Hi I am new to this forum so don’t know if this is best place to post this. I graduated HS last year and took a semester part time at local college, didn’t enjoy it very much but everything was alright, but then I made this crazy choice to study abroad without informing my school and now I am enrolled in a full time bachelor’s degree in Australia in Sports & Mechanical Engineering (Honours) at University of Adelaide, which is a good school, but not what I expected it to be. I’ve took a full semester and almost failed all my classes due to the different teaching styles and coursework grading and it was very much more rigorous than what I’m used to, plus I felt very stressed, depressed, overwhelmed and homesick the whole times. I just started the second semester, and I don’t really have confidence to do another three years in this foreign land so I am contemplating coming home after this current semester to finish my degree in New York where I grew up, but apparently I cannot transfer credits with such a disappointing GPA that I got here. That means I would waste like a whole year, yet on the other hand I feel studying abroad another three years is not possible for me. I don’t know why i made such a big decision without thinking it through, but at the time it just sounded like a fun opportunity to experience, however now I am very depressed with my situation causing debt and little progress in my program. I think it is also because I wasn’t suited to engineering resulting in my low grades of 50-60 which is like a D or F in the American grading scale. I think two things I need to do is change school and program and find something I have confidence to graduate but I don’t know how transferring schools would work especially in my circumstances, or is it easier to return to my old college which I just disappeared for a year, like how would I explain this failed attempt? Have anyone have similar experience to this?, and what should I do to keep this from getting out of control? Thanks.
Contact your NY school and explain the situation. They’ve dealt with stranger issues than this. There are a few possible scenarios, all depending on your school’s regulations: you can come back but don’t get credit for the courses you took in Australia; you get a few credits; your GPA is too low to come back right away so you may have to go to a community college for a bit first; you can’t go back at all to your old NY school (so you try elsewhere, possibly first improving your GPA at a community college.)
In any event, don’t spend any more time in Australia than you have to. Don’t waste time and money on a program you don’t like, in which you’re not doing well, and which you won’t finish. Chalk it up to a lesson learned, and move on. It’s certainly possible! One of the beauties of the American system is that you can always go back to school. It may not be the school you want right away, but you can continue your education.
In the U.S. You can attend a Community College and fix your grades. Basically start the college again.
Not sure what is the status of your old US college.
i know someone when they screwed up their GPA in their CC, they attend another CC. Go to CC and start a new life again.
Thanks for the replies, I think I will contact my old school and see what they think about my situation. Yeah, worst case scenario would be to start at a local Community College, but it’s stressful to know I wasted a year without much academic progress. I think I was was too naive and ambitious at the time to commence a study abroad program at the time and now I regret it because it is way beyond what I can handle as a freshman. Is there a particular way I can explain my situation to my old college so that I don’t make a fool out of myself? I mean everyone makes mistakes but my particular situation seems very humiliating and embarrassing to discuss.