<p>I know that college students frequently think that they’re in over their heads and that they’re doomed to a crappy eternity of sleepless nights, but for once I honestly think that I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think I’m about to fall flat on my face. I’m a junior, but I know I totally overestimated how much I could handle.</p>
<p>This year I took on way too many responsibilities and I’m now in panic mode. I work about 35 hours a week between two jobs and have a full load of 16 credits. 12 of these credits are upper-level French courses that have proven to be difficult and very time-consuming, and I additionally have an upper-level writing class that is equally draining and demanding. Besides this, I have an upcoming academic conference for which I have done absolutely NO work on and which is coming up in 3 weeks. I’m also the president of a student club, but I was able to postpone our major events for a few months yet.</p>
<p>Basically, my grades are okay right now because we’ve yet to have midterms/major assignments (a couple of those are tomorrow and another couple later in the week), so I’m not yet suffering. I probably have 3.7s/3.8s in all my classes although we’ve barely done any work in a couple of them. But my grades will inevitably take a hit because I’m about to crack since I have so much stuff on my plate, and I really want to prevent that since I've worked so hard to get this far.</p>
<p>I’m trying to prioritize and right now I’ve come up with this plan of attack: study for major tests first, then work on major papers, and then do daily assignments. However, I’ve completely neglected the “work on academic research for conference” part, and now I only have a few weeks to come up with something that won’t completely embarrass me and ruin any connections that I might make through the experience.</p>
<p>What should I do for both the short term and long term?? I know that cutting back my hours is a must, and that’ll happen starting in November (I’m taking a leave from my one job but I need to finish off the month). That’ll bring me down to roughly 16 or 17 hours a week, which I think I can manage better. But what can I do for the next three weeks?? I’ve started turning in homework late and am leaving studying and paper-writing to the night before and even morning of. This is SO not like me and I NEED to get back on track because this entire situation is starting to make me depressed and apathetic.</p>
<p>My mom doesn’t really care because she has problems of her own, so I thought I’d seek advice on here.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, walk into the counseling center on your campus, and get help with drawing up a plan for the rest of the term. If you need to, drop a class. If you need to, drop the club. If you need to, back out of the conference. If you need to do all of those three, well then do all of those three.</p>
<p>Yes, you are overloaded. But you know what? Sometimes it is OK to drop things that aren’t absolutely, utterly, essential. My guess is that the club, the conference, and at least one of those classes can wait.</p>
<p>Take a deep breathe. Relax. You can fix this.</p>
<p>Are you past the drop date at your college? If not, you need to figure out the most time consuming class you are taking and drop it now, as long as it’s not going to prevent you from graduating on time.</p>
<p>If it’s too late to drop, go find out what you’ll need to do to qualify for an incomplete so you can finish the class during winter break. That buys you a month- you’d continue to go to class, but you’d do the papers over Xmas vacation so you’ll reduce the immediate workload.</p>
<p>Then you find a replacement for yourself for the organization/club. You don’t have time for a presidency this year.</p>
<p>Now- focus on the conference. Get a couple of firm ideas going, make some progress so you don’t feel like you’re in panic mode. Make sure you ask for help NOW- if there are professors or grad students who are supposed to be helping you, enlist them ASAP. They all know what it’s like to bite off more than you can chew, and a little humility here is likely to get them wanting to help you dig out.</p>
<p>Reset your expectations. You are carrying a very heavy load and are not going to be able to be a perfectionist until the semester is over. Concentrate on doing the best you can, getting enough sleep, passing all your classes (except for the one you are going to drop TODAY. Big hug…</p>
<p>Prioritize – 1st, coursework. Period. Above all other priorities. 2nd - paying for school. If you MUST work to pay your bills, you need to keep some of your hours. But you can’t let your academics suffer for it. What happens if you quit your job that ends at the end of November? You would hate to trash your GPA because you felt obligated in some way – your first obligation is to your studies. Period. Agree that you should drop the club presidency, too. That should leave you time for classes, some work, and conference prep.</p>
<p>You have to be ruthless about this. Trying to please too many people and not taking care of your top priority will cost you in the long run.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the replies! I really appreciate it. </p>
<p>I unfortunately cannot drop any classes because they’re prerequisites for classes I need to take next semester/next year, but I do have a couple 2 credit classes, which means I could do only so-so in one of them without it impacting my GPA too much. </p>
<p>I think I will definitely have to relinquish the club. My VP and treasurer have been doing the more tedious stuff for me anyway, so I think that one of them can step it up and give more to it than I can. </p>
<p>However, the conference is one thing I can’t give up since it’ll be too good of an experience and since I already bought my plane tickets. It’s on a topic that I’ve dealt with in some of my classes, so I’m hoping I won’t have to do as much new information gathering as much as reflecting on previously learned information and adding on primary research. I think I do have to go ask a professor for help because I honestly don’t even know how to progress with it as this point. I get paralyzed with fear just thinking about it </p>
<p>You don’t need to take every single prerequisite this semester for next year. You can keep the ones which you’ll need for spring semester and drop the one which is for next year, no? why do you have so many required classes in one semester- won’t it help your workload by balancing them out between Fall and Spring semester?</p>
<p>It is the 35 hours/week of work that is really killing you, though. You didn’t say what you could/would do about that. Sounds like you haven’t done much on the club anyway… dropping it isn’t going to buy you much. You need to give up some work hours, quit if you have to.</p>
<p>@blossom, it’s because I’m starting to take all my upper-level French classes and we have a strict order to follow since our department is small and they offer all upper-levels only once a year. We have to take grammar before we can take translation (which I have to take in the winter and which is a pre-requisite for the other translation course next winter), I have to take intro to French lit this semester before survey of French lit next semester, which is the pre-requisite for the 400-level lit courses, and it continues on that way. I also plan on studying abroad in France next fall, so there are 2 classes that I’m taking now that I won’t be able to take next year because I’ll hopefully be in France. </p>
<p>It’s very complicated, but I know I’m basically stuck with what I have. If anything, I could maybe take only 12 credits next semester to give myself a break, but I don’t even know if that would help any. </p>
<p>And in regards to work, @intparent, I can see if I can cut down at the one until I can take my leave (like maybe only Saturdays and not Fridays and Sundays). I don’t want to quit because this is also my summer job, and I get paid very well and need the money for financing my abroad plans and for helping out with bills at home. I don’t so much need the money/job now as I do in the summer/over breaks, basically </p>
<p>Well, not all of them. Only 4 classes (12 credits). I think it’s just hard because I’m still getting used to so much of my classroom instruction and homework being done in French. I feel like I have to work extra hard just because I need to make sure I’m correctly understanding everything that I’m hearing/reading </p>
<p>There are 24 hours in a day. There are only 7 days in a week. You are overwhelmed, but unwilling to consider dropping a class. You are unwilling (and unable? not clear) to cut back at work, at least for the next few weeks. You are unwilling to drop your conference participation (this one I actually agree with- you should go, but you should enlist faculty and grad students to help you dig out of your hole. They’ve done this before, you haven’t, it will take you 10 hours to figure out something they could do for you in 45 minutes).</p>
<p>So you tell me- what should you do?</p>
<p>If you were my kid, and it’s not past the drop deadline, I would encourage you to drop a course. Drop one of the non-prerequisite courses. Or drop one of the prerequisite courses and take a different sequence in your major. Surely there’s more than one upper level course that will satisfy the requirement in your major??? Are you doubling up on credits you don’t need in order to be a French major? If so, just dropping back to the requirements is going to help free up time on your schedule.</p>
<p>But your not my kid. So if something’s got to give, what is it?</p>
<p>I think relaxing your own standards for the rest of this semester is a great idea. But truthfully- you’re going to need to do that anyway just to get some sleep. So figure out what to drop, or where you can take an incomplete instead of a W, figure out if you can take ANYTHING pass/fail and still get credit, and find a way to cut back on your hours at work.</p>
<p>What are the non-French classes, and does dropping them help you at all???</p>
<p>And I say dropping a course could put the OP behind for graduation, and that is a big mistake. How about quitting the other job (the one that you don’t have over spring break)? You don’t say what the hour breakdown is, but bottom line is that 35 hours a week is too many hours for a full time undergraduate to work.</p>
<p>I agree that 35 hours a week is too many hours. But if the OP is already getting backed up trying to fit in all the prerequisites for upper level courses and is getting jammed because of studying abroad next year, I fear that this horse (graduating on time) may have already left the barn. Better to drop a course in early October and plan on how to make it up, then to flunk that same course due to being overwhelmed during finals. Dropping gives you time and options. Flunking a pre-req means an extra semester to retake, no???</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure I won’t flunk any courses. I’m obviously not going to get 4.0s in all of them, but I KNOW I can pass them. I also know that I could do so much better, though, which is the part that really upsets me. I’ll be underachieving for reasons that were maybe preventable if I had accurately assessed my capabilities when I took on all of this stuff. </p>
<p>The only non-French course that I have is a writing course that’s only offered every fall. If I drop that class now and if I’m in France next fall, then I’ll be short that requirement and won’t be able to graduate since it’s required for my writing major (I’m a duo French and writing and rhetoric major). If that were the case, I’d come back the fall of 2016 for only one writing course, which wouldn’t be ideal. </p>
<p>Oh, and I also asked about taking some courses P/F for the French major and I was told that I couldn’t, but I might ask someone else just to make sure. </p>
<p>I guess I’m so against cutting down on all my working hours because I’m embarrassed. Other people can work crazy hours and still get As, but I’m barely making it all work. My other job is on campus at my university’s writing center, so it’s directly related to my major and I learn so many things that I can use in classes or whatnot. I want to keep it because I love it, but I think I’ll consider cutting down there as well. </p>
<p>What happens if you keep French and drop writing down to a minor? Does that relieve the crunch on your scheduling? What happens if you drop French and keep Writing and Rhetoric? You gain nothing by having a double major if you’re feeling so stressed that can’t perform your best in your classes.</p>
<p>Double majoring is a relatively new phenomenon, btw. I knew exactly one person who double majored in college- and her majors were French and Comparative Literature, and half the lit courses could be used for her French major so it was barely an extra class or two.</p>
<p>You are better off with ONE major, in which you do your best work, then two where you can’t keep up.</p>
<p>Getting B’s is fine. But easy for me to say- sounds like you are not so comfortable pulling back on the reins.</p>
<p>And it’s no use comparing yourself to other people. You have challenges they don’t. They have challenges you don’t. </p>
<p>I agree that coming back- and paying for- one extra course in the Fall of 2016 is a suboptimal solution. I’d be dropping the second major tout suite if it were me…</p>
<p>I think one of the most important things you need to look at is the psychological struggle between your standards and your pride. As you mentioned, part of the reason you don’t want to cut down on your other commitments such as the on campus job is because you don’t want to seem lesser than the others who seem that they can handle all those commitments. The first step is to stop comparing yourself to those other people. You are not those other people and you want to do the best thing for yourself.</p>
<p>Trust me when I say I’ve been there and leading a stressful life is no fun. So start by checking with your employer, since you have good relations with them, can you persuade them to give you a break in the weeks leading up to your conference? Is it absolutely essential that you work up until then? The other option is to drop the campus job. Although you have mentioned it is good experience and you enjoy it, is it possible that you can still be involved but without a strict hourly commitment? How important is it to you, that you are willing to take away from what seems to be most lacking at this point, time? The option on the opposite side of the spectrum, of course, is to relax those standards. It’s okay to not have a 4.0 every semester.</p>
<p>And the other people? Don’t worry about them. Trust me when I say that they have had to make sacrifices too, and they aren’t necessarily sacrifices that everyone is willing to make. They may have tradeoffs with sleep, friendships, relationships, peace of mind, and general health. Plus, you don’t even know if it is true that they are doing that well in all their courses. There are some people that it comes more naturally to, of course, but I guarantee you even they struggle in ways you may not foresee. </p>
<p>But you are taking initiative, recognizing that you may be stressed out and are seeking help. Which is good. You’re getting advice from people looking outside the lenses of your own mind, so that many of these comments are made objectively from the information you have given us without some of the internal biases you may possess. But in the end, it’s up to you. I hope everything works out for you this year and remember there always are people out there to help you if you reach out. Good luck!</p>
<p>Do you have the option of taking any of the classes on a Pass/Fail basis? That would take some of the pressure off.
Also forget about the student club for the time being or find a co-president to handle some things while you catch up. </p>
When you are using terms like these so freely, you need to see your health center ASAP and explain this all and then listen. You may need counseling beyond academics. Perhaps taking some time off is not unthinkable. Really. It’s not worth it.</p>
<p>What is your end goal? What kind of career do you want to pursue after college? Will one major be better for your intended career than the other? I second the notion of dropping one of your majors, make it a minor, and let good enough be good enough.</p>
<p>The pressure is all coming from you, and guess what? You are the one person who can make immediate changes to free yourself !! </p>
<p>Sometimes, we tell ourselves “I have to do this, and this, and the other thing too.” When in reality, it is all CHOICES. You can choose to double major, or you can choose to major/minor. You can choose to work 35 hours/week and never sleep, or you can choose to let your supervisor know the truth of your situation and admit you need to scale back your hours. Any boss at a college campus will understand that schoolwork comes first.</p>
<p>You have made great progress, just admitting to strangers that you are overwhelmed. That is a huge first step. Now comes the harder step of making decisions. Take 24 hours to think it through, and then TAKE ACTION. Speaking with a counselor at your school may help, since they would know better of the implications of each decision.</p>
<p>If what you are doing is not working, then stop what you are doing…</p>
<p>harvestmoon, I think I recall that this summer, you were very stressed about a French course you were taking while studying abroad, because you thought you had been placed above your level. Yet you did fine in it! I think that similar outcomes are likely this semester, too. I certainly understand the feelings of overload. </p>
<p>However, I agree with everyone who has said that 35 hours a week is too much to work–about half that would be okay. So if there is any way to cut down on the work hours as soon as you can, that would be a really good idea.</p>
<p>The double major seems to be part of what is causing stress for you. Is there any way to take some of the writing courses in the summer (perhaps via distance education), so that you don’t go off track for graduation? That might cut your stress some. </p>