2 F's in GE's kind of funny story, I can use your opinion..

Transfer Students
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<p>Hey guys, so this summer i was enrolled in 2 psych classes online with the same teacher. We apparently had 2 parts to the class we has the assignments and test part and we had the group discussion part. I scored a 95% in the tests and assignments part, but never noticed the group discussion stuff so i never did it. this is the case for both classes and I failed both.
To be honest i missed it due to my job, I work every days around 12 hours and when I come back home I can barely open my eyes, so I would just due the assignments and tests and think I am good. My GPA should be somewhere around 3.6+ after i retake those two classes, But here is my questions, are these 2 F's gonna really hold me back now that I am applying to schools ? </p>

<p>I am a computer science/ software engineering major.. I am planing on applying to UCSD, University of Michigan, Santa Clara U, Cal Poly slo, San Jose State, and take my chances with Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, UCB, and USC. </p>

<p>What is good in my opinion is that I am great in C, C++, Objective C, Java, C#, PHP, MySql, and Python, and I have work experience in those languages and extra curricular. I also am/have enrolled in all these subjects (in college) and I have no CS class with a grade under an A. Also I have an internship experience, and I have internship offers that I received from professionals that I have worked with and met, such as Camilo Garcia one of the creators of Sims, also believe it or not Dan Rose, I taught his son Objective C for one week (alex rose) and he was really impressed with the what I was able to teach him. Other internship offers I received were from Intel, and other small companies. Why didnt I take them ? simply I dont think its possible to do good in both school and in internships as intense as these at the same time. </p>

<p>Would mentioning any of this info score me any points and undermine my 2 F's which I will retake and get A's in ?</p>

<p>also in general do you think I will stand a chance in getting into any of these schools ?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot.</p>

<p>EDIT: also as for extra curricular, I like to write physics based C++ programs using box2D and cocos2D, or program cool fractals programs, or program for robots. this is all done along with my physics professor. I am also going to participate in the honors seminar at either berkeley or stanford. I will be building a robot that could solve a rubix cube hopefully anywhere from 2x2 to 4x4 simply because after that the cubes design is unstable and a robot could break the cube in case it gets stuck.</p>

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<p>anyone ? anything ?</p>

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<p>With the UCs, if you retake the two Fs, there should be only minor damage to your application. Meaning, I have met people who have weathered Ds and Fs and still got into UCs because of the overall transfer application and GPA carried them through. Be sure to have a strong personal essay (have an experienced person evaluate it and help you edit it) and equally strong LORs. Also, there is usually a place for “extra” information–explain there your 2 Fs BRIEFLY and how you have since fixed your time management / study habits problems. Your first paragraph explaining the Fs in this post is TERRIBLE, so don’t use that–get help on how to positively claim responsibility and show improvement so it won’t happen again.</p>

<p>As for your internship OFFERS that you did not take, do not mention them. Only mention the ones you took and completed! Nothing is more lame than trying to get some kudos for work and experience that you could have done but avoided.</p>

<p>If you complete an honors seminar, that is a terrific thing to include. </p>

<p>As for CSUs (except I believe SLO, which has slightly different methods)–it is strictly a GPA game. There are no essays or LORs included in the application–your GPA is your ticket. A 3.6 is quite strong for SJSU, probably on the bubble for SLO.</p>

<p>A 3.6 is good for SCU but with SCU those Fs <em>will</em> be noticed and chatted about. Realize that SCU gets about 900 transfer applications and accept about half of them…these applications get carefully scrutinized. In comparison, SJSU got more than 12,000 transfer applications and their process for admitting boils down to primarily the GPA. </p>

<p>The key to SCU for you is again somewhere in the essays (there is a supplimental area perfect for this) to explain BRIEFLY where things went wrong and how you have grown. </p>

<p>Also key for SCU is in your personal essay to express not just passion for academics and/or programming, but to express who you are as a person and how this lines up with the Jesuit mission at SCU. Don’t quote the mission, don’t even try to allude straight at the mission, but be sure to let the adcoms understand why you are a good fit for a college that has more than just academics on their minds… go read the mission statement and reflect on why SCU is a good fit for you, or better, how you have something to add to the SCU community.</p>

<p>Bottom line is that a 3.6 is solid but for most of the schools you need to come up with a compelling narrative in your overall application to really have the colleges give you the thumbs up. At privates and lesser so but still at the UCs, they look at the “whole person” and what the transfer student will bring to the overall student body.</p>

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<p>Wow Thank you so much ! this was very helpful !!!</p>