I’m in my sophomore year. This was going to be my last semester and then graduating and transferring. I was planning on continuing my major. I’m a biology major but the problem that I am having now is that the past few semesters I have been slacking off due to some problems that were occurring outside of school, stress, and depression. So now my GPA has dropped and now I’ve dug a huge hole which I dont know how I would be able to get out of. I’m a bio major with a 2.27 GPA and 70 credit hours. At this point my administrator told me that I need to take some time and think about changing my major. So I made a list of other majors that I believe that I would want to do but she turned them all down telling me that I keep on shooting too high. The majors that I thought that I would probably consider were engineering, nursing, or chemistry. Note, I have taken 1 engineering course in the past and ended up with a high B. Also, I’ve taken calc 1 and 2 and ended up with a high B and C. On my transcript, all I have left to do in school are my core classes because I have done all of the prerequisites. I also work because i need to. Right now I really do feel like its impossible to jump back from this because that’s what she is telling me. But I’m willing to change majors but I don’t think that ill ever get close to a 3.0 ever again by looking at her reaction.
How many hours a week were you working and were you taking a full load of classes at the same time? It may have just been all too much. Sometimes, you have to either take a loan and work less, or take fewer classes (and longer to finish) to keep your grades up.
Your advisor doesn’t know what you are capable of over time, but for right now with a 2.27 GPA, you probably can’t transfer to an engineering or nursing program. Take care of yourself, and then regroup for what you need to do to get on track with your education. You still sound very stressed and depressed, and that’s not the best state to be in for making important life decisions.
If you need to work, perhaps the best thing to do is look at the two year programs at your community college and see if you can find something you might like that would give you a bump in pay, then work for a while and build up a financial cushion.
Low GPAs can be forgiven after taking some time off of school, as long as you can show you are ready to be a more mature and focused student after your time away.
Thank you for your advise. I’m planning on taking the next semester off so I could take a moment to refresh myself so I can make a good decision on what to do next and probably get some help with my depression. Also, I’m curious about what you said, “Low GPAs can be forgiven after taking some time off of school, as long as you can show you are ready to be a more mature and focused student after your time away.” I’m going to ask my advisor about that so I could get some more information. I have one last question about the gpa forgiveness. To show if I’ve matured and ready, would that mean I would have to retake the classes that I have gotten low grades on and what would happen if later on I still want to transfer after graduating from community college and get the GPA forgiveness? Would the 4 year program not accept the gpa forgiveness and still consider using the low GPA when calculating my final GPA?
There isn’t a formal GPA forgiveness program, but it is common for some kids to start college, have problems, take time off, and come back later and be given a second chance despite the low grades from the first time around.
Which classes you should retake depends on what you decide to study. A nurse needs As and Bs in bio and chem, for an engineer it would be physics and calc.