<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I'm one of those people who thought they could be something, but apparently I am still nothing. </p>
<p>I'm struggling in college with a comulitive GPA that is 2.1/Fall semster is 1.6. BUT I wasn't like this a year ago. Last year my GPA was 3.1 and I was on top of my studies and everything. I don't know what went wrong... </p>
<p>The only thing I'm sacred of in life is failure. and seeing myself right now becoming a failure makes me so depressed. Even my friends don't like to hangout with me anymore because I complain too much about school --- I totally understand why, I wouldn't want to hangout around people like that.</p>
<p>Sometime I wonder did I pick the wrong major (my major is software engineering) or did I pick the wrong school? or what exactly! I need to reevaluate my life and make major changes about everything but I don't know where to start. </p>
<p>Can someone redirect me and give some help or tips about this situation? </p>
<p>Thanks... </p>
<p>You need to concentrate on finishing strong this semester and then consider your options over the summer. Even if you decide to transfer schools, you want to have as many passing credits as possible that you can transfer. It is too late to apply to transfer for the fall, so you really should buckle down now and do as much as you can to do well in this semester’s classes, then re-plan over the summer.</p>
<p>You haven’t been very clear about where you might be off track. But software engineering is a darned hard major, so certainly that could be a factor. In the short term:
- Get help in your classes. See your professor in office hours, seek tutoring, join study groups, and keep on top of your assignments. Don’t try to figure it all out alone or catch up all by yourself.
- Be disciplined about your studying. Study in locations where you are not distracted. Don’t go back to your dorm after dinner, go straight to the library.
- Reward yourself with a short break or snack or something when you finish an assignment. Then go on to the next.
- Don’t just skim over what you don’t understand or assume it isn’t important. Mark it, and if you can’t figure it out yourself, that is when you should see your prof/TA/a tutor/study group or friend in the same class. You may have a lot of questions because you are behind. That is okay – you will not catch up without accepting that and moving ahead to learn the material.
- Keep a regular schedule. Try to get at least 7 hours of sleep/night so you are sharper when you are studying. Limiting partying while working on your GPA is a no brainer.
- Evaluate where you are in each class and how you can get the most bang for your studying time based on the % allocated to different assignments and tests. Honestly, one of my kids goes to a really hard STEM school. One goal she set for herself was no grade lower than a “C”. She has some classes this semester where she is doing better than that, but some where she is just meeting that goal. But she will pass everything and won’t be on academic probation when she is done. Her GPA will be middle of the pack for her class as a whole, but given the difficulty of the school that is okay.</p>
<p>Then this summer spend some time thinking about:
- Are you truly committed to this major and able to do the work in it?
- If you are, is this school too hard? Would a different school be any easier, or is it really the major?
- If you decide to return to your school next fall, can you take a slightly lighter load so you have a shot at better grades? Whether you stay at your school or not, this will help you either graduate from there or transfer.
- If you failed or got a really poor grade in something this past year, do you need to spend some time independently trying to learn some of what you didn’t master this summer? Especially if it is a building block for later in your major, could be important.
- Are there other majors at your school that are related but not as rigorous? Say, computer science instead of software engineer? Or management information systems vs. software engineer? Or other areas you are interested in that aren’t very close to your current major? Look into the requirements for those options and consider whether you want to change your path.</p>