Hi, guys! So I am a freshman at UCSD and I have been absolutely freaking out about my GPA as I feel like I am going to be a massive failure! I think my predicted GPA for my freshman year is going to be a 3.2 and I feel like it’s terrible. There are the classes I have taken and the grades so far. As a background, I’m an international student from Singapore and its been quite hard to adjust being so far away from home as well as adjusting to the huge university and different types and pace of the classes. I’ve also been having really bad anxiety issues that I have been seeking counseling. My parents keep telling me that it is fine, just focus on the coming 3 years and your minor but I feel like I am doing quite poorly. Any advice on what I can do to get better and my current performance (is this kind of a record normal early on?)
CHEM 6A- B
CHEM 6B-B+
CHEM 6C - In progress (estimate B+)
Math 20A- B-
MATH 20B- In progress (estimate B- )
MATH 4C- B
BILD 26- B
ETHN 1- A
PSYC 1- In progress (estimate B- )
LISP 1C- A
LISP 1CX- P
HUM 1- B+
HUM 2- In progress (estimate B+)
Gospel Choir - P
CHEM 1- P
Welcome to college. This is very normal…you have to adjust to college…it is a different level than HS. As long as your GPA is >3.0 you are doing fine. Also you have had to adjust to living in a different culture/country!
What you should do now is figure out how you can do better…you will have to amp things up.
Make sure to get the anxiety under control…medication may be an answer. My daughter has anxiety and medication defintely helped her!
So to do well, consider the following:
GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etc,etc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up time for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
You might think that this is all completely obvious, but I have read many stories on this and other websites where people did not do the above and then are asking for help on academic appeal letters.
The mean undergraduate GPA for 2016-2017 for UCSD was a 3.15 - you are above average! I know that is probably small comfort when you feel you should be doing better.
It sounds like your parents are giving you permission to not beat yourself up too much - you are fortunate to have their support, as well as counseling resources. Remind yourself that the adjustment of being away from home is tough for someone who is coming from 1 hour away - I would imagine international students have it SO much tougher! Follow as many of the tips above as you can - it really will make a difference.