This is a particularly
interesting prompt to think about now that I am a senior at the University of
Illinois. Throughout my career as a student, I have been asked where I see myself
in five to ten years and the steps I will take to achieve my goals and aspirations.
It being my last year of college, it’s a good time to look back at some of the
decisions I have made, and how they’ve affected me. It’s easy for me to look
back and say I could have done this or that differently, but generally I feel
like I have made moves that have put me in a position to be successful.
However, on the topic of income risk, the choices I made as an incoming college
freshman may have increased it.
Coming into as a freshman I was a declared Statistics and
Computer Science major. When applying to U of I, I was torn between choosing a
Stats and CS major or a major in Finance. I ultimately went with the CS major
due to the increasing demand for this degree as our society becomes more and
more technologically dependent. However, after completing a CS class I decided
that the major was not for me. The business aspect of companies and
organizations is what I am truly interested in, and my personality and
attributes fit well with what is needed to be successful.
As I came to find out, the College of Business is
extremely competitive and challenging to transfer into. They require
approximately a 3.8 GPA to be able to switch your major to business degree. Since
my GPA was not high enough, I did not get accepted. Economics was my clear
second choice seeing as it relates to the business world. The only issue I had
with is was that it required you to take both Calculus 1 and Calculus 2. I am
fairly strong in mathematics, but the university gears their calculus classes
towards engineering, making them very challenging. I was confident I would do
fine in Calc 1 but was worried that Calc 2 could hurt my GPA. I neglected to
take them on campus on chose to complete them at the local community college by
my house during the summer sessions. I would have liked to complete calc 1 on
campus however, ECC requires their students to take both levels on their campus
to receive credit.
So each summer of my college career I took a class, in
order: 4th level of Spanish, Calculus 1, Calculus 2. In addition, I
worked part time for a company called McKesson to make some money. However, this ultimately hindered my chances of landing
any internships that related specifically to the career I would like to pursue
(Consulting, Commercial banking). This is because most internships, on top of
being in Chicago, required their interns to work 40 hrs a week. It was just
impossible for me to to work a full day, catch the train, and make it to the community college at a reasonable time.
It has been a struggle for me to secure an interview with several firms I have
applied to without any strong resume builders. Unfortunately, this may lead to
a long and stressful job search resulting in a salary that is lower than I
desire/deserve.
As for debt, I know that I will have some student loans
to pay off which were needed to be taken out so I could attend The U of I. I have
been lucky enough to have two very loving and hard working parents that have
helped me pay for a great deal of my tuition, lightening my load as I take my
first steps into the real world.
Yours is the first post I've read where it might be sensible to critique your decision making at the tactical level. Whether what is said below makes sense to you or not, the issue is with the road not taken and the risk entailed with that.
ReplyDeleteFrom what you wrote, I gathered that you otherwise didn't have to take summer classes. You did that because of the fear of calculus at the U of I and getting a bad grade in that class. But if you had done that, you would have freed up your summers for something else and maybe you'd have landed an internship then. So the alternative, which clearly has some risk to it, would have been to take the match on campus, double your efforts in it to see if you could get a tolerable grade when doing that, and in any event try for an internship after that.
Now for the way to consider the thinking. While your GPA may be higher with the route you did take, if the taking summer classes blocked getting an internship, does the GPA otherwise have an asset value sufficient to offset that? If not, what you achieved is a pyrrhic victory. If, in fact, there is some asset value to the GPA in ultimately landing you a good job, I hope you can say something about that in your response to this comment.
Now a days, it is crucial for a student to maintain a good GPA. From what I have been told via relatives and older friends, is that most employers will not give a student the time of day if there application does not have a GPA listed at or above a 3.0. As we discussed today, your GPA represents the time and effort an individual puts in to receive their degree. Generally, any student with a GPA below a 3.0 will lead an employer to believe that the individual will not be able to put the work in to succeed.
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