I never failed out, but I came pretty close to it my first year at UT engineering. All I can tell you is keep your chin up and just keep working harder. Take a moment and think about things you could have done differently and perhaps that might help you out. What happened to me my first couple of years at UT is that I always studied alone and always did homeworks by myself. When my junior year came around, I tried my best to get to know people and work together with them at least on homeworks, and sure enough this truly helped my undergraduate life. Also, I realized having friends that took classes I was going to take helped a lot since I could get my hands on old exams and such just to give me an idea of how a professor graded and approached their particular exams. Overall man, don't get too down on yourself. I personally went through hell when I didn't have to. I guess what killed me is that I was the only in my family that had gone to college and I had no one to turn to for advice. I felt I was on my own when I truly wasn't, but I did have to be pro-active to find those friends. By the way, I just graduated this fall semester so I was pretty happy I got through this program.
They can if the people you study with are serious. When working engineering problems, having others around to ask questions if you get stuck can be a more efficient way to study (rather than spending hours getting nowhere). But some students use study groups as a way to leech and get their homework done quicker, but not understanding the concepts.
You took SIX classes? That sounds like it is way overloading yourself, especially for your first term. Taking a course load that heavy shouldn't be done unless you are completely comfortable with it. It is definitely not something anybody should ever advise to somebody in their first term of school. At least now that you have completed one term of college, you know what to expect in terms of workload for each class. One general rule I have heard is that take the # of units and multiply it by 3 and that should be the # of hours per week you are putting into school.
1. Talk to a counselor about your depression. 2. Take a look at your post count. This board might be one of your distractions.
I'm going to give it to you straight because I've been there... twice. I started off at UT and partied way too hard. I could get by in HS with not much studying and make As and Bs. I went to college and there was nobody pushing me to go to class and I hated my profs (I was studying electrical engineering at the time). My advice: 1. GROW UP. Studying is your profession. It should be your #1 priority. YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO STUDY. Your professors are there to lecture you... not teach you. At first it will take hours upon hours to study. As you improve in your study skills, it will require much less time. If this involves dropping down into a community college for a semester or two, suck up your pride and do it. 2. IT'S OK. Many people have failed and come back to finish strong either at the same college or another university. I had a 1.6 GPA at UT and a 3.7 at UH. 3. RELY ON YOURSELF. Like I said before, you can't rely on your professors to teach you anything. If you fall behind, open your book to chapter 1 and do all the practice problems... move through the chapters until you have caught up. If you enjoy studying with other people, find a starbucks or a floor on the campus library where you meet regularly. 4. TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR WORK. If you work hard, you will succeed. Go to class. Sit in the front. Use a tape recorder. Ask questions if you don't understand. Having failed before, it will be that much sweeter when you make As. You sound like a bright kid. As long as you take responsibility for your failing you will be ok. Partying is fun, but there is plenty of partying to do after school. As far as feeling like you let your parents down... you have time to make it up to them. If you put in the work in future semesters, they will be proud of you.
QFT I went through the same thing, when I started I was an Civil Engineering major, math classes just were over my head and I didn't enjoy them. My Cal class I just stopped going to and showed up for the final, needless to say I failed badly. Switched my major to English and enjoyed my studies a million times more and excelled. Just keep yourself from getting too down on yourself, regardless of what happens, can't stress how important that is.
This might have a lot to do with it. Cut one or even two classes. It might take longer to graduate but it will be much less stressful.
I know. But they're more difficult than regular classes. I'm guessing he never applied himself in High School and just cruised through the easy classes.
Keep your head up. Engineering seems to be a really difficult major. To be successful in college it takes a lot of discipline. When you get re-admitted (I'm sure you will) you must prioritize and set out like 2-3 hours a day to study. Say from like 4:30pm to 7pm. Unless you have class in those time slots Between those times there really isn't much going on in the world besides traffic on the highway and PTI. But you could DVR PTI. You can get a lot done in 2 hours too. And 7pm is a perfect time to finish because then you can eat dinner and watch the Rockets. That's how my most successful semesters went. Good luck to you.
If I can pick myself up again from the first year of school I had, anyone can. I had a full, free-ride in engineering and science and blew it in one fell swoop, and continued on to blow my financial aid in the following semester. I was not ready for college at all, and I got a full ride in something I did not care anything about. Then, I couldn't admit that I blew it. Later, I came to the realization that I did, and then realized that it was the best thing for me. Once I got my act together, and changed my major to something I enjoyed, I eventually graduated in my chosen field with pretty high marks. Now I'm on my way in graduate school, doing very well, and looking forward to graduating again, very soon. It's not the end of the world at all.
Those were required courses, in this university, the first year engineers have no choice of what they are taking, they take 6 required courses in the first semester and 5 in the second. Just a quick update, I just talked to the first year counselor, Apparently I can only re-apply for fall of 2012........... But there is this review program i can take for this winter that doesn't count towards my credits, but can allow me to apply for this fall instead of next fall.. I think I'll go for this one, Don't know what I'm going to do If i to take the next year and half off... sighh
Go to community or junior college for a couple of years...they provide a good transition between high school and university.
Wow! That sucks man. If it's another thing I realized while at UT is that I needed to chill and just take 12 hours a semester which helped me out a lot.
Wow thats crazy. You should do whatever makes sense for you. This review program probably makes more sense as it is does give you a chance to stay on track (just a couple of extra summers of schoolwork and you can still graduate when you intended to graduate). Even taking 1.5 years off isn't a bad thing. You can take courses at a junior college, save a bunch of money and then re-apply for Fall 2012 (or apply to a different school if that particular school wasn't a good fit for you) already having about 2 years of college credits under your belt.
