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Dec 06, 2008 01:35

Does it look particularly bad if you do badly in a class and choose not to retake it ( Read more... )

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signsoflife December 6 2008, 16:53:10 UTC
You need to retake those courses, and perhaps consider taking a slower route to graduate school to allow that and prevent overloading.

My impression based on your posts here is that you are still struggling a great deal with work/life balance and routinely take on too much in terms of academic+personal responsibilities. You sound like you get overloaded and then something comes crashing down. This is a bad set of life habits to enter graduate school with, and you will get much less, if anything, out of the experience. There WILL be uncontrollable, destabilizing factors in your graduate experience as well; the skills to control the consequences are essential to success.

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teaganc December 6 2008, 18:46:52 UTC
I don't know that Ds in general will hurt you a lot more than not even earning a 3.0 (you don't get to a C average by getting all As), but in your major, AND prereqs for grad programs? To me, this sends a really strong signal that you are not right for grad school. You are obviously struggling in college for whatever reasons, and you seem like you are having particular difficulty for courses within your major.

Maybe you should take this as a sign that you are not right for grad school, or even your major. Maybe you can do something with your BA/BS, or maybe you should switch majors to something that you can succeed at, but either way, graduate school in your current field is not the right answer.

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ladylucretia December 6 2008, 19:12:51 UTC

Maybe you should take this as a sign that you are not right for grad school, or even your major.

I think this is extremely presumptuous and even cruel. I might agree with the statement if "at this time" was added to the end; I don't dispute the fact that the OP seems to be struggling. But this is a very large inference to make from a livejournal post.

For example, most of my academic career is very respectable - 3.5-3.9 averages going back to grammar school. However, for 2 years in high school family problems cause my grades to suffer. My average was something like a 2.5 and I even got a D once. If someone had told me at that point to give up on my goals, I might have believed them and never ended up graduating summa cum laude from college.

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eastertheatre December 6 2008, 19:22:12 UTC
I agree with your sentiment, but there is a big difference between getting a D in high school, and getting two Ds in your major in your third year of undergrad. I don't think the OP should just rule out grad school as not being for her, but I think she needs to seriously re-examine her priorities and decide where she wants to put her energies.

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circumfession December 6 2008, 19:29:16 UTC
*seconds this*
I nearly flunked a full year of high school, and despite near-perfect SAT scores, consequently was turned down by 19 colleges. (I did not aim for top-tier schools either). I suspect that grad school will be even less forgiving of truly poor grades (as opposed to "OMG! I got a B!") in your major, as an upperclassman. Even if you're were "too smart" for your classes, this might be interpreted as an unwilling to put in the necessary effort.

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tobiahawk December 7 2008, 08:19:49 UTC
FWIW, it seems like you're certainly a good writer and could/will write an awesome SOP!

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