We have all been there, or at least had to comfort a friend who has been there, had that one professor who proudly states that the average on their exam is a 65. A D. How is a D the average!? If I got a D in high school I would be horrified with myself, so going into college on the computer science track was a wakeup call.
A lot of freshman, including myself when I was a freshmen, expect to attain similar grades they got in high school with similar effort. For most college kids that just is not the case. College classes require a lot more work and there is more of a learning curve. There are also those professors who believe that in order to earn an A, students must go above and beyond to a nearly impossible level. Not to say that getting all A’s in college is impossible, but it definitely requires a lot more time and effort than high school.
College is an adjustment and that’s okay. Not only are the classes an adjustment, but for most freshmen, moving into college is their first time living away from home. The liberating freedom can be a blessing and a curse as one needs to figure out time management.
Then there is the added stress of building a resume. College kids today are told that in addition to good grades we need to be involved and have “work experience”. Sometimes this comes off as “you need to try to do everything you possibly can” and it’s very easy to spread yourself thin. The best advice I have gotten is do what you enjoy, get as involved in that as you can, and don’t let it take away from your school work. It’s great to get involved, but not at the expense of your mental health and academics. It is so easy to get caught up on in the need to “build the resume” but it is also important to remember that college is a time to explore who we are and pursue what we are interested in without worrying how it will look on a résumé.
As many of the incoming freshman are surely realizing now, college is a whole new world from high school. There are many new things we are exposed to in college as well as a whole new level of work. We are now considered adults, and as we try to navigate through this adult world, we learn and grow. So yeah, you may not have that stellar GPA you had in high school as you try to adjust to college life, if you’re like me you’re going to receive your first C and not know what to do with yourself, but keep hope, work hard, enjoy college and everything will work out.