I don't know if I can do this.

Jay520
Tue, 13 May 2014 15:31:18 +0000

I would not really worry about High School performance. I just had a pretty decent first year and didn’t do too well at my High School. I had a 3.4 HS GPA, earned a 28 ACT score, and took one AP class (which was AP art). I didn’t take calculus and I didn’t learn anything in Physics or Chemistry. I haven’t seen the statistics, but I was probably in the bottom 20% or so.

Despite my under-achievements, I decided to major in Computer Science, allegedly one of the hardest majors at the universities. After my first year, I’ve been doing just fine despite my High School performance. The thing about the introductory classes is that they teach you the material as if you never learned it before. So while classes like AP Physics and AP Chemistry may be recommended, they are by no leans required (take it from someone who didn’t learn anything in the standard High School versions of those classes).

My classes first year were English, Physics lab I, Chemistry lab, Physics Mechanics (Physics 140), General Chemistry, Calculus I, Calculus II, Intro Programming (EECS 183), Intro to Philosophy, and a random CSP class (because my advisor thought another hard class would be too difficult for me). I got A’s in all these except Chem lab (where I got a B+), leaving me with a 3.83 overall. Second semester, I would have gotten a 4.0 of it weren’t for one A-.

While it is true that poor performers in High School tend to be poor performers in College, don’t look too closely into those statistics. Remember that correlation does not imply causation. The reason (I think) that poor performers in HS also do poorly in college is because people rarely drastically change their behavior from HS to college; its not as if past poor performance causally prevents future success. So poor study habits from HS carry over to college and the students don’t survive.

What’s more important than those statistics is what you decide to do. Are you willing to dramatically improve your study skills? Are you willing to learn how to read the textbook (a skill that MANY students here have not acquired). Are you willing to do Physics problem sets over and over until you understand the concepts? Are you willing to independently get help when its 10 pm on a Wednesday, and you don’t understand the textbook (such as using online sites like Khan Academy). I had to do all of this.

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but its certainly possible. And if you put in reasonable effort, including acting in the affirmative to the above questions, then I would say its even plausible that you have academic success at this university. Remember, the most important thing is what you decide to do and how you’re going to change. The stats say what you already did, but not what you’re going to do.

If you’re taking Calculus here, I recommend you review algebra/trigonometry over the summer and you’ll be good to go. From what I’ve seen, that’s literally the only prerequisite absolutely essential to succeeding in the classes. If you’re really nervous, then just review what you learned (or should have learned) in HS. No need to worry about not taking AP Physics or AP Calculus or anything like that. The intro classes are perfectly possible without any HS AP course background - they’re called “introductory” courses for a reason.

As for social stuff, I’ll get back at you when I figure it out myself…