I'm facing some problems with my current state in school. I'm currently a junior but will have to probably stay in school for five years to finish my major. I had a rough freshman year, better sophomore year, and capped now. GPA repair has been tough because I can't seem to break past the median grade in my classes. I go to a quarter-based school in California and my advisor and school therapist have suggested I transfer. The problem is, I really don't want to. I understand that getting As somewhere else trumps B+s/Bs at a known university as a premed, but my gut is telling me to stay. What should I do?
Dilemna
- Thread starter Surfer034
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If it is your environment or peer groups holding you back then transfer, if it is the course material causing you trouble then I would stay as there is no guarantee that you will get better grades else where. It's not necessarily the material, but how it is presented which you can never know until you are in the class.
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I mean I guess it depends how bad the GPA is. If you're pulling B+ and A-, that's not a horrible place to be. If you really can't break a B, you really need to evaluate your priorities. Also if you tend to get more As in your science classes but tend to do less well in say, English classes (based on title of thread), then it's less big of a deal. If your therapist and counselor are telling you to transfer though, they have your best interest in mind so I would weight that heavily.
Yeah, exactly. But I don't think my issues are because of the specific schools. My goals, yes, but that's not what they're concerned with. Sadly, I can easily get an A-B in other classes because the grading isn't as ridiculous in them even though I'm less interested in them and don't learn as much.
See, according to the school therapist, "this isn't an academic school, it's a research school". I have no clue what the difference is, but everyone else seems to think I will do better. The environment is fine, I like it a lot.
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Well by the names you can tell where the focus of the school is. A research school can almost be thought of as an industry school as there are a lot of opportunities to work in research within your field while going to school. There are also usually more outside contracts with these schools pertaining to the research and their products. Academic schools may have more resources to help a student succeed on the classroom, but every college has plenty of student resources so as long as you aren't hanging out with a bunch of pot heads and hating your environment I don't see why transferring would up your classroom performance.
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What that could mean is that those who are teaching in the classroom would much rather be doing research which is the priority for them and their advancement at the institution. Consequently, you teach yourself or you don't get very far because instruction is not a high priority (effort made in lesson plans, coaching students on how to do well on the evaluations whether they are papers, problem sets, multiple choice exams, etc).
I could see where someone who doesn't do well academically in one type of school might do well somewhere where teaching is valued and made a priority by the faculty.
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The phrase "research university" or "research school" really just means that's what their priorities are -- and teaching you isn't it. Other schools pride themselves on teaching undergraduates, on providing a quality education. Google "Colleges that Change Lives" Those schools are all about helping you learn. It's what they truly value.
Research universities often make heavy use of graduate students to teach; and often, those grad students have never been taught how to teach, have no aptitude for teaching, and have no interest in teaching. Some have such heavy accents that students must struggle to understand them. Not always, certainly. But if that's the case at your school, it sounds like you're' probably not learning all you could be and that a transfer to a school with 'better teachers' might be a wonderful experience for you.
Research universities often make heavy use of graduate students to teach; and often, those grad students have never been taught how to teach, have no aptitude for teaching, and have no interest in teaching. Some have such heavy accents that students must struggle to understand them. Not always, certainly. But if that's the case at your school, it sounds like you're' probably not learning all you could be and that a transfer to a school with 'better teachers' might be a wonderful experience for you.
