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So i get an E-mail from my professor telling me i should consider taking an R for this math course. This was a week after our 2nd exam and i just got our grades. I basically bombed my first 2 tests so bad (16 and a 28) there is probably no hope for recovery for this class.
Now it seems like a simple answer "Yes repeat" But unfortunately as it is now i am currently not accepted into my major because my grades as a freshmen where to low. So now i am way behind on my engineering courses if i don't take an engineering course by the fall semester i will fall behind even more, because certain classes are only allowed to be taken in the fall and some in the spring. The problem is that to take the spring course you have to take the fall course and if i can't take the fall course since i would be retaking this math course so i could be accepted into my major in the Spring. I would basically have wasted 2 years and about $60,000.
So yes this is all my fault, i don't know why i couldn't pull myself together i knew this was going to be an important semester because my fall grades where poor. But until about 2 weeks ago i couldn't just get into studying.
I'm sorry this is more of like a bitch and moan type of blog than an advice blog. But thanks for reading anyway.
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I would consider changing your major. If you can't pass a pre-req math course, you're going to have a hell of a time in engineering.
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On March 28 2012 04:15 RedTail wrote:
I would consider changing your major. If you can't pass a pre-req math course, you're going to have a hell of a time in engineering.
What this dude said. That's the tip of the iceberg and you can't crack it now.
That aside, is an R the same as dropping a course?? Drop means you don't get the hit on your GPA, but you just get stuck paying.
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Does your desired major require any elective classes that don't have pre-req's you haven't met?
I'm in a somewhat similar situation; just dropped Differential Equations which should have put me behind a year, but I was able to fill my schedule with classes that I'll have to take eventually, but which aren't necessarily planned for next semester. My Engineering specific courses are all getting delayed by a semester, but my graduation date remains unchanged.
You might want to see if you can work something like that out.
Does this math course have to be re-taken immediately after the semester you get an R in it? If not, you might consider taking it in a later semester.
Worst-case scenario, you take a semester off in the Spring and get a job. Make as much money as you can and then go back to school the next Fall.
You may want to reconsider your major as well; it only gets harder.
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Calgary26003 Posts
Are you paying or your parents? If I was your parents I would 100% cut you off.
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On March 28 2012 04:46 Kasha_Not_Kesha wrote:
Does your desired major require any elective classes that don't have pre-req's you haven't met?
I'm in a somewhat similar situation; just dropped Differential Equations which should have put me behind a year, but I was able to fill my schedule with classes that I'll have to take eventually, but which aren't necessarily planned for next semester. My Engineering specific courses are all getting delayed by a semester, but my graduation date remains unchanged.
You might want to see if you can work something like that out.
Does this math course have to be re-taken immediately after the semester you get an R in it? If not, you might consider taking it in a later semester.
Worst-case scenario, you take a semester off in the Spring and get a job. Make as much money as you can and then go back to school the next Fall.
You may want to reconsider your major as well; it only gets harder.
Actually Differentials is what i am having problems with too. What year are you? I am a sophmore so i should of been taking engineering courses since fall but now its even more delayed.
I think this does have to be re-taken immediately because i am basically our of courses to take that aren't engineering specific. I'll see what i can do i am talking to an advisor tomorrow.
I don't know what i would honestly switch my major to. Besides Aircraft and Space nothing really interests me, and as you can clearly read even those are apparently not interesting enough to keep me from failing courses.
On March 28 2012 04:49 Chill wrote:
Are you paying or your parents? If I was your parents I would 100% cut you off.
Parent's so there is a very deep feeling of shame and regret to be honest. I am basically the first of my family to go to university, my parents are immigrants who came with nothing but managed to get me and my brother to middle class though nothing but hard work. I do feel ashamed of myself sometimes when i am just procrastinating my ass off when i think of them and how i am basically failing them as a son. But i don't know, i yell at myself sometimes because i know i need to get this work done but i still cant find the motivation. I didn't pick Aerospace engineering because i was smart, but when my parents tell their friends and such that my son is a aerospace engineer, there is a knife in my gut from just guilt.
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It's kinda pointless to retake something that your clearly not interested in.Bite the bitter apple and don't waste any more time and money.
You don't need to be a genius to become a engineer in some field,but you do need motivation which you clearly don't have I guess.Just ask yourself what you really want to do,have a talk with your parents,get a part time job or something and try to make the best out of it.
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100% serious here—withdraw from school for a semester or two. If you're dragging ass that bad that you're failing and torpedoing your grade with non-major stuff, you're clearly not focused and even if by some miracle you did graduate, it would be with a 2.0 or something bad.
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Thanks for the non sugar coated answers (seriously). I guess i'll have a lot of thinking to do between now and tomorrow when i meet my advisor.
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You mentioned procrastination. Maybe get a tutor who will force you into a schedule by showing up at certain times. Someone you would have to keep up with. That is, if it's really just a matter of effort. If you really just don't get the material or something then the other responses are more appropriate. You could even just find another student in the same class who you can study with. Having a friend as a study partner to meet up with in high school was a hard counter to my procrastination habits and lack of any real interest in the subjects.
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You're currently taking differential equations? The material (like most mid or higher level math classes in college for math/ engineering/ science majors) is only going to get harder as the semester progresses. Everything builds on earlier material, and the first assessments are supposed to give you a cushion (easy grade) to fall back on. If you're doing that poorly now, I doubt that you can really pull yourself up significantly for the semester.
See if you can audit the class (sit in on the lectures but not officially take it for credit anymore, so your F won't appear on your transcript) so you can get a jump start for next semester. As a former math major who had plenty of other math, science, and engineering friends (and a lot of us experienced problems similar to yours), I think that's your best bet. You're not pulling up your grade significantly, but see if you can stick around to try and take some notes. Withdraw. Maybe get some office hour time or tutoring on the side so when you start fresh, you'll perform a lot better. Good luck! 
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On March 28 2012 04:49 Chill wrote:
Are you paying or your parents? If I was your parents I would 100% cut you off.
Well, glad you're not his father, or anyone's father for that matter. I sympathise with any person who willfully or not becomes dependable on you
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On March 28 2012 10:53 run.at.me wrote:Show nested quote +On March 28 2012 04:49 Chill wrote:
Are you paying or your parents? If I was your parents I would 100% cut you off. Well, glad you're not his father, or anyone's father for that matter. I sympathise with any person who willfully or not becomes dependable on you
chill is right though.
also aerospace engineering is EXTREMELY math heavy.
change your major immediately please.
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You feel guilty and ashamed, I know, but not THAT guilty, not on a subconscious level at least. It's not like you discovered this situation last week, you probably realized something needed to be fixed a year ago. Yet you still ended up here, so clearly you don't feel all that bad about it.
This isn't something you can snap out of by telling yourself to work harder or be motivated. What you need is serious CHANGE in your lifestyle. As some other suggested, take some time off school. Most schools allow you to stop for a period of time and then come back and continue in your program.
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I believe its time to take a little bit off and sit in on some classes, change your major and start working on making your motivation work out. Basically there are a lot of these on TL and my best answer to you is to go talk to a psych professor or a philosophy professor or a chaplin. Anyone who is based in a field of the human understanding. What you need to do is think if this is truly for you, maybe you aren't cut for math but you are for another degree .
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On March 28 2012 05:23 Hawk wrote:
100% serious here—withdraw from school for a semester or two. If you're dragging ass that bad that you're failing and torpedoing your grade with non-major stuff, you're clearly not focused and even if by some miracle you did graduate, it would be with a 2.0 or something bad.
Seriously, this. I'm also a 2nd year engineer dude in college and if you aren't motivated to go into the field of engineering, you will fail and you won't get anything out of it.
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On March 28 2012 10:53 run.at.me wrote:Show nested quote +On March 28 2012 04:49 Chill wrote:
Are you paying or your parents? If I was your parents I would 100% cut you off. Well, glad you're not his father, or anyone's father for that matter. I sympathise with any person who willfully or not becomes dependable on you
yes because going 120k into debt for your child who isnt trying or can't hack it is really noble
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Listen, I was in the same position my first couple of years of school. What made the difference for me was having some time away to mature a little bit and get my act together. In my case this happened after I failed out. (I was a physics major at Harvey Mudd College, a very demanding school.) I wound up going to a local community college, breezing through my classes there, and applying to go back the following year, and things went a lot better.
The good news is you can recover from this. The bad news is that you absolutely MUST learn the mathematics with which you're having trouble if you're going to pursue a major in an engineering-related field. There aren't any other choices. Those skills are the foundation of everything.
Taking time off from school entirely is probably a bad idea -- there's a lot of data that shows that people who do that are very likely never to go back. However, if you can find a way to spend some time in a less challenging and less expensive environment academically, without closing off any doors, you may find that you can come back to the topics giving you trouble now in a year or so and have a lot more success.
I'd recommend a frank discussion with your parents about the nature of your problems. I mean, if my kid came to me with those issues, I wouldn't be happy, but I'd at least be thinking about how to keep them in school and making some kind of progress toward a degree while getting the costs down so that if they have to take a little longer to finish, they can.
Edit: If you're having trouble focusing on your work, this problem won't fix itself. You have to find the motivation within yourself to put in the time, sleep on a normal schedule, attend class, and get the work done on time. It might be maturity, in which case being a year older might be all you need. However, everyone has to find their own way to care about doing things which aren't necessarily easy.
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EPT
