COLUMBUS, Ohio — Thousands of students across the State of Ohio made the complete switch to virtual more than a week ago and now college students are speaking up about the impact it's having on the ability to move forward in their majors and careers.

  • Students can currently take a pass/fail with general education classes
  • Students say some professors have eliminated exams and changed grading scales
  • GPAs are typically required to determine if a student will officially be admitted into major 

With all classes here at Ohio State online now, some students say it's become a struggle and even stressful, as things keep changing, leaving them uncertain about whether they'll be admitted into certain majors. 
  
Protecting her roommate, Ohio State University student Kennedy Kelly walked across campus to meet outside and share what her first week of online classes have been like. 
  
So far, she says with the switch to mostly lectures and projects, it's  made her more disciplined, forced her not to procrastinate and caused her to plan more, so she can get her work done.

"Me and some friends do work from home check-in's on Instagram to help keep each other accountable," said Kelly, 

Working on a project, the 21-year-old computer science and engineering pre-major uses Zoom for almost everything now —even meeting with professors when she doesn't understand something. But the most stressful part has been wondering if she'll officially get admitted into her major next fall.

"For a lot of students who are just applying to their majors this semester, it's created a bit of anxiety due to the fact that we kind of don't know how performance is going to show in our classes and how it's going to impact GPAs and the remainder of our undergraduate careers,” Kelly said. 

Now in her third year, Kelly says typically a student's GPA determines if they get in or not. But with professors doing away with exams, numerous changes to grading scales and the college considering pass or fail grades instead, she said it leaves her own admittance up in the air right now. So she does what she can to stay positive to finish the semester. She said that includes "staying in contact with people in my classes, staying in contact with my friends...ummm, even last night I had a meeting and me and some friends just stayed on Zoom and just kind of talked a little bit until like two o'clock in the morning and it was such a good time." 

With less than a month of classes to go, the Marion native hopes things will get straightened out sooner than later.

Kelly says she's grateful that OSU has given students the option to take a pass or fail in their general education classes. But she'll find out this weekend if the same will be applied to her required classes.