After a lackluster freshman year (3.4 GPA), I don’t know what more I could possibly do to improve my grades.I do practice problems, I go to study group and office hours, and get tutoring. I stay in my dorm on weekends. And yet it didn’t pay off in any way. I’m at wit’s end. Would cutting out all non-essential activities, like sports, parties, wasteful socializing, and non-academic related activities give me the edge I need. My older friend advises me to avoid distractions. I couldn’t give a rat’s a** about the “college experience” since I’m here to get a degree, and then job opportunities. Is this what’s necessary to push me over the hump?
It’s not like I have friends at home. They haven’t so much as texted me all summer, and blow me off for whatever, while treating me like a pariah. At college, no matter what effort I put in, I still can’t beat the kids who party every weekend, and it makes me feel that much more stupid. What is wrong with me?
Firstly, you need to breathe. A 3.4 is not the end of the world. I noticed that you were thinking of pre-med in your previous thread - while this is not an ideal situation, you can realistically raise your GPA to be competitive for MD. If you maintain that 3.4, you would have a great chance for DO schools - their accepted applicant average GPA is 3.4. What kind of classes were you taking? Weeder intro classes?
What do you mean by “non-academic related activities”? If you want to apply to MD or DO schools, it’s widely accepted that clinical and non-clinical volunteering is needed to be a successful applicant.
I would say that you should not cut out leisure time completely - you’re going to burn yourself out. This isn’t about the college experience, it’s about how a workaholic lifestyle is not really a healthy lifestyle. There’s also a point where excessive studying gives fewer and fewer returns. You need to figure out if your 3.4 was because of the weeding nature of your intro classes, or if you genuinely didn’t understand the material, or if you need to study/think a different way. From what you say, it seems like you need to find a more efficient and effective way of studying - this is where an academic skills center would be able to assist you. Try to get in touch with your university’s academic skills center and ask for their help.
Stop worrying about what others are doing. What works for them doesn’t work for you; that’s fine, everyone studies and learns differently. Some people are capable of studying hard and partying hard. Some people aren’t. That’s not a reflection of your intelligence, but of what study habits work better for you.
@silmaril I should have clarified that volunteering and shadowing and research are included in important academic activities. Non-essentials are non-pre med related activities.
“Some people are capable of studying hard and partying hard. Some people aren’t.”
And if I have to take twice the time as others to learn the same material, that is a reflection of my intelligence? If I’m not capable of balancing academics with social life, that quite literally makes me slow.
What exactly is the problem you see with your grades? Is it that you study and then still do badly on exams? That could be caused by any number of things – that you’re not studying enough, or you’re not studying efficiently, or you have test anxiety, or make silly mistakes… Only one of those causes could really be addressed by cutting fun activities from your life.
Nothing. I’ll guess you had a solid to strong hs record and you’ve had difficulties acclimating to college, something not unusual or uncommon among many freshmen. You’re 3.4 GPA is good, although if you’re still thinking premed, 3.4 is not med school competitive. Assuming still premed the good news is you still have time to rectify, especially if you wait until graduating before applying to med school. The extra year could make the difference in developing a competitive med school app (eg, ECs, MCAT prep, etc) and actually provide time to have a social life. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t be in your dorm during weekends premed or not. Talk to advisor.
If it offers some hope, S finished first year of college with GPAs below 3.2. He’s a MD. He didn’t apply until he graduated, had a strong MCAT score, health related ECs, etc, and applied broadly to med schools. He had an active social life. Actually I think the one thing that made a difference for him besides the fact that he knew he had dug himself a hole freshman year was he got a part job the last 3 years. IMO the job quickly developed a needed sense of time management and structure to his daily life; he knew when it was time to study, when it was time to play. Good luck
@OhSorryYo Yeah I already tried that. But what’s the point when my grades still suck and I can’t get into an parties? Only Frat guys and girls have that option fyi
I can no longer tell whether or not this thread is serious, but if so, that’s complete crap. First, it’s not true that they’re the only one who can get into frat parties. Second, frat parties aren’t the only option. Third, PARTIES aren’t the only option.
Go join some clubs that interest you or do SOMETHING that interests you that puts you in touch with other people.
If there is really nothing that interests you, I’d make an appointment with a counselor because that’s a huge red flag for depression.
3.4 is pretty good! Here are my standard thoughts:
GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
@bopper has some very good advice, as do the other posts above. I also agree with @romanigypsyeyes that “If there is really nothing that interests you, I’d make an appointment with a counselor…”.
I am wondering about something such as an outdoors club, on the basis that just hiking a small mountain or park with a group of other students might be a good way to break up the monotony of long hours of study and to put a student into a healthy mindset.
University is not a one week or one year sprint. It is a four year marathon. If you keep working hard, this hard work will catch up with you and there is real chance that you will find your grades improving over time. If you have a 3.4 now, there isn’t all that much improvement needed to get a GPA which can get you into medical school.
If you are premed, then over time you will find out whether you can get the grades to be accepted to medical school. If not then there are a lot of other options for professional careers in medicine. When you go to a hospital (or more likely when I go, since I am a lot older than you and likely to need care more often) then there are some doctors there and a lot of nurses, but there are also a lot of professionals with other specialties. Many of these were originally aiming at medical school (for an MD) but ended up in other related fields.
A 3.4 GPA is nowhere near mediocre. I think you are way to hard on yourself. College is not just about the academic aspect of school. In fact it’s honestly just a fraction of it. Meeting new people, joining clubs, partying, and learning about the type of person you are is much bigger than just the classroom. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting that 3.4 GPA. You should be proud of that and realize that your best is good enough. Go outside and enjoy the day. Don’t focus sorely on grades.
A 3.4 GPA is NOT the end of the world. Don’t put yourself down for that. Remember, you have three years ahead of you so you have a lot of time to get a better GPA.
Some skills I’ve picked up from this year (my first year at college lol):
OFFICE HOURS -> the professor/lecturer is there to help you! If you’re stuck on something, don’t hesitate to go to them for help. For both my chem I and II classes, I would go to office hours once or twice a week to go over concepts I didn’t understand in lecture. If you’re not into office hours, e-mail always works too.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE -> if you’re not doing well in a class that requires you to study the skills a lot like calculus, chem, or physics. Go through the textbook problems. Try back-exams (past exams that professors hand out for practice, or you could get them from other students). Look at the answers. See what went wrong. Don’t assume that just because you didn’t get it the first time means that you’ll never get it. From my chem II class, I didn’t understand one chapter at all, so I kept doing practice problems from that section. I did them so much that it actually “clicked”. Remember, you can always visit your professor to go over why you got practice problems wrong. Learn from your past mistakes so you don’t make them in the future
What do other students say about the class? I asked upperclassmen and friends who’ve taken certain classes to see what their feedback was on the course. Follow their advice, it might help a bit in the end.
STUDY GROUPS -> they’re not the best, but I would at least ask a few of my friends to study for a class together. We were able to answer each other’s questions, and it turned out fine.
RELAX -> You can’t possibly spend your college career having your head buried in a book. I did that first semester and I really regret it. I could have spent more time with my friends, but instead I spent it studying. You’ll burn yourself out. Join some clubs. Watch some Netflix or YouTube. Make friends and spend time with them. Go running. Lift weights. The possibilities are endless! Think about this, is your GPA going to define who you really are?
