<p>If you define “top universities” as the Ivy League + Stanford, and the other usual suspects, you’re probably not going to be a very competitive applicant based on what you’ve written here (yes, even if you do work hard your senior year to make up for the 3.0). </p>
<p>But you know what? It’s not a big deal. You should be admitted to a pretty decent school. If your heart is truly set on a “top university” you can work really hard, become active with programs at your college, get that 3.7-4.0 GPA in college and apply as a transfer after your first and/or second year. </p>
<p>When I was in high school, I was a joke of a student. I would have loved to have that 3.0GPA (well, no I wouldn’t, because I didn’t care enough). I barely qualified for the local state school. I didn’t go to college right away and instead joined the Army. After four years of that, my only option was the local community college. I was a much different person by that time, though, and a model student. After two years of CC, I applied to some top schools. I got accepted to Columbia, UC Berkeley, and Amherst College. I start at Amherst in the Fall. </p>
<p>The moral of this story: it’s never too late. Your life won’t be defined by your high school grades unless you will it to be so.</p>
<p>wow jaykobleaves…did you go to Iraq?
This is a really intresting story…I’m wishing you all the best at Amherst.
But what do you mean by “decent” schools? I’m kindda confused like I dunno were I fit in and were I dont.
btw lantzk, I am sooo ordering colleges that change lives. Thank you for bringing that up! :-)</p>
<p>Edit: and I love the last part, the morale of the story…sometimes its hard to remember that grades aren’t everything when you have teachers ratting about me not living up to my potential, CCers with perfect 4.0s and SATs complaining that they didnt get into HYPM …urghh watever…that part really gave me hope…thank you jaykobleaves…</p>
<p>The St John’s College suggestion is a great one. Definitely take a look at it. You’ll meet a lot of kindred souls there, and you might even enjoy learning out of your comfort zone with their Great Books approach.</p>
<ul>
<li>Try very hard this summer and senior year to show them you’ve waken up taking rigor summer classes at CC and get As, for example</li>
<li>Get good letters of recommendation</li>
<li>Study ED, pick up one school carefully, and should apply</li>
<li>Write a very good essay, be a good diplomat in negotiating and convincing them you are a different person lately. But you must show them your records, they would love to hear this kind of story</li>
</ul>
<p>frankly, realising that you need to get your stuff together the summer before senior year is too late.</p>
<p>you’re not gonna get stuck at some community college (or equivalent junior college, im not sure how that works in Canada) if you can afford tuition elsewhere.<br>
You’re not gonna get in to a top school.
You can go to a fairly good university. If you decide to become a hard worker then, all the better. </p>
<p>But now’s a bit late to realise “oh, sh1t, im supposed to have been working all this time.”</p>
<p>It is a little cynical to say that it is too late to realize his mistakes. Frankly, as long as he recognizes his mistakes he’s moving in the right direction. I would be more worried if he was under the assumption that no mistakes had been made.</p>
<p>this epiphany isn’t coming from a realisation of error. it’s coming from a realisation of ‘oh, crap, you mean i might not get into _______ college?’</p>
<p>OP isn’t recognising mistakes, he/she is recognising consequences.</p>
<p>SHE lantzk, she…LOL
compaq and IBfootballer I guess you are both right, I should try my best to get my act together even tho its too late, but I wouldnt exactly bet on it getting me into Harvard either. lol.
I think I’m falling in love with st.john’s santa fe campus…I’ve been on the website for the last 20 minutes or so.
btw compaq, wouldnt ED be a bad idea if my grades are low cuz the wouldnt get a chance to see my new & improved senior year grades?</p>
<p>hehe, i’d love to see someone vs the system on this board
I think you should take like 3 or 4 summer classes at CC get all As, and request to send to your school to get high school credits. That way your GPA would improve
The good think about ED is they “READ YOUR ESSAY”. I don’t think they even read your essay in regular admission</p>
<p>Question: My HS dosent have that system where I can transfer CC credits to school, so it wouldnt really higher my GPA but it still looks good, right?</p>
<p>ya im gunna check out that thread, warrior boy…</p>
<p>I have a friend who has around the same GPA and a 2280. He was deferred SCEA from Stanford, then rejected. Accepted at LMU and a couple other similar schools, and most likely would have gone to LMU, but finances prevented that, so he’ll probably be going to juco then transferring somewhere.</p>
<p>If you’re a Canadian applicant to McGill and Toronto, I’m pretty sure they will only look at your 12th grade grades…</p>
<p>I’m not certain of that so have a talk with your counsellor.</p>
<p>If you’re American, you’ll probably have a tougher time getting into either of those schools. If you’re Canadian, don’t worry so much and do well in the rest of your classes.</p>
taking rigor summer classes at CC and get As, for example</li>