Feeling hopless😓

[me_era (Meera Shah)]

I’m a student at SCS and I genuinely love computer science and the content of my classes. However, ever since I joined, I’ve been struggling. I’ve failed multiple classes due to severe test anxiety, and my mental health has taken a significant hit. Despite trying not to let my academic performance define my self-worth, I feel completely devalued. I have no internships lined up, and I’m uncertain about graduating on time. I’ve sought all possible assistance here, including CAPS and accommodations, but nothing seems to help. I feel utterly disheartened. Should I consider dropping out?

[Abhay_Saxena (Abhay)]

Cs get degrees. I owned a recruiting firm for more than a decade and not once did a company ask about a candidate's GPA. It might be relevant in landing a first job, but once somebody has been out of school for a few years nobody cares about GPA. A good friend of mine left CMU after a tough semester of earning close to zero credits. He later went on to get three masters degrees and a doctorate from U.C. Berkeley, and is now a grad school professor at a top ranked university.

If you don’t like CS, that is a bigger issue than a few bad grades. Perhaps consider transferring to Tepper with a focus on IS, or a different major in MCS or Dietrich that is more appealing to you as a career path.

[_sharmapratham]

@me_era

I’m a student at SCS and I genuinely love computer science and the content of my classes. However, ever since I joined, I’ve been struggling. I’ve failed multiple classes due to severe test anxiety, and my mental health has taken a significant hit. Despite trying not to let my academic performance define my self-worth, I feel completely devalued. I have no internships lined up, and I’m uncertain about graduating on time. I’ve sought all possible assistance here, including CAPS and accommodations, but nothing seems to help. I feel utterly disheartened. Should I consider dropping out?

People don’t get their confidence and motivation from thin air. It is easy for others to go “you just gotta have confidence”, but you gotta need a reason to feel motivated.

What you really need is to engineer small wins. Set specific, achievable targets, and knock them out one by one.

When your drive is strong you can afford to work backwards. Some students do this - they start by choosing an endpoint they want to pursue, then work backwards to what they need to do.

When you’re in a hole, however, you need to work forward. What can you do today? What can do tomorrow? Choose a very specific topic in one of your current courses. Set aside a full day to try to understand what is going on there. You have to build up a healthy quantity of “things I’ve accomplished” to feel the drive to work towards something bigger.

All the best

[_sharmapratham]

@Abhay_Saxena

Cs get degrees. I owned a recruiting firm for more than a decade and not once did a company ask about a candidate’s GPA. It might be relevant in landing a first job, but once somebody has been out of school for a few years nobody cares about GPA. A good friend of mine left CMU after a tough semester of earning close to zero credits. He later went on to get three masters degrees and a doctorate from U.C. Berkeley, and is now a grad school professor at a top ranked university.

If you don’t like CS, that is a bigger issue than a few bad grades. Perhaps consider transferring to Tepper with a focus on IS, or a different major in MCS or Dietrich that is more appealing to you as a career path.

This is a great advice too!