<p>Currently, I am a freshman at the UofM. I feel like I've worked my ass off (study 40+ hours a week). I barely even party, and I' getting such bad results.</p>
<p>I got a B- on my first math midterm. And in my polisci class, I got a B+ on my first big paper (15% of the grade). Is this good? Is this bad? I'm so used to stellar grades in high school, that I frown at anything less than an A. </p>
<p>ENLIGHTEN ME!!</p>
<p>"I'm so used to stellar grades in high school, that I frown at anything less than an A. "</p>
<p>You're in college.</p>
<p>I studied more than 40 hours a week as an undergrad, and I would have been thrilled to get Bs in a lot of my classes. Chill. Welcome to the land of less egregious grade inflation and harder classes.</p>
<p>If you can bring your grades up, by all means, do so, but you are not entitled to get As just because you work hard. If your worst problems, even just speaking in academic terms, are that you got a B- on one test and a B+ on one paper, you are very fortunate.</p>
<p>Go to your Academic Support center and see if you're working in the right way. Studying in college is different than studying in high school and it may take a whole different set of skills than the ones you're using now. Use the support systems and the help that your school offers you.</p>
<p>Relax, and dont procastinate, that is what really helped me at Princeton. I realized that I had a copious amount of work, and I just was more focused, and gave myslef small time limits for my assignments. Dont stop partying, just dont make a huge habit of it. Good luck!! :)</p>
<p>A friend's daughter is a freshman at Michigan this year and she's complaining that her daughter tried out for choir and didn't make it. She also didn't get in to her top 3 sorority choices. She said this is the first time her daughter has ever dealt with rejection of any kind! Wow! Welcome to the real world!</p>
<p>Obviously just drop the polisci course.</p>
<p>You're probably not studying very efficiently... unfortunately it would take a long time and a long post for me to 'diagnose' the problem and then provide a way to study better.</p>
<p>You'll just have to study better.</p>
<p>Holy crap who are you? I'm taking both Math and Poli Sci this semester, and we also had a Poli Sci paper worth 15% of our grade! I didn't get that back yet. Got an A- on Math though.</p>
<p>I'm used to high grades and high school, and first year was no problem for me. Now that I'm in second year, I'm starting to get confused by some concepts and that's being reflected in my assignments. Midterms are coming up and I'm somewhat anxious already. The fact that my engineering courses are more difficult than the average course doesn't help ease my anxiety either.</p>
<p>Solution? You need to deal with it. I was prepared for lower grades at the beginning of second year, so when I'm starting to see my incompetence, I'm already capable of accepting it. Relax. You don't need a 4.0 to get a job. Getting into a top grad school is another story.</p>
<p>if you got mostly / all A's in high school, you are probably at a college where the vast majority of your peers also got A's in high school. Well, everyone can't get A's, so a bunch of people who had A's are now going to get lower grades.</p>
<p>And seriously, those grades are not bad at all. They will do you just fine.</p>
<p>U-M is hard. We have hard classes, and a lot of people fail.</p>
<p>Yeah, man. I'm at McGill, and we have large classes and brutal grade curves. That's life. I found out I wasn't so great at philosophy after all, or at least at writing papers. Instead of getting down about it, I've just got to hit the books harder and be a fighter. </p>
<p>To quote Rocky, "it ain't how hard you hit, it's how hard you can take a hit and keep going"</p>
<p>^In life, that's the truth.</p>
<p>OMG my life is over because OHgiraffe got a B on a midterm!!!</p>
<p>seriously.. just listen to how whiny you sound. Realize that children are starving in Africa, people's dads are suffering from testicular cancer, and the KKK still lives on in 2007... that will put everything in perspective and you'll stop crying over your meaningless B.</p>
<p>Something a dean said at my son's school has stayed in my mind,</p>
<p>"ninety percent of you were in the top ten percent of your class in high school; ninety percent of you will not be able to graduate in the top ten per cent from here."</p>
<p>So relax a little and appreciate the education you are getting. You're doing fine.</p>
<p>There's a difference between working hard and working efficiently. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but they can be if you don't study the right way. You need to make sure that you're getting the most out of your studying.</p>
<p>B's are okay! You're not going to get an A in everything you take. If you're working the hardest and best you can, then you're doing your best. That might just be a B in some things. A couple B's are not going to kill you (however, I would work on things if it gets below a B).</p>
<p>I disagree. You should always strive for the best grade possible (an A), but you just shouldn't beat yourself up about it if you don't achieve it. If you don't shoot for the stars, you won't even get to the moon. If you don't shoot for the moon, you won't get out of Earth's atmosphere. Set yourself a standard and aim for it. If you miss your target, realize that it's OK. This is COLLEGE. Regardless of the intense pressure grad schools, prospective employers, and the rest of society put on maintaining a 4.0 GPA, you should not allow yourself to be judged solely by a "spotless" transcript. You owe it to yourself to make others see you as more than a 4.0, or 2400/2400 for that matter. </p>
<p>I personally have a 3.2/4.0 GPA, and I had a 1770/2400 SAT, and to some people/grad schools/employers, that's not good enough. You know what? **** them... I wouldn't even want to go to a company or grad school that looks solely at the numbers. Because many of the applicants they have coming in with 4.0's and 2400's are not truly <em>qualified</em>. Many of them cheated their way to their spotless academic records, or are simply *******s with no people skills. Some are boring, and some simply just did the work but will bring no innovative ideas to their work. If a company wants those kinds of people, I don't even want to work for them.</p>
<p>The point is, do the best YOU can do, but ALWAYS strive for the highest grade possible. Just don't beat yourself up if it turns you set the mark too high. :)</p>
<p>Welcome to college. That's all I can say. Like one of the posters said, you're working with other students who were just like you in high school and the professors can't simply give out As to everyone....</p>
<p>I remember my AP Psych repeating what his law school dean said to his class when they started out- "Sure we rank people and of course we need our #1 and #2 but think about it, we need someone to be the 300th." So there has to be some logic.</p>
<p>Anyway, it's all about working efficiently, not how hard you work- more hours doesn't always translate to higher grades. U of M is tough... you asked for it and you got it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I personally have a 3.2/4.0 GPA, and I had a 1770/2400 SAT, and to some people/grad schools/employers, that's not good enough. You know what? **** them... I wouldn't even want to go to a company or grad school that looks solely at the numbers. Because many of the applicants they have coming in with 4.0's and 2400's are not truly <em>qualified</em>. Many of them cheated their way to their spotless academic records, or are simply *******s with no people skills. Some are boring, and some simply just did the work but will bring no innovative ideas to their work. If a company wants those kinds of people, I don't even want to work for them.
[/quote]
Just because you don't have a 4.0 doesn't mean you have to put down others who do.</p>