Sophomore here, 3 semesters in and I have yet to do well academically in school. I have a 1.7 GPA and have been forced to leave the university for a minimum of one semester. In this time, I plan on taking colleges at cc, working a part time job and living with my parents. Any other advice/ things I should do with this time to better prepare for rejoining the university?
There were many reasons I failed out. One being that I simply did not attend class as much as needed. I would stay up late whether that be studying, gaming or partying and wake up missing my alarm and my class altogether.
I also lacked the attention and study skills needed to succeed when I was regularly attending a class at school. However, I did not fail all of my classes and a maintained Bs and Cs in most classes, with two F’s and three D’s during my time here.
tldr - didnt go to class, got bad grades, one semester disqualification, what now?
Why not take a complete break (i.e. no community college) until you can figure out if you really want a college education at all? Skipping classes, lacking attention, not studying- these don’t sound like someone who is motivated to get a degree.
Not failing all your classes- well, ok. But two F’s and three D’s don’t exactly scream “I want to be here and am doing my best”, do they?
Get a job. You will likely discover how hard it is to make ends meet with a minimum wage gig. Do some introspection on why you weren’t ready to hit the books the first time around.
College will still be there when you are ready to attack it again!
When you attend community college, seek out resources to improve your study skills. If you find you aren’t understanding something, use school resources - learning center, professor’s office hours, etc.
Putting in the time and caring enough to do your best is something you need to find in yourself.
You can do it and make a turnaround if you set your mind to it.
Apologize to your parents.
Forgive yourself but learn from this and mend your ways.
I also recommend taking a break. What would be different at a CC if you don’t really care about being successful and you don’t really want to be in college. If you are in the US, your parents put you on their health insurance until you are 26.
I assume you were put on academic probation before you were dismissed. That should have been a wake up call. To be clear, the college has said you can return after one semester? What are the conditions?
I’m guessing in three semesters, you had twelve classes. You got unacceptable grades in nearly half of those classes, and you’ll probably have to make up the failed courses. Contact the academic advising center at your university and visit the community college to ensure that any course you take at CC will transfer over.
Community college IS college. You will be expected to attend class, do the work, and study. It’s called earning a degree for a reason. You have to work at it. It sounds as though you thought you didn’t need to do the work to get the grades, and now you’ve discovered the truth. Only you can decide what you want your future to be like. Partying and video games won’t land you a decent job, so make a commitment to follow the advice in the linked post.
After 1 test in the first semester, why didn’t you realize what you were doing wasn’t working for you?
After 1 year, why didn’t you realize what you were doing wasn’t working for you?
Why did you keep skipping classes after clearly seeing attending works?
Are you self-sabotaging? Is this school to intense for you? Did your parents make you pick it? Do you not like your major?
I have a friend whose son started at Cornell. Obviously he was smart and did well in HS. He was very into the robotics program/team, but not as into his school work. He was also told to take classes elsewhere for a year. He talked to a therapist to work out issues. After a year he went to a local 4 year college and finished there instead of returning to Cornell. He now works in robotics at Amazon.
He had issues developed with his sudden independence and poor time management skills and staying up too late at night (maybe playing too many computer games but not partying), and the Engineering school was very unhappy with his grades .
Another friend’s kid thought Cornell was too intense and transferred to their state school.
So you need to decide what you want in life…maybe talk to a counselor.
Take this as the wakeup call that what you were doing does not work.
It’s telling to me that you don’t mention anything about what your major is or what you’re interested in doing. The impression I get is that you are generically “doing college” by default. What are you interested in?
What are the terms you must fulfill to return? Is there anything that precludes taking time off, rather than reflexively jumping into community college with no time to regroup?
Do you think you really want to return to this college? Is it a good fit for you? Does it offer what you now think you may want? Or is the desire to go back just a matter of wanting to avoid a sense of failure, or wanting the social aspect back and seeing the academics as just the price you have to pay for the social experience?
What’s your financial situation, and the cost of this four-year college? Is going back a reasonable investment, given that you’ve already been at it for three semesters without finding your stride?
Rather than continuing to beat your head against the same wall, perhaps look into the more practical programs at your community college. A six-month or year investment in a certificate program, in a field you would find rewarding, could get you into a skilled job. Then you could consider your options from the perspective of a contributing, self-supporting adult. Either that experience will make you realize that you actually want a college education, or it will make you realize you never wanted that in the first place. And then, you can start taking the academic CC classes if you are motivated to do so.
I took a break after two years of college, got my CNA certification, and worked for a couple of years before going back to school. What it made me realize was that my whole life of going to school and having my own growth cultivated had never given me the experience of doing things because someone else genuinely needed me to do them. Doing a job where other people needed me to show up conferred something I didn’t even know I was missing. I found out what it felt like to really contribute, and helped me to see my education as a means to that end. I highly recommend taking some time to have this kind of experience. Just be a person for a while - a person who isn’t anybody else’s project, but who is making a contribution of value, and whose responsibilities take precedence over partying, gaming, etc. This will carve out the space that didn’t exist in your life, to put your education first at school. Once that space exists for a top-priority responsibility, then you can decide what it should be.
Sounds like the college is giving you a real wakeup call after you “missed” all their (I’m assuming) warnings. You need to learn what RESPOSIBILITY is all about.
Don’t go to CC. Take a break from school and get a real job out there in the real world. You’ll find out fast that you need to show up on time; not be drunk or hung over; and work can be hard on the body and the mind.
You’ll start to realize that college can be a path to a rewarding but not any easier life.
I’ve known several people that flunked out their first try at college but rebounded after working out in the real world. They went back to college ready to study and did so.
I agree with others that you should take a complete break from school. You should get a job and work for at least the upcoming semester and the summer. Then figure out what you want to do.
Do not return to college or university until you are ready and determined to make a solid effort. A “solid effort” includes attending ALL classes, going to sleep early enough to make it to whatever you have the next day, and keeping ahead in your homework and studying. If you are not ready to do this, then do not attend university.
I think that you will figure out what you want to do. You just are not quite there yet.
I feel you need to take a break for yourself a well. Even if you go to community college you need to spend some time figuring out why you can’t just focus and get into the groove of college. Is it maybe bad influence friends? Maybe ADD? There’s a plethora of reasons you’re not doing well and I don’t think you’ll improve until you identify why.
I agree that you shouldn’t jump straight into community college classes. Instead, I’d be spending the semester (or more) trying to solve some of the self-discipline problems that were contributing to the problem.
You said yourself that you didn’t attend class as needed, so to me, that screams needing to do something that requires regular self-discipline and routine. Working a job sounds like a perfect solution. You likely won’t be able to get much besides retail or fast food, but that’s not nothing: you’ll still get some work experience and make some money. Honestly, I’d encourage taking on at least 20 hours of work a week while you’re taking your semester off.
At most, I’d say take one community college class. If attention and study skills are your problem, you could attempt to work on improving those. But I’d take it only in something you’re really interested in, and take it pass/fail.
As someone who loves gaming and works at a gaming company, I would also (very reluctantly, lol!) say consider giving up gaming temporarily while you work on building some self-discipline. Although gaming is just a hobby and in moderation can be quite enriching, it does have the propensity to be more habit-forming than other hobbies because of the way games are built (they give you little rewards along the way to keep you playing). You may need to pull back while you are working in good habits, and only go back once you’ve built yourself up with a good amount of self-discipline. It can be difficult to turn the game off at night when you can just get through one more section, lol!
The same could be said if you were staying up all night watching Netflix, though.