I’m kinda not sure how this happened. I was such a good student in undergrad. I was regularly ranked in the top 5% students out of classes with 100+ students total. I dual majored in finance and statistics.
I was an excellent programmer. I also did well in my math classes.
I got accepted into many grad school programs, and now I’m struggling to even pass, which feels really weird to me
Here are a couple of my theories as to why this may be happening
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Lack of time to study. I’m in a different/busier stage of life. I’m working full time, have a family, and a pretty long commute. In undergrad, I could dedicate basically the whole day to studying, working out, and just having fun. Now I’m lucky if I get more than an hour to study each day.
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My undergrad classes weren’t as rigorous as I thought, and maybe my school had an easy program. I don’t know. I still got such good grades and leaned so much. So idk. I also excel in my job and use the skills I learned in school a lot
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I’m just not as good at graduate level coursework. Maybe I mastered easier concepts in undergrad well but didn’t realize how big of a jump in difficulty grad school would be
Anyway, has this happened to anyone else????
It just feels so weird to go from being a undergrad who did so well and even had professors commenting on my programming and math creativity to a struggling grad student who is barely passing. I’m legit worried I’ll fail out of the program and not graduate
Advice? I love math. Or at least I used to….
Edit: thank you everyone for the helpful comments. It’s helpful to get some insight from people in academia. Looks like I need to lighten my schedule so I have more time to devote to my studies
Comments
Grad school is usually a full time job unless explicitly a part time program.
It sounds like you are in a more rigorous program but you have less time to devote to your studies, so it’s understandable that you’re struggling.
Consider dropping to part time for the masters. I assume it’s course based moreso than research based? Take one class at a time.
Graduate courses are more challenging, but to answer you directly, no graduate students typically do very well in their courses. They’re just taking a few credits and can focus more time on doing well.
My experience with grad stats is that it basically tries to drain your will to live in the first year. I was doing a stats MS along side my natural resources PhD for a spell and ended up dropping the stats MS because I found it to be too consuming.
I was doing the elective work no problem, but the required classes I found to be really frustrating for some reason. I think this is in part due to the faculty at my particular institution.
I have friends with undergrads in math/stats, and they struggled in the grad level stats curriculum for a bit too.
My advice? Figure out what you’re doing that is working, and make that more efficient.
If you have less time to study, figure out how to power through it efficiently. Eat better. Sleep more. Nap if you need it. Try and find more time to think about the topics instead of cramming facts into your brain.
Grad school is about teaching yourself, and figuring out how to do the work well. If you don’t have the time you need in the day to do the work, then you need to make whatever time you have left efficient and meaningful. Don’t waste your time doing things that don’t work.
a MS in Stats requires around 20 hrs per week per class of studying. i’d have been scared stiff if i was limited to 1 hour of studying a day in grad school.
Classes are harder and you’re devoting less time to the material, it’s pretty straight forward. Generally I wouldn’t recommend full time level graduate work for someone currently also working a full time job. You just don’t have the necessary time to put into the work.
Need to be involved and all for help. Go to office hours. Engage with material at a deeper level
Yes.
1) grad school courses prepare you to be an expert in your field and the rigor reflects that. Your life might not be conducive for a MSc at those moment.
2) depending on your undergraduate institution, GPA can be meaningless. Grade inflation at the college level is a legitimate concern.
One more factor to consider – pretty much all the students in grad school were in the top 5-10% of their undergrad. They are all really good students. Most of them want to continue being top students in grad school, but half of them will end up in the bottom 50%. Well, that sucks, so they put in extra effort, work harder, and study more to get into the top half. Everyone steps up their game. Generally speaking, students either level up or they accept being in the bottom group
It sounds like you have it figured out, but I thought I would reiterate a few points: Grad school is harder than undergrad. Those admitted are generally all from the upper ranks of their undergraduate cohorts. The classes cover more material and move faster than undergraduate courses, and the performance expectations are higher. Almost everyone has to up their game to perform well at the graduate level. Few people can do well in a full-time MS program while also working full-time. An hour per day studying isn’t remotely enough. A good rule of thumb is around two hours studying for each hour you spend in the classroom. That’s why 12-15 credit-hours is considered a full-time course load.
As someone who experienced this earlier in their education.
It’s the time-100%
You’ve gotta balance. I didn’t the first time around and failed out hard.
I’m an A student most of the time.
Number 1 set realistic goals.
I came to terms that sometimes there were gonna be emergencies that meant I couldn’t get things in and that meant I was a B or more student and that’s okay.
Also I go down to part time when I have to.
Immediately, if I read the syllabus and sometimes email the professor and realize it will be far too much work for way too little return compared to my other classes
I drop hard and fast.
Number 2 I have a hospot and I engineered peoples activities, schedules, chores to give me at least 30 minutes 4-7 times a day.
I study in my car at my steering wheel desk.
Then I booked the small ones Saturdays so that in the morning i have at least 3 hours at a coffee shop for projects.
I pick them up for two hours we go home, bowling, etc. Etc. Something to give us meaningful productive rejuvenation and bonding quality time.
Then I drop them back off for another 3 hours.
Then home.
I study for 1.5 hours after everyone’s asleep. Sometimes out in my car or in the basement.
I have a dog and I need to be able to set out enrichment that I can monitor easily and won’t wake up the family.
Sundays-work from 8-2 home before 2:30.
I work on the house, chores, house projects, meal prep, things that I can’t do while I’m also juggling the family during the week.
Which is only a few things.
I study before dinner for about 25 minutes-it’s usually just familiarizing myself with the week and getting an idea of what to do when.
Idk if this is helpful to you but this is what’s worked for me.
Also hook up with your schools nontraditional students union.
It’s a vibe and a good place to just chill with people’s whose hair is also falling out.