so can you change it to be a pass grade? will your teacher go along wth it? is there still time to do it?

spoken so wisely.

yeh thanks a lot guys. i'll keep you updated, if you care.

If you can't get out of it, biting the bullet and talking to your teacher about your problems is easily the way to go. Though some on here are counseling you that an F won't matter, you gotta think long term dog. I did well enough to keep ajanky scholarship, but not well enough to cruise into the law schools I am looking at (something I conveniently never really thought about, probably for a lot of the reasons chase enumerates above.)

I did, however, talk TWO teachers into moving my grades from Fs (and not just like 60%, like 29%, to a full on C so I could gradjimate....so, there's always that option. Good luck, dude. Sounds like yr. gonna need it.

Classes failed

Community College
Microeconomics
Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking
College Algebra II (failed twice, never ended up passing it)

I transferred to finish my BS at Evergreen in Olympia, WA. Granted not a tough school to get into. Now Im a Master's student at University of Washington. Although I personally feel a little dumb for never passing the algebra class(just didn't go to class), I'm now a aquatic science Master's student.

my friend is thinking about dropping a class in law school just this week, right before finals because he got in a big fight with the professor. what sucks about law school is that a c is basically a failure as everything is so damn competitive.

(for the future, I guess...)

For me, writing all comes down to one big thing... making a point. If I have a point to make, I'm fine except for going through the motions of committing it to paper, fine tuning, etc. But if I haven't really formulated any serious point to make, and am just wandering around trying to say nothing in particular, I'm screwed and the ship shall sink.

Boil it down. Latch onto something worth saying, and don't take your eyes off it. The rest sorts itself out.

is there any option of retaking the class and wiping out the F?

ok first, have you applied for financial aid? you can apply for a fafsa to see if it will give you fin. aid... also, there's a fee waiver that waives the fees of your classes (not sure if this is only a CA thing, but it has helped me tremendously in paying for school).

secondly, for future reference... if you do have a F on your transcript, talk to your counselor. i failed plenty of classes when i was at UCI, then when i dropped out and eventually transferred to a community college- they only transferred the classes i passed and applied that towards my undergrad. then when i got to community college, i was going on/off because i've been working full-time for the past 4-5 years, so i failed a couple of classes and had a withdrawal from one. i was really worried about this because i want to hurry up and get my undergrad (whenever the hell that will be) and my ba. grad school possibly, but i'm not concerned about that right now. anyway, my counselor "lined out" the F's, just as long as i retake the classes and do well. so now by him doing that, my gpa was slightly raised and i don't have any f's or withdrawal's on my transcript. talk with your counselor about options, they help a lot. and if you're concerned about grades, they also give a lot of insight about choosing the right classes etc.

and when you're under pressure, it's really hard to concetrate on writing. i'm in the same boat right now trying to write my final paper (which will make or break my grade of passing this damn class) and i've had writer's block... talk with your professor if you're slumped, brainstorm and jot down your ideas, eventually it will come to you.

in any case whatever you decide to do, best of luck. hope my jibber-jabber helps some.

"tough it out, start writing, do your best"

it sounds like you have a lot on your plate and these things are either "way too overbearing and you can't stand it and really you're in way over your head" or "your just making a lot of excuses to not change your habits." if you find that your study and writing habits are preventing you from succeeding, change them, because nobody else is going to.

i'm very particular about the way i write: i hate doing 2nd and 3rd drafts, i want my 1st draft to be perfect, and i just like taking 2-3 hours to sit down and punch things out. when i started my job, and my job demands that i do little things to a website every 15 minutes or so AND to write a story in between those times, i panicked. i was either going to fail (i simply refuse to write in between each 15 minute nuisance) or i will succeed (i change my habits and the way i write). my stories will not write themselves. your essays won't either.

I think you need to figure out what you actually want to do.

When I first went to college I just picked any old course, got there, hated it, didn't feel motivated to actually go to any classes or do any work and after two years of "but I've got to force myself to do this" eventually dropped out.

Over the last ten years or so of 'real life' I've developed interests independantly of any curriculum that I'm really into and which I'm actually serious about and really want to study and work hard in, so I'm going back to do that.

Maybe you need a period like that to figure out what exactly you're really interested in.

also andy, don't forget that you're still young. be fortunate that you have an opportunity to finish school at your age and that you at least know what you want to do. (i know it sounds so cliche, but it's true). i mean, it took me 4-5 years to get on track with college... i'm almost 25 still working on my undergrad you know? if i could go back and change things, i would but i figure it's better late than never. it's so easy to get discourage, but you have to stop and think about what you want. don't take classes that you know you won't like- it lessens your motivation to do well.

i think that i was 27 when i graduated undergrad with 186 credit hours.

what, are you getting dusty with nostalgia?

I did the opposite, going straight through and finishing as quick as I could, but for similar reasons. I know me, and if I had taken anything really hard back then, I wouldve failed / dropped out. I just took what was interesting and declared a major in it, and now I have a $20,000 degree that's real damn hard to make any money with.

I don't recommend my route either. If you don't know what you want to do with a degree yet (sounds like you might) then stop taking calsses, you're wasting time and money.

maybe a little, it's been almost a year. i think i'm due, damnit.

i was just tellnig a coworker that i remember approx. 9% of what I learned in the entirety of college. Other than tequila recipes and how to treat hardy annuals. oh, and how to pad the SHIT out of a term paper.

9% is quite a bit to remember...all I remember from college is how to mix drinks. Hell I don't even remember my classes from last semester.

I was interviewing for a PR job with a company in san francisco one time and the interview asked me what I learned about marketing in college (business major)...I almost burst out laughing...all I could get to were the 4 p's of marketing (price, place, product, promotion) - needless to say I did not get the job.

Not to go bucky or anything, but you folks make me feel accomplished. I remember almost all of my professor's names, what I got in each class and what the curriculum covered, and I didn't buy books past my freshman year.

I always knew that this wasa haven for liberalism, but open not giving a fuck and telling a kid an F won't kill him is kinda bullshit. It could seriously fuck up what you want to do and i think you need to consider that.

i would NEVER let myself fail a class. Fuck I wouldn't let myself fail quantum physics, even if the only solution was a brain transplant with Stephen fucking Hawking. I'm not syaing you gotta be Mr. Junior Achiever, but one of the things getting older gives you is a little perspective. You do need to figure out what you want to do, but you can easily do that in college. I knew for a fact that writing on a daily deadline was not for me, but that the J-School at UGA was much better/more prestigious thanthat of the History or PoliSci schools, so I toughed it out. I was totally going to drop out, but my pops made me think otherwise and I shudder to think what I would be doing if I had done that.

Buckle Down, get the shit done and move on. Maybe take a lighter or more refined load next semester, but don't just quit.

*** OK, how THE FUCK did I become a voice of reason around here?***

Whereas telling him an F he can't avoid without putting the squeeze on his own mother is the end of the world is really going to take the pressure off enough that he can relax and just write already. If he knows what he wants to do and it doesn't take a passing grade in this class to get there, killing himself over it isn't going to work. If a few years into being a history teacher he changes his mind, he'll be a 'returning student' and thus assessed under somewhat different criteria--one F will not kill him.

I flunked physics in HS, for a number of reasons, and my advisor just signed off on my doctoral dissertation. I had great financial aid throughout my HE career. It didn't hurt me one tiny bit. Maybe that's a flaw in the system, but that's the system he's working in.

This is like therapy!

Sweet sassy molassey, we're all screwed.

The F is avoidable, that's what I think the deal is here. It'sc alled life: sometimes you gotta do shit you don't like. It sounds like he has worked it out, I was just kind of shocked at how many people were so nonchalant about choosing to fail a class. I would advise cheating over getting an F and would probably write the paper for dude if he asked me free of charge.

No, its not the end of the world, especially if he trends upward over the next few years, but i think most on this board are pretty educated and understand the need for education, as does contradiction, obviously. I just know I wish someone had explained to me the consequences of just squeaking by. Learning lessons the hard way ain't always the best way.

Make the essay your own, twist what your professor wants into something that you can write about and will be interesting to you.

I have four F's on my record. Long, horrible story.

It hasn't stopped me from getting financial aid. I've worked my GPA up to 3.5 now, and all the F's were in lower division classes, so I'm hoping I can get into grad school.

I'm pretty worried about it though. If I were you I would write a bad essay, screaming in hatred the whole time, and just turn it in. Getting a B, or even a C, is MUCH better than getting an F.