I am grateful for the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, maybe I should say the timing of it. I am a undergrad student and in Fall quarter of 2019 I was placed on academic probation. I had Winter quarter 2020, which is from January-March, to make up for my bad grades. If I could not, I would be dismissed from my major and ultimately given my other circumstances, the university as a whole.
Winter 2020 I ultimately failed 3/4 of my classes and by the university rules, that meant I would be dismissed. For a lack of a better word I was suicidal. After a last resort email to my advisor I got a response the week we were all ordered to return home for the remainder of the quarter. Due to the sudden circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, they would not dismiss students on a matter of grades for Winter 2020. I was saved. I am a fourth year. If I had been dismissed it would have meant starting over, which I do not have the money nor the time for. It is literally thanks to the pandemic that my academic career was saved.
(P.S. I’m not a 4.0 student, but in the last two quarters I really got my act together so things are looking up)
