At the end of every semester, you can find students like me biting their nails and constantly refreshing every website that has grades on them. There are 7 ways most college students act when receiving bad final grades. These roughly follow along with the 5 stages of grief and loss but with a few unique twists. You may go through all of these or only some, but here is a rough outline of what happens when you finally get those finals back and they are less than spectacular.
1. Isolation
Some people know that they can get kind of moody when they're waiting for something like this so they choose to close themselves off. All they really want to do is curl up in a dark room and binge on Netflix. This is also to safeguard themselves if they receive bad grades while a friend or roommate receives good ones (sometimes you need to throw yourself a pity party before you are expected to be happy for someone else and that's perfectly okay).
2. Denial
There is NO WAY my grades are that bad. These can't be my grades! The teacher must have gotten me confused with someone else. Trust me, I've been there and these are some of the things that go floating through my head. This is especially true when it's at the end of a semester that you are being reevaluated for HOPE/Zell. My advice to get through this is to analyze what went wrong this semester. Was it just a hard class or did you skip a lot of class? Figure out what the problem was and work to fix it for the coming semester. 
3. Bargaining
If you're about to type up an email asking if you can do some after the fact extra credit, don't do it. Professors are constantly bombarded at the end of the semester with requests from students who need to give their grades a little extra boost. However, (this is coming from a professor that I interviewed so hopefully everything is on the up and up) if a professor gives extra credit they have to make sure it is available for ALL students. This is apparently a safeguard to make sure that teachers can't do as much favoritism. Also, if final grades have already been posted then your professors can't go back in and change them without jumping through some hoops. 
4. Anxiety
Now, a lot of us are just giant bundles of anxiety all year but even more so when grades are posted. You start to worry about what your parents are going to think about these grades, and how all of this is going to affect scholarships. Just remember your parents should love you no matter what your grades are (if they don't I'll fight them for you), and, as for scholarships, many give you a grace semester where they allow you to earn it back the following semester or they allow you to have one bad semester.
5. Depression
Sometimes bad grades just take a lot out of you. You don't want to see anyone, you have mood swings, you just want to sit in a dark room, or you binge eat your feelings. Remember: depression isn't just feeling sad, but a myriad of different symptoms. Some advice: feel free to take some 'me time' because you deserve it just for getting past this semester.
6. Anger
You can be angry at yourself, angry at your professor, angry at your loud neighbor, or just angry in general. This is a valid emotion when you get bad news, but you need to make sure you channel it in a healthy way. Find a way that you know you can relieve stress and just work through all that angry. Write an angry letter and then burn it, go to the gym and pummel a punching bag, or just vent to someone. Any of these are healthy ways of dealing with anger. For the love of yourself don't bottle it up or turn self-destructive.
7. Acceptance
Sometimes you realize that you did all you could do, and this is the outcome. Sometimes you just accept the fact that you screwed up royally this semester and have already vowed to do better next semester. This is kind of like Nirvana for receiving bad grades. You have become at peace with your situation and understand that you cannot change the past.
Final Thoughts
It doesn't matter which of these categories you fit into. They are all valid reactions when you feel like you have failed. Just keep in mind that grades are just numbers and that you can work to improve your GPA in the coming semesters. The most important thing is that you don't take them too harshly or take them out on yourself. I know some people may think it's ridiculous to get so worked up over grades but they probably don't understand the pressure that the average college student is under. So please, if you are feeling as if all hope is lost over grades don't be afraid to reach out to someone. And for those that need it, the National Suicide Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
