Starstuck

Currently junior finishing BS Economics degree with 3.0 but lately wanted to drop out of college. I feel like everyone has better grades than me and have been trying to improve my grades each semester, but nothing dramatic changes occurred.

I attended both individual and group tutoring, but I don't find it beneficial. I try to go to help room and my TA/Professor when I can, which helps. But the problem because my school is so large the professor or TA doesn't have enough time to spend with students. I try to invest more time in class and do semi-decent with low to high Bs on midterms, but literally fail final exams sometimes which can be as low as 20-40%.

I got tested for a LD, but technically don't have have an LD or reading comprehension difficult. I was only diagnosed with learning difficulties and depression. But I think my depression is manageable and don't always suffer from it. I also have been looking for a speech pathologist to improve my speaking for interviews and public speaking but faculty members don't know of any resources that could recognize my learning difficulties or help me improve speaking.

No matter how much effort I seem to put in it seems that my peers can get better grades by being more efficient and spending less time at school. The reason why I want to drop out of college is to restart my GPA. I don't want to transfer, because I already considered it but from other people on the forum discouraged me from it.

I partially know the reason for my low gpa is because I didn't major in what I truly passionate about. I picked Accounting/Economics over Dietetics/Kinesiology, but I rather work in business even though it's hard.

Another problem is some faculty members burned bridges with me and therefore I don't have a mentor or resource member to help my with college (including career advisors and counselors.

I talked with my parents about taking a semester off or dropping out and they highly discouraged it. I already worked several jobs and don' think going off in the workforce would be better for me.

Why is my GPA so low and how can I improve it even with all the attempts? What should I do if I want to drop out? Help?!

dscott30

is 3.0 really that bad? Thats basically all B's! and for accouting/economics major daaang give yourself some credit!

Starstuck

Many of my peers that are either majoring in Business or applying to the same positions as me have a 3.7-3.8 or higher and I don't get how they can get better grades than me.

Boondocks

I run a retained search firm, which means that I interview and evaluate executives as part of my job. Your GPA at age 21 is not a predictor of future success or happiness at age 49. In my work, I’ve encountered way too many people who had low grades or people coming from no name schools and then went on to earn millions. I’ve also seen way too many classmates with GPA’s lower than yours who wound up in coveted jobs.

And millions are probably not what you’re after. You simply want a decent career.

One thing that most people eventually learn is that trying to compare yourself with everyone else is a guaranteed path to misery.

After I got out of college, I was shocked to learn that two of my roommates were earning over six figures on Wall Street (and this was 30 years ago when $200,000 went a lot further than it does today). Another roommate was playing in the NFL. I wasn’t interested in Wall Street or good enough for the NFL (as much as I wanted to be), so I couldn’t compete with them. That’s the way it goes. I’ve been able to make my way in the world.

As a side note, the guy who played in the NFL – obviously a stellar athlete – went from stellar to nobody when he reached the NFL. Plus, he hated being in the NFL (he quit after two years, tired of the type of people he worked with). The Wall Street guys always had numerous people in their firms and on Wall Street in general making way more money than they earned. You will never reach the top. Even if you do, you’ll find you still won’t be able to do everything (can President Obama accomplish even a small portion of the thing he wants to get done?).

What strikes me with you is that you would prefer dietetics/kinesiology over what you’re currently studying. I’d talk to some advisors, at your school or away from it about major and career choice. If really want a career in business, that’s fine. Your GPA is not going to hold you back (and I would say the same thing if you said your GPA was 2.5)

However, maybe you should consider changing majors. If you graduate with a degree in that field and find there are no jobs in dietetics/kinesiology (and there are jobs in those fields), you can move into business even if your degree isn’t complete in it. My degree is in psychology. After writing magazine articles for two years (not really related to my major, obviously), I went into business with no formal training in it, and now spend a good part of my time advising business managers and owners on how to run their businesses and build organizations that work. I never took a business course, but I’ve developed budgets and can read a balance sheet.

Finally, and this is critical, your school must have a disabilities department. Even if you don’t qualify for accommodations, they will most likely provide you help in developing strategies that make it easier for you to get through school. A few schools charge for these services, or will refer you to an outside coach, but these costs are minimal compared to the cost of education and the even greater lost opportunity cost of trying to fend your way in the world without a degree.