1. Get a summer job that motivates you to complete a college degree, or at least appreciate the people who do those types of jobs. My choice was a housekeeper in a hotel. Nothing like cleaning a LOT of toilets to make you never want to have to again.
2. Your GPA is like a bucket narrower on the bottom than on the top - the first couple years of college fills it up much faster than the last two. Which leads to...
3. Know your bad subjects, and don't take them all in one semester. You can even take a summer class at the community college and transfer the credits. In my case, I tried to take Spanish, biology, and College Algebra at the same time and ended up with three D's - at the same time. Not so good for that bucket of GPA.
4. Don't date anyone you'd be ashamed to have your parents meet. Also, try to avoid the kind of "how we met" stories that are too embarrassing to tell anyone..."we were both drunk and woke up on the same street corner" won't go over very well at the wedding reception.
5. If you're lucky, you'll figure out what kind of career makes you so excited that you can't wait to get started - or go back to after a hiatus. Even if it's a long shot, work towards it. Unless it's being a pro athlete or movie/music star - then I'd find something with a better success rate. And less papaarazzi.
Posts
7 comments:
Liz... GPA stands for grade point AVERAGE. That means all grades count for the same amount. It doesn't matter when you get a D in Spanish, it's still a D in Spanish. No doubt three at once will crush morale though.
Also, I'm pretty sure I was a garbage man the summer before college. I've won street cred with that more than a few times.
Being an English major, I am not about to get into an argument with an engineer about MATH, of all things. However, although all grades may count for the same amount, it sure seems that those first years take a lot longer to correct later.
Yes, you were a garbage man. And I was the one that got you that job! Aren't you LUCKY?
Lyz's analogy in #2 translated to GeekSpeak is that as a freshman, the denominator in the GPA calculation is smaller, magnifying the impact of outlying (very low or high) grades relative to their contribution to one's final college GPA.
Yep. That's EXACTLY what I meant.
For us non-geeks, think batting average. It is quite easy to be a .500 hitter or a .000 hitter in the first game of the season, but quite another to have those same averages at the All Star break; and in the case of the .000 hitter, to remain on the team (in school).
TOM
I had that 'job'. I was a CNA at an assisted living home.
Also, don't let a boy get in the way of said GPA. The first semester I started dating JJ was my worst GPA semester. (on the flip side: the first semester we were married was JJ's BEST GPA semester (of his first degree anyways)). : )
I had a craptastic second job in high school -- I worked at Pretzelmaker -- BUT I can still eat there! Funny thing. (My first job is a tidbit I use for ice breaker games all the time -- I worked on cars!)
wv: bimshmum -- I like it!
Post a Comment