7 GPA Killers to Avoid in College
I was thinking about grades, and GPAs the other day. After contemplating it for a while, I decided that there are certain things in college that can have a negative effects have a negative effect on your grades. Since I’m a fan of lists (as many readers may know already), I’ve come up with 7 G.P.A. killers you’ll face in college. There not really ranked, as I’m listing them off the top of my head.
1. World of Warcraft – This not only has the potential to be a GPA killer; it’s can almost be a GPA eviscerater. When I was an RA, some of the students who were supremely addicted to WoW rarely ever went to class, stayed up at all hours of the night (doing raids I assume), ate a lot of pizza and didn’t talk to women (unless they were online characters). Any MMORPG can make it quite difficult to maintain academic focus. Why study when you can upgrade your character’s skills and get some gold after doing a mission (the first sign of addiction is if doing this takes priority over eating or sleeping)? So, if you are willing to pay the fee to play, then be very careful and watch those grades. Here’s a tip, reward yourself with WoW. If you get an A on a test, say, “Okay, now I can go do that raid with my guild.” Or, if you have homework, say to yourself “After I finish this paper, I’ll complete two quests.” Then everybody wins and your parents won’t call you wondering why your highest grade is a D-. Interestingly enough, online gaming hours have decreased recently. Maybe people are starting to realize how MMO addiction can become a huge problem, and so they are taking steps to manage their time..
2.Oblivion and other RPGs – Okay, so if World of Warcraft is the king of GPA killing, then most RPGs are at least princes or knights. I, for one, am completely addicted to Oblivion. It’s probably unhealthy. I just can’t stop upgrading my character and completing quests. My suggestion for this type of addiction is the same as the aforementioned World of Warcraft addiction; use it as a reward for completing tasks.
3. Relationships – Now, I’m not being negative, I’m just being realistic. When you get in a college relationship, your grades will most likely suffer. Of course everyone’s different. However, if you are anything like me, you think it’s much more fun to hang out with your significant other than study. If you are in a real serious relationship, then stress from fights can be enough to mess with your grades as well. If you’re in a long distance relationship, then those long weekends you spend going to see your boyfriend or girlfriend at his or her campus will undoubtedly have an adverse affect on your education. Also, make sure it’s even worth trying the long distance thing, because the stress will also hurt your grades. So, my suggestion is once again to use the reward technique. Allow yourself to hang out with your significant other only AFTER you’ve completed your assignments. If you do badly on a test because you didn’t study, then try skipping seeing you’re loved one for a weekend and spend it studying instead. Beware of college relationships anyway, because sometimes you can get really burned.
4. Excessive Partying – I won’t name any specific schools, but oh you wish I would. That sentence didn’t even make sense, and it could be a result of excessive partying. Going out on a Friday and Saturday is all fine and dandy. It leaves Sunday open to nursing a hangover and studying. However, if you start thinking about “Wasted Wednesday,” or “Thirsty Thursday,” (assuming you have a class that meets on Fridays) and the like, you may be partying a bit too much, and it will show in your grades. I remember my I would have loved to go, but he was calling me on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. As I’ve said before, skipping class is basically burning money, so I wasn’t about go out when I had a 9:30AM lecture to go to. We all know alcohol and other substances kill brain cells, but that’s not the central issue. If your whole life becomes about partying, then your GPA will definitely take a nosedive. I’m going to take a wild guess that if your parents are paying for school, they aren’t paying to have you get inebriated 24-7. If you are paying for school by yourself, then you’re just being silly and wasteful. So remember, too much of a good thing can be bad, and it can kill your GPA.
5. Facebook – I never really thought facebook could adversely affect grades, but that was before I got my own account. For some reason, facebook can be really addicting. Many college students already have procrastination issues (that clearly stem from the new found freedom many experience for the first time), and facebook just provides something else to do in lieu of homework. So, some free advice about facebook is to simply be careful. If you start noticing that you’re facebooking 2-3 times longer than your spending studying or doing homework, something may be wrong. It’s great to stay in touch with friends, but don’t do it at the expense of your grades.
6. Halo, Super Smash Brothers, and other video games – I love video games. College students love video games. Unfortunately, video games don’t love your GPA. With Halo 3 being released (and yes, my roommate just got it, and yes, we’ve been playing non-stop Xbox Live), it seems like the distractions never cease. So, again, use the same strategies you use with the RPGs and don’t let your grades take a huge kick in the pants. Super Smash Brothers and other social games are all fun, but if you’re failing out of college, it’s not exactly practical. Take my advice and play sparingly.
7. Too Many Activities – It’s great to be involved. However, being too involved can really hurt your grades. In the film Rushmore, the main character gets terrible grades because he was in too many organizations and never studies. Individually, joining sports teams is great, but if you were to couple it with three to four other student activities, you’d be too busy, and probably insane. Beware if your university has Greek Life, recognize that rushing will take up A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT of your time. If you still want to rush, than that’s great, but don’t fail out for the sake of Kappa Tappa Kegga or some other Sorority/Fraternity.
I have actually run out of things that could kill your GPA. I’m sure there are more, so feel free to comment if you have any additional things to watch out for. The biggest key, I feel, to college is to make great use of time management. A lot of the GPA killers involve things that take up loads of time and don’t really accomplish anything (okay, so you’re saving the world in Halo 3, but in an academic scope, it means nothing). If you follow the motto: work first, fun later, then you may find yourself having a much more successful academic career.
October 18 2007 | College Advice and College Technology and Grades and GPA | 1 Comment »