[llee10789]

I personally just want my story to be heard. Yes, I am venting.


I am an 18 year old female transfer studen to UCDavis. I started college two years early at a local junior college, busted my arse 31-unit semester in the fall of 06...then 25-units in the spring semester to transfer in 2 years with a bio major now declared neurobio, physiology, and behavior at davis. woohoo. go aggies. oh yeah, keeping a 3.0625 GPA too. woohoo..anyways..

sooooo, this past quarter, i loaded up with 16 units, not bad, i suppose, 4 classes..... so i studied alot, learned how to live on my own, all that fun college stuff. didn't get a job either

i looked at my grades just now and i'm just so blown away..i got all C's...my GPA is a 2.06!!!

i'm like WHAT THE HELL ! ahhhh...

has anyone of you had this experience? transfer to a 4-year university and your GPA plummets...how did you get back up? and for all of you who started at a 4-year university and had a poor GPA for the first quarter(s), how did you get it back up?

share your experience?

[ChunJin]

A lot of people put emphasis on GPA in college. But don't worry about it too much. However, it's expected so the way you separate yourself from other people is to start research as soon as possible, get involved. do internships and other different relevant things.

Now that you have experience--you should have an idea of what went wrong. A lot of people kind of inflate their GPA by taking easy classes that are high in credits (so a 5 credit class that's 100 level) =p.

[shortnsweet]

I was salutatorian at my high school and I got onto academic probation after my first semester at UC Berkeley. Ouch what a wakeup call that was. The semester after that I decided not to take any hard classes like chem and took the ultimate GPA booster known as Korean 1AX or elementary korean for native speakers. It was a 5 unit class and I knew it was going to be my easiest class. So I can say that language classes are the ultimate GPA booster if you already know some of it. Now that I changed my major from molecular cell biology to sociology and psychology my GPA is higher. However, my cumulative is only like a 3.0 from doing so badly in my molecular cell biology prereqs the first 3 semesters. So basically I wasn't cut out for the major I first intended on.

[thislove]

Ah, I go to Davis as well. It's my 3rd year there but I remembered my first qtr like it was yesterday. I guess I got alittle distracted with being away from home and everything so I was also brown by the first qtr. Don't worry about it, just take GPA booster classes and try studying a different way if wat u did this qtr. didn't help u. I totally understand how u feel cuz my GPA is not good at well. If it makes u feel any better my overall GPA isn't even a 3.0 but I'm pulling it up slowly since I screwed up so bad my first yr in college. Yeah, just do a lot of internships and research you should be fine. Watch out for those upper division classes though cuz they're really hard yet only worth 3 units. Some easy classes to take at Davis is FST 10, NUT 10, and Music 10. Or anything with a 10 on it should be an easy A. If u haven't already knew tat hopefully this helps you.

[llee10789]

thanks for the responses...

i know i just have to do better..=]

yeah, thislove, the only classes i have left to take are upper division courses, and when i plan to double major, i'll be at 219 units, but i guess if i take 6 units of "gpa boosters" maybe..i'll be okay. but next quarter i think i'm going to take 19 units.

....i have to do osmething b etter...i'll probably drop a course next quarter if things go sour.


thanks alot you guys....i'll try..

[one11.joh]

yeah I think GPA only matters if your going on to graduate school.
but a 2.06...Time to study.

[DanMXStylez]

Hey this sounds awfully familiar just like thislove I'm a 3rd year student @ davis. My first quarter I had a 2.0 GPA but since ur gpa resets when u transfer u can make it up pretty quick but pulling a couple of A's.. I had a D so i retook it for a C+ but yea it helps a little.. (brought it to 3.0)

try to take some classes that will definitely get u an easy A along with ur major courses.
Or just reduce ur units each quarter while ur struggling (the minimum is 13) and take some more when ur doing good.

dunno what else to say, ur so young and yet u might be ahead of me

[hotspicedcider]

i sympathize with your story. a lot of people were 4.0 kids in high school, or had high gpas when they transferred from junior colleges, before they went to very competitive 4 year universities. little and behold they were discouraged by the very first semester/quarter. the transition is dramatic, and I have to say UC Davis is not an easy school to do well... and you have some fierce competition to deal with. THe thing with college is that you must always have the mentality that everyone around you is just as smart or capable as you; you have to do something to distinguish yourself. So i like the old saying, "in life, you will always find someone smarter, faster, or stronger than you. However, make sure you never meet anyone who works nearly as hard as you."

2.0 is not so bad... it teaches you humbleness and will make you a better student if you take whatever you learned and write a mental note of the things you could had done differntly.

before i transferred from a UC to USC I had always been a very average B student. hahaha... I've gotten every grade in the spectrum.. from a 4.0 to a 2.6. somehow i have always managed to maintain a decent (at best) gpa. im not about to disclose what my stats are, but after i transferred I knew the workload would be a bit different. i have to say i didnt do much worse (or better) after transferring... Im a very consistent student. But i saw a lot of my peers who also transferred doing a lot worse. maybe you could ask yourself if you really gave it your all. in retrospective, undergraduate school in general is not as hard as most people think. so dont think the workload is so hard that you cant manage it. haha.

ALSO... make sure you remember... DON'T STUDY TOO MUCH; JUST STUDY SMART. (get it?). often times i see people studying day and night.... but most of the time they are on youtube, msn, aim, on doing somethign useless every 10 minutes. yes... it's important to take breaks, but too many breaks may cause your demise.

[kitty_N]

I changed majors into something I actually enjoyed and did better in

[SUperLong]

oh man, i understand what you are going through. my parents flipped out on me because i had a 2.8 gpa first semester. its just disappointing to see how sad they are when they work hard to send me to college. im majoring in computer engineering and i enjoy it but i can't waste any time on easy classes like you guys are saying. i have a total of about 150+ hours to finish in 4 years. of course there are the electives or core classes that i have to take so maybe those will help a little. im going to try really hard this semester, maybe i'll just stay at the school library and won't go home.

[rayna]

maybe you shouldn't have taken so many credits. i mean 12 is the full time college. i know that you might want to finish early but that's like cutting it too close. and since u busted ur butt doing college classes since you were 16 i think its' taking a toll on your body. you should have some down time because that will help. i know that you want to study but seriously some classes you have to study for and some classes you don't.