<p>Hello everyone. I am currently a Junior; I am really worried about my future and I need some advice. Before this fall semester I had a GPA of 3.24 (not good but not horrible either). </p>
<p>However, after the first 3 midterms roll by, I got Fs on all of them. I believe that there is no way I can come back from this since these midterms are worth more than 25 percent of the total grades.</p>
<p>I have tried to get my things together after my Sophomore year. I was hospitalized for a week in the hospital due to bad health and diagonosed with severe depression ( currently taking Lexapro at the moment ). I had a 2.5 GPA for that fall semester but was able to bounce back to a 3.3 GPA the spring semester.</p>
<p>Now I feel like I am at that situation again where my GPA is going to plummet and probably ended up on Acadamic probation. The professors do not curve and the average of those exams were in the C range (so it's just me who is failing). My parents have been supportive of me (thankfully) but this is going to break them up emotionally for seeing their son dropping out of college.</p>
<p>What should I do? What are my options? I literally have no energy to even study for my next two midterms (which is tomorrow and Wednesday)...</p>
<p>Is it too late to drop a class or two? We are less than a month into the semester at most colleges. If you need to and can, drop down to the minimum to be considered a full time student. Keep plugging away at the classes you continue in – you aren’t usually out of college after one poor semester. Usually the next step is academic probation, and you get another semester to get yourself back on track.</p>
<p>You should see your doctor (psychiatrist if you have one) or at a minimum go to the student health clinic. Maybe you need some adjustment to your meds.</p>
<p>Well yes I can still drop but that would mean I have to drop all three of those classes, which will put me under 12 credit hour (for full-time student). So this is probably not an option for me… </p>
<p>Can you figure out the grading scale on them, and which ones the midterm counted least in or where you have the best chance of pulling up your grade if you have more time to study? My kid’s college has “midterms” now, but they have more than one “midterm” (back in the day that meant ONE midterm, with ONE final… ). So you may have only failed 25% of your grade. That sounds daunting, but I got a D on a 40% midterm in Calc in college, and studied my buns off for the rest of the term. Pulled up to a B+ in the class by acing the final. It CAN be done. But you gotta do some things:</p>
<ul>
<li>Drop down to 12 credits, keeping the classes you are most likely to pass.</li>
<li>Start going to professor office hours. Get a tutor if you need to. Hit the classes you have left very hard.</li>
<li>Check in with your doctor.</li>
</ul>
<p>You sound like you are floundering so much you can’t see that you COULD get out of this. Don’t let your possible depression issues keep you from digging out of this. It may not be much fun, but you can do this.</p>
<p>But I think I should take a semester off to rethink what I have do to get my life back on track. I am not familiar with this but do universities allow students to take a semester off and come back the next semester? If there is, then what is this called?</p>
<p>You can ask for a medical leave of absence if this is related to your depression. Others may have other suggestions – you might want to post over in the parent forum for more knowledge of this. </p>
<p>But… I feel like you don’t want to try to salvage this. And I think you could.</p>
<p>“The professors do not curve and the average of those exams were in the C range (so it’s just me who is failing).”
Uhm, that doesn’t mean you’re the only person struggling. The average is a C, typically half the class is above the average, and half is below. So, you’re not the only one panicking right now.</p>
<p>I’d say double check the syllabus, make sure you’re being graded how you think you are. What’s the grading scale look like? It might not be 90% = A, 80% = B, etc. And I would also suggest crunching some numbers. Sure, you got a bad score, but if that F is closer to 50%, you’ve only lost ~12% of your grade for the class, not 25%. Figure out where you actually stand in the classes (calculate your grade), what kinds of grades you would need to pass each class, and which ones you’re most likely to pass. It sounds like you’re a little overwhelmed, so I’ll echo the advice that dropping the worst class might be a good idea right about now.</p>
<p>For more tangible advice, seek help! Tutoring or office hours, see if the professor can help you out. If nothing else, show the professor that you care about the class/grade and want to succeed in it. If you can, try and get some studying done for your next midterms, and get a good night’s sleep before the exam. At least for me, worrying about failing classes or being unprepared for exams made me even more stressed out, and that made depression worse… so, try to be proactive and keep your next midterms from going the same way. Then you’ll only have to worry about three classes, rather than all five.</p>
). So you may have only failed 25% of your grade. That sounds daunting, but I got a D on a 40% midterm in Calc in college, and studied my buns off for the rest of the term. Pulled up to a B+ in the class by acing the final. It CAN be done. But you gotta do some things:</p>