Please help an aggie out. I really don’t know what to do. I’d really appreciate it if you could read through the post below and help/advise, post what you think. Thanks.
So it’'s my first year at UC Davis as a computer engineering major. I’m an international student and took 16.5 units my first quarter, got depressed, and ended up with a 1.00 GPA. I managed to raise my GPA > 2.00 during winter quarter but took only 11 units. Now, during spring quarter, I had to take 17.5 units to be able to complete the required 39 units per year. I took a really hard and time consuming programming class ECS40, MAT21B, EDU98, AST10G+L, 2 freshmen seminars, and a PE class. The workload was insane and I just couldn’t put 100% in each of those classes.
It’s the end of Spring quarter and I think I’ll end up with a GPA<1.5 because I think I failed MAT21B and ECS40, which will also make me subject to academic disqualification for quantitative reasons for not meeting the minimum progress of 39 units requirement. However, I was suspected in plagiarism in ECS40, so my grade will be a “Y” in the transcript and won’t be counted towards GPA until I get an email from the SJA. I was planning on taking a 3-unit GE class and retaking MAT21B during Summer Session I.
My question is, when will I receive the “scary email” saying I’m on SD and must meet with my advisor - right after spring quarter or only the beginning of fall quarter? I’m afraid they will kick me out right away without letting me retake the course during summer because it’s going to be my second time on SD.
What do you think? Will I have to set up an appointment with an advisor during summer (right after the grades for spring quarter are out) or only in fall?
Thanks.
I will comment on this because I’m in similar situation. You should email your adviser. That’s what I did and they told me I would need to finish the rest of my units and bring my gpa back up to a 2.0 summer and if I don’t then I get dismissed for fall. I think i missed it short this quarter too so I emailed my adviser the moment I thought I won’t make it and that’s what they told me. So I suggest you email them and explain your situation to them as soon as possible. They have been pretty understandable. Also, you shouldn’t take so much classes especially if gpa / unit is not stable yet and especially when taking ECS 40 with Sean lol, since his programming assignments takes forever to do.
You are much better off bringing contacting your advisor in advance. He/she will probably offer some options (like summer classes).
The engineering program builds on what you should have learned this year. You will have a tougher time keeping up next year.
You need to seriously consider another major and/or another school.
Honestly, my reaction to that spring schedule as a CS major that just finished her third year? Ouch. In the future, don’t stack up on classes like that if you’re taking a class that Sean Davis is teaching. His workload is always insane. Take some comfort in the fact that many people have issues in ECS 40 in particular, and quite a few do still make it through after retaking it. Actually, for any project-intensive class it’s probably not a good idea to stack too many other classes with it. Basically what I’m saying is that that spring schedule was really heavy, and don’t feel too down on yourself for the outcome. Do learn from it and try not to take such heavy loads in the future though, especially when trying to raise your GPA.
Now, with the plagiarism accusation…if you actually did plagiarize, that’s on you and I hope you’ve learned your lesson. If you didn’t actually do it, then please tell me you argued your case with SJA; that’s the only way that will get resolved. We had a huge plagiarism bust in ECS 60 last year (around 40 people busted in a 160-180 person class), and one of my friends was innocent but got wrapped up in it because his partner plagiarized without telling him about it. He had that Y until right before the quarter ended, where his partner finally came clean and explained the situation so that my friend’s record was cleared. If that happens to be your situation, in the future be more careful with the partners you pick.
For the subject to dismissal, what everyone else has said: Only your adviser can give you an answer. And if this was a case of honestly not being able to handle the engineering requirements (not just because of other classes, but you felt you couldn’t handle those specific classes), I would strongly consider switching your major.
Thank you all guys for your input! I worked my ass off for the finals and brought my grades a bit. I ended up with a gpa of 1.85 for the quarter. Bad, but better than < 1.5. Hopefully I will get my shit together and get out of probation by fall. Thanks again! + 10k to your karma 