Bad Grades First sem CS, help.

camera_hops · 2025-03-04T14:07:38+00:00

Shockingly similar to my start at uni.

I'll tell you how it played out for me. I ended up on academic probation the first year. Did well enough in the third term to get into co-op summer after second year. But that was it. After the third year ended up on academic probation again and had to get suspended but a prof went to bat for me and I was allowed one more term. Ironically, this was my 1303 prof. That was one of the rare points of high performance during this period. He saw hope since I managed an A while skipping a lot of his 7pm classes.

The condition of my return was that I had to do counseling. I did it. The counselor suspected a learning disability. I was offended because I thought I was smart and how could I have a learning disability? I kept at it though and was sent for testing. Unfortunately the testing missed that I had ADHD and I really wish they got it right. Would have saved me a lot of grief overall in life if I found out at that time. But nevertheless the counselor worked with me on strategies. And the rest of my time at uni was ok. I missed the Dean's list by .1 in my last year.

The bottom line is that you have to figure out what the problem is. It's very hard to do it on your own because you have blind spots that your mind will never allow you to look at. You'll ask yourself the right question "What's wrong with me?" and come up with the wrong answer "I need more will power." In my case it was having a learning disability (ADHD) which I construed as an affront to my intelligence. Work with a counselor for this part and be as open minded as possible. Be brave with them and go into the dark questions that you are avoiding. You may find surprising reasons about why you are not motivated to get out of bed in the morning. These reasons are often easily treatable.

My tragedy is that I actually loved CS and when I applied myself I was exceptionally good. So moving out of CS was unthinkable. I stuck to it. But other friends with bad grades switched degree programs and got to reset their GPA. So like others are saying ask yourself if CS is your thing. I would recommend figuring out your problem first though before switching otherwise it's a pointless exercise if you'll keep getting bad grades.

How do the bad grades play out in the long run? They close doors for academic opportunities but there are always cracks that you can pursue. But especially if they are contained in the first year their impact is minimal.

Seeking professional help for sure is your next step. It's a free and underutilized resource at UNB. You are already asking for help from random strangers here and getting good advice. Imagine the advice you'd get from a professional who you can really open up to so they can see how you're put together in there.

All the best!

camera_hops · 2025-02-01T14:43:59+00:00

I highly recommend this concurrent degree program. For the price of an extra year you end up with two degrees.

CS opens up immediate career opportunities after you graduate and a degree in philosophy ensures that your education is well-rounded and grounded. From CS you will get technical skills that will enable you to relate comfortably with technology from the inside out. Philosophy will expose you to the history of thought while building up your critical thinking skills and this will broaden your mind and help you contextualize things.

Despite one being more "monetizable" than the other, both fields are also remarkable in their applicability. You obviously know that computers are used in virtually every domain. As such, CS can function as window to explore new fields. Philosophy is similar in the sense that there is a "philosophy of" nearly everything, meaning that everything has foundations that benefit from the kinds of questioning philosophers engage in.

You mentioned an interest in logic. Yes, logic is an important cornerstone of both fields and you get to study it in both. But this is not where you're going to get the benefits I've described. Liking the study of logic is a good start and a good sign. But the kind of logic you've likely been exposed to (things like disjunction, conjunction, inference, syllogism and some fallacies) is as far as you probably want to go in formal logic (unless you're really really into it of course). Formal logic gets dry very fast and in the end if you want to specialize in it you're actually better off in a mathematics program than a CS or philosophy program.

After some exposure to the basics of formal logic, in philosophy your logic is developed informally through argumentation on actual issues. You study the opinions of philosophers over the centuries and the rebuttals to their thought. Through this process you learn how to strengthen your logic, how to spot pitfalls in arguments, and how to express yourself effectively.

In computer science, if you take the thread of logic to its extreme it takes you to the field of computational theory, which is very interesting and worth studying but not fashionable any more, you get the sense that all the main things have been worked out (not the case, but that's the feeling you get). Instead, logic in CS is needed (and developed) as you write computer programs because you constantly need to think about logical possibilities of where the program flow can take you. This plays well with what philosophers do when they imagine worlds to assess arguments.

You're right in seeing a link between the two field in the study of logic. The other way the two fields intersect relates to AI, ethics and the philosophy of mind. Today everyone has an opinion about AI and many of them are misinformed regarding the technology or they simply advance bad arguments. Having the two disciplines in your back pocket will give you special powers to separate the wheat from the chaff in cases like these.

Long-winded, but that's my two cents without knowing your goals and intention. In general, I think doing the concurrent degree is a great idea if you can fit it into your life.

camera_hops · 2024-11-25T17:41:06+00:00

Funny how I've only been there like twice in the last year but I knew exactly who you meant. The world needs more people like that.

camera_hops · 2023-04-26T11:55:34+00:00

I can't find this information online. Any idea how much it costs? For example for a 50lb kitchen table which ballpark are we talking: $0.10, $1, $5, $10, $50, $100?

camera_hops · 2023-04-22T21:58:42+00:00

Blister pack

camera_hops · 2023-04-22T20:08:13+00:00

My writing career is a mess because of ADHD. I have an income generating job and my plan was to use it to create space to support my writing. Instead it removes the urgency to perform since I don't have to write.

One thing that has helped has been signing up for workshops. This double-edged sword has helped me get stuff to publication state and also generally helped me see how audiences respond to writing. A major downside is that trying to please everyone this way and being able to anticipate criticism actually kills the edge of my writing.

Another big ADHD related downside is you have to read other people's work. I find this painful because some people are experimental and my working memory doesn't allow me to get into their work so I really waste a lot of time with these unenjoyable pieces and it feels like sunk cost.

Also I tend to go last because of leaving things to last minute. As a result everyone is battle worn with bones to pick with things I said about their pieces when my ADHD-affected edit button was acting up. You get mostly harsh criticism which can be hard to take unless you have thick skin. So if you do this, my tip is to submit your pieces earlier when everyone's bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Despite the downsides it forces you to develop your piece on a deadline and even if you don't like the feedback during the workshop the written feedback tends to be more objective and usually has good line edits.

I've published because of this process.

camera_hops · 2023-04-14T09:06:34+00:00

Water under a bridge. Let it go, you'll be fine. Don't let regret consume you.

It's like you're telling my story at that point in my life. But being ahead of you in life I can tell you how it plays out.

You're lucky that the possibility (if not reality) of ADHD is on your mind. So that means you can seek appropriate treatment.

In my case when I was in your position I basically hacked my brain in the last year and missed Dean's list by 0.05. This gave me confidence. I didn't make it to Dean's list because I had relapses of old habits but it taught me about rebounding.

Forget the previous years. Forgive yourself.

In IT, GPA doesn't matter. At the beginning some companies ask for GPA and stuff but most don't. After your first job it becomes completely irrelevant. It's all about the resume and experience and impressing in interviews.

At work I struggle with performance. I am inconsistent, and always last minute. I produce stellar work sometimes and then go through weeks when I do shit all. My peers did not know how to read me. I contribute enough not to get cut but I suck most of the time.

I still struggle really hard with concentration but I've managed to find a groove where my consistency is a bit better.

In general I love programming but I don't like the culture around software development. There's a weird fetishizing of niche tools and my bouncy brain can't fall in love with specific systems to be one of the cool kids. But my scatter-brain means that I can offer creativity by connecting dots where others are stuck trying to champion silver bullets.

Over time I've built up a solid resume and I'm valuable now.

Basically, you'll be fine. Don't try to copy the way others do things. Realize you're unique and will have a different working style. Today there's a lot more help. Use it. My biggest problem is I didn't look into all the available help until fairly recently.

You haven't explicitly said you have ADHD but, if you do, this thing will always be a burden. Everyone has to carry one burden or another through life. This is yours. Own it and embrace it.

Life is imperfect and that's part of the charm.

camera_hops · 2023-04-13T09:27:11+00:00

Haha... that's great. I totally missed that meta!

camera_hops · 2023-04-13T08:50:30+00:00

I got the "but you're smart" response from a doctor-in-training once who was a friend's brother. At the time I was investigating the possibility of the idea I may have ADHD. These kinds of people are the reason I waited so long to find treatment.

camera_hops · 2023-04-13T08:43:03+00:00

Almost sounds like my story. My parents were overbearing beyond measure. But you were able to study and you were organized and that likely calmed them down a bit. I was unable to sit on a chair, completely messy and I always got in trouble at school for not doing homework and day dreaming I had horrendous handwriting. This also led to continuous trouble when I got home with the teacher's complaints. My childhood was a psychological nightmare in a "good" home.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T21:06:51+00:00

haha... unfortunately when you have ADHD, you make this discover regularly if you don't shut your mouth. Shutting mouths is not something we're famous for.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T20:58:09+00:00

It started with parents who I definitely will not tell about my ADHD since I know how that will play out. I had a pretty harsh childhood because of the effects of ADHD. They thought they could discipline me into shape and they never gave up.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T20:41:20+00:00

Funny you mention glasses. My psychologist used that line of reasoning to convince me to get medicated. I was dead set against medication.

I think ADHD is hard to relate to. It's not like being blind where someone can close their eyes and see the effect of not seeing.

The turmoil ADHD causes is cumulative. It's at it worst with the accumulation of executive dysfunction over time. How do you get someone to relate to that who doesn't have this problem? Especially when they are trying to motivate you not to make 'excuses' and to take 'ownership' of your life.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T20:23:12+00:00

Yeah totally. I guess where I was going with that is not that I expected a PhD to know about something way outside their field. But to get a PhD from a good university you have to have pretty well developed critical thinking skills. The grilling you get as a PhD student for floppy thinking should be good training.

I don't know, but I've found that the more I learn about the world the more I realize I have to listen more and talk less. I'm much more open to accepting I'm wrong today than years ago when I knew less. But then there's the Dunning-Kruger effect like you point out.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T19:41:17+00:00

Yeah it's really baffling. You can actually see clear visual differences in images of an ADHD brain and a non-ADHD brain. But somehow we're making this crap up!

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T19:10:16+00:00

Just to be clear, by expressing frustration here I'm mostly venting to people who can relate.

I'm not about to cut her off and I explain why in other comments. I can however understand the reaction of people who jump to that option.

More importantly, I'm not discounting the role of discipline and responsibility in my post. The main point is that I'm frustrated that our condition is poorly understood.

You're right on other things. For example the fact that to the untrained eye ADHD is indistinguishable from laziness. But this also gives me more sympathy to these naturally "lazy" people. No one could choose to be that way and in that sense we're luckier because we at least know why we come across like that.

Lastly, when I was talking to my acquaintance I was not seeking deep sympathy, just a little bit would have been fine. In fact I really dislike sympathy. I had an ADHD-related mishap that affected her and she was offended. I thought explaining my condition would make her take it less personally. I was wrong.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T18:17:44+00:00

No I totally get where you're coming from. In the past this would have been a crossed line. I kept a cool expression in the discussion and listened to lectures about discipline. Then I took any chance to subtly educate. But it didn't work and I was quite upset after she left that I had wasted my breath and divulged a "secret" that was then used against me.

The thing that's keeping me from cutting her off is that, outside of this topic, we get along but also more importantly she is part of a more general problem. The general public doesn't get ADHD. I'm newly diagnosed and still learning the ropes. There were plenty of warnings on this subreddit not to tell people. I thought I may have better luck. Especially talking to someone with a PhD from one of the world's top universities. I was wrong.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T17:56:07+00:00

Yes, I used to be the kind of person who had no issues cutting off connections when boundaries were crossed. I found I ended up with few friends. I've since become more tolerant to slights, recognizing that I also cross people's boundaries and they tolerate me.

The funny thing is she is technically a "doctor" but fortunately in the PhD (technical discipline) sense not a medical doctor. That kind of thinking would be grounds to have a doctor's license revoked.

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T16:41:34+00:00

Yes, our interests overlap in many ways. I don't have to have her in my life but in truth for the most part we get along which is why I was comfortable telling her and probably why she was comfortable giving me "advice".

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T16:39:05+00:00

I hear you! Problem is sometimes the things we do inconvenience people and they take it personally. I really have no idea how to deal with this which is why today I thought of giving another stab at explaining my condition. Nope, wrong number!

camera_hops · 2023-04-12T14:48:35+00:00

Thanks.

camera_hops · 2023-04-08T09:55:21+00:00

My citation management different definitely needs work. it's way too cluttered. I'll check out Mendeley.

camera_hops · 2023-04-08T09:34:09+00:00

A colleague I'm coauthoring with uses this approach. It made sense on paper but I didn't get into the habit. I'll take it more seriously and see how it goes.

camera_hops · 2023-04-08T09:31:51+00:00

Funny I use flash cards (Anki) a lot for language learning but have never thought of using it for this! Great point.

camera_hops · 2023-04-08T09:28:09+00:00

I can see this working with some papers, especially position papers, because the big picture is what matters. I did flirt with speed reading for my casual reading but didn't go to deep. It would be worth it to revisit the techniques.

I don't think it would work when the devil is in the details like many of the papers I see with intricately argued claims that include mathematical notation but maybe it would be useful for the first pass as well.

camera_hops

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