@Dolemite Penn State is indeed in the middle of nowhere, but the School of Theatre’s reputation is phenomenal! Sure, it’s no NYU Tisch, but they have several people on Broadway, on Broadway tours, and working in the field! They also have great internship programs. Because PSU is a research university, professors often leave for a couple of weeks to work on a project in NYC and will take students with them if needed/wanted. Lastly, there are wonderful connections (especially with Cirque Du Soleil for tech students)
@MiamiDAP Of course a 2.8 GPA is not going to get a child wherever they want to go. This letter was simply to provide a success story, and a different point of view. I really wanted to let parents know that if their child happens to have a low GPA, then there is still hope. In no way am I saying to slack off. The magic wand you speak of doesn’t exist…you’re right. However, if a child with a low GPA has a talent that outweighs their grades, then by all means, go for that talent!
Congrats to you @Techtheatrewiz (TTW 
)
Thanks for sharing your experience. Not often you even have kids on this site with a GPA of 2.8.
@sax Thanks! I definiately knew that I wanted to go to college from day one. So, it was important to me to never let go of that dream even as I struggled throughout high school.
Also, @MiamiDAP My 7th semester grades are in and they improved greatly! I just wish I could have put these grades on my inital transcript! :))
Econ & Pers Fin (online) (612099) B-
Fashion Careers 1 (2 credit class) (828027) A-
US VA Govt HN (244036) A
English 12 (116000) B+
Geosystems HN (422036) A-
Tech Theatre 2 (143512) A
@Techtheatrewiz - thanks for posting your story, and congratulations to you. My kid’s pressure cooker school has a lot of kids like you who are talented and articulate - and a lowish GPA. I totally get it.
I would just reiterate a concern made earlier about the core requirements at Penn State. Make sure you do your work in those math/science core classes. I think your English/humanities classes will be okay. But you still need to keep on top of your work.Make sure you find out the math you have to take. The fact you don’t have any math right now could place you at remedial math when they give you the math placement test. (It’s easy to forget all that stuff…) So look into that before the placement test.
I think you will be fine - but you do need to be aware of things that can potentially derail your goals.
@mathprof63 Thanks! I totally agree with you about math/science. I plan on hitting the ACT practice book soon so I can refresh my brain before the placement exam!
Good idea to use the ACT book! If you haven’t done so, google the math placement test requirements for Penn State- colleges like to hide these somewhere on their website, so it’s easier to use google to find the page. Each university is different - some post sample tests and others say nothing.
Here’s the webpage for Penn State’s Math Assessment: http://advising.psu.edu/aleks/index.html. Note that there are learning modules so you can practice before (and after) taking the test. Good luck.
Congratulations. I was also a student with a sub 3.0 UW GPA. I think right around 2.8. I exceeded expectations of my school and my parents will be attending a great school in the fall. (If interested, you can look at my thread “college admissions story for the B student.” I don’t want to hijack this one.)
It shows college admissions is a lot more than numbers, especially if you play your cards right and find the right schools.
Congrats, @Techtheatrewiz , wishing you all the best in your studies at Penn State!
My older son’s GPA was no better than yours (lower, if anything), and he had similar experiences. He got into a BFA Theater program and into Rutgers CAS (we’re NJ residents). He left his BFA school after 3 semesters, and eventually transferred into the Film & Media Arts School at Temple, where he has about a 3.4 GPA now. Straight, flat roads aren’t for everyone: they’re boring, and the scenic route can often get you to your destination just as well. If you are able to get along without a heavy pharmaceutical diet, why start one unnecessarily?
Penn State has great classes for non stem/non business majors, such as Math and Money (which honestly all students should take) or Math and citizenship (ditto). Thereonly require logic, arithmetics, and basic high school math like algebra1. 
And they fulfill the Quantitative Reasoning requirement - you could get rid of it first semester and be done forever, but having learned very useful concepts.
It’s great that you had a happy ending (well actually a happy beginning - sounds great). It’s nice to read encouragement posts. Alas… a 2.8 will not yield nice results for everybody, especially if they don’t have your interesting ECs.
You might want to get your vision checked. 
Brandeis has lots and lots of things going for it… but a pretty campus is not one of them.
- Proud Brandeis Alumnus
OP:
In light of the fact that you’re talking from the perspective of a school that is overly obsessed with receiving high GPAs, I see where you’re coming from. I remember exactly how self-destructive that attitude was and how much better life is when you stop worrying about appearing perfect and instead worry about bettering yourself. A 4.0 GPA is less important than appearing “well rounded” which is also less important that doing meaningful activities in high school that help to establish what kind of person you are. For example, you talked about how certain you were of pursuing meteorology until you found a path that was more suitable for you personally. This is a very common story because perspective changes people and their career paths.
However, intentionally or not, you are glorifying a low GPA, which is straight up wrong and tends to lead people astray. It is not to your credit that you chose not to turn in assignments late - general life skills such as punctuality and discipline are important skills to be learned in high school. It is not to your credit that you valued your extracurricular activities over your schoolwork - knowing your priorities is another important life skill to be learned in high school. You seem to have worked things out, at least as far as it comes to college admissions, but you are glorifying problems in your educational experience that did not contribute to your success but merely failed to detract from it. There was more luck involved in finding your way into the right college with a lower GPA, but it’s not an example to be followed, a trait to encourage, or a habit that you should keep. In that sense, this letter can send the wrong message to people, that it’s alright to just treat high school like it doesn’t matter because somehow things will work anyways. That’s not what should be encouraged because doing well in high school really is pretty important.
Education gives you a lot of skills that don’t seem valuable at first but pay off over a lifetime. Don’t dismiss their value so quickly. It took me many years to realize just how important the base of knowledge I gained from high school academics really was.
@NeoDymium Hi, thanks for taking the time to read my letter! I understand where you are coming from 100% and I thank you for your insight. I understand that the choices I made in high school were not choices that helped me or will help me in the future. I would like to reiterate that the purpose of this post is to provide a success story and not to glorify bad habits.
Thank you for this.
I currently have a cumulative gpa of 2.7 and I am in my junior year. I have been working to improve it but I struggled a lot in the beginning and I also put off a lot of assignments that I shouldn’t have. I have been working really hard this year and I plan to improve my act score to a 28 by the end of the year. My dream school is Texas Christian majoring in fashion merchandising and my counselor even told me that there is no way I will get in. Not only so I have a decent ACT score, I also have over 100 service hours and ton of extracurricular so and leadership. I am doing everything I can to get in and I am even doing the interview. GPA isn’t everything and schools also look for well rounded students. I really appreciate your note because so many people have told me that I have no chance or I should just give up, but it’s because of people like you that I don’t because I know there is a chance and you just might be the person that school is looking for. Even if I don’t get into TCU I will have the confidence knowing that I did everything I could and despite what everyone told me, I didn’t give up.
Thank you.
Thank you for posting this. Good luck to you!
@hulimcfulia: well, actually, for most majors, yes GPA matters a lot, but most importantly you need a combination of strong GPA + strong course rigor + strong test scores, with each element making up for the others if one is below level. So, if your GPA isn’t too high, you can compensate with course rigor to have a weighted rank in the top 20% and an ACT score of 30 and above. That would give you a shot at TCU. With an ACT 28, you need a weighted rank in the top 12%. So, don’t give up, but don’t fixate on TCU - it’s a reach, so you need to find “TCU-like” matches and safeties. What aspects of TCU do you like? Open a new thread in “college selection” and give your current stats, the aspects of TCU you like, your parents’ budget (and, if different, their EFC), and people will suggest colleges like TCU where you have a good shot at admissions and scholarships!
@Techtheatrewiz, Congratulations! I hope that you achieve every success and enjoy yourself tremendously. (And keep up your current trend of being better organized, which will help you no matter what you do. )
I just want to note one thing about your letter: You were NOT a “well-rounded” student. You were a student with a passion that you had pursued to the exclusion of other things. And yes, certain colleges and certain programs look for exactly that. If you were the classic well-rounded kid who did some tech theater, some sports, some this, some that, your 2.8 would most likely not have gotten you into Penn State. This is no criticism of you at all. I just want to put things into perspective for others who don’t have your accomplishments to offer.