2.8 GPA someone please help

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>If you chance me i'll chance back</p>

<p>Hello everyone,
I go to a highly competitive public school, around 3,000 apply, 200 are accepted. The last 4 years of my life were spent living under the delusion that no matter what grades I got i could still do well (i should also note i spent an average of 3 hours playing video games per day, total computer time would be 6+ hours per day. Might make an interesting paper). I believe my distraction was caused by the constant computer usage and it got so bad that I failed my 10th grade math final after answering 1/5 questions on the long answer as opposed to omitting one (I still got a B+... not exactly great). Anyways so over the summer i stopped playing for a bit after going away, and voila everything was clear, at which point i became miserable. Here are my stats i guess:</p>

<p>GPA: 2.8 or something whatever an unweighted 83 is... the point is it's pretty bad.
School does not rank
Haven't taken the SATs but you can count on a score 2200~</p>

<p>ECs:
Hobby robotics for 3 years, last year i founded my schools first robotics club, this year i went on to found our schools first robotics team raising $9,000+ in order for us to enter (FIRST) if anyone was wondering. I was noted in an article if that matter.
Varsity tennis since 9th grade, this year will be my 3rd year.
Those are really only my two serious ECs
also part of the tea club and photography club at my school
math team</p>

<p>Now i bet everyone is wondering how i can even think of such schools like carnegie mellon and johns hopkins. I am happy to say that since i've cleaned up my act my GPA is now floating around a 3.3, and my second semester grades will be all "A"'s. I do believe colleges will notice this sudden increase in my grades, and combined with a good essay they will hopefully overlook 3 years of nothing but B's and C's. i'm not a stupid kid, i know i've screwed up. It's not like my friends know I have GPA of an 83, in fact i'm pretty sure they would be greatly surprised. If anyone has that life changing insight or advice, now is probably the time to share it. </p>

<p>I'm looking at my realistic chances of getting into the following schools (please don't cushion it, if i'm not getting in just say: "you won't get in"</p>

<p>MIT (i've wanted to go there since 4th grade. There's always grad school, right?)
Caltech (same reason)
Carnegie mellon (either computer sci or engineering)
Johns hopkins (math)
georgia tech
Harvey mudd
Stanford </p>

<p>Please help, and remember everyone deserves a second chance.
edit: i forgot to add i'm male, half japanese, half irish, from NY if that matters.</p>

2

<p>I honestly think you have a good chance at all of them, as long as you do well on the SAT (and I’m sure you will), and explain your grades in your essay. Founding a robotics club at your school will really stand out, and speak great measures for you. Math team, photography and tea club will look great as well. I think you’ll have a very unique application, and it will be hard for admission officers to turn you down. Just make sure to do good on that SAT though! </p>

<p>P.S. Your GPA isn’t (literally) HALF as bad as mine. Chance me, please: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/855358-what-my-chances-fordham-1-8-gpa.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/855358-what-my-chances-fordham-1-8-gpa.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>I would defintely toughen up that SAT score. Study really hard for it and make it your “wow” factor. Your GPA isn’t quite a match for the colleges listed. I mean, I know people with 4.2’s that don’t get into Stanford. However, colleges always appreciate a bump in your grades. I, myself, didn’t have such an impressive freshman year. I think that you have a shot at them but you have to make your essays astounding and your SAT score impressive to have a fighting chance.</p>

<p>MIT Extremely high reach for anyone
Caltech “”
Carnegie mellon High Reach
Johns hopkins Reach
georgia tech ?
Harvey mudd ?
Stanford High Reach</p>

4

<p>The question you should asking is “Why should any of these schools be taking me?” If the best you can come up with is “I’m smart, I realize I screwed up and have mended my ways”, I just don’t think that’s good enough for the elite level colleges. A low GPA + high tests scores imply one of two things, a) the applicant is very good at taking standardized tests, or b) the applicant is bright but has shown a history of not applying themselves on a regular basis. Why should these schools, who get plenty of 4.0s/2300+ applicants, believe that you have changed? Why should they take a chance on you when they don’t have to? If you can answer those questions sensationally well, you might have a chance.</p>

<p>Your current, not overall, 3.3 GPA simply isn’t competitive when compared to the applicant pool, (e.g., Last year’s admit rate at Stanford for applicants with GPA’s below 3.7 was 3%). Furthermore, a 2200 SAT is below the 75th%-tile for all of your schools except Georgia Tech; so your projected 2200 SAT isn’t so remarkable that it can make up for a low GPA. I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but you need a much more realistic list than the one you have now.</p>

<p>MIT - No (<9% admit rate for males)
Caltech - No (<14% admit rate for males)
Carnegie Mellon - No (CIT avg GPA 3.72 SAT mid-point 2070, 75th%tile: 2220)
Johns Hopkins -No
Georgia Tech - Maybe
Harvey Mudd - No
Stanford - No</p>

5

<p>Only possibility I see right now is GT. Your EC’s are decent, but your GPA and scores are subpar even with excellent reasoning…</p>

6

<p>thanks for all the input, keep it brutally honest. If it matter, I will have higher grades in the courses related to the college i am applying to i.e. A+ in physics which is dragged down by a B+ in USH. Johns hopkins also used to accept a lot of kids from our school, 20+ or so per year that applied. I do believe i have what it takes to write an outstanding essay, however I’m also wondering how much this improvement will matter in the end. Obviously junior year is the most important, if not hardest year, will i still be judged on the 4 year standard? If my GPA were to suddenly rise to a 3.7+ in junior year, is there any hope that colleges would only then judge based on the improvement, or will i be dragged down? I’ve also been looking through the applied/accepted on the site and have noticed a few kids got in with far from ideal GPAs and test scores. For example:
740, 650, 610, 3.4 GPA and another person with a 3.6 GPA. I’m sure there are more, but obviously there are also a lot of people who got rejected with similar if not higher grades. Also the two main schools i was going to apply to are CMU and JHU, the others were just dreams. Once again, all advice/input is welcome. I’ll chance back</p>

7

<p>Are Johnmatis and Nocureforthis the same poster? I am confused.</p>

8

<p>hah, i didn’t even notice. I forgot the pw for my first account, and decided to make a second one with my primary email. you’ll also notice the post is made at 1:30am (day of my midterms) so a lot was on my mind. I used my desktop to check today and the password happened to be saved on here. Sorry for any confusion, both accounts are mine. I just decided to repost with more general information and was hoping to get some solid advice.</p>

9

<p>Im a girl so maybe I can’t relate but what the HELL were u thinking??? playing video games 3 hours a night? i sleep 3 hours a night ;)</p>

<p>anyways, maybe if you could pull off an amazing project (ie designing a video game) or win a gaming award (my cousin mentioned some guy called Fatal1ty?) you could justify the “practice” and get into mit/caltech, etc. </p>

<p>for the schools I think u might be able to get into Georgia Tech. </p>

<p>MIT/caltech = high reach
carnegie mellon/john hopkins = reach</p>

<p>Stanford is weird…I have visited the campus thousands of times and seen both smart ppl and ppl who looked like they slept through high school. The admissions officers reject the most qualified candidates…so…idk</p>

10

<p>You won’t get into Georgia Tech with a 2.8 GPA. The admissions office has been disqualifying recruited football players with that GPA (0% of last year’s class was below 3.0 UW).</p>

11

<p>What is your total high school GPA to date (freshman through junior year)? I interpreted your initial post to say that through sophomore year you had a 2.8 and the currently in junior year you have a 3.3; is that correct? </p>

<p>As for getting a 3.7 junior year, obviously higher grades give you more options than lower ones. This issue isn’t whether you will get into a college for engineering/computer science, the question you asked is whether you will get into any of the schools on your list. Personally, short of winning the Intel Science Award, I can’t think of anything that will help you get into MIT, Caltech or Stanford.</p>

<p>I would also suggest that reading accepted forums looking for hope is a waste of time. You don’t know the full circumstances of others’ applications. A 3.4/2010 can be very impressive depending on the circumstances; a 3.4 accomplished consistently over 3 1/2 years is likely far more impressive than one accomplished by combining 2 - 2.8s and 2 - 4.0s. </p>

<p>The time has come for you to accept some harsh realities and to start managing the process with your head and not your heart. If you want to apply to Mellon & Hopkins, by all means do so, but you need to augment them with a much less ambitious list. Without more realistic Match and Safety schools, (Georgia Tech and lower), there is a substantial risk that you will be shut out of your current list.</p>

<p>Some statistics:</p>

<p>Stanford <a href=“Page Not Found : Stanford University”>Page Not Found : Stanford University; The last page lists the stats.
CMU [Admission</a> > Admission Statistics](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University)
CalTech [Caltech</a> Undergraduate Admissions: 2009 Incoming Class Profile](<a href=“http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying/profile]Caltech”>http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying/profile)
Harvey Mudd [Mudd</a> Student Body Profile](<a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/hmcstudent1/studentbodyprofile.html]Mudd”>http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/hmcstudent1/studentbodyprofile.html)</p>

12

<p>thank you very much for those links, as i’ve said MIT/caltech, even stanford were just dream schools. Ideally i will be applying to carnegie and johns hopkins as my “reaches (or high reaches)” and schools like georgia or virginia tech as sort of my fallbacks. I really haven’t looked at any other safety schools, as I remain hopeful about both my reaches. In part because my school is very well known and sends a huge percentage of kids to the Ivy league (not based on money). Once again thanks for the advice/ info</p>

13

<p>Try your best for Georgia Tech. I would have gotten in with my stats and I had a 3.5 UW and 4.6 Weighted. I also had a 1970 on my SAT’s and someone from my school had lower and got in.</p>

14

<p>And I’m sure many had higher and didn’t get in. 3.5 with a 1970 is borderline for Tech.</p>

15

<p>Dude, sorry…I have no doubt you’re way smarter than what your GPA shows but still there are always numbers (GPA/SAT) limitations even if you are really a genious they need something to show it</p>

16

<p>I definitely don’t think you’ll get in MIT, Caltech, and Stanford. I’m just being honest with you. :(</p>

17

<p>Oh, believe me, these people won’t “cushion it” for you. They’ll tell you like it is!</p>

18

<p>all i can say is go to community college and then transfer. :slight_smile: it may seem weird but it works and a lot of people do it! best wishes.</p>

19

<p>Hmm well if you’re applying to schools like Carnegie Mellon, MIT, etc. you’re going to have to pad that list with a few more safeties. What state do you live in? A lot of state universities have great engineering and they are a little easier to get into than some of your reach schools.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/955353-chance-me-some-ivies-duke-rice-vandy-gtown-etc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/955353-chance-me-some-ivies-duke-rice-vandy-gtown-etc.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;