Hello,
I am currently attending a community college as a second year. The first year that I was attending, I had a cumulative GPA of 0.00. Pretty poor, I will admit. These included 6 F’s and 4 W’s. Call it lack of motivation, lack of self discipline, or a lack of direction, I was not going anywhere in life.
However, the summer after these two semesters, I overloaded on course work with 4 courses and achieved a 4.0. I applied for AR’s in 3/6 of the classes that I had failed, and am working to knock off the remaining classes with A’s this semester. With my newfound ambition, I am looking to transfer as a business major and am planning on applying next fall. I understand the rigor of top colleges, and am currently looking at USC, UCLA, and Cal as my top 3 choices, as well as UCSB and UCSD. I am confident in my academic ability, and am aiming to apply with a 4.0 GPA, while working a part time job, captaining my club team, and nearly 200 hours of community service already.
Is my ambition warranted? I am not sure how UCLA or Cal deals with repeat courses, and I have not seen any profile where a student had a 0.00 GPA to start. I understand that USC has a transfer GPA that averages the two grades and counts withdrawals, which is a heavy blow to my chances. Any tips or advice would be appreciated.
I believe Haas will calculate those Fs if they are part of the major required courses (Econ, English, calc, business, etc).
No one call tell you if your ambition is warranted or not but I can say that it is a waste of your time to apply anywhere without first dealing with the F’s and W’s, whether that be through retaking them or academic renewal. You still should be explaining them in the “additional comments” section of the UC app, but TBH you probably don’t have a shot at Haas (Cal) at this point. Wait another year and sort yourself out. Failing so many classes in a year, or semester, is a bad sign of bigger issues in your life that can’t be fixed by one semester of straight A’s.
I think that one semester of straight A’s says that you can do it. However, you are going to need more semesters of very good grades before top universities will be an option. I have seen students dig themselves out of situations that were almost this bad, and they did it with a few semesters of straight A’s, but it takes some time.
It may sound corny but don’t ever give up! You shouldn’t need validation from people on this forum on whether you should try hard or not. Aim for ucla and Berkeley, and at worst you’ll have a chance at ucsb and Davis. You’ve obviously picked it up from there, so you have what it takes to be a good student. It’s all a matter of staying consistent and doing it for the long term. Not just 4 months, but to grind out at that same pace for multiple years. It is absolutely imperative at this point for you to take care of those Fs. Unfortunately, those grades will always be on your transcript, and every college you apply to will be able to see that terrible semester you had. However, if you retake those fs your new score will replace them for you gpa only. Again, the ucs and every other school you apply to still sees those grades. If you can retake all those classes and have a 4.0 from here on out, I don’t see why those schools you listed are an impossibility. Obviously they’ll understand that first semester wasn’t indicative of you as a student. Just make sure you explain your situation when you eventually do your app. The uc app in particular is great cuz there’s a whole section where you can write to just explain yourself, in detail.
Oh and btw op, my friend had a very similar situation to you. Not as many Fs, but he had a couple and the rest were Ws, leaving him win a 0.00 gpa. He took some time off college and restarted, and he now has a 3.8 gpa with amazing ECs. We don’t know if he got accepted yet as he, along with I, applied for this fall. However, your question is whether it’s worth working hard or not. So I decided to use my friend as an example, as at the very least he’s turned himself into a worthy candidate.