Hovering just above rock bottom. Academic Failure requesting help.

Encarta

I do like your idea of going to a specialist, to rule out problems. I don't know how helpful that will be, but I'd like the peace of mind. Thanks!

symbolipoint

Gaining more research experience is not a fix for your problem. Getting bad academic results currently is your problem needing to be fixed. One might believe that you are taking too many hard courses each semester and have not yet fully understood some prerequisite topics for the university course which you get the C's and D's. Some members might be interested to know what course you have had in each university semester, or at least the first or second semester. We may like to judge if you are overloaded.

Encarta

I wasn't suggesting the gaining-research route as a standalone solution to my current predicament. Rather, I was suggesting that once I've fixed my grades to getting A's and B's, graduate schools might overlook the fact that I did poorly in my early undergraduate years, if I have some decent undergraduate research experience. They probably won't overlook my early grades completely, but I thought having some undergraduate research would be less of a deterring factor than my other talents.
About my course load, the first semester in college I took, 1) Freshman English 2) Chemistry for Engineers 3) Calc 1, and 4)Some non-major physics course (that I took because my advisor was kind of lackadaisical w.r.t my interests in physics. I didn't know what course to take, so I took the first one I had the prereqs for).
A courseload from a more recent semester, like the last one had me taking 17 credits, after which I learned never to do that again. I took 1) Calc II, 2) Calc III (Multivariate), 3) Electricity and Magnetism, 4) Mechanics and Heat Lab, and 5) Astrophysics 1.
In later semesters, I've tried to take just 1 math course per semester, with a core humanities so that I could maintain what perspective I had left.
Last semester (Fall), my courseload was thus:
1) Diff Eqs, 2) Waves, 3) Observational Astronomy, 4) E&M lab, and 5) Biological Anthropology lab (core requirement).
If not for the fact that I was taking 3 lab classes, and often had 3 lab reports to hand in during some weeks, last semester would've went along a bit nicer.

Thanks for the help!

ZombieFeynman

Assuming you've taken 3/8 of the credits you will take in college (perhaps a fair statement, since you are 3 semesters in and it takes most people 8 to graduate, you've also taken decent course loads thus far and plan to take lighter ones) and you receive all As (4.0) from here out, your GPA will be roughly a 3.1*. You must realize this is very low to get in a decent graduate program. That's with getting a perfect score from here out.

If you receive an average score of a more modest 3.7 (roughly an A minus at a lot of schools) and all other considerations apply, you will receive a final GPA of 2.95. This is below the mandatory cutoff for most graduate programs. You WILL find it difficult to get in somewhere if your GPA is less than three.

It is therefore IMPERATIVE that you do whatever you can to essentially "win out" the rest of college. You must play for keeps now.

Research may or may not help this situation, so far as graduate programs are concerned. (it has been my personal observation that those with low GPAs are not helped by research so much as those without research are helped with high GPAs).

*Assuming also that none of your old grades will be struck from the record for some reason or replaced by newer, better ones.

Bipolarity

If I were you, I would spend a minimum of 6 hours a day, including on weekends and holidays, just on work. Time yourself and allow no play or time off until the day's 6 hours have been completed. 3 hours for catching up on the work from previous years that you perhaps didn't do which caused your poor performance. The other 3 hours for material that you're currently doing. This should be enough to fill up the gaps in your knowledge from the past few semesters within the next semester, while maintaining a good grip on your current courses.

And if you find that the strong work schedule "bores" you, then perhaps it is because you do not have a natural interest in the subject, or perhaps that there are things causing you to be very distracted and/or demotivated. Getting rid of those distractions would be the concern if that were the case, and I would spend a minimum of 20 minutes daily to resolving such problems, until the problem is solved.

BiP

SheldorMD

You'll forgive me if I am not incredibly sympathetic to your case, but it seems after reading this whole thread that you know what the problem is. You say, "I was in the top 2% when I put in the effort."

Trust me, you aren't the only person to struggle in college, the current system is not great at preparing students for the rigors of college and the responsibility of SELF MOTIVATION.

As a caveat, I also under performed in undergrad but later corrected my study habits and graduated first in my class from medical school...

Couple thoughts:

1) Perhaps you should consider a different major? If you aren't intellectually excited enough by the material this could be contributing to your lack of motivation.

2) You need to grow up. Like one of the previous posters said, higher education is not like being in school, it is a job. You should be working from 8 AM until 5 or 6 PM every day and a half day on weekends. No Facebook, google chat, TV, or anything else during those hours. Not only will your grades skyrocket, but it is amazing to have evenings free to be an adult and have a life.

3) Finally, figure out what motivates you? For me, I had gotten married and so the desire to provide for my family is what finally kicked me in the butt. Do you have a dream house? Print off a picture and hang it on your desk. A dream grad school? A dream award? Having a picture of these to look at and help you strive for greatness when you are tempted to get on Facebook instead of keep studying.

Hope this helps, and dude, wake the freak up. You are clearly intelligent, stop messing around, and work.

Edit: I agree with bipolarity, but didn't see that because I was typing this reply :)