Mostly academics… I’m in a huge state university(a pretty good one tho). Just declared CS and math and cumulative GPA is like 3.3/3.4. Got a C and a D+ The courses are not that challenging for me. It’s just that I used to skip courses and hw and therefore missing a lot of points. Now I realized that I messed it up and really want to do something to boost it up and end up getting into a good graduate school or a good firm. What can I do beside academics and will they still consider me even if I might be possible to get straight A’s in my last two years in college?
Best recommendation is bear down and work as hard as possible and go from there. It’s hard to predict future but you are better off giving it your all over giving up.
A 3.3 GPA is definitely not the end of the world, and you should be fine even if you don’t raise your GPA at all. However, working hard and getting your GPA to 3.5+ would probably open more doors for jobs.
Raise your grades, then get into a CS internship for next summer. Good real world experience plus your grades will do a lot towards getting that first job out of school.
Calculate how much it costs you (or your parents) to skip one hour of class. When you skip a class you are throwing this money away. And money isn’t the only thing that you give up when you skip classes, as you are facing now that you aren’t satisfied with your GPA. Maybe knowing the cost per hour will give you pause.
Hopefully you have learned that going to class = points = better grades.
So at this point, follow my tips below and show that you can do well in harder classes Junior and Senior year.
So to do well, consider the following:
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GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
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Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
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If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
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Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
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Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
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Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
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If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
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Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
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If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
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For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
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How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
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At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
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If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
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At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
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Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
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If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
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If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
You might think that this is all completely obvious, but I have read many stories on this and other websites where people did not do the above and then are asking for help on academic appeal letters.
“Calculate how much it costs you (or your parents) to skip one hour of class. When you skip a class you are throwing this money away.”
All true. However, in economics there is something called “opportunity cost”. The basic notion of opportunity cost is that you only get this chance once, and if you don’t take advantage of it then you have lost your chance. A major reason that you are in university is that this opportunity is worth more than the cost of attending. Therefore, most likely what you have been missing in terms of opportunity cost is more serious than what you have been missing in terms of paying $$ for classes and then not going. Fortunately there is time to turn this around.
Having an upward trend in grades will be a good sign, and encouraging for employers and graduate schools. Therefore, if you start applying yourself now, and do well in the future (hopefully mostly A’s from now on) then you will still have time to do well and be successful. I think that you know how to turn this around, but you have to do it and you have to do it now (or at least when classes start again).
By the way, I had a bad semester in undergrad (a motivation issue), and ended up with a C in a “in major” class and a D (no plus) in an “out of major” class. It didn’t stop me from going to a top graduate school (after a couple of years of work) and doing well in my life from that point on.
Do what is in your power – improve your diligence and performance in classes, look for internships in the field, try to develop relationships with professors in your area of study (perhaps see if you can do research) etc. and move forward in a positive manner.
Re-take all of the classes you got below a C in, or maybe even all the ones below a 80% - just depends on time/finance constraints.