Context in a Nutshell of the Previous Epic Post

[kyrasantae]

for make benefit glorious and multiple friends of international type, and friends not following of story long time

Before I begin I should probably answer to a frequently assumed misconception.

Getting the signatures by no means guarantees that I will be going. Once I hand it in, my application package (teacher references and my own statement of intent) is considered for whether I get a nomination from my uni. Only when I get a nomination do I get to fill out the forms for JyU, which are turned in for them to make the final decision on whether I go in the end.

Despite being grateful that I had escaped relatively unscathed and with what I went in there for, I remember feeling really bad about it as I left the Dean's office. Maybe the guilt-tripping was getting to me, and I have a close friend who's going through the same situation I went through last year, and was hoping to use the same "loophole" as I did next year. I urgently needed to warn him.

1. First off, what's a GPA? GPA = Grade Point Average.
   
   Each course you do (whether you pass or fail) nets you a number of "grade points". This is calculated by multiplying the credit value of the course by a factor corresponding to your letter grade. Add them up for all of the courses and then divide by the number of credits to get your GPA. This is usually done per term, but sometimes people will ask for it over a different time range (e.g. Fall/Winter cycle or cumulative).
   
   
2. I alternately tell people that I'm in engineering or I'm in Science/Sociology. I am registered in the Faculty of Engineering. I almost failed out of school altogether last Fall, and so, to "jump off the sinking boat", I decided that I would switch to the Faculty of Science and study things I actually wanted to learn about. But to switch to science, I would need to make my average GPA a 2.0 (out of 4.0) over the entire year.
   
   In the Winter semester, I chose all liberal arts classes and picked up an easy math and a physics class. I desperately needed significantly better grades to attain that 2.0 (which is the minimum for "satisfactory standing" and the grade required to enter the faculty of science). I only managed to get 1.92, which rounded down (naturally), and which put me on academic warning. The details of academic standings vary from institution to institution, but the following is how they work here, according to my understanding.
   
   
3. "Academic warning" (a.k.a "marginal standing") is a status given to a student who has a GPA between 1.7 and 1.9. It's only assigned to a student at the end of a Fall/Winter cycle, so the following Fall semester (or Fall/Winter cycle for Science students) one is expected to take a decent course load (minimum 14 credits in the wonky way engineering calculates its credits) "in courses approved by the department" and get a 2.0 average in that semester. Then one will have "cleared" academic warning, and can go back to being a normal student. You may only be on academic warning once. The second time you will immediately be required to withdraw.
   
   
4. "Required to withdraw" (a.k.a. "unsatisfactory standing"; colloq. "dean's vacation") is a status given to someone who's fallen to below 1.7 in a Fall/Winter cycle. You are essentially kicked out of school for a year. After that year, you are allowed to reapply for admission back in. You pretty much can't do anything in that year but, say, take a job or something, because no college or university will take you in with a GPA that low anyway. You are also required to withdraw if you fail to meet the requirements for clearing academic warning.
   
   
5. The engineering program, as a professional program, is highly regulated by an external body - the professional engineering association. You practically can't choose a custom course of study. You're stuck in a path that's dictated to you. The only customization you get are the few arts courses allowed, and some "technical" electives (meaning that they are still engineering-relevant things - e.g. it's kinda where a computer engineer might decide between specializing in computer graphics or software architecture).
   
   
6. So here I was on academic warning, and that's where the misunderstanding came from. I thought that I could take whatever courses I wanted so long as I could get my GPA back to an acceptable level. Dr. P said it was otherwise.
   
   
7. I thought it may be interesting to point you to this essay I wrote for my English final exam back in my second year (I'm currently in my fourth). This was from before jumping off the boat, but the boat was already sinking. It airs a number of the grievances I've mentioned above.