Tough Decision

[DaWhim]

maybe it is a sign that psy is not for you? hope you are not psy major. it can also be another sign that you have to evaluate your study method.

 

[badmouse]

Yes, go talk to your profs.

You want to be a therapist? Let me give you some advice. You sound like you are doing it for the wrong reasons.

If you really want to help people, start where you are now and forget about the career for the time being. I can guarantee you that there are many students on your campus who could use some help - check out the office for handicapped students (it'll have some other name, but you know what I mean). Or, if you're having trouble with your grades in this class, so are other people - reach out to them and help them study. Maybe there's somebody who got worse than your D. Or, march immediately to the nearest old folks home, hospital etc and volunteer to talk to lonely old/sick people. There are zillions of opportunities to help out.

Cynically, that will look good on your resume too.

You don't have to drop out of school. Lots of options here. For example, you can cut back to part time and work, too. I strongly suggest that you try that - get a feel for the industry you are aiming for. Unless you have family in the psych racket, you don't know what it's really like. Time for that reality check.

Yes, you can improve your grades after a lackluster freshman year.

Good luck.

 

[Buck Armstrong]

Originally posted by: wvtalbot
DO IT. Seriously drop out of college work a ****** job for a few years and then when you realize the value of a college education come back.

Thats the plan that worked for me...but it didn't take a few years, just two semesters out and I'd had enough of the "real"world. When I went back I did better than I ever had before because now I needed it and knew it.

 

[S Freud]

Hopefully I can still make something out of my grades with the little bit of time that is left, and there is spring term to try and bring things up.

 

[myusername]

badmouse hit the nail on the head.
If you find the subject interesting and enjoyable enough by itself, then it's great .. if the only reason you're in it is "to help others", it's time to broaden your horizons - either help others in other ways, or realize that psychology interests you outside the context of helping others.

 

[blert]

I found myself in your shoes at age 20...It wasn't so much that I wasn't getting the grades, it was the fact that they were "teaching" me information I could learn on my own and what they were trying to teach / stuff down my throat that I had absolutely no interest in (honestly- who REALLY cares what some "poet" scribbled on a piece of paper 200 years ago in an alchoholic/psychotic fog?- it may have had some revelance then, but now is just an exercise). Knowledge is great, but the wrong kind of knowledge is utterly useless and a waste of time, IMHO.

I dropped out, got a job, saw how EASY it was to start my own busines doing something I enjoyed (the key ingredient there is HARD WORK and DEDICATION to YOURSELF) and prodeeded to do so (framing houses as a private contractor).

Right now I'm 44...I thinking about selling my business and retiring in about 18 months or less- no debt, $$ in the bank, all properties paid off, etc.

Back to the point of getting your B.S.- that little piece of paper is good if you are looking to get into a "tech" or "corporate" type of job and plan on working / begging for scraps/ jumping thru hoops for someone else. Outside of that, personally, I think you're better off finding something YOU TRULY like to do and focus on that, NOT what society "expects" of you. If it really is something you enjoy and you put just a little effort into it, you can't help but be a success.

FFS- this is America- do what YOU want, not what all the other mindless drones expect you to do.

Just my two pennies rubbin' together...

 

[mercanucaribe]

Change your major FTW.

 

[Stvfarmboy]

Originally posted by: S Freud
I could check into it, but like I said I am just really worried about my grades, have any of you guys ever known anyone that didn't do so good their first two terms and still did ok through school after that?

I know someone that did very poorly in college at first. I don't remember her exact GPA but I want to say it was less than 2.0 which at most places would put you on academic probation which could have been the case. She transferred a couple times and changed her major in there someplace and has made the Dean's list now at least once that I know of. So its definately possible to buckle down and improve your grades.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Change your major FTW.

That might be the thing to do. You can help people in a variety of different ways - medicine, law, psychology, giving a really good massage... tons of ways.

Psyc may not be your thing. You'll find what you were meant to do.

 

[kaymin]

Are you kdding me? You took a psych exam and you gotta study 'all day' and u still got a D? Psych classes shouldnt' require much studying at all if any.


Unless you're in a top university for engineering or the real sciences then you should not have to study all that much or even at all. Switch to an *easy* major like business or psychology. You can get by in those classes without even going to class let alone opening a book.

College is a joke for a lot of the easier majors.

 

[S Freud]

Originally posted by: kaymin
Are you kdding me? You took a psych exam and you gotta study 'all day' and u still got a D? Psych classes shouldnt' require much studying at all if any.


Unless you're in a top university for engineering or the real sciences then you should not have to study all that much or even at all. Switch to an *easy* major like business or psychology. You can get by in those classes without even going to class let alone opening a book.

College is a joke for a lot of the easier majors.

Whats your major?

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: kaymin
Are you kdding me? You took a psych exam and you gotta study 'all day' and u still got a D? Psych classes shouldnt' require much studying at all if any.

That's an idiotic comment. Psych classes do require study, quite a bit of study actually, to do well in.

 

[S Freud]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: kaymin
Are you kdding me? You took a psych exam and you gotta study 'all day' and u still got a D? Psych classes shouldnt' require much studying at all if any.

That's an idiotic comment. Psych classes do require study, quite a bit of study actually, to do well in.

Thank you

 

[SearchMaster]

One of my first roommates in college was a Comp Sci major like me. I knew from the moment I met him that he wasn't the CompSci type - not particularly logical, etc. He struggled with some of his intro classes and, with some encouragement from me and others, changed his major. He ended up switching to general business, had a 3.0+ GPA, and now runs a successful business in South Florida.

 

[S Freud]

I have been considering business as a change but I hate to fall into the norm of what it seems like most people go to college for, psychology was different (to me) and I enjoy it a lot, but I might just have to face facts and decide if it is for me.

 

[illusion88]

When I was in HS I did pretty poorly. I didn't apply to college becasue I couldn'tm I didn't meet all of the requirments for entry on all public schools, and I couldnt afford a private one. So I went to the JC, where I id pretty much the same. I would start classes, do real well for about the fourth of them and just stop going. I would start to fail exams, and then drop out with a W instead of an F. I feel much the same as you.

I can't seem to find the field I want to go in, and every seminster I seem to drop out with W's or only finish 1-2 classes.
It feels like I am getting no where.

So Now I am just working. Not saving much, doing the same jobs only full time. I work a second job on the weekends to help save some money. But life is good, I just need to plant my feet so I can return to school.

 

[timosyy]

I feel your pain.

I'm in the same boat, except I'm in Computer Engineering @ UIUC (#4 for engineering).

Its 4:44am Wednesday, and I havn't slept since Sunday. Monday was classes from 10am->7pm, then physics, ece, econ, calculus hw, trying to get some out of the way of tuesday night because I have an exam on Wednesday. Went into Tuesday from an all-nighter doing all that homework into classes from 11am->7pm, then a meeting from 7->10pm, and now I'm doing some homework that I didn't finish last night, in an attempt to get some studying done for the actual exam. I don't see myself sleeping tonight, and I have classes starting at 10pm -> 7pm, the exam itself being from 7->9pm.

I'm about ready to slit my wrists with a rusty kitchen knife, only down the road style, not across the street like those attention-whoring emo wannabes.

Edit: and my eyes are beginning to burn, caffiene can only take you so far. After the exam I'm either going to be incredibly wasted or passed out- preferably both. And a part of me really doesn't care if I ever wake up.

 

[S Freud]

Originally posted by: illusion88
When I was in HS I did pretty poorly. I didn't apply to college becasue I couldn'tm I didn't meet all of the requirments for entry on all public schools, and I couldnt afford a private one. So I went to the JC, where I id pretty much the same. I would start classes, do real well for about the fourth of them and just stop going. I would start to fail exams, and then drop out with a W instead of an F. I feel much the same as you.

I can't seem to find the field I want to go in, and every seminster I seem to drop out with W's or only finish 1-2 classes.
It feels like I am getting no where.

So Now I am just working. Not saving much, doing the same jobs only full time. I work a second job on the weekends to help save some money. But life is good, I just need to plant my feet so I can return to school.

This pretty much is me, though I do attend class on a semi regular basis, and I haven't dropped a class yet. Everything else seems to be pretty close, not so well in HS, do good for the first part of the term. Then BAM!

 

[TallBill]

I left college after a terrible first year. I'll go back in 2008, but better prepared. Now I have work experience + the degree that I'll earn to find a job.

 

[timosyy]

My problem was breezing through the harder High School classes with barely any work, then coming to college and finding out first-hand that the same output nets F's. I'm currently on probation from slacking last semester, and failed my first three exams this semester. The fourth, well ... see above.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

< associates by 20 + bachelors by 21 + land high position at Dell with just about everyone under you more than twice your age + have all old friends envy you... priceless...

dont be that friend that is 25 and still taking "classes" at the local community college... or something of a similar story...

PS. Study on how to study. I recommend Memory and Speed Reading training. Worth every penny.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: wvtalbot
DO IT. Seriously drop out of college work a ****** job for a few years and then when you realize the value of a college education come back.

Yeah. Sometimes I think this makes more sense..hell I am doing it right now. I went to Uni for 3 semesters, but have decided to take a "break". I wasn't sure about what I wanted to do, so instead of wasting my parents money I came home and got a job. Now I am working 40 hours a week...so at least while I am thinking about what I want to do, I am gaining valuable experience and making money.

Your situation sounds similar to mine, btw.