<p>I am a Freshman at a 4 year University and I just finished my first semester with a 2.6 GPA. Throughout high school I was a smart student and had a GPA of 4.1(IB and AP courses). I did not slack off this semester in college but I did awful on my Calculus final which was 50% of my grade and I studied my butt off. I got an A in Philosophy, A in FYOS, A in English and D in Calculus. I only took 11 credit hours this semester since I dropped Chemistry because I switched from Biochemistry to Public Health major. Next semester I plan to take 14 credits and 3 credits over the summer, instead of 17 credits all at once. My classes are fairly easy should I just go ahead and do 17 credits all at once in addition to a summer course to improve my GPA? Is it possible for me to bring my GPA to over 3.0 after second semester freshman year because I do not want to lose my scholarship? </p>
<p>It’s always possible to bring your GPA up if you work hard at it. A lot of freshman underperform their first semester. It’s all a part of the transfer from high school to college. I’m sure that you can bring up the GPA.</p>
<p>Would I need to get straight a’s second semester?</p>
<p>Looks like you did great in Humanities classes (your strength? easy classes?), not so in hard science (Chem) or Cal. Stick to those Humanities classes as much as you can while carefully choosing math or science classes, think of why you did poor in Cal, is it an advanced one? tough professor? fell behind too much & never able to catch up? Avoid those mistakes in the future. Does your scholarship need to maintain 3.0?</p>
<p>@osinaiyae - If you get straight A’s in the spring, then your GPA will be around a 3.34; therefore, yes, if you can get a 4.0 in the spring, then it will rise above a 3.0. </p>
<p>Are science and math classes hard for you? I’m not a math or science person, either. Your brain might think differently, and that’s why you aced the humanities classes. </p>
<p>Don’t let the first semester results bring you down. You have seven more semesters to improve. </p>
<p>I got a 2.7 my first semester of college followed by a 3.5 the second semester. It’s not impossible to bring your GPA up, particularly if your first semester’s low grades had to do with just being your first semester and still adjusting. I’m not certain from your post but maybe you’re just bad at math and if you aren’t taking that in the spring, then it may be helpful.</p>
<p>So you have to have 3.0 or better after your spring semester (meaning summer grades will be too late)?</p>
<p>Here’s the math:</p>
<p>You got a 2.6 GPA through 11 credits.</p>
<p>[x] If you take 14 credits this spring, you need a 3.0 GPA after (11+14) 25 credits.</p>
<p>[y] If you take 17 credits this spring, you need a 3.0 GPA after (11+17) 28 credits.</p>
<p>For [x] you need to make a 3.315 GPA through 14 credits next spring.
For [y] you need to make a 3.259 GPA through 17 credits next spring.</p>
<p>If you want to go with route [y], you better make sure you have a lot of free time and all of those classes better be blow off classes. Remember that despite needing a lower GPA for route [y], you are taking more classes which in itself may lower your GPA. Doing route [x] would likely be better for your GPA in the long run since you are taking your classes more evenly spaced out. Route [y] would only be done to try to immediately get your GPA over 3.0 for the scholarship but it would not be obvious that it’s better for that than [x].</p>
<p>You don’t have to get straight As to raise your GPA. Anything better than what you got this semester will raise it. Anything lower than this semester will lower it. If you do exactly the same, it will stay the same. </p>
<p>It’s not going to change your first semester GPA. It will change your cumulative GPA though. There’s no secret to raising your GPA aside from simply getting better grades. </p>
<p>You guys were so helpful! Thanks</p>