What to do? Forum

bernaldiaz · Post by **bernaldiaz** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:45 pm

So...right now I'm studying at Oxbridge on an academic fellowship my university awards to a couple students for their junior year. The experience has been great and I'm playing on the varsity golf team which is an unbelievable opportunity. The issue is that the academics are way over my head. It isn't that I don't think I'm smart enough, I just feel like I was dropped into an environment which I was totally unprepared for. For those unfamiliar with how week to week education is at Cambridge, its almost entirely self study. You just meet for one hour every week where you discuss an essay you wrote but other than that its all just reading from this massive reading list they give you every week. I hate the system and I fear that if I stay here for the year I am literally going to fail. I've never felt so far over my head, and am afraid that I will ruin what I have worked so hard for during my first two years of university (3.98ish) GPA.

Anyways, what do you think will look better (or should I say not as bad) to law schools? Leaving now and missing a semester but not hurting my GPA or sticking through it, hurting my grades, but having the Cambridge experience as a testament to my academic talents.

Also, I just want to say I'm not basing this decision just off law school. I really think being here for the year would lead to a break down, if the first few weeks have been any indicator.

rinkrat19 · Post by **rinkrat19** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:54 pm

Doesn't everyone get a tutor?

AntipodeanPhil · Post by **AntipodeanPhil** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:56 pm

Is the main problem that there is too much reading or that there is too much self-study? To succeed at a top law school you would be required to do a lot of both.

Can't you just force yourself to go to a library for x hours a day and read? It's not easy, but it would build good habits and be great preparation for success at law school.

AntipodeanPhil · Post by **AntipodeanPhil** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:57 pm

rinkrat19 wrote:Doesn't everyone get a tutor?

That's the person you meet with once a week to discuss the essay you've written. Not a tutor in the American sense.

ahduth · Post by **ahduth** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:04 pm

I didn't have the opt out option you face, but my semester in France really screwed my GPA. I wouldn't go back and trade it for a "normal" UG semester though. Not even close.

Personally, I'd say the issue here is more that you don't sound like you're having fun. That is a rather serious problem. Maybe you need to learn to read faster and drink more. Or maybe you should find some British student to (ahem) study with.

Law schools will care only about your grades. They will also give you crushing amounts of reading without blinking. So I'm not sure how you split the difference here. I kinda think you'll be okay.

bernaldiaz · Post by **bernaldiaz** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:06 pm

AntipodeanPhil wrote:Is the main problem that there is too much reading or that there is too much self-study? To succeed at a top law school you would be required to do a lot of both.

Can't you just force yourself to go to a library for x hours a day and read? It's not easy, but it would build good habits and be great preparation for success at law school.

The problem is that I've been going to the library for hours a day, reading these dense academic articles, and realizing I have no clue what I just read. The thing is, I was thrown in as a second year at Oxbridge. If I were an engineer or maths person, I would have taken the classes at my American Uni that directly correspond to what they took here Oxbridge, but as a humanities person, I've just taken a random amalgamation of classes within my major. So I'm trying to read these difficult articles on a topic that I don't even have a basic understanding of. It is entirely frustrating. There's no way that I would be able to read enough on my own to get the basic historiography of events while at the same time reading all these articles. I feel like I was dealt a shit hand. I am the first history major my Uni has sent here and I don't think they really knew what they were sending me into.

bernaldiaz · Post by **bernaldiaz** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:08 pm

ahduth wrote:I didn't have the opt out option you face, but my semester in France really screwed my GPA. I wouldn't go back and trade it for a "normal" UG semester though. Not even close.

Personally, I'd say the issue here is more that you don't sound like you're having fun. That is a rather serious problem. Maybe you need to learn to read faster and drink more. Or maybe you should find some British student to (ahem) study with.

Law schools will care only about your grades. They will also give you crushing amounts of reading without blinking. So I'm not sure how you split the difference here. I kinda think you'll be okay.

Haha says the person with a 4.1 GPA? But yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I'm not basing this drastic decision just off law school, that'd be ridiculous, but I want to make sure that leaving for a semester won't screw me over.

ahduth · Post by **ahduth** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:14 pm

bernaldiaz wrote:
ahduth wrote:I didn't have the opt out option you face, but my semester in France really screwed my GPA. I wouldn't go back and trade it for a "normal" UG semester though. Not even close.

Personally, I'd say the issue here is more that you don't sound like you're having fun. That is a rather serious problem. Maybe you need to learn to read faster and drink more. Or maybe you should find some British student to (ahem) study with.

Law schools will care only about your grades. They will also give you crushing amounts of reading without blinking. So I'm not sure how you split the difference here. I kinda think you'll be okay.
Haha says the person with a 4.1 GPA? But yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I'm not basing this drastic decision just off law school, that'd be ridiculous, but I want to make sure that leaving for a semester won't screw me over.

I don't think it will.

Also the 137 should've tipped you off.

bernaldiaz · Post by **bernaldiaz** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:19 pm

Hahaha I definitely should have been more careful. I just zoned in on what I wanted to see.

89vision · Post by **89vision** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:33 pm

I am a history major and I am curious what you mean by saying you don't understand the readings. The history classes I have taken are very random, range from American to Euro history. We were forced to take an intro to American and intro to Euro, but otherwise are learning about random topics. Is it hard because you studied American and are going to another country in which they expect you to be versed in British history? I would imagine some of my classes would be more difficult if I never learned about American history. I don't understand what you mean about not understanding histiography- how people write history. I did not gain a much greater understanding of US history after reading Novick sophomore year. Just curious, I didn't find understanding how historians document history as especially helpful in understanding history. I think that maybe it's hard because you don't have an equal understanding of English history as the English students?

afitouri · Post by **afitouri** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 7:04 pm

Get out. If your goal is law school, then the schools don't care one iota about where you went. They ONLY care about your GPA. If it is detrimenting your GPA, then run away.

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