I'm in a bind... Go back to UT or elsewhere?

Colleges & Universities The University of Texas at Austin
1

I’m in a huge bind. I attended UT after transferring from another college years ago. Had a really rough time getting adjusted. Was working full-time and had no social life, UT classes were much more demanding than at my previous classes and I was forced to take 8am, 9am, 10am classes because I had to be at work by noon everyday until about 10pm. By the time I got home from work and ate and took care of personal things that needed to be done, it’d be nearly 11 PM. I’d try to study until about 2 or 3am every night. Sometimes I was too tired to press on after I had done this for a few days.

I had to be up and gone by 6am to commute to campus and find parking before class. Needless to say the semester would start fine. But after 2/3 of the way through I’d always just mentally plummet. I took about 4 semesters here before I was dismissed with a 1.1 GPA. I would be fine in my classes and fail the last exams and fail the final and ultimately end up with Cs, ds and fs.

Now I’ve been dismissed for 3 years and have been attending community college for a year and a half. My grades there are decent, in the 3s GPA wise. During these years I was forbidden entrance anywhere else due to dismissal status.

I have just now met with my deans, and they have told me that I will be allowed to come back. But my choices are very limited. Going back would be easiest for me in the sense that I may not get into other colleges, but my GPA is so low at UT I run the risk of being dismissed again or starting in the UGS school, making good grades to get off probation but then be very limited in my major choice. What do i do?

2

How will you juggle school and work? It didn’t get any cheaper, so if you still need to work full time, how will you prevent a redo?

3

If I were you, I would investigate colleges where cost of living is cheaper or even where you could live at home. That will allow you to work less and make better grades reducing the risk of dismissal. UT is great but it is not the be-all end-all. At this point, you have spent a lot of time in school and are in your mid-twenties. It is time to graduate and start your life. Where you graduate from is less important than graduating in my opinion. Not sure what your interests are in terms of major, but if you cannot major in what you want, that’s another reason to look for a school where you can. The way I look at it, UT is not working out for your current needs. Time to find a school that works for you.