<p>it’s this mindset that you have thats holding you back. what information and resources do other students have that you lack, why are they doing better on your tests if you are all learning the same material at the same time from the same professor, and out of the same books?
you should try changing your method of studying, or you should start studying for a test way ahead of time. if you want an estimate of how you would do on a test, then make index cards to test yourself on the material. have a friend or sibling test you. believe me, the only person holding you back is yourself.
good luck with school =)</p>
<p>You’ll do fine, grad10, because (a) you love your school and (b) you are capable of catching up. Just work a little harder and you’ll be fine in the end, like mini.</p>
<p>If a student was over stretched in HS and got into a reach school, then I’d be worried.</p>
<p>If you have a low GPA and aren’t in engineering, I’d advise going to 12 credits / semester until you can pull a 3.5. If you aren’t in engineering no one will care about what specific courses you’ve taken and you’ll probably be able to graduate on time.</p>
<p>I just want people to know that there is a reason you may not have gotten into your reach school and to thoroughly consider choosing to go to a match school over a reach school.</p>
<p>grad10 - Very wise advice, in my opinion. To me, it’s a mystery that so many students shoot for schools where they will struggle.</p>
<p>Good luck to you, and keep toughing it out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the post, OP. Hang in there! You have a great attitude. My S had some of the same issues freshman year, and he graduated yesterday.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s just an issue of whether the school is a reach school (not only for the OP, but anyone in this circumstance), but what type of preparation the HS offered. A student can be mid-high level stats kid coming in, and still be blindsided once he/she gets there.</p>
<p>S’s HS was crappy, really crappy. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how much until he hit college. That problem is compounded when other students went to really great college -prep HS. Kind of a double-whammy.</p>
<p>Keep plugging away. Those differences will fade during sophomore year as you become more accustomed to college work and catch up. Also becomes more enjoyable (and often better grades) as you move more deeply into your major classes and out of boring gen ed requirements.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>@grad10 - “Very wise advice, in my opinion. To me, it’s a mystery that so many students shoot for schools where they will struggle.”</p>
<p>My daughter went from a cruddy rural high school to a top-grade selective enrollment residential HS for her last three HS years (she’s now finishing her junior year). She was #1 in her class (of 31) as a freshman, and is barely hanging on at the residential school - they don’t do class rank, but I’m sure she’d be the bottom 10% if they did. She’s working a lot harder, and learning a lot more, and she’s glad she made the decision to go (as am I) - but her GPA, which was a 3.9 as a freshman, is now in the middle 2’s.</p>
<p>She has a couple of reach schools in her sights - and right now they’re at the top of her list - but she’s also considering whether she wants to continue to bust her tail for mediocre grades for another four years. I can fully understand and sympathize, and if she decides she wants to step back to a match school or even a good safety (and she’s got a couple that look intriguing), I’ll support her all the way.</p>
<p>Good thread. i will just add that it can be a nasty little trap to generally assume a match school, or even a safety school, will necessarily be less challenging than a reach school. As with many things in life you really have to base such decisions on your specific choices rather than ephemeral classifications. There are too many variables involved to assume some place will be “easier” or “harder” just because of the label you give it. </p>
<p>As others have mentioned, adjusting to college life can be challenging at any quality institution. Sometimes it can also be surprisingly easy as some others alluded. Like I said, there are many variables at play. Attempting to project future success or failure solely on the basis of whether a school’s admissions criteria places it in a reach, match, or safety category for an individual is, in my opinion, a bad starting point - it assumes too much.</p>
<p>^ Interesting point to consider, and thank you for that. I guess I’ve been assuming that assuming my D’s ACT is 28 or so (reasonable guess based on her PSAT) that a reach school with a middle 50% range of 28 to 33 would be more challenging academically for her than a safety school with a range of 21 to 26 - at least for comparable major fields.</p>
<p>annasdad, I agree that reviewing the average test score ranges of incoming students provides some important insight. But it’s just a single indicator, a single point on a curve of several other variables, and is limited as a reliable predictor of future experience. It mainly speaks to how good other incoming students are at taking tests, which of course, does have some roots in the quality and type of their educational background. However, it is not a comparative test of collegiate ability (i.e. learning skills most adaptable to higher education). </p>
<p>As someone else mentioned upthread, I think the starting point is trying to figure out what type of learner the student is and how well his or her skill set fits within the context of higher education. I think the OP does a great job of offering up an honest self-assessment, which I think everyone ought to sincerely do. But my sense is that the issues encountered are being disproportionately attributed to attending a “reach” school versus a “match” school as opposed to the challenges of adapting a collegiate format in general. </p>
<p>Unless the “match” school ascribed to a significantly different educational system (as some do), I doubt the OP’s experience would have been substantially easier elsewhere. Likewise, given the rigor and preparation your daughter is getting at her prep school, I wouldn’t be so quick to think she necessarily needs to avoid her “reach” schools in anticipation of an easier time at a match school. She may be more than prepared to handle the work at either just fine, plus, depending on the specific schools, there may not be much of a difference in what she encounters anyway.</p>
<p>^ Once again, FLVADAD, your point is very well taken. I have talked to a number of alumni of my d’s school, and every one comments on how much better prepared he/she was, compared to peers with comparable smarts from standard high schools. The legs up on time management, independent learning, dealing with freedom issues, and adjusting to dorm life are indeed huge.</p>
<p>The truth is that you just were not prepared because of your homeschool background. I have tutored many who have the same problem when transferring either from that sort of environment or from really small schools.</p>
<p>Stay in there! Sign up for upper level classes if you can because they are much easier than the survey classes that many freshmen take. Make sure that you figure out what kind of profs you like. There are many different types of profs such as those who: lecture and tests, lecture and assign research or papers with no tests, read the book and tests come strictly from book, discussions on blackboard no tests, large halls with TA’s and only a final, small individual environment and eclectic profs. All of these prof styles are all available and depending on your major and size of University, you can probably hand pick every single one of your classes for your learning style and professors teaching and gradding style! Ask everyone you know (and even people you dont) who they recommend, explain your learning style and tell them what classes you need, other students will be happy to share their professor experiences with you.</p>
<p>Dont worry, as long as your not on probation or risking academic dismissal then you are at least set to graduate someday! And remember… It never hurts to ask who the easiest professors are and ask friends for their old notes and study guides.</p>
<p>As a School Psychologist, I work with students & their learning styles frequently. When I see a much higher CR as oppossed to M SAT score my first thought is that the student has better auditory vs. visual memory, which are the two modes of recall on tests. Some tips are : 1) Chose a major that is more based on verbal skills…definitely not science & math. 2). Never misss a class since you are more likely to remember what you hear your professor say than what you have to read yourself 3) Try to get into study groups that discuss topics, again hearing it discussed will help when you have to recall on the tests…don’t be so hard on yourself. You are working harder than you ever had to to get grades lower than you’ve ever gotten but in the end the struggle will be worth it. You’ve stretched yourself out of your “comfort zone” which is what college is all about!</p>
<p>No one really knows how any student will react when he or she gets to college. I’ve seen students with 5-6 AP courses, almost-perfect GPA and high-600 scores on all sections of the SAT flunk out…they just decided to stop going to class. I’ve seen students that I admitted conditionally do everything - and more - that was asked of them, use every resource, and make Dean’s List. The one thing no one can measure is future motivation. I may know (or think I know) how motivated someone was in the past based on whatever achievements and accomplishments they can show, but that doesn’t mean they will continue to be motivated in the future.</p>
<p>As everyone else has said, a 2.9 is not bad (it’s actually slightly better than my overall undergrad GPA…I ended up with 2 grad degrees) and you may only <em>think</em> everyone else has it more together than you. I think you showed wonderful insight and that, if you continue to take advantage of resources available, you’re going to come out okay! Hang in there!</p>
<p>I dropped out of highschool one day after attending 9th grade. I then went into a downward spiral of drugs, gangs, and trouble. I decided to clean up my act and join the military. And then attended an easy school and then transferred to the top public university in the country. However, I did struggle as well, but having the great opportunity to be accepted, I could not blow my chance here. I took a ton of remedial courses and asked for a lot of help from my family, friends, professors, and peers. No match school will ever give you that satisfaction of knowing that you belong at your reach school because you do. They accepted you for a reason, they see the potential. It’s only up to you to unlock it, or prevent yourself from accessing it.</p>
<p>Thank you lonesoul for a very good point of view. With that kind of will the military gave you, most students can do amazing things. Maybe every college-bound student should do a 1-year military service.</p>
<p>I’m with FLVADAD It’s a huge mistake to generalize about reach, match, and safety schools and their various levels of difficulty. It doesn’t follow a logical pattern. One of my kids transferred from an LAC where she found grades deflated to a “prestigious” Ivy where grades were so inflated that she was disappointed to receive an occasional A-. If you look at the two schools’ standards for graduation honors, it’s very clear that their grading standards are quite different. This has little to do with the prestige level of the school and everything to do with (1) preparedness for college, (3) the demands of the particular institution and (3) the way the school grades. </p>
<p>grad10, hang in there. You are doing fine and you might have found yourself struggling in a different school for your freshman year. Don’t look back. Keep doing what you’ve been doing: use the resource center, meet with the professors for help, stay prepared, ASK FOR HELP when you need it! Identify what’s giving you trouble. Is it the amount of reading and writing? This was a huge challenge for one of my children and it took her a semester or two to figure out how to manage it all. Is it the difficulty of courses? Another one of my kids signed up for high level classes without having had the benefit of intro material during her very first semester of college and did respectably but worked like crazy to earn that not exceptional grade. Are you in classes that are expressly designed to be difficult (prerequisites for med school)?</p>
<p>Like everyone else, I’m impressed with your honest self-assessment and your willingness to take responsibility. It shows real maturity and that, I believe, will take you very far.</p>
<p>Overall, OP will be OK.</p>
<p>The subject reminds me of the adage,</p>
<p>
[quote]
*Attention </p>
<p>You know what they call those students who graduate with the lowest GPA in their med school-Doctor.</p>
<p>Ths thread supports why “fit” is so important.</p>
<p>Because a secodn important issue here has nothing to do with reach, match or safety schools . . . it’s that a kid should go where it’s more likely they will thrive.</p>
<p>Examples include one friend’s child who wanted to go to a school where she was in the top 5-10% so that she would get her choice of the co-curricular offerings of the school (interships, etc.); another friend’s kid knew herself enough to realize that she needed to “work up”, that her competitive nature made her do better work when she had to catch up with smarter more driven students; another kid was smart enough for any Ivy but didn’t want the heightened competition that tends to go with those places; another liked hanging around with "geniuses " and deliberately went for a school that was a big stretch.</p>
<p>It never fails to irritate me when people assume they are getting bad grades because of the “prestige” factor. Chances are they would have done just as bad or worse at a state school. </p>
<p>I feel similar annoyance at “prestige” school students thinking their education made them much more prepared for job success than top students from state schools.</p>