I’m home on break and when my relatives asked how I did, when I tell them my GPA, they all say that’s good. I know it’s definitely not bad. I graduated high school with a 3.5, took Honors/AP, was an AP Scholar with Distinction, received a college scholarship. My thing is that I set goals at the beginning of the semester to get a 4.0 and to be on Dean’s list. I accomplished neither. So while a 3.5 seems good, it’s not good compared to the goal I set so I am somewhat disappointed in myself. I also feel extra pressure to succeed because I’m a Journalism major. Journalism majors are considered one of the “easiest” majors you can have. Most of my friends are STEM majors so I think that because my major is considered “easy”, the only way to consolidate is with a high GPA. It’s also hard to know how well I’m doing because I don’t know what’s normal for my college. So I’m viewing my GPA as good but good in terms of what? I have no idea how other students across the country do. So, is it “good”? What is considered “good”?
Fellow journalism major here. You’re right, journalism definitely isn’t the same as chemistry or engineering, but it’s still challenging in its own way…my journalism class this semester had a lot of material and definitely was not “easy.” Don’t compare yourself to other majors; they all present their own challenges.
A 3.55 isn’t bad at all; college students typically have lower GPAs than they do in high school. Different schools are going to have different definitions of what “good” is because of grad inflation/deflation, etc., so if you really want to compare yourself, find out what the average GPA is for your school. I know my school has a table of average GPAs for each semester for freshmen, sophomores, etc. I know the average for my school for first semester freshmen is a 2.7 for males and a 3.01 for females.
The average GPA at my school (overall, cumulative GPA for all students) was 3.13 last spring. The average GPA for humanities majors was 3.18 (as of fall 2014). About 30% of humanities majors had a 3.5 or greater GPA, but that also means that about 70% had lower than a 3.5 GPA. So at my school, you’d be doing just fine. You may be able to find statistics at your school for things like average GPA with a little digging.
It can be frustrating to fall short of what you were aiming for, but that certainly isn’t the end of the world. You’ll always have disappointments, so give yourself a little time to feel bad about it and then brush it off and get ready to do better next time. Find ways you can improve–maybe you can procrastinate less or go to office hours more, maybe you can join a study group or focus more time on studying and less time on going out. Schedule your classes wisely so that you have a good balance of work and you have great professors. You did great this semester, but you want to do better next semester–that’s absolutely fine. Figure out why you got grades that were less than what you wanted, and see if you can improve in those areas. Also, remember that your GPA is not the end all be all of everything. Getting work and writing experience (reporting experience? I’m not very experienced in careers in journalism =D) are likely going to be very important (or perhaps even more important) for your career.
Your GPA is just fine. Is it high enough to maintain your merit scholarship? Did you learn the material at a general mastery level (usually a high C/low B range or higher)? Do you feel ready to move on to your next series of classes? I suspect the answer to all of these questions is yes. Congratulations, you did well for your first semester.