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[Gentlefish]

So, I'm in my freshman year. Just finished it, and was a little proud. My GPA was eh. a 2.0 after the first semester. I checked my grades today, and I found out I have a 3.6 for all the classes posted. I check my online math course grades and I find out I failed it. It's a 4 credit course, and it drags me down to a 2.0. I've got a 3 and 2 credit class, in which I'm hoping for C's but could go either way.

I'm kind of freaking out over this failed grade. It's not required for my degree, but it hurts my overall GPA for sure.

Is it really as bad as I think it is? Should I be panicking this much? Also, if I retake the course would it change that grade?

I just needed to get this off my chest somewhere. Thanks in advance for just reading this, and thanks if you post.

[Vector]

You're a freshman.  Figure out what you did wrong and why you're contenting yourself with C's, and then fix it.  Worrying and panicking should not be any part of this process.

You should not be asking us about whether retaking the course will change the grade, seeing as we are not your college counselors and every institution is different.

[gimlet]

Geez man, how do you not know you're either failing or in serious danger of failing a course?  This is college, you HAVE to stay on top of that stuff - save the "how your grade is determined" stuff from the first week, keep track of your progress, make SURE you get your graded papers and tests back and that nothing went missing, and don't toss anything important til after it's over.

What I would do: talk to the prof, find out what you did wrong.  Do not in any way be confrontational, because the prof has incredible powers to help or hurt you - you want HELP.  Ask him what you missed or needed to do differently.  Ask if it's something you can possibly make up - our school would allow an "Incomplete" with some reasonable excuse, and you turn in your paper or take your test or whatever and then get a real grade.  Pull out the "I'm a stupid kid and these were my first courses in college, is there ANYTHING I can do?" if you have to.    If it's too late for that, oh well man,  suck it up and learn the lesson - PLANNING and MONITORING your progress is pretty damn important to avoid results like this, even worse when they're a surprise.  If you're overwhelmed and won't be able to recover, figure it out early enough in the term to be able to drop a course or even two before the cutoff. 

On the stress side: what's done is done, worrying won't help now.  Count it as a blessing it was only one course and now you learned a lesson, and know what you need to do to keep it from happening again.  Your GPA will recover eventually, as long as it's just this one class.  And congrats on turning the other grades around, looks like you learned the "Whoa I need to really buckle down and get to work" lesson too, another good one to learn early...

[Dutchling]

I'm always amazed by how seriously people take all this stuff. I'm kinda jealous to be honest.

[nenjin]

In terms of how badly you've f'd your GPA, the answer is: not that bad. You have 3 (or more) years to change your GPA through good work.

That said, this your wake up call. Every bad grade from hereon out is just going to make it worse. The closer you are to graduation, the less reversible those GPA hits are.

As was said, this is college. There aren't going to be teachers, parents or councilors letting you know you're f'ing up. They're only going to tell you when you've completely blown it and are in real trouble. It's completely on you to avoid backsliding.

[Darkmere]

I don't check here very often, so I wish I'd seen this sooner.

Is this still a thing, did you get it sorted out?

[Gentlefish]

Yeah, it's all sorted out. Turns out I'm able to retake the class; the friendly failure e-mail that came in today told me that. I'm on academic probation, but that'll clear up after next semester when I kick my sorry ass into gear. I kind of can't wait for the semester to start just to get everything sorted out.

I mostly just needed to get this off my chest, thank you all for listening and the advice you gave. I knew I liked bay12 for a reason. Guess it's time to lock this thread.