I'll Likely Be Graduating with High Honors

UCF distinguishes top academic performers at graduation in the commencement program with asterisks and on official transcripts. Hopefully, I'll have some special cords and stoles to wear at graduation, too!

• Summa Cum Laude for those students in the upper 2.5 percent.
• Magna Cum Laude for those students in the upper 5 percent, but not in the upper 2.5 percent.
• Cum Laude for those students in the upper 10 percent, but not in the upper 5 percent.

UCF uses the average GPA over the past two years in the College of Business Administration (CBA) to calculate the top 2.5%, top 5%, and top 10 % of GPAs in the CBA. I currently have an overall GPA of 3.955, which qualifies me for Summa Cum Laude honors because it's higher than 3.911 cut off. As long as I can pass my last class next semester with an A or B, I'll graduate Summa Cum Laude in the top 2.5% of students in the College of Business Administration. Heck, even if I pass my last class with a C, I'll graduate Magna Cum Laude in the top 5%! As of October 2014 the CBA had 7,765 undergraduate students. Below is how I rank among my peers. Pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

Finished Fall 2014 Semester Strong

I earned an A in all three of my classes! The A in Real Estate came easy. However, portfolio analysis and supply chain didn't come as easily. I needed to score a 94% on my portfolio analysis final exam in order to pass the class with an A. I scored an 82% and an 81% on the first and second exams, respectively. Given those low scores I figured a 94% on the final would be asking a lot of myself since I hadn't performed that well on an exam all semester. I did get 100s on all of the in class exercises and on the group project, so I must have understood the material to a certain extent.  I somehow managed to pull out a 94% on the portfolio analysis final exam to barely pass the class with an A.

My supply chain final was difficult. I didn't know what to expect going into it because I got a 76% on the first exam and a 97% on the second exam. I taught myself everything from the textbook. I needed a 153 out of 180 to bring my overall grade up to a 93%,which is what it takes to pass the class with an A. I scored a 145 out of 180 on the final. The professor gave a 7 point curve to bring my 145 up to a 152, which put my overall grade at 92.95%. Technically that's an A minus. Thankfully, my professor rounded my 92.95% up to a 93% and gave me a full A for the course!

With hard work and a little bit of luck, I passed all three classes this semester with an A! My current UCF GPA is 3.905 and my overall GPA is 3.955. I know I still have one more class to take before I graduate with my B.S.B.A. in Finance, but currently I've passed all except two of my classes with an A. I passed one with a B and another with a B +. Someone needs to pinch me because I never in my wildest dreams thought I would do this well in college.

I Did What?

Summer term A was a rough six week semester. I took International Financial Management, FIN 4604, as an elective. I believe it was the most challenging course I've taken at U.C.F. thus far. The subject matter of exchange rates, interest rates, currency movements, international risk factors, etc... was next level stuff. It took some work to wrap my head around how everything relates and reacts to each other. Thankfully, I had a fantastic professor that really allowed me to learn like I never have before. Forget memorizing the material, she taught me how to apply the theories and methods to real world stuff. The exams were definitely senior level with a mix of essay and multiple choice questions. At first I was daunted by the essay questions, but throughout the semester I began to love the essay questions better than the multiple choice questions because the multiple choice questions were down right difficult. I'd spend up to three minutes on non-math problems thinking them through to select the best answer. I had to apply what I learned to answer and advise the questions/situations of the firm. It was like I was a business manager.

Halfway through the short semester was when my grandpa passed away. My professor was kind enough to give me some time to regroup before I took the midterm. My head was not in the game. I scored 95% on my first exam and dropped to 87.5% on the midterm. I found it hard to concentrate. I wanted to stop going to class. Even though I skipped a couple classes, I faked it until I made it.  I went to class when I didn't want to. I studied when I wanted to quit. It's a good thing because I ended up getting 100% on the final. That's the highest grade I've gotten on an exam at U.C.F. And it just so happened to be the most challenging class I've taken. What gives? Why me? There's nothing like success to make me want to keep going.