A Pretty Bad Situation....

<p>hey what up peeps.....im just wondering what kind of colleges i can get into</p>

<p>im a junior and going to become a senior
my weighted gpa is 3.8 (rounded up)
my unwieghted gpa is about 3.2</p>

<p>but along wit that gpa, i actually received 3 d+'s ONLY on ONE semester of my sophomore year (taken 1 to make it up and plan on takin one more during the summer)....and besides that, everything is fine......i do sports, involved in clubs, community service and part of a program...BUT i havent taken sat, sat II's, which im gonna do soon</p>

<p>so, i was wonderin what kind of colleges i should be lookin for...thanks a lot in advanced</p>

<p>What are you interested in? Concentration? </p>

<p>Specific locations?</p>

<p>thanks for responding man...greatly appreicate it</p>

<p>engineering, math, science</p>

<p>UCSD UC davis uc berkeley</p>

<p>Those 4 are a good start. I will offer some more reaches of schools I think you could get into with a little luck. </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon University is a reach but it is holistic in admissions in where they'll take higher junior/senior year grades + High SATs + Good essays. Carnegie would be great for engineering/math/science as it boasts one of the highest avg starting salaries for its fields and has amazing recruiter reputation/prestige. </p>

<p>I would also recommend UChicago if you were ever interested in sciency/liberal arts/economics stuff. The University of Chicago has been known to take low GPA's in exchange for high interest/fit/capability/etc. </p>

<p>Both schools are quite far from California and are reaches. With that said, write your essays well + repair your sophomore grades + ACE the SATs and you may be looking at an acceptance.</p>

<p>Your matches can be the UC's along with Purdue/Penn State which are both good at engineering though are also quite far from California.</p>

<p>You didn't mention location so I assume these schools are alright.</p>

<p>With all that said you got 4 schools + your original 4 UC's giving us 8. </p>

<p>Maybe add 2 safeties and you are set.</p>

<p>You might consider taking SAT review courses or study review books especially since you have not yet taken the SAT at all. You will be taking it for the first time in your senior year and so will not have much opportunity to take a practice run before taking it for real. Many UC-bound kids take the SAT as juniors so they can examine their weaknesses before taking the exam as seniors. So spend your summer working on that. UCSD, Cal and UCD were extremely competitive this year and they are probably reaches for you, depending on your intended major. Please also consider applying to safety schools, whether a UC or otherwise.</p>

<p>Slick Dude:</p>

<p>Assuming you are a California resident,
UCB/UCLA: Reach (Engineering)
UCSD: Slight Reach (Engineering)</p>

<p>thanks for the suggestions man....really appreciate it</p>

<p>i forgot to mention that i got a D+ in ap calc, honors physics</p>

<p>i know u said i could get in, but are u positive that i can even get into uc berkely (obviously these are just assumptions...and i know u dont know for sure, but i am just really curious)</p>

<hr>

<p>thanks for the reponses Rosieo & flopsy</p>

<p>UCB and UCSD are far reaches.</p>

<p>UCD is a decent match. Perhaps apply to more mid and lower tier UCs?</p>

<p>^tru man...i mean appreciate the reponses....but i dont really think i can get into ucb and ucsd wit those 3 D+'s in that one semester</p>

<p>but i dunno.....</p>

<p>I think you are right with those 3 D+s, that might actually preclude you from any UC. You would need stellar SATs to overcome. If you are truly dedicated to going to a top-tier UC, you may need to go the CC route to improve your chances, or try for UC Riverside or Merced and then transfer after you buff up your grades for a year or two.</p>

<p>hmm...how about retakin the courses...cause i already retook 1......and plan on retakin another</p>

<p>will that help me out at all?</p>

<p>Maybe, but do you have room in your senior schedule to retake classes you have already taken in addition to those you still need?</p>

<p>no i dont have room...why would i need room for classes ive already taken.....but im trying to take another course too during the fall term and it ends around december.....im hoping i can get that in for college to look at it</p>

<p>Not to discourage you from trying to get in as a freshmen but I would strongly encourage you to try the community college route. Like you, I had problems in high school (though mine were more behavior related versus academic) but I managed to turn it all around with a clean slate in community college. I got into all the schools you mentioned and will be attending UCB this fall. So yeah, it is a great option for those who weren't particularly ready yet in high school for one reason or another.</p>

<p>You also save a lot of money for your parents. If you have any questions feel free to ask...Best of luck =)</p>

<p>^yeah man....i just lost focus and i got into bad habits during high school, but i dunno....i dotn want to go through community college route...i really want to go to a university as a freshman....i mean i am in almost all the highest classes offered at my school (except 1)</p>

<p>u think going to UCD....with a business, engineering major have any fallouts or any sort</p>

<p>Ahhh I see, well what do you mean by fallouts slick dude? I think overall UCD is a awesome school and it would be great to get a degree in most of their departments there. </p>

<p>Since you don't want to go the community college route, here are just some things I think you can do to help negate your bad grades:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Rock the SATs as someone said earlier (I remember in HS, they showed us this chart and it showed a chart on how to maintain competitiveness within the UC system. It had an inverse correlation, the higher the SAT you had, the lower your baseline gpa could be).</p></li>
<li><p>Personal statements. Start them early. Get people to check them. This will gain all the more significance in your case because it looks like you're going to be a borderline/ reach canidate. </p></li>
<li><p>Take classes at a community college. Great way to show the UCs that you can handle the rigors of collegiate studies. Also, its great because the transfer credits are guranteed.</p></li>
<li><p>Participate and excell at some extracurricular or passion that you are interested in. Make sure to highlight this area in your application.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Just a few tips, though I think the strongest way to boost up your application is to take as many classes at a community college and do as well in them as you can (A's and B's hopefully)...</p>

<p>Best wishes, Cardinal =)</p>

<p>Great suggestions here by "Admitted already" and "cardinal focused". Just wanted to mention that in addition to UCB, UCLA, UCD, UCR, and UCM, there are also UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Santa Barbara to consider. You could either go to these, and then transfer to UCB or UCLA--or just finish at these schools--which are already highly rated public universities.</p>

<p>Also, I'd think about the previously mentioned Purdue--I think it ranks #7 in the country in engineering--and about the previously mentioned CMU--extremely highly rated as well. These are two places you could probably get into despite your problems.</p>

<p>Your GPA doesn't seem too bad. Is a 3.8 weighted not good? My GPA is a 3.9 weighted and I don't find it to be that awful. It sounds alright to me for schools like UCI and UCD.</p>

<p>thanks for the responses to everyone.....greatly appreciated</p>

<p>but SarangxHae...i feel what u say about the weighted 3.8 as being good, but its not since the classes im takin could have been a 5.0 or 4.5 (weighted)</p>

<p>Ive heard about Purdue, but enever really looked into it....is it a mid-tier college? </p>

<p>Cardinal, Ive taken like 1 class at community college, but i dont think thast enough (cause i took computers)</p>

<p>Purdue mid-tier? Hardly--USNW ranks it at the #60 best national university--tied with Boston University, Ohio State, Rutgers, Texas A&M and Iowa.</p>

<p>They also rank it as #8 for engineering (undergraduate) among national universities--tied with Carnegie-Mellon and Cornell--and ahead of the engineering schools at Princeton, John Hopkins, and Harvard.</p>

<p>Purdue ties with Caltech for #4 best aerospace engineering program, is ranked alone as the #2 best agricultural program, and ties with Michigan for the #2 best industrial engineering program. </p>

<p>Purdue also has an excellent business school--tied at #12 nationwide (undergraduate) with Cornell, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Washington Univ in St. Louis.</p>