some people not meant to be students?

[Derek]

Do you think there is a student "gene?" If so, I certainly don't have one. I've been taking light loads every semester of college and spreading the rest into summer courses the entire time, and I still have a mediocre 3.1 GPA.  Note this is an engineering major---very difficult and time consuming material.

This semester I am dropping a class which is actually in my major which for some reason or other I internally decided to completely ignore.

Fortunately I'm enjoying my other two computer science classes, my piano lessons, and my music theory class.

I'll end up going a fifth year---I'm just grateful my dad works at the university I go to so I get a huge rake off and don't have to keep a certain course load in order to retain financial aid or what not.

But the bottom line is I think I'm just not cut out to be a student. I dunno how I made it even this far. I've re-taken three courses, two of which I dropped failing, and now here's a fourth.

I seem incapable of focusing hard on a dry textbook for hours at a time and absorbing concepts quickly and solidly. ...I've often wondered if I have attention deficit disorder but nobody in my family will allow me to think that.

At least I found an internship that I find interesting and look forward to working at every day---all graphics programming stuff. I'm going to learn more there than I've learned in all of college about programming. Isn't that sad? I am convinced my major exists only to show software firms how much I am willing to bleed.

[allthumbs]

Well if you think it's tough going now, wait until you get into the working world, you'll wish you were a student again and had tried harder!


Cheers

allthumbs

[Siberian Husky]

There is no such thing as people who just arent "meant to be students"...a definition of a student isnt bounded by academics or the scholastic state of mind...we are, and forever will be students. We continue to learn involuntarily, from learning a simple oil changes, to keepingtrack of gas prices. Calculating taxes on items before the purchase, or remember name brands of familiar items. Your world is forever feeding you with information, and it is human nature to advance in your comprehension and understanding of the world you live in. Learning is a capacity we all are capable of, but it is one's will that eventually determines the threshold of this particular capacity,

I frown upon those who dont choose to persue an education simply because they believe they are not "student material." Before i continue, i am not blind to intervening obstacles that can seriously detain an individual from attenting school and bettering his/her education and window of opportunity. This includes but are not limited to: financial instability, tribulation in life, conflict with lifestyle, and or passionate believes, whether they be religious, self conceived, or without explainable reason. It is easy to identify a person who doesnt persue education because it simply cannot be an option in their life, and those who turn their nose up to the idea with the "reasoning" that they feel there is no sense of belonging or place for them in the world of schooling or education.

I have friends who constantly answer me with the "college isnt for me" or "im not good with school"...these are just reflections of their WILL, in my opinion. Lazy is what these people come off to me, because i know the opportunity is there for them, i know money is not an issue, but they believe they are making good money at 12 dollars at hour as a receptionist or retail manager. This is of course the easy way out, im getting off topic so let me retrack my train of thought

To answer your question, in my humble opinion, no i do not believe there are types of people who just "arent student material." Simply because of what i stated above, we are all and forever will be students, its just school and organized education is a very pressuring form of information induction that one must have the WILL to reach for.

It is not the instructors job to teach the student, it is the students job to learn from the instructor

[timothy42b]

Derek,

A couple of thoughts.

First of all, there is a measure of academic interest that you probably have a score for.  I am sure that somewhere along the way you took something called the Strong-Campbell Vocational Interest Inventory, or something like that.  (I haven't worked in that field for a long time.)  There is a score there called Academic Orientation.  I would look up that score.  If you don't know it, go to your student counseling center and ask for help on career counseling, that's the first thing they'll give you.  (I know, I used to work at one.)  Anyway, some people just don't like school, regardless of what field they are in. 

Secondly, you might be in the wrong field.  I'm an engineer and think it's great, but you always have to balance interest vs abilities.  Again the student counseling center is usually pretty good at helping you clarify your thoughts on this kind of thing, and it's free.  They are good at what they do most, and career choice is the biggest thing people go to them for. 

Third.  I think I was a lot like you my first time in undergraduate.  I had trouble staying on track and doing my work, though I found time for music, various sports, etc.  I was always beating myself up for being lazy and undisciplined, and if I hadn't been considerably smarter than my fellow students I would have failed a bunch of classes.  Years later I went back for another degree, and things were different.  From experience and doing a lot of reading, I have come to the conclusion that much of it was not my fault, and that some medication might have made things completely different.  You'd have to go to a particularly understanding family doctor on this, and I don't know how you'd find a good one.  But it is worth exploring.  Somehow you have to get through the next couple of years, and just telling yourself to buckle down and do it doesn't always work. 

[bananafish]

Perhaps, the problem isn't you (at least entirely.)

The image of being a college student alleviates a lot of prejudices. Say, if you are an excellent, super hardworking student pianist practicing eight hours a day, studying with a private teacher instead of a music major in college, people (non/not serious piano players, which most likely, most people around you) will probably think that you have a lot of free time sitting at home doing yoga and waiting the sky to fall. So, the pressure's on. Go to college and choose an admirable major that you hate, and loath to the wind and grass that you are not made to be a 'college' student material.

The problem is, that you might not be a college meteral, even if, you do study music (or any other pursuit of happiness). Of course, the key word here is being a 'college' student material, not high school. Why? Just look at the way that colleges are going today. Okay, you get your music major underway, what they do is make you take all those useless GEs (at least, according to the University of California standard) that do nothing but hinder you from giving your 100 percent concentration on your study of interest. (What in the world would, say an English or Music major need to take three courses of math up to pre-calc? And of course, how about a Math major to take Asian American studies?) Especially, the tuition is soaring higher and higher! The UCs, compare to three years ago, has increased it's quarterly (three months) tuition around, er, 100%. Think about it, the tuition, doubled, and all those GE requirements postpone students from graduating when they've taken all their major courses, for at least, two, three quarters or very likely more (3Quarters=one school year.) To simplify the calculation, the current UC tuition/Quarter runs a little over $2000 dollars. Each student stays for a full year because of those imbecilic GEs, he/she has to pay $6000 more, and half of them graduate indebt without the holy promise of finding a well-paid job afterwards.

So, of course there are people realizing the above and decide that they are not "college" materials. But to say that one's not a "student" material is totally non-existent. One can be a student in anything under the sun, let it be a shoe maker's apprentice, you are still a student (and should be repected for it).

Perhaps what your majoring now isn't right, or actually, the classes that your college provides suck. Whichever it is, between a bad educational system and a lazy student, there's a place for each and one of us, the hard thing is to find it and act upon it. So, to end my humble thoughts, I believe the current educational system is running like a profitable bank, and the cause for students to despise education might not be the genetics.

[musik_man]

At Texas A&M 80% of the Fish Engineers end up not graduating from the engineering school.  So if you can stick in there, you're a good student.  You chose a hard major.  No need to beat yourself up over a 3.1.

BTW what type of engineering are you?  (I'm mechanical)