...and the one-year college experiment is over

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knox

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Well, not to toot my own horn, but I consider myself a pretty intelligent person. Unfortuantely, that has rarely transferred itself to school-related undertakings (except for tests, and especially the SAT and the various AP exams whose collective asses I kicked). This means that despite scoring very well on the achievement exams, my medicore GPA got me into Wisconsin and Purdue, and I chose to go to Purdue because I didn't like Wisconsin.

My folks wanted me to go to a school that cost less money, but the only school of the same caliber was the University of Illinois -- and they had rejected me. I decided I didn't want to go to a "lesser school" such as UI-Chicago, Southern Illinois, or Northern Illinois, like a lot of people I know did. So in August, I found myself at Purdue University.

Things started off fairly well, but right off the bat I could tell that I would hate going to classes. Hardly anything I was learning was interesting, with the exception of Italian. Even the upper-level math class I had talked my way into was boring, because I already knew what was being taught. As a result, I literally stopped going to classes in October.

I was taking 15 credit hours. I salvaged 8, and got C's in those. Three were for English (English teachers are notoriously flexible when it comes to making up work at the end of a semester), and the other five were for my MV Calc course (the professor didn't care when you handed in work, so long as it got handed in; the only reason I got a C was that I had missed a test and several quizzes). So, with my GPA barely above a 1, the University put me on academic probation.

I started the second semester determiend to do better. Of course, I had been making this promise to myself since elementary school. However, I was smarter about my classes: two of them were lectures that I wouldn't have to attend regularly. However, two of them were classes that I had to attend regularly, or face terrible grades: Italian (which I retook in the hope of erasing last semester's F) and Speech Communications (which was a requirement).

Sure enough, after about a month, I just quit going to classes. I've been screwed in Italian since mid-March: a combination of not doing any work for the class with the draconian attendance policy got me long ago. However, I'd been able to keep up with my work in the Speech class, and basically I was barely passing.

I should take this time to add that, under academic probation, if I fail six hours, I get dropped. Italian is three hours. So is Speech.

Well, the final project in Speech is a group project. I have to kick its ass to make sure I pass. Unfortunately, I also have to attend regular meetings with my group, and if I miss two, I get kicked out, and that's that. Well, the last week has been pretty bad on that front:

(1) I missed a class meeting before I knew about this policy that I missed through my own fault.
(2) They scheduled a meeting for a place that our meetings aren't usually held, so I showed up at the wrong room wondering where everybody was.

They decided to give me one last chance. Well, today I had the class. It starts at 7:30, is a 15 minute walk away, and if I miss more than half of it, it counts as an abscence. The class is 50 minutes long.

I woke up at 7:45. I had set my 7:00 alarm to be too quiet.

So that's that. I'm failing this course (even though I'm going to get good grades in my lectures), and the University is going to drop me.

In all honesty, I'm scared. I don't know what I'm going to do after this summer. I have a job working at a camp in the summer, so that's not going to be a problem. But I'll need to get a full time job in the fall, I guess, but I don't really think I'm ready to be on my own. I'm scared of trying to go back to school after a semester, because I'm afraid that this same thing will keep happening. I'm scared of trying to function without a college degree, because despite my intelligence, that piece of paper would open doors that are currently shut to me. I'm scared of the money I borrowed, because it's been basically wasted. I'm scared that I'm not going to succeed, ever, and I will spend my life doing something boring for very little money.

But I don't have a choice, really, do I?

Any advice on how to get on with and direct my life here would be appreciated. Anyone else fuck themselves up similarly?

I suppose the one saving grace here is that I don't see myself going into serious debt...and I always have my folks to fall back on. But that's seriously embarassing, I'd hate to need their financial support if I'm supposed to be doing this on my own.
 
My husband didn't go back to school to finish his BA till he was about 37 or so. Now he's at UNLV finishing his MFA. There's still plenty of time for you to figure out what you want to do with your life.

You're young, and maybe not ready for college. Cut yourself some slack, get some life under your belt and then see what happens. Money spent on education is never wasted; you learned a lot about yourself this past year.

As you grow up a little, you'll learn more about what's really important to you. Those insights will help you make decisions about college and your future.

Your attitude towards your own intelligence and the "lesser" schools, along with your making sure you made the mistakes it took to fail, all tell the outside observer that you do indeed have some learning about yourself and some growing up to do. Take a look at yourself and understand why you made sure you would fail, then go from there. Maybe a year or two doing something boring for very little money will help you.
 
If you're not committed to getting the education - including everything that goes along with this like actually going to class, doing the work, even the boring shit - I'd say it's not worth your time and money, especially when it'll just continue to stress you out. Don't feel pressured to go to college if it's something you're not entirely committed to.
 
I am going back to school this fall to work on finishing my undergrad degree. I have been a Senior at the university for long enough. It is time for me to put that behind me and obtain my degree. :) For the first time ever I am looking forward to this. ( I am now 30)

I am actually thinking about either getting another undergrad degree or getting an MBA. :)


I have an aunt who is in her 50s who just recently went back to school. She is working on her undergrad degree in Early Childhood Education. You are never to old to go back. :)
 
MissVelvetDress_75 said:

I have an aunt who is in her 50s who just recently went back to school. She is working on her undergrad degree in Early Childhood Education. You are never to old to go back. :)

:up: My grandpa never went to college b/c of the depression and having to feed 6 kids. Now he actually takes classes at the same college as me (through our Institute for Lifelong Learning program). They don;t count for credit, but still, you're never too old to give it a shot.
 
If you're skipping classes, including the so-called "optional lectures," it's no wonder you started to fail. If you find yourself so busy that you can't go all the time, then you either are wasting your time outside of class or you took too many classes. It's no crime to take fewer classes, if you can't handle a full load.

If you hate your classes, then you're probably studying the wrong subjects. Decide what you really like to do (your future career should not be a "chore"), and study it.

You will have to go back to college. Most people these days without at least a B.A. have limited future job prospects, and it is easier to go back while you are young than it is to go back when you're older, where you will, conceivably, have stuff like mortgages and other bills.

Really think about what you want to do, no matter how "preposterous" you think it is, and perhaps let us know what it is here and I can try to help from there.

Melon
 
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melon is right about one thing - the longer you are in the "work force" or the so-called "real world", the more difficult it becomes to go back to school, especially full time.

I am making the decision to go back next September, mainly because as somebody who's worked for a while in research (cancer), I think I can really benefit from a law degree and combine the two to work in biomedical intellectual property. But it's a very, very hard thing to decide on because you get used to a certain lifestyle, a car, independence, money and so on which you will have to give up.

At the same time, I don't feel that you MUST have a bachelor's degree these days. In fact, I will tell you that friends of mine who went and did an apprenticeship (electricians, plumbers, etc), are not only making more money than people with professional degrees, but are oftentimes happier than they would have been in a structured college system.

But the most important thing is for you to figure out what you want from life. Because you can never get it until you've answered that basic question.
 
At the age of 31, I finally went back to school, and I am now working on my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. I am doing all my classes online at the University of Phoenix, and much to my amazement, I am doing very well. In highschool, I was a mediocre student with a C average. I now have all A's.

I started college right after college, but I ended up just wasting my father's money. I had no focus. It took over 10 years to find my focus and motivation. For some individuals, it takes longer. Don't feel pressured to go to school, if you don't have the motivation to do so. You will just end up wasting your time and money. When you are ready, you will know it. Somehow, college is a bit easier as I got older. The real world life experience that the traditional college student lacks, made it easier for me somehow to keep my focus.

Please don't swear off school. You are much too smart to waste that gift. Right now you just need to find out who you are first and what your priorities are in life. You will get there, one day at a time.
 
knox said:

Well, the final project in Speech is a group project. I have to kick its ass to make sure I pass. Unfortunately, I also have to attend regular meetings with my group, and if I miss two, I get kicked out, and that's that. Well, the last week has been pretty bad on that front:

COM 114, yes?

The most hated class at Purdue... required for (almost) everyone, and totally worthless. You'd think a speech class would be useful, but the speaking methods they teach you in there should never ever be used in real life. Not that this is going to better your grade, but I'm a senior at Purdue, so I sympathize.


It seems like you're unsure on what you want to do. What might help is they have a plethora of personality/major and minor/career assesment tests you can take at the testing center. The way I understand it is there's a $10 flat fee and you can take as many as you want. You might need some kind of referral too. The testing center website is at http://www.purdue.edu/ODOS/administration/testingcenter.htm - it doesn't tell you too much, you might want to go talk to the people there (Schleman Hall B42).

Purdue's great, but not for everyone... especially if your major is in Liberal Arts. Melon's right - don't give up on college, but if you want good grades you need to go to class.
 
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