Concerned Undergrad--Should I Transfer?

Hi, I'm not extremely familiar with the site, nor do I even remotely expect any replies to a post like this. I'm kinda interested in IB but also a little in actuarial, I haven't chosen what I want to pursue just yet.

I'm a freshman at Stern Undergrad, and I just completed my first semester. I have only received grades for two of my four classes, but since one of them is a C and the other an A-, I'm basically scared. Really scared. Guessing my approximate grades for the other two classes, I end up no higher than a 3.0, 3.1 if I luck out. I know the applications and interviews and internships from my junior to senior year matter a lot more than just freshman classes, but at the same time I fear my gpa will be devastatingly low at that point in time.

Let me cut to the chase: knowing the kind of placement AND rigor that Stern has, should I transfer out to a lower level school where my grades might excel? (I live in NYS, so I was considering Binghamton or Baruch, for starters). I'm so terrified of what's going to happen to my future, and I just want to remedy any problems that might come up even if it means transferring out to another school.

I hope somebody can help me. I'm not looking for pity or optimism, I'm looking for a logical answer. I want to know what to do and why, because frankly I'm scared shitless.

Thank you, whoever may actually read this post. Please respond if you have any ideas, and again thank you.

 

dude, why the fuck would you transfer after one semester with a 3.0 GPA. instead of running from your problems, figure out how you can turn this boat around. finance isn't rocket science. If you're a reasonably intelligent individual, I don't see why you can't get that GPA up to 3.4-3.5 by end of sophomore year if you bust ass and work smart.

 

It's your first semester and you have two grades, plenty of people fuck up the first semester or year, or their first two years and still wind up fine. Breathe, relax, get all of your grades and do a post-mortem on them. Why did you get the A-, where did you go right? Why did you get the C, where did you go wrong? You're better with a 3.1, 3.2 at a target than a 3.7 at a non-target.

 

Just got another grade, it's a B-, which I seriously expected at least a B in. My last class I expect to get a B or B-, keeping my first semester at around a 2.7/2.8 at the very best. sigh

I'm just concerned that things will get increasingly more difficult and impossible to manage. Will a change in attitude and study habits be enough to bring my gpa up? Or is it simply that 85% of Stern is smarter than me and I'll always fall at the bottom of the Stern curve? Will a 3.1/3.2 be enough for IB/Actuarial?

It seems so far that most people believe I should stay and just make sure I work harder, but I'm going to give it a few more days/weeks and see what the general consensus is.

Thanks a lot, whoever replied, I'll keep all of these things in mind.

 

kids that excel in school generally fall into a couple categories: 1) they're really smart or 2) they work hard and work smart. If you're not in group 1, you better be in group 2. You seem to think the root cause of your problems is Stern. It's probably not (If you said you were struggling with algebraic topology at MIT, I could understand). Find the root cause of your problems and fix it (it's probably study habits). Don't run at the first sign of trouble. A first semester 2.7/2.8 is not game over. btw, not everybody needs to be a GS to PE MF all-star.

 
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