I am currently a sophomore at UW-Madison. I’ve been trying extremely hard since the beginning, but I feel like my efforts do not reflect my grades at all. My advisor has advised me to pursue a liberal arts degree, because she thinks I’m wasting away my college GPA. Here are my grades:
Freshmen
1st Semester
Math 221 (Calculus I): B
Advanced General Chemistry 109: C
2nd Semester
Math 222 (Calculus II): BC
Organic Chemistry I: C
3 other liberal arts courses
Sophomore
1st Semester
Organic Chemistry II:B
Physics I: C
Math 234 (Multivariable Calculus): F
2 other liberal arts courses
My GPA is really low now. It is about a ~2.1. My engineering GPA is around a 2.3. At UW-Madison, you have to apply for entrance to an engineering department, and the min requirement for that is 2.5. I need some brutal honesty about whether or not I should continue to pursue engineering. I can tell you guys that I really like engineering, and I don’t want to give up. I’m just horrible at testing. Please give me some advice. Thanks!
The question is do you like liberal arts?
If you still want to do engineering, something needs to change in your study habits. Engineering courses are difficult to begin with, so how do you study? Are you going to all of the tutoring sessions.
My dd had difficulty in some study groups because the grad assistants (many of whom were difficult to understand) would not show up to open the labs. She eventually started reporting the absences to the professors and some of the grad students were let go.
Eventually, she formed her own study groups and assigned tasks to her peers. That’s how they got through the courses.
You need to consider if you would be happy as a liberal arts major.
What experience have you had that you’ll actually like engineering? You haven’t taken any engineering classes yet and aren’t doing hot in your foundation courses (an F in calculus goes beyond bad test taker). Were you in a robotics club in hs or something? Just trying to get at where your motivation is. Note that prestige/pride/fear of failure are common motivators among students fouling up school yet say they want to stick with it.
I like liberal arts, but it is not something I want to do with the rest of my life. I attend all my classes and discussions. I show up for TA’s office hours and attend weekly tutoring sessions. I usually study in the quiet sections in the library. I have taken one engineering design class in high school and another one during my first semester at Madison. I will be retaking the multivariable calculus class this following semester. The class was based solely on 3 exams. I feel like my grades were low freshmen year, because I worked ~25 hours a week. However, I didn’t work sophomore year, and I just need some advice on whether or not to continue
Can you take a lighter load next semester while working on improving the calculus grade? Is the minimum 2.5 in specified engineering courses or does it include all your coursework? Looks like you are already taking significantly more liberal arts classes than the suggested curriculum for freshman/sophomore engineering. Are you actually doing better in them than the engineering classes if your total GPA is less than your Engineering GPA?
Changing to a liberal arts major may be one avenue if things don’t improve, but if you really like engineering, have you considered changing to engineering technology? I realize that probably means transferring to a different campus but may be an alternative to consider down the road. Engineering technology degrees require significantly less math and hard sciences but may still have the design aspects that you like.