[Highest ranking: #72 in General Fiction]
Spring semester is here!
Classes are back in session but will the girls be able to handle the struggle or will they get taken down like 'hay fever'?
College wasn't easy before but throw in a proposal, newbo...
The Advising Center was always packed four times a year; the first week of a new semester and the last two weeks before the end of a semester.
Alyssa was the receiver of a few eye rolls and envious frowns as she strolled through the contemporarily designed room and fought hard not to fall victim to the sleep-inducing hum from the wall-docked televisions always on MGN.
Alyssa knew her grades last semester weren't stellar after skipping classes and missing exams but she had no idea she'd be flagged for a mandatory meeting with an advisor.
Alyssa sat in the black chair, the pancake-like cushion doing nothing to remedy her rattled nerves and an uneasy stomach. She picked at her clear polished nails watching the man mull her two years and one semester of grades on the university-issued computer.
She always hated the screens in the Advising Center. She knew they were tinted so passers-by couldn't see your grades through the glass-walled cubicle-like office but she never understood why they blocked her view out too.
"So..." Alyssa scooted to the edge of the chair. "Why can't I enroll in my Genetics course?" She repeated the question she asked the coffee-breath man after they exchanged pleasantries.
He made a note on the paper she printed out after she gave him her school ID number. He tapped the ballpoint pen making a quick period then swiveled her chair around to her.
"Ms. Sasaki." He snapped the cap back on the pen. "The reason you can't enroll in Genetics 3578 is because of your GPA."
Alyssa gripped her knees, "What's wrong with my GPA?" She faintly shook her head. She knew what was wrong with her GPA.
"It's too low." He pulled his lips together in a consoling but grim smile. "The required GPA for courses in the three thousand bracket is at least...a minimum of 2.0and Ms. Sasaki —you have a..." He picked up the paper and handed it to her.
She hesitantly took it. Denial was a great feeling but once her eyes fell on the paper her façade was shattered. "I have a 1.5."
"Yes." He dropped his pen back in the Advisor of the Month cup. "You see the problem. If you look further down, you received a 'C-' in Diseases of the Old World and a 'D' in Biochemistry."
She dropped the paper on his desk like it was soiled trash, "But I had a 4.0"
"And a 'D' and a 'C-' are wrecking balls to any foundation."
Alyssa leaned back into the chair, dejectedly. "So, what am I supposed to do."
"I'd advise you take those classes over this semester along with one of the other courses you have; Shakespearian literature, American Sign Language III, and Pre-Colonial History of The Americas."
"Four courses and a lab." She did the math quickly in her head, moving her lips as she counted by three and added the hour for the lab. "That's nineteen hours."
The buzz-cut sixty-something man nodded, "Which, falls just inside the twenty-hour cap." He breathed deeply. "But with this course load, you have to be careful. It's been a lot of work and stress...and if you get below a 'C' at the end of the semester your GPA will drop even more."
"I can do it." Alyssa combed her hand through her hair.
He watched her with a skeptical eye, "You're a pre-med major and you can't afford to have your grades slip and I know you're probably studying for the MCAT." He drummed his fingers on the desk, "You can take the new classes during summer school."
Alyssa scrunched her nose at the utterance of summer school and she'd been studying for the MCATs since she graduated high school.
"I had a little drama last year...but I'm back." She nodded confidently. "And I can do it."
Should Alyssa take the Advisor's advice and go to summer school or can she handle this new course load?
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