Maintaining a 3.0 GPA?

<p>I'm hopefully going to be getting an internship/scholarship that will last through the entirety of my undergraduate career (I'm a freshman right now). However, one of the stipulations is that I maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. So of course, now I'm worried that I won't be able to do this.</p>

<p>I'm a Psychology and Information Sciences major, and I finished off last semester with a 3.55. However, my first semester was mostly humanities (writing, psychology, sociology), with only one information science class that was ridiculously easy. This semester, my classes are much more heavy in biology and math, as I'm taking a neuroscience class, a psych class that also has a lot of biology, a stat class and an information science class that is on a topic that I am unfamiliar with. I'm better with humanities, and have never felt like I was great with more hard sciences. I'm worried about potentially getting C's in some classes and then losing my scholarship. If I lose the scholarship, I won't be able to pay for college.</p>

<p>Maybe it's pointless to be worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet, and maybe I'll end up doing well this semester. But, I can't know how I'll do just yet. Does anyone have any tips for me? </p>

<p>Well, I would suggest to try and take less hard sciences if you don’t feel confident in them. Do absolutely HAVE to? At my university, I found a way to meet all of my general educational requirements by taking softer classes. (for example, I took linguistics as science and philosophy of logic as math. That saved me a grueling experienced with chem or bio and calculus.) </p>

<p>Also, do you know how many hours your internship will be? And is it paid? Will you need a job? I currently work around 10 hours a week with 16 credits, and that’s about all I can handle. It totally depends on you, though, so I urge you to really evaluate how much time you spend on schoolwork. </p>

<p>And generally, try to find a way to study smarter instead of harder. Make vocab cards and go over them them while waiting in line for your coffee in the morning. Take out your psych notes before bio class and read them over for the 5 minutes you wait for the professor. If you have any audio material, try listening to it on your way from your down to your classroom. By utilizing your time more effectively, you’ll find yourself building and conditioning your knowledge. </p>

<p>Basically, just always try to catch up and stay on track so that you won’t fall behind. Good luck! </p>

<p>One thing I might caution against is the mindset that because it’s a science class, you automatically won’t be as good at it or you will automatically do bad. It’s a class, just like any other class, and you can do just as well at it if you work at it. Make sure you keep up with the material, and that you ask for help early if you need any.</p>

<p>A good idea would be to try to balance out your schedule each semester, if you’re overly concerned about a certain class or subject. Take some humanities classes and some science classes each semester so that you don’t have semesters that swing wildly either way. It’s not always possible, but it may help to make sure that each term your GPA stays above a 3.0.</p>