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April 28, 2008If there is any one thing I wish I knew earlier before I got to college, it would be the strategy of when to take classes. I started my college career at a community college for a year, and then transfered to where I am now (graduating from), Radford University. I have a total of nine classes that successfully transfered here and counted towards my degree. However, all of the classes I took were General Education and intro level classes. The key secret is that ANY CLASS WITH A GRADE OF “C” GRADE OR HIGHER WILL TRANSFER AND NOT HURT YOUR GPA! Now, you can do what you want with this knowledge — but, knowing this should be pretty simple to say: TAKE YOUR HARD CLASSES AT A COMMUNITY COLLEGE!
Lets put this in simple terms:
1)Say you take Intro to Biology at your university and get a C. This hurts your GPA. If you get straight A’s, you get a 4.0. Straight B’s 3.0, C’s 2.0, etc. This means that you got a “2″ for that class, and since it is most likely 4 credits, it will hurt more, because other standard classes are 3 credits.
2) However, if you take the same class, get the same exact grade, your GPA will not be affected at all, and you will still receive credit for taking it. Simply - if you get a “C”, then it will transfer, and be “checked-off” on your academic requirements, thats it. However, the same thing applies if you get a good grade like an “A” - it will NOT HELP your GPA, but just count for your requirements. This is where I messed up.
I took the following nine courses at a community college:
| BIO 105 | ACTG 212 | STAT 200 | MGNT 111 | MATH 104 | HIST 112 | ENGL 102 | ENGL 101 | COMM 114 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | C | C | A | A | A | A | A | A |
| GOOD | GOOD | GOOD | BAD | BAD | BAD | BAD | BAD | BAD |
The ones with “C” grades are labeled “GOOD” because I got a “bad grade”, it transfered, counted towards my degree, but did not hurt my GPA. The ones with “A” grades are labeled “BAD” because I got a “good grade”, it transfered, coutned towards my degree, but did NOT help my GPA. Whereas, if I took the six easy classes at my university, I would have a much overall GPA.
I learned this later in my college career, and benefited slightly. I took ACTG 211 (HARD CLASS!!) and got a C here. It hurt my GPA slightly. I knew that ACTG 212 would be much harder, so I took it over the summer (night class) and had it transfered in. Helped a lot.
Summary:
Take hard classes at community college - help GPA (and cheaper!)
Take easy classes at university - help GPA
Good luck!
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