<p>I was wondering if someone could give me an opinion on my shot at admissions to a decent school in the northeast given my situation academically:
I am 24 years old, from Maryland, and initially began college at a state school in Maryland. After several semesters of poor grades(1.1 gpa over 21 credits completed) due to immaturity and being in the wrong major given my abilities(engineering), I was dismissed for academic reasons. I took a year off from school to both work and find what I really wanted to study. Eventually
I discovered a great interest in law and politics and decided to major in political science with the eventual goal of attending law school. After completing 52 semester credits worth of coursework at a local community college and 12 credits at Georgetown University during 1 semester as a visiting student this past spring(while interning for a very well known corporation 35 hours per week) I ended up with a 2.85 gpa, an Associates degree in Political Science, and retook the SAT as my scores from HS did not include a writing section. SAT was 710V 550M 610W. I applied to about a dozen schools and every single one declined my admission for this past fall due to my past dismissal from a four year university. One of the admissions people at one of the universities I applied to recommended that I try to raise my gpa, so I am retaking the classes I received C's in this coming semester. If all goes well my gpa will rise from a 2.85 to a 3.3. Other than retaking these classes to raise my gpa, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? These are my stats for when I reapply for the spring:</p>
<p>SAT: 1870 (710 Verbal 550 Math 610 Writing)
GPA: 3.3
2 internships relevant to my major: one in local governemnt and one in the government affairs office of a large multinational corporation
played intercollegiate sports during my 3 semesters at a four-year institution previously</p>
<p>Given my stats and situation, are there any schools in the northeast that I would have a decent shot at? Its just been very irritating to me that even though my grades have improved significantly over the course of 4 semesters that I am being judged almost soley on my academic performance from 5 years ago with almost no consideration of my improvement. </p>
<p>I would like to attend law school and live/work in the northeast when i'm done school and would prefer to move to this area now, but i'd like to hear any suggestions at all. Thanks in advance for the advice</p>
<p>I’m a resident of Maryland and if it comes down to choosing a better school academically that has a significantly higher cost versus a slightly worse school that is cheaper, money is not an issue. My parents are relatively well off and can afford to supplement any gap in what I cannot afford to pay via loans/grants/income.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you are asking, but since you are interested in political science and law I would recommend the following schools located in the northeast.</p>
<p>Rutgers University - New Brunswick Campus*
Syracuse University
NYU*
Temple University
Drexel University
TCNJ
University of Massachusetts Amherst
UVM
Boston University*
University of Maryland - College Park* Since you are an instate resident and they have very good pre-law programs. Sadly this school isn’t located in the northeast, or at least I don’t think so. There are good universities located in D.C that have very good Poly Sci. programs. American, GWU, Georgetown, etc.</p>
<p>Entertainer, thanks for the input. I was asking what schools would be a good fit/decent chance of admission given my academic history and stats(every school that I applied to rejected my application not because of my work at community college, but because of my previous dismissal at a 4 year school), and if there was anything other than raising my gpa that I could do to increase my chances of admission to schools. </p>
<p>I really loved Georgetown when I was there as a visiting student, but the average transfer applicant there has a gpa of 3.75 so I refrained from applying because I didn’t think I would be admitted.</p>
<p>Hmom5:
I was thinking about retaking my SAT to increase my math and writing scores. I haven’t had a math class since calc II about 5 years ago so when I retook my SAT in october 2008 my math score wasn’t exactly outstanding due to a few years out of the math loop. I feel like I can increase my CR and W scores a bit as well. Based on your experience would my 710 in CR need to be improved? The score report said it was in the 96th percentile for that version of the test. And is the SAT even relevant given that I’ve completed nearly 90 semester credits already?</p>
<p>have you thought about applying to the continuing education/adult education programs that are offered at many schools? These are often part-time but geared for older/returning/non-traditional students so it may be easier for you to be accepted. SAT/ACT is often not even required.</p>
<p>Before we even get to score–wouldn’t having 90 semester hours eliminate you from consideration at many schools? Wouldn’t that make you a senior transfer? Sounds to me as though you should finish up at a state school and then look to better options for grad school.</p>
<p>But if you don’t want to do that, I would have to agree that a non traditional program may be your best bet. You don’t tell us which colleges you applied to for this past fall, but that’s a lot of colleges that looked at your record and said no. Perhaps they were poorly chosen, or perhaps your set of issues just make you a not great candidate for many schools.</p>
<p>A higher score in anything will of course always help, but more than 710CR probably won’t matter here because I don’t think an ivy is going to be a consideration unless it’s a non traditional programs, and I’m not sure if those even care about scores.</p>
<p>The problem with the non traditionals though, is often cost. Columbia has a great one with poor aid. Penn also has a very good one, don’t know if they give aid though.</p>
<p>Many major universities (and many not so major colleges/universities) offers adult education programs; if you are interested in the Wash. DC area for instance, here is a site that lists several schools with such programs (including Georgetown):</p>
<p>You might go back and check with some of the schools you were interested in to see if they have adult/continuing ed programs and what their requirements are.</p>
If it means getting into a better school, I would not mind only transfering in 60-65 credits. Its been my understanding that where you go to school does have some effect on admissions to good grad/law schools in addition to getting good grades(especially for law school), ie. someone with a 3.6 or 3.7 gpa, high LSAT, and good EC’s at say, an Ivy or public ivy will look better than someone with the same gpa, LSAT score, and EC’s at a typical state school, and I would ideally like to attend a decent law school in the future, as law is one profession where the name of the university on your degree has a significant bearing on your employment chances/opportunities right out of the gate. Basically, getting into the best school that I can is my top priority. My other concern with transfering in to a state school and finishing in one year is that grad/law schools will look at my academic record and will see an upward trend in grades, but will be scared off by the relative recentness of my improvement in gpa and the previous academic dismissal being in the relatively recent past. In that respect transfering in fewer credits almost works in my favor in my eyes as it gives me a chance to have a longer history of sustained success as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>2) In retrospect I do believe that you are right and my selection of colleges was not the most prudent this past cycle. A fair number of the schools I applied to were public OOS univeristies that likely do not accept a large number of out of state students. A fair number of them did not hold the previous dismissal on my record as a deciding factor, but told me that it brought my cumulative gpa down to below the level needed for acceptance at their institution, hence the retaking this semester of the few classes I have received C’s in previously to try and boost my gpa. </p>
<p>3)I did some research and most of the non traditional programs that I came across were actually Ivies: Brown, Columbia, Penn, and Harvard. After posting about the non traditional program as a transfer at brown and getting some feedback from a student who was recently accepted via that process, it does not seem like a good option(only 3-8 students accepted per year on average). Seeing as how you worked for Penn in the past I was wondering if you knew about the process there with regards to their school of general studies(the non traditional program). I remember my dad and uncle(both alums) telling me that being academically dismissed previous would preclude me from the normal transfer process at Penn. Do you know if this is true at Penn or any of other non traditional programs? I couldn’t find any info one way or the other</p>
<p>4) As I said before, cost is not an issue with me as my parents are well off and willing to assist me in paying for my last year or two of undergraduate school, especially if the increase in cost is due to attending a good school</p>
<p>5) After reading the Harvard Extension School webpage, it states that candidacy as a degree seeking student is granted upon completion of 3 courses with a B minus average at the school, with the cost of the classes being between $500 and $1000, with many courses being offered online meaning I could complete them over the January semester at home. This sounds almost too good to be true. Is there any aspect to their program that I might be missing? I showed this to my parents and they bothed seemed quite skeptical that the most highly ranked university in the country would have such a lenient acceptance policy for their non traditional student program.</p>
<p>scansmom:
Thanks for the link. It was good to find some schools nearby that offer these sort of programs; unfortunately the site only linked to the main website of the schools and I haven’t been able to find information about nontraditional programs for some of the schools listed, but its good to see that there are options and i’ll definitely be checking for more non traditional programs over the next few weeks.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, just trying to be thorough.</p>