A summary of my college lfie

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Well I've posted in other places, I've got school problems now

recently got out of high school, already finished my first semester and I'm in a bit of trouble

My first semester was a trainwreck: I failed a class that should have been really easy (basic math) for a variety of reasons: I didn't care for it since I understood all the material very easily, never did homework since it was a waste of time (hello, homework with questions like 20 x 8?!) and mostly just came to class on test days

Well it went to hell when my final came around (worth 30% of my grade) and I couldn't take it since a snow day happened and I lost my course schedule. I had no idea when it was

I also took a macroeconomics class, and a combination of a very rude and demeaning professor and just not grasping the material made life hard

Did well in two other classes though, two B's in both philosophy and public speaking


Now I'm in my second semester: it involves a music class, a logic class, a sociology class and an interpersonal communications class

and here's the kicker: I despise the music class with an intense fiery passion, and my teacher unjustly withdrew me from my interpersonal communications class

As you might've picked up from reading the bit about the math class, I don't like doing things if I don't see a good reason for doing it. My degree schedule states that I need two fine arts classes (one of which was philosophy I believe), so this music class is the other one.

I hate it. hate it hate it hate it. My aim is to receive a degree towards psychology, but I see NO REASON WHY ANY KIND OF MUSIC CLASS is required to be a PSYCHOLOGIST.

All of the material flies over my head too. I just really, really don't care for it at all, and nothing I read about it sinks in. I can't remember anything about it.

Interpersonal communication WAS going fine, but I've yet to find out why I got withdrawn. I'm working on that now.

In addition, I have some weird thing with my brain that makes it play music and drown out my thoughts 24/7. I can't study effectively, I can't remember to do a lot of things, it just makes life a living hell. I need to find out what it is, so if you have any suggestions about this let me know.

That's it. If anyone knows any way to make my life a bit easier, let me know. Thank you.

What University do you attend?

A community college, century

With all due respect, I think that may be where your difficulties lie. Community Colleges are fine, but do not boast prestige, and it seems that you may have high expectations. Have you considered applying for a scholarship to a more elite University?

I understand what you mean. I chose to go to a community college in an effort to save money, as my school of choice once my prerequisites are done costs about 15k more per year than my current option. If I choose to gain my associates in that school, I'd be paying thirty thousand dollars more. Not including books

I am thankful that you perceived this as advice rather than an insult.

Of course! There's better places for people to go if they just wanted to insult people haha

And your advice makes sense. A community college doesn't really focus hard on making you an expert on something right away

I am acquainted with a person that completed half of their Bachelor degree at a Community College, and then completed the remainder of the degree at the prestigious Columbia University. What a contrast that was!

Most instructors give credit for homework. Some instructors also give credit for attendance and most instructors notice when a student has very good, or very poor attendance. I once had a class with 90 students and the professor was 91. I had happened to pass him in the hall one day and when he saw me coming he pointed his finger at me and said "You were not in class yesterday, don't think I don't notice!" A lot of them also take note of who goes to office hours, and if they see you put work into the course, they are more apt to be lenient towards you when they can. Another reason to attend the lectures is that sometimes they make changes to exam schedules, or if the course turnout is poor, they occasionally give everyone who showed up extra credit.

They are very big on responsibility. If you lost the course schedule and didn't know when the exam was, you should have contacted the instructor and asked them.



You will get the occasional rude professor but most of them are pleasant individuals who care about the well being of their students and are more than happy to take the time to explain things to you if you don't understand something. That is their job. But you also must be respectful towards them.



Sometimes instructors will withdraw a student if they did not show up for the first lecture. They usually do this to allow other students who take their education more seriously into the class when the class is full. Some instructors have a policy of dropping students after three unexcused absences. Others will drop students if they have not turned in a good deal of the work and have gone MIA, saving them from getting a bad grade in the course. It's your responsibility to know your insturctor's and the school's attendance policy.



Part of going to college is to learn how to do things you don't like doing. The point of taking all of these other courses is so that you'll be well rounded. Most people are going to have a few GE's they hate and a few GE's they enjoy. Some people will find a GE they like so much they might change their major because of it. Another purpose of these GE courses is to strengthen your critical thinking and written communication skills.



Another thing you are supposed to learn in college is how to get help when you don't understand something, and how to teach yourself to study in such a way that you do understand things. If you don't understand, ask. E-Mail the instructor, go to their office hours. If you don't understand something in class, let the instructor know. Look into tutoring. Some schools have study hall type classes where you can sit there and do your homework and if you have a question, an instructor or someone qualified will come over and help you when you raise your hand. There's a lot of help for lower division courses.



If you aren't actually hearing this music and just have a song stuck in your head, this could be a stress response by your brain, especially if you have OCD. You get stressed because you're forcing yourself to pay attention to something you don't want to, your brain tries to relieve this stress by focusing on something more relaxing. Some type of SSRI might help. Some people have ADD or ADHD and there is Ritalin for that. If you have OCD, Ritalin probably isn't a good thing to take though.

Community College is a great way to do your mandatory courses ..which take 2 years to complete. Once you finish them you transfer to a university with an AA General Studies degree and continue on to finish your bachelor degree. There's no loss of prestige there.

As for the OP's situation... I don't see why you are taking a music class. All colleges I've looked into give you lots of different classes you can choose from to fulfill their humanities/sciences/math/etc general studies requirements. Music is in the list but its not mandatory. I doubt its the case in yours.

For the lack of interest thing .. yeah that's one thing I struggled with too. My first 2 semesters were B's and C's because I would do great on tests but hardly hand in that silly make-busy homework. Eventually it kicked in that as much as I hated it and as useless as it was, it had to be done or my GPA would be down the toilet...and low GPA means the bachelor program I wanted would not accept me.