want to end up with too few credits because you presumably need to be full time to maintain your FA. You say in one place that you are a freshman but then you say you want to graduate in two years. I would not be in a race to finish with a bunch of bad grades. Also, let’s say you get a 1.4 GPA or perhaps even a 0.8 GPA if you are really failing most of your classes this fall and then you will be on probation for the spring and you will have to bring that GPA up to a 2.0 by the end of the year. Are you sure you will be able to do that? That is another reason for seeing if you can still withdraw from one of your courses.
In addition to the W find out if you can take an incomplete on the most demanding class you are taking. You can use your Xmas break to catch up and find out if the professor will let you take the final once second semester starts and you’ve had time to breathe.
Graduating early seems like a terrible idea btw. Why the rush?
Pass at least 2/3rds of your attempted credits in fall semester. Seek a withdrawal (petition for a Late withdrawal if you have to) from the worst course. Pass all the others with a D or higher. Then, in spring repeat the one or two with the lowest grade/s. In spring, also take some easy-A courses, maybe a speech or gym course and take as many credits as your tuition covers, with the goal of top grades in them all. Make sure this plan would be recommended by a good adviser at your school.
I think the first thing you have to address is the course load you have! for crying out loud you course load is just too much! If you are familiar with adding and dropping you might want to familiarize yourself with that to get your courses in check.