hello everyone, so i recently just finished my freshman year of college. it didn’t go as i planned (academically) since the classes i was in were harder for me than i thought. i ended up with a 2.94 first semester and about the same gpa second semester, so the cumulative was 2.94. in total i have 37 credits. I’m basically like freaking out not cause I’m not sure how much i will be able to bring it up (i want my cumulative to be atleast a 3.5 by the time i graduate) and my parents keep telling me i won’t find a job after graduation if i have a low gpa. i would like to know if anyone has a similar experience and how much they brought up their gap (e.g. what they had to earn each semester) and what employers think is more important: GPA or job experience? i plan on getting jobs during the school year and internships in my psychology major during summers and stuff.
Actual experience is certainly incredibly valuable, but having a super low GPA doesn’t look good on a resume or transcript. At most, your GPA shows some level of dedication and passion for what you are learning and a willingness to work hard, which employers may translate as a willingness to work hard at your potential job. Your parents are probably trying to motivate you to step up your game, and I think it wouldn’t hurt to heed their advice. However, it is only your freshman year, so you have plenty of semesters to make a turn around. Think of what problems may have caused you to not do so well and make a plan for next semester on how to do better.
Just from my own experience, the only time I was ever asked about my GPA was on my very first interviews out of college. After that, I’ve never even bothered putting it on the resume. Psychology is an odd one anyway, because in all likelihood, you are going to want to consider graduate school, however, and that will look much more deeply at your GPA. All of that said…Try your best and don’t get hung up on what is in the past…You can’t change that 2.94 at this point anyway (Unless you failed a class and retake it). Chances are it will go up slightly in the future anyway as you will get more interesting (to you) classes.
It seems as though you did not change anything after the first semester.
You definitely want to get your GPA above a 3.0.
You need to:
- Figure out if you have the right mix of harder and not as hard courses
- Go to professor’s office hours
- Make sure you do all the homework, and perhaps more
- Form a study group
- Go to the writing center
- Get a tutor
7 ) Check out this book, How to become a straight-A Student by Cal Newport.
Many kids stumble their first year dealing with the realities of college. A 2.94 GPA is not wow, but it’s not horrific. Ask yourself where the problems may have been on your part (e.g., did you go to every class, did you stay on top of material, did you get behind and have to cram for tests, did you read all assignments, did you get help from prof/TAs early in term if you weren’t understanding material, roommate issues, did desire to fit in socially cause you to put off studying, etc.). Take a deep breath. You can pull your GPA up. You’re paying a lot of money to go to college. Go utilize your school’s resources that you’re paying for to help you. A lot of success in college is learning to manage time. A job may help you focus. I am not a student, but a parent. IMO the answer to your question is not so much an either or GPA/job experience thing. Having both the degree and work experience suggest you can work hard and manage time which for an entry level position would be two qualities employers would like to see. Good luck.
Are those 37 credits all from freshman year? Perhaps taking fewer credits per semester would ease your course load.
@bodangles yeah those i had 31 credits for this year, but got 6 additional credits for being in an adv language class
The main thing that will help you is figure out exactly what happened with every class, every homework, every exam. write your answers down.
Don’t sugar coat anything (e.g. “the prof was hard, I was busy with other stuff”) and don’t be vague (I should have studied more). Be specific - I should have done more practice problems in chapter 4 since I didn’t really get that topic.
The only chance you have of making a change and getting a better result is to actually know what you need to change.
Making dramatic improvements is NOT unheard of.
But it is very difficult if you aren’t really analytical about your performance, how you studied, etc.
After my kids come back from an exam, regardless of how they think they did, I only ask them one question: Now that you took the exam, what would you have done differently to prepare for it if you could take it again?