I’m gonna start by thanking you first because I’m gonna go off on a bit of an emotional rant so I probably won’t remember afterwards. So thanks for your help.
I fucked up, I fucked up so bad. I’m a first year at UTM and I’m failing all four of my courses. It’s not even from not understanding the material
either, I just never showed up to lectures and tutorials and procrastinated and got sidetracked by work and a family illness. Point is, it’s my fault, I was cocky and I let myself get distracted. I could have handled things better, but I didn’t and I know that and I want to fix it now.
I’ve been kicking it into high gear this past week and I plan on trying hard to at least pass. But worst case scenario, I fail all four courses, will I get kicked out of school? And if I’m allowed to stay, I know I’d have to get my GPA up next year, but I’d basically be looking at a 5th year of school right? And would a summer course change anything? I know people with low GPAs are discouraged from signing up for summer courses but I also think that if I buckled down and focused I could pass a summer course, but would getting a single credit in the summer just fuck things up, am I better off just accepting that I’ll be doing a 5th year and retaking the courses I may or?may not fail in September?
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hey there,
well thank you for coming here. being proactive and seeking help is so much better than having a panic attack and crying about it (which is how i dealt with first year). so good on ya.
first thing: they’re not gonna kick you out right away, even if you fail all four courses. if you finish with a GPA under 1.50, you’ll be put on academic probation. what that means is that the next semester you take, you will have to get above a CGPA (that’s cumulative grade point average) of 1.50 to be taken off probation. if you get below a CGPA of 1.50, but a sessional GPA above 1.70, you’ll do the next semester on probation as well. if you get below a CGPA of 1.50 AND below a sessional GPA of 1.70, you get suspended for one year. so even in the worst case scenario, you don’t get kicked out. if you don’t know what your GPA is, you can figure it out with this and this (just go to page 11 of the powerpoint).
if you are put on probation, i would recommend that you not take a summer semester. summer school’s really tricky because it moves quickly, and if you’re trying to get above a 1.50 CGPA to get yourself off probation, you’ll want the best possible circumstances in your next semester to get those marks. if you wait until fall to do your first term on probation, you’re more likely to do well. consider that.
if you don’t get put on probation (i.e. if you finish this year with a GPA above 1.50), then sure, take a summer course – if you think you can handle it. like you say, doing one credit over the summer can mess things up by giving you more than you can handle, so just redoing first year without trying to catch up in the summer might be the best choice. but you shouldn’t feel bad about that! a lot of people take five years to complete their degree.
you also may want to consider if university is really for you, or if maybe you need to take some time off before coming back to uni. i understand that certain specific circumstances contributed to what’s happened to you, but i’d recommend you take some time to self-reflect, and ask yourself whether what you’re doing/studying is the best use of your time. your time belongs to you, right? so use it how you want to.
best,
aska