Freshmen in college have a lot of first, and most of them are fun, exciting and life changing—especially here in Madison.
However, how happy and excited were you at the end of first semester when it was time to check your grades? Your hand shakes on the mouse as you hesitate pressing that link to “grades” under student center, you debate in your mind whether you’re going to tell your mom or not, and you’ve already started setting goals in your mind to do better next semester. Bad grades are never an exciting thing, but a freshman’s first GPA is nothing to be ashamed about… it happens to the best of us!
So, excluding all you freshman who opened up your grades and saw straight A’s (congrats to you guys, maybe you could teach the rest of us a thing or two), why is a freshman’s first GPA none other than dreadful?
1. Second semester high school senior à First semester freshman
While we all basked in the glory of senioritis just a semester ago, it seems we did a full 360 without even realizing. We went from watching what felt like 100 episodes of Netflix a day senior year to reading 100 pages for class every day in college.
2. Time Management (or lack there of)
Everyone likes to think they have good time management, but freshmen don’t seem to know the first thing about it. “When do I work out?” “When do I shower?” “When do I go to the library?” “When do I go to class?”
3. Social life vs. School life
We all say we’re going to stay in that one weekend to get our work done. But then everyone seems to be going out, and, well, we cant get FOMO. Partying is kind of like studying… right?
4. BIG lectures
Five hundred students in a room vs. the previous 20 really makes a difference on the way you learn. “Does my professor even know my name?”
5. Workload, workload, workload (did I mention workload?)
Remember when your high school teachers told you they were preparing you for college? Remember when they were right? Of course you don’t, because they weren’t. As opposed to that one month you had to do that two-page paper in high school, now you have one week to do a four-page paper… in three of your classes.
Another big round of applause to the stronger ones out there! How you’re able to look at your GPA and smile at the end of first semester freshman year is a miracle to me. But for the rest of us, it’s that time of the year again to start setting goals for a brighter second semester.
New year, new me, new GPA!