HELP! Can I get a 4.0 this semester? I have to leave Cornell otherwise!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>Hi everyone! I'm a freshman CALS bio major (hoping to transfer to the less stringent bio and society) with an AEM minor. I had done very poorly my first semester (~3.1). What's worse is that I was only take 13 credits, so it's not like I can blame my GPA on a heavy courseload. What even worse is that I got a <em>C+</em> in the only class counting towards my major. The cherry on top was the reaction of my really strict Asian parents...they were really, really angry (to the point where they called/emailed my advisor complaining about my grades all throughout the break)</p>

<p>Basically, they gave me an ultimatum: get a 3.6 cumulative by the end of this school year or transfer somewhere cheaper, since they reason that there's no point in going to a expensive school like Cornell if one can't do well (my parents are paying almost $15K, so I can see their point). But in order to do that, I would need to take 18-20 credits in the spring and <em>get a 4.0</em>. I absolutely cannot afford to screw up in any way this semester, so can anyone give me any advice on how to achieve a 4.0? I'm registered for the following classes:</p>

<p>aem 2100-stats
aem 1200-intro to business management
bio 2810-genetics with lab (the only bio i could take that would still let me take the aem classes)
chem 208
ntres2360-nature and culture
=18 credits</p>

<p>who should i talk to help prepare myself academically? i want to go to a counselor other than my advisor early this semester. i am really serious about getting a 4.0, because i feel like i'll die if i have to leave cornell, i love this school too much :'C i have no intention of leaving until graduation!!!!!</p>

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<p>First of all, 3.1 is not a “very poor” GPA. “Very poor” would put you on academic probation. Your parents talking to your advisor isn’t going to help directly, since your grades can’t be changed unless there was a mistake in your grade. You just had your first semester at college so it’s going to take time to adjust. Some studying techniques that worked in high school might not work now, and you (and your parents!) have to realize that the caliber of the students here, on average, is higher than what you were used to in high school. </p>

<p>In high school, all you had to do to get an A was get above 92% or whatever the scale your school used. I think you need to talk to your parents to make them realize it’s not as easy as it was, and while it is possible, you can’t just get a 4.0 out of sheer effort. It takes a lot of hard work, but also some innate skills and some luck, too. You never get anything BECAUSE you deserve it; just BECAUSE you work hard, doesn’t mean you’ll get an A in the class. You do everything that you can to prepare yourself and the outcome is what you have to accept, positive or negative. The reality is that you’re at Cornell with a thousands of very capable people, and just enough of them might be better than you in a certain class so you can’t get a 4.0. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, though, and it’s just how it is. </p>

<p>With all that said, I would advise against taking BIO 2810 Genetics as a freshman. Most of the class is comprised of sophomores, juniors, and seniors and it IS a 5 credit class. Some freshmen do well in it, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it: it’s the hardest biology course I’ve taken so far. My friends and I like to say it’s “the most fun you never want to have again.” I’m also convinced that it’s the hardest core biology major requirement. I just realized now that you want to switch to biology and society, which, if I remember correctly does NOT require you to take genetics, so keep that in mind.</p>

<p>As for the other courses, my friends have told me that those AEM classes are easy. In general, AEM is a pretty light major so I don’t foresee those as being the classes that will give you trouble. </p>

<p>CHEM 2080 is hit or miss, depending on your chemistry background; some struggle with it while others don’t. Just consider your performance in CHEM 2070, which I assume you took this past semester. I personally thought it was easy, but I had a very good chemistry teacher in high school. I know nothing about the natural resources course, though.</p>

<p>Also, do you want to go to medical school? Most premed students take two semesters of intro bio since some medical schools don’t accept AP credit.</p>

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<p>he’s probably saying its bad bc he’s premed -__-</p>

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<p>do NOT take biogd 281 (genetics/lab) with that schedule. you will NOT get your 4.0 unless you study like mad. 281 is only 5 credits but its more like 20 credits (at least w/ goldberg). if you have fox maybe its like 10 credits since you don’t have weekly quizzes. the lab is extremely time consuming, and the people in that class are very smart (i was surprised), much smarter than the chem 207/08 kids</p>

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<p>oh and another option for you, if you haven’t already done so, is to find smarter friends. if you hang out with smarter friends you do better</p>

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<p>IMO, you should try to negotiate a little more leeway with your parents, or you have a tough challenge ahead of you. How’s about this: look at the Cornell pre-med pages, try to guesstimate your future MCAT score from your relative SAT scores (even if that’s bogus it gives you something to work with), and from that figure out the minimum GPA where Cornell students with that MCAT have had a 50% or more chance of getting admitted someplace. Maybe that target GPA winds up being 3.6 at the end of the day, I don’t know. See if there’s something you can look up about how they view freshman grades, vs subsequent; maybe these freshman results do not doom you.</p>

<p>As for transferring due to high cost, how much less than $15k do they expect to be able to pay? SUNY Binghamton cost of attendance is over $18k. If the issue is you might do better there, which would give you a better shot, and pay near the same, perhaps that’s true. Then you would have to explain to med school admissions staff why you switched, no? And if you don’t wind up going to med school, generally I’d rather be graduating from Cornell.</p>

<p>But still maybe they are right, in a sense, if that’s the end-game, I don’t know. I have a sense that there are people getting in to med schools by doing great at much easier schools who wouldn’t have made it through as well from Cornell. But I could be wrong.</p>

<p>“As for the other courses, my friends have told me that those AEM classes are easy. In general, AEM is a pretty light major so I don’t foresee those as being the classes that will give you trouble”</p>

<p>Perhaps they are relatively easy, but my D2 just got the lowest grade of her college career in an AEM course (not one of these). Though the circumstances were a little flukey, and she could have had a better result if her “life” depended on it.</p>

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<p>AEM stats is a difficult class. You will not get a 4.0 with that schedule. i guarantee it</p>

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<p>You might have a chance at a 4.0 if you only take AEM classes next semester.</p>

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<p>Picky Asian parents are picky. You’re not the first tale that I’ve heard like this. I’m hoping that I don’t end up taking the same flack, especially because I’m an engineer…</p>

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<p>You can easily get your GPA if you don’t slack off…
Instead of taking a break, go and do some more review.
Instead of going to a party, take some time to do that three page essay you have been putting off.</p>

<p>If you really care about your grade that much you will listen.
If you do not really care about your grade, then you will not.
Easy as that.</p>

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<p>tell your parents that u are responsible enough to raise your grades in the next few years. </p>

<p>Those asian parents lol. My advice toward that matter: disappoint at all times i got by doing that and now they don’t expect much from me. so when i do well, it comes as a pleasant surprise.</p>

<p>my gpa is lower than 3.1 for the first semester. just have to re-evaluate my priorities and i suggest u do the same. i got a c+ in a simple course, where missing one assignment cost 5 points my grade</p>

<p>good lucks poffin92</p>

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<p>ok how about</p>

<p>aem 2100 –>pam 2100
bio 2810-genetics–>bio 1780-evolution or bio 2900-microbiology</p>

<p>how are these changes?</p>

<p>the class i got a C+ was cell&development bio, so I’d probably get a F- in genetics. i got an A in chem 207, so not really worried about 208 (i hope). i’m premed, so the GPA thing is really really really important right now–i want to graduate with a 3.7+, which is going to be mission almost impossible. that’s because i really want to go to one of the best nyc med schools-sinai, weill cornell, columbia. </p>

<p>@itachi and supervisor: the problem isn’t my circle of friends, it’s me. My hs sends a ton of kids to cornell each year, and everyone in my circle/clique have at least a 3.7 (except me), including chemE, math, and physics majors–i’m actually dragging them down because I annoy them asking for homework help all the time. I am just not as as smart or motivated and nowhere near as disciplined. In fact, I’m probably what one would call a deep procrastinator. I skip classes very often, and as soon as I open a textbook, I fall asleep. Two minutes into lecture, I fall asleep. I can’t stop myself from studying a day or two before a prelim. So how can I fix my deep procrastination/laziness? Is there some kind of counseling service at cornell for this?</p>

<p>@mony: i highly doubt my SAT scores would have any correlation with the MCAT. I got a 2390, but my hs average is barely 91(well below median and mean accepted average from my hs) and is certainly not indicative of my current performance at cornell. i will probably get a 20 and have to retake it =(</p>

<p>so is there anything i can do now, as the break dwindles away, to set myself up for a 4.0 this semester? I’m going back on the 17th.</p>

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<p>What kind of grades did you expect if you skip class “very often”? Sure, you can get away with skipping a few in bigger classes where the stuff you’d get in lecture is usually online and most of the teaching is done in section, but…a) if you’re at all uncomfortable with the material, skipping lecture no matter what is just counterproductive and b) most classes aren’t like that to begin with. </p>

<p>It doesn’t seem like a case of, as it far too often is, overly strict parents, but rather you just not caring and you seem to admit as much in your last post. It sounds like your parents are doing you a huge favor by pushing you harder next semester. While it may not be reasonable to expect anyone, no matter how smart and studious they are, to get a 4.0, if I was footing the bill for my kid’s education, I’d probably do it too if they weren’t going to class.</p>

<p>

To be honest, I don’t know how much help this type of thing is if you just aren’t motivated, but
<a href=“http://lsc.sas.cornell.edu/[/url]”>http://lsc.sas.cornell.edu/&lt;/a&gt;
plus, there are posters up all over North Campus advertising the Tatkon Center and the workshops, etc they have each week.</p>

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<p>^ Absolutely.</p>

<p>You obviously have the smarts (amazing SAT), but lack the motivation. Doing well at Cornell (or any university) is mostly about effort. Are you sure you want to be pre-med or are you doing that to please your parents? If you truly want to be a doctor, you must get used to long hours of studying and being disciplined is an absolute requirement. Skipping classes you are struggling in is a terrible idea.</p>

<p>By the way, your goal should not be getting into “one of the best medical schools in NYC” but getting into any medical school period - which will be an uphill battle if you don’t dramatically improve your study skills and therefore your GPA.</p>

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<p>Can’t speak for OP, but my D1 was a lot like this too. She had 1320 SATs when she took them in 7th grade for Duke TIP. She never developed any study or work habits in lower grades because everything came so easily to her. Then in later high school other students had closed the gap and the work became more demanding, but she didn’t really know how to adjust her habits to it, at that point. One would have hoped she would adjust and figure it out in college, but she never did, she underperformed based on what her test scores indicated. She just didn’t know how to do it, I think.</p>

<p>OP has at least a good idea of some of the things that have to change, and now some considerable added external motivation to change them. Hopefully he can focus on making concerted efforts and put all that intellect to use in conquering this problem, for good, this semester. Great things may come if this is overcome. Hope you do it.</p>

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<p>My parents would jump for joy if they only paid 15k lol. They pay 15k right now to send me to prep school.</p>

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<p>@OP: sounds like you are from stuy or something =P. anyway you have amazing sats. ur chem is good. it may be just that one class. pam 2100 and microbio are both easy A. try not to overload yourself w/ too much work. my freshman yr 2nd semester i only got a 3.45 gpa on 14 credits. but now im a senior and my cumulative is over 3.9. i believe you can succeed here and do very well on your mcats. (though i didn’t even get an interview from weill /sinai so dont get your hopes up)</p>

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<p>^ thank you AnbuItachi, even though we are in different majors, your gpa listing gives me a fighting chance</p>