What should I do?

<p>I'm currently at fordham university, working on my 3-2 engineering program with columbia. For those of you who don't know, the 3-2 engineering program is a program in which you spend 3 years at a liberal arts school and then 2 years at columbia to obtain both an engineering degree and a liberal arts degree from columbia and your school of origin. The catch is that you must maintain a 3.3 and get a B in the science classes/required classes in order to get a guaranteed transfer. this is where the problem starts. I just got my grades back- I did fine except in chem and calc, the two required classes, in which I got a B- and a C+. All my 3-2 friends have told me that I should just give up and change majors/kill myself. Should I continue? I know I don't have any chance of a guaranteed transfer but if I pull my grades up, should I still be able to make it into columbia?</p>

<p>sorry for the long message; I tried to make it as short as possible.</p>

<p>Can’t you just retake the classes? I mean, I know it’s a pain, but suicide is illegal.</p>

<p>no, it’d be pointless. My school is annoying so they have a policy where taking a class a second time would not affect my gpa and would not displace my original grade. I hate it and thought about petitioning to change it. It makes no sense, it’s stupid, and UGH I FAILED LIFE AND IM ONLY A FRESHMAN</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter how your school does it, the place you’re transferring probably calculates it their own way, I think. Talk to an adviser about your options, though.</p>

<p>I’m not sure if that makes a difference. I’m probably just going to go down to columbia to talk to the head of the program his/herself (well, I’ll try) but for now, things aren’t looking good. I can’t retake or anything so that’s a bummer</p>

<p>Don’t kill yourself. Isn’t it a mortal sin? Don’t even joke about it. </p>

<p>This is actually normal. You haven’t YET figured out how to do well in your technical classes. You need to learn how to study more effectively. If you can, get a tutor, google “How to study engineering classes”. Read a lot of advice and figure out what you’re not doing. It might take another semester to get it right. Keep at it. It’s a learned skill that high school doesn’t teach you. </p>

<p>Learn how to get As. Then things will average out. </p>

<p>Basically

  1. preread the lectures so that very little of what you see in class is new
  2. take notes on a piece of paper during class, copy them over neatly later. This process will force you to internalize much of the lecture
  3. Do problem sets early so that you are prepared with questions to bring to office hours. Look at every problem and think about how to do it.
  4. Go to office hours even if you don’t have questions
  5. Study in groups, as long as every body does every problem individually and comes to the group prepared to get more insight.</p>

<p>3-2 programs are horrible. Calm down and just fix this. Let the whole Columbia thing go, go to a CC or whatever, retake the classes, then transfer to a great state school. You will still be an employed engineer in the end.</p>

<p>Edit:
As mentioned above, HS does not prepare you to do what is needed in college. This isn’t HS’s fault, you will just have to kick it up a notch in the future.</p>

<p>…are you seriously suggesting that I drop out of fordham and enroll in a community college so I can transfer??? Can’t I transfer from where I am now? I’m still hoping that I can get into columbia.</p>

<p>Yes, it actually is a serious suggestion. Yes you can still transfer from Fordham to an engineering school. Once you talk to the Columbia program advisor you will find out if that is one of the places that you can still transfer to. If not, why stay at fordham if your goal is engineering.</p>

<p>ok, so I’ll just see if I can still transfer to columbia. I know I have a chance but I don’t know how great that chance is. Now that I have a C+ and a B-, my transfer is no longer guaranteed but rather, I’m placed along with the competitive pool of applicants. I just don’t know if I have a good chance or if I can transfer to another engineering school from fordham.</p>

<p>Was the C+ in calculus I? What are you registered for next semester?</p>

<p>You should probably think of backup plans besides transferring to Columbia very soon. I’ve heard lots of stories about people planning to go into a 3-2, and I have some friends that say they could have gone to X college in New York and transfer to Columbia. They tell that to everyone. The fact is they just don’t have enough spots for everyone is a school that graduates less than a thousand undergraduates per year.</p>

<p>Engineering is definitely still a viable option, but don’t keep chasing the Ivy League pipe dream. Columbia doesn’t even have the greatest engineering program. If you want to major in engineering, you don’t need a BA in physics first. You’ll just be wasting a year of time and tuition getting the additional degree, which you will most likely not even use.</p>

<p>I’m currently registered for English, Calculus II, computer Science 1, Art History, and another class. Yes, the c+ was in calculus I</p>

<p>yeah, I know, I’m thinking of my other options right now. But still, I’m going to bring up my grades and still try to apply to columbia when the time comes in three years. I think I’ll just talk to my adviser to see what I can do at this point</p>

<p>My suggestion is try to get all A’s and one B for this semester so that you can boost your GPA. I am also in 3-2 Dual Degree Programs with Vandy or JHU (johns hopkins) and they require very high GPA in order to do it. So, no worries and you can do it. There are lots of help for your classes Calc II, Comp. Science …in fact, you can use youtube to see those classes/lectures, google some websites for references, etc. </p>

<p>If you want it so badly, you can do it. Nothing is impossible.</p>

<p>ClassicRockerDad gave really good advice. Follow that outline. Learning to learn, which is what college is about, takes time and practice. It’s like first riding a bike.</p>

<p>Time management is critical in the mix. Treat college like a full time job. Anticipate how long it will take you to do the problem sets, master the material, write papers and so on, and make a schedule each week. You can get good at math if you do it a ton - our brains need that to get mastery. Work all day, everyday in college like you had a boss looking over you. </p>

<p>You are WAY to early in the game to give up your career goal. Remember, it’s the long run (your future career satisfaction) that matters, not some school name on a paper.</p>

<p>yeah, I’m going to get my grades up…I’m no longer working 25 hrs a week so I should have a lot more time to study and get myself really into the material. I’m even re-doing old calc problems and learning comp sci right now over break so I can get a head start. Thanks for the encouraging words, though, I’m not going to give up now. </p>

<p>…er, who’s classic rock dad? Sorry, I don’t go on this account a lot</p>

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<p>Just some middle aged engineer who posted above in #6. </p>

<p>You can lead a horse to water…</p>

<p>whoops, don’t know how I missed your post! Thanks for the advice, though</p>

<p>Do you feel ready for calc 2? Are you going to be able to get a B with your current foundation? </p>

<p>My son had a pretty rough start in engineering, and at half way through his sophomore year, it’s still been up and down. His biggest struggles have been the calculus series, and he ended up dropping the comp sci class. Its a great idea to reduce your work outside of class, and to work on it over winter break. Look for related threads by poster UCBalum ( something like that). He usually has some good ideas too. </p>

<p>I’m going to make sure my son knows classicrocker dad’s suggestions too.</p>