12A: Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: For this segment I chose to interview students because they are the ones that are impacted the most by the grading policies at UF. Plus, some students are TAs in some of their classes so I would be killing two birds with one stone

1. 2nd year Female Engineering Major: I interviewed this girl who I normally see on the bus that is studying electrical engineering at UF. When I told her about my idea to propose a change in the grading system at UF, she expressed so much enthusiasm about how much it would benefit her. She was telling me that her semesters consist of constant studying and she feels like shes not getting the college experience. At times, she feels depressed because she's not able to have fun due to the excessive amount of work she has and the difficulty of her classes.

2.  5th year Male Political Science Major: I interviewed this random guy at the library, I spoke with him about my idea proposal and he thought it would be an amazing idea as well. He told me that he did 4 years of engineering but due to amount of stress his courses were giving him, he had to take a year off of school and then changed his major to Political Science. He said that if the grading system was not as difficult and he wasn't discouraged mentally because of the difficulty of his courses, he might have still been able to pursue engineering.

3. 3rd year Female Chemistry Major: I interviewed this girl that we share a mutual friend with. She is a Chemistry major as well as a Chemistry TA. She agreed with my idea as well. As a TA, she was saying how alot of the students come to her for help and some of them no matter what they do they aren't able to get that perfect 4.0 GPA for that class on their transcripts because it's so difficult. She was also saying that as TAs if their section does not get a certain pass rate they will be held accountable by not being asked to help teach the class again. Lastly, she was saying how many students are dropping the class and the curves are so high on the exams due to the overall low performance.

Report: I gathered that many students would agree with my idea and see many benefits for them if this were to get implemented.

Conclusion: This segment is one that benefits the most from my opportunity. Most students aspire to go to grad school after undergrad and are wanting to do their absolute best to impress grad school admissions counselors. UF is already a very difficult school, however the overall performance of students and their mental state should be taken account due to all the increased stress they are in.