Too much, too fast, too soon
With freshman year winding down, looking back there were so many things I SHOULD have done but didn't. This post isn't a cry for sympathy, but perhaps some can relate with the abundance of Type-A personalities in finance.
Even in high-school, I knew that I wanted a career in finance. I've always been keen on learning as much as possible on a given topic, so coming into college I knew substantially more than my peers. I've always had this idea that the professional life would be infinitely times more rewarding than academics, telling myself that I can't wait to finish so I can move onto "real life".
Sure my initial knowledge impressed my peers and upper years, but the closer I got to the end of the semester the quicker it became a reality. I was so focused on what was ahead that I didn't realize my GPA were slipping right under my nose. What good is a stupid psychology course to a career in banking anyways?
In retrospect, my knowledge didn't mean shit. Without the GPA you won't get past the screening process, and the focused will crush whatever incremental edge I had over them in an instant.
What that being said, have any of you monkeys gone through this? How do you keep yourself grounded?
Be thankful you had this revelation at the end of your first year, and not the end of senior year. Trust me, I know the feeling of suddenly looking at your GPA and going, "Hmmmm... That can't be right, can it?" What are you focusing on that is taking away from your GPA?
You need to step back and enjoy the journey, stop taking everything so seriously. Everyone gets into funks sometimes and want to skip ahead to the end result, but unfortunately, 90% of the end result is getting there (probably more). So calm down and go out there and get after it, that way you won't regret anything later.
Or, you can just wing it, have an absolute blast and figure everything else out later. Worked out decently for me all things considered. Hopefully that was somewhat helpful.
First off, what are you doing that you're not doing well in psych 101? That's a gpa booster, not something you don't do well in. I'm hoping you're not jerking off to the idea of working full time post college.
Do your best academically but enjoy your college years and live in the moment for a bit. You have a lifetime of work ahead of you but only four years of college. Have fun. Do stupid drunk things, screw as many girls/boys as possible, make mistakes, take lit/philosophy/art/science classes and learn something you're not going to have time for when you're grinding 80 hour weeks and make and enjoy your friends because chances are you're not going to make friends like that again (or at least in that great of a number) when you're older. Plan for the future but don't live for it.
And just get good grades. Unless you're an electrical engineer or astrophysics major college is pretty easy. Especially a finance major.
Greatest regret. And it's not really that difficult if you section off time between lectures or on certain evenings. Something I never did and regret, since my down time would be spent doing fuck all, drinking, recovering, or moaning about how much work there was to do. Hopefully I'll come out of this with a First class. Hopefully.
OP you need to build the discipline to work at the right time, in the right location, and hit grade targets. Especially if you're failing piss easy classes. Everything is easy if you take the time to focus on understanding topics you don't pick up instantly. This from someone who is currently struggling to understand multi-electron quantum interactions in atoms because he didn't listen in lectures or do any work.
Work between lectures. Be "lame" and sit in the library and do work. Do sport, do ECs, party really fucking hard and by jove make sure you find the after parties. And go bang a load of girls if you find that fulfilling. Uni is so full of girls, they'll be hitting on you as much as you hit on them.
One last thing to piggy back off your last point. I didn't realize until way too late, generally once I graduated, that a lot of those 'non-lame' party types were actually studying and getting their stuff done. Don't let perception fool you into thinking you are missing out on something or lagging behind your peers in being liked and hanging out.
It's all about finding a good balance. Good luck on doing a better job of that than I did.
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