Hey guys I'm 21, still young in my college career. Used to have a 3.6 but now from investing more time in work/bills than school, it's gone down to a 2.0. I know it's not horrible but what's the best way to pick this up? I'm not sure exactly how they calculate GPA, does it vary by state? I'm sure with a few A's and B's like what it used to be when I was working part-time, it will go back up. I wanna graduate with at least a 3.2
I've had a low GPA through college. Lots of emotional issues have gone on throughout my college career unfortunately and being in an engineering has not helped one bit. I'm at a 2.94 right now, although it should be back above a 3.0 after this semester .
Everyone has bad semesters. This one has been very bad for me. Word of advice... never, ever take 3 online classes at the same time, especially if they require you to keep track of your own readings and there aren't any weekly quizzes or anything to make sure you did them. If you aren't self-motivated enough to do the work you aren't going to do well. In my British Literature online class, we literally didn't have a single thing due until last week's Term Paper, and the Final is on Saturday... I have like 600 pages of Old English bullcrap to sift through in 2 days. I'm shooting for Bs in most of my classes, which is unusual, my GPA throughout my 4 years of various colleges has been around 3.8 Sometimes a poor semester is a wake-up call.
go back to this thread 10 years from now and see if you really think this matters. Do your best. whatever your GPA is at the end, just accept it.
I used to dominate semesters like that. God knows how but I tore through online anything. OP, are you at a University? Trying to transfer from JUCO? If you are already at a U then don't sweat it. Unless you genuinely want to pursue an immediate graduate degree not all too many employers care about GPA.
If you have a few Fs and Ds bringing it down, you might be able to retake those classes and replace the grades. I did this at Sam. Replaced an F with a D. So, make sure the reason you got the F is resolved. I neglected to resolve my laziness before retaking the class.
After my first 4 semesters of college (2 at UTSA and 2 at North Harris) I had a whopping 0.9 gpa. I went an entire semester with showing up to classes 1x a month. I was then diagnosed with ADD, given Ritalin, and started actually going to class. I basically started over, retaking nearly all of the classes from my first 2 years. I graduated (w/ 2 BS degrees from SHSU) with an overall 3.0 (had something like a 3.5 in those semesters after starting over). The effort has to be there. It's understandable that you have to concentrate on working and paying bills. Do you have student loans? Might be worth it to take out some loans so that you don't have to concentrate so much on work and can put more effort into studying. Either way, your gpa isn't going to improve until you can put the effort into your studies. You have to want it. The others are right, too. In most employers eyes, all that matters is that you got the piece of paper.
speak for yourself 99er! during the interview sessions the last bunch of us kept seeing each other at the same companies, we're like 'crap, your gpa must suck like mine' :grin: but you know, whatever you start your career, that gpa stuff is out the door, and you move up based on your performance and choices in the real world. the same companies who wouldn't give me an interview in college cause my GPA sucked, gave me job offers after a year or so in the real world.
grade points times hours sum of all points divided by total hours for example you make an A in a 3credit hour class and a C in a 4 credit hour class 4 x 3 = 12 2 x 4 = 8 20/7 = 2.85 if you google GPA calulator you should be able to find a decent template/spreadsheet/calculator however you want to define it
Your situation doesn't seem that bad. Having a bad semester is easy to explain, well easier than if you had terrible grades every year. Make sure you get to know your professors, a good recommendation from a prof that knows you well can help, start going to their office hours and talking to them.
Exactly. GPA and what college one went to only matters in order to get that first job. After that most everyone is on a level playing field after a few years of experience.
Yeah they do. If you retake the class then it replaces the previous grade unless you did worse the second time than the first.
I've never heard of this. If you get a D, it factors into your GPA even if you take course again and get an A. That is how most institutions work unless things have drastically changed in the past few years.
They happen. My first semester of college was awful. Also had a 1.9 one semester when I lived with 2 chicks....obviously I wasn't thinking with the right head. I'm just about at 3.0 now, although I blew 2 exams in 2 classes when they were the day after my wreck where my truck was totaled (with me in it).
I've never heard of that either. Obviously you can retake a class to pass it to continue on with your degree plan. As for me, my GPA got worse every year in college. Good thing I only stayed for 3 years .
I know here at Colorado you can retake a course and replace the bad grade. There is only a certain amount of times you can do this, but I think that is pretty common in colleges today.
If you take a class, get a D, retake the class and get an A it counts the A into your GPA and excludes the D. That's how it works at my school. I'm a living witness to this. I'd show it to you but I don't want my transcript on the web. Oh yeah to the OP. Don't feel bad. Went from a 3.2 to 2.0 now at a 2.2. FML I had 1 bad semester that destroyed all my hopes and dreams on internships and such. Trying to get it back up now, but its kinda hard (very hard) especially when you're taking straight BIOL&CHEM classes. I'm scared to death I won't be able to get into Vet school. FML again. Don't give up though. That's what I have to tell myself everyday.
