<p>I decided to go for a second degree. My first degree was in computer science. My grades were essentially A’s and A-'s. Unfortunately, I became sick, and could not go for a master’s degree. However, as I was recovering, I became interested in philosophy, and decided to get a second undergraduate degree in philosophy. My grades were good again - I had an A- GPA. During this time, I realized I might not have a secure career with a philosophy degree, so I decided to go for a double major in philosophy and economics. This seemed like a good idea, since not only would it probably provide me with a more lucrative career, but it would take roughly the same amount of time and money to finish as an honours philosophy degree. To my dismay, my grades were A’s, C’s and D’s. I then decided to try a math and philosophy degree, since my math grades were extremely high in my first degree, and it would still provide me with a chance at a career. Unfortunately, in the two math courses that I took, I received a C- and a voluntary withdrawal. I decided that I learned my lesson, and that I shouldn’t mess with a good thing. I took two philosophy courses to get back into philosophy. The grades in these courses have been C’s and D’s. Now, I don’t know what to do… I’m not interested in a computer career, and my transcripts look so bad that I might not be able to get into a philosophy M.A. program. What’s even weirder is that nothing has changed about my study habits. I have never studied for hours on end, but rather tried to study “smart” instead of hard. It had always paid off. It’s not paying off anymore. Does anyone have any advice for me or any idea as to what might be going on here?</p>
<p>I’ve already thought of that. I e-mailed a couple department heads at the university. They either won’t respond or claim that nothing is going on. I scheduled an appointment with an academic counsellor as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t uncover anything… You’re not enlightening me with information that I don’t already know. That’s why I’m coming here…</p>
<p>Why are you asking other people when it’s your grades in multiple courses? Ask yourself. Courses are bound to get harder, change your study and learning habits.</p>
<p>I should also mention to the more reasonable members of the forum that there isn’ t any one or two things that keep coming up to make my grades go sour. That’s why I’m wondering if anyone has something helpful to say…</p>
<p>Some of the courses were second year courses. Only one was a fourth year course. Also, this did not happen in my first degree, or, in the third year courses during the time period when I was doing well in my second degree. This is why it’s so bizarre.</p>
<p>Perhaps the classes you took were taught in a different style than you are used to? Could be specific to the professors? Maybe you could compare and contrast the classes that you did well in with the ones that you did not do well in and see if there are any noticeable differences…</p>
<p>It could be that you just need a new method of studying. Things that worked in other classes might not work for these classes. Or maybe you’re not putting in the time that you think you are? Or when you are studying, you’re not very focused? </p>
<p>You might want to examine the outside factors in your personal life that could be affecting your career. Job change, break up, illness, ect.</p>
<p>Not something autrocious, but maybe just something that they wouldn’t want me to know about… For instance, there have been some labour strikes… maybe morale is going down in some of the programs…</p>
<p>And with the courses, there are a number of factors that I’ve noticed… For instance, in one course the professor was completely monotone, wrote no notes on the board, and then tested us only on what was in the lectures. In economic statistics class, there were no examples in the textbook to study from, making the class extremely hard… In another class, I seemed to go against the professor’s views on an essay, and she gave me bad marks for it… As I said, my study habits have not really changed… In fact, they are better than before (I spend a little bit more time working on the essays and studying for exams than before…) Like I said, that is why this is so bizarre to me…</p>
<p>So, a crappy text book and a biased professor? I think you just got professors that sucked… And was it a lecture class? Some of my professors never use the board either…</p>
<p>I think I’ve got it… I noticed that in each of these classes something <em>specific</em> is expected of us in order to do well and, in each class, what’s expected is different; that makes it hard to do well, as it’s usually the case that a specific expectation would be the same across a department or the expectations would be general in nature… Therefore, it’s probably not a cover up, but some subtle new policy that the professors I’ve talked to don’t realize is changing the grades of students in the classes I’ve taken… I think I’m going to transfer and give the University of London international programmes a try… I know they’re hard, but there’s something wrong with my institution…</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your institution. I just think you need to be more flexible. You’re right that every course and professor expects something different out of you. Learning to deal with this is a part of your education.</p>
<p>so professors are setting standards? Normal.</p>
<p>apparently you’re not following these standards because the professors didn’t hold your hand and tell you otherwise?</p>
<p>now you’re going to transfer because of an arbitrary policy that most college students are expected to follow regardless whether they have been told or not?</p>
<p>sorry, but all you’ve done was throw some words that seem big to you together to try to convey a clearly emotional point logically.</p>
<p>as soon as you tried, you failed. miserably.</p>
<p>I have no sympathy for grade grubbers who feel they “deserve” grades even though they simply cannot follow or adapt to different policies or procedures.</p>
<p>Are you at the same institution for your second degree that you attended for your first degree? Maybe in the computer dept, things were set up a certain way, with uniform expectations, or whatever, but now, you are studying humanities courses …way less linear in nature, and more abstract. Maybe this area is tougher for you in general, and maybe your writing skills, etc, are not where they need to be to meet the expectations in this new field for you. I have a BA and MS, and in every course each professor had their own expectations. There was no “Uniform” expectation for the major except to be able to write and defend a thesis at the end. Otherwise, for each course, the goal was to learn the content. The more a course required deep thinking, analytical skills, applying previous knowledge, etc, the more difficult the course. It’s not all about getting all A’s. In fact, if a person can get A’s in every single class in college, I suspect either cheating or that they are at wayyyy to easy of a school that mustn’t push students very hard or expect very much!</p>