As a junior with a bad GPA, do I still have a chance at getting into a good college?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
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At 16 years old, I’m halfway through my junior year with a 2.9 unweighted GPA and a 3.03 weighted GPA. I’m having my first four AP classes this year, and will have four AP classes next year. I have minimal volunteer work and sports. I’ve wanted to become an engineer since middle school, but now that I’m really taking a good look at my high school career, I don’t think this is a possibility anymore. I’m willing to go to any length to make myself more presentable to colleges.

I’m doing better this semester after coming to the realization of how bad my situation is, having a weighted GPA of 4 and an unweighted GPA of 3.33, and I plan to raise it.

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@Dogphin, good for you for beginning to improve your grades. Maybe you are just a late bloomer. You can “take the bull by the horns” so to speak, learn organizational skills, learn to focus, and learn what study strategies work best for you. You can do it! You are still young and anything is possible for your long term future.

At this point you won’t be admitted to elite programmes but there are many excellent schools in the U.S. with a focus on teaching quality for all kinds of learners. Academia is so competitive to get into that virtually all colleges will have highly-qualified professors. Many of the smaller, less-prestigious “directional” universities of any state system are ideal for students who start hitting their stride in college…motivated students at these schools who are pro-active in getting mentoring from their professors can do very well and go on to successful careers or more competitive graduate schools. Also, there are many small, private LACs who do a great job at this as well.(look into CTCL schools/Colleges that Change Lives.)

What state do you live in? What is your budget…do you think your will qualify for need-based aid, or can your parents pay?

There’s a thread here on College Confidential that you should look up: Parents of H.S. Class of 2017: 3.0-3.4 GPA. Toward the end of this thread are listings of students within this general range and what colleges they were accepted to. You will be surprised how well they did in college admissions.

Have you taken ACTs/SATs yet? Have you truly struggled to understand and master the material while in high school, or have you just been lazy, lacking in confidence and/or had poor study/time management skills? I’m asking this in light of your wanting to become an engineer. If you have worked hard and truly struggled, especially in math, it may not be the right path for you. But if you’ve just been immature and blowing off your studies and you have the aptitude, it might still be possible if you become very serious about your studies from now on. I think it’s unlikely you could be admitted into an engineering programe as a freshman anywhere at this point, but if you do a lot of to catch up work and make high grades in college, it might be possible, though maybe it would take you an extra year of college. But at any case, if you’re persistent and work hard, a good education and career path with open up to you.

BTW, I know an intelligent young man who got himself distracted and derailed academically in high school. Like you, he started to pull it together later in high school. He went to a nice, but not prestigious liberal arts college and got a lot of attention there and thrived. He’s now in a PhD program in chemistry at the University of Michigan. So, good things can happen if you are pro-active and invest in yourself! Good luck to you…

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I live in Colorado but only moved here last year. I’ve been to three different high schools, and have spent a little more than half of my life in Washington; I consider it my real home. However, I can’t blame moving high schools as the reason for my grades- my grades most heavily suffer from forgetting to finish, or forgetting to turn in, homework. As of last month when my dad created his own business, money won’t be an issue from here on out. I haven’t taken my SATs or ACTs yet, but I’ve scored a 95-98 percentile on my PSATs and I plan on doing well on the real thing.

Does all this mean I can’t become an engineer anymore? I don’t know of any colleges I could get into with the grades I have now, especially if they don’t count weighted grades. What’s my best bet to be able to get into a good college or university? Would getting into ECs help me?

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“Does all this mean I can’t become an engineer anymore?”

You can still be an engineer. The path to get there might be a bit more difficult or take an extra year based on your grades to this point.

You need to do as well as you can for the rest of high school. Pay extra attention to doing well in mathematics. Math is an area where what you learn is based very much on what you have learned in the past. Mathematical ability therefore sort of grows over time given sufficient effort and innate ability, but it takes time. A lot of engineering relies on strong math skills.

Also work hard on SAT or ACT preparation and try to get strong test scores.

Then see where you get in when you are a senior in high school. If you can get in somewhere like U.Colorado or the Colorado School of Mines then you are into a very good program. If you can’t get into a good engineering program, then you need to talk to your counselor’s at school about starting at a lesser university or at a community college and then transferring.

Definitely do not give up. It is not too late. I do know people who started off with worse grades that you and ended up doing very well. It took at lot of work.

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Definitely continue to work on this. In college, if you don’t turn in homework, nobody chases you down for it – you’ll just get zeroes.

So build a good foundation in math and develop your time management skills now, because both of those will serve you well in an engineering program.

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@Doggphin, since you scored high on your PSATs despite your low GPA ( and your poor grades are due mostly to forgetfulness and poor organization) I think there’s a good chance you can become an engineer IF you work HARD to develop your organizational skills, maturity, focus, etc. Do you tend to grasp math concepts fairly readily even with your lowish grades? Are your math grades higher than your other grades? Have you ever been tested for ADHD? Is it becoming easier for you now to remember to do things? Not trying to interrogate you…just things for you to think about. Many people do overcome their early barriers and become high achievers. If you have the raw ability and the motivation to figure out how to do better in school, there’s no need for you to think it’s too late to give up a dream. You’re still young !

I just don’t know whether you can be admitted into an engineering program as a freshman. If you get your overall GPA to a 3.0 or above there are many good schools that will admit you…just not highly selective schools. Many state universities that aren’t the main flagship have a very broad range of students. Some top students choose these schools for various reason…( financial, personal) so going there doesn’t mean you’ won’t have good company or an excellent education…just means you can get admitted without a top GPA’. Later, by doing well in your first year of college, you may be able to get admitted to the engineering program within that university, or transfer to another university. Many students don’t declare a major until sophmore year, but engineering programs are so packed with required courses, you might have to add another semester or year if you don’t get into engineering as a freshman. I’m not an engineer myself, so I can’t give you specifics, but maybe someone more knowlegable than me can comment here. @MaineLonghorn?

Another thing in your favor I have learned here on CC…if you want to become an engineer it really doesn’t matter whether or not you attend an elite college as long as you graduate from an ABET-accredited school…and there are many. All engineering programs will be competitive to get into…but not all the universities with ABET engineering programs within them have difficult admissions…does that make sense? In other words, you get your toe in the door by getting admitted as an undeclared major in the university, doing basic required coursework diring your freshman year, and study your bottom off to prove that you can do the work to get into the engineering program. If not, you could still major in something else you like, maybe in STEM, math or science that will give you a good career. Your PSATs show you have plenty of potential. A good path for you will open up if you persist.

Does anyone have any suggestions for state schools in Colorado ? Does Colorado have reciprocal agreements with any other state systems such as Wyoming? I have heard good things about U Wyoming, and I think it’s not too hard to get into or very expensive. Is that true? Suggestions?

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And yes, ECs help, but at this point, grades are the most important thing to focus on now. If you can manage to raise your GPA and also fit in an EC or two, that’s great, but don’t sacrifice your GPA for them.

BTW, you may have ECs already and not realize it. ECs don’t have to be school teams or clubs, They are whatever you spend your free time on…you just have to find a compelling way to describe what you do in a positive way (though if you spend all your time on electronic games I’m not sure if that counts unless you are the one creating them! ) Any kind of independent hobby or activity, a part time job, volunteer work, family responsibilities, can be an EC, whether it’s something yo do alone or with a group. Ideally it’s something that you put a lot of time, effort and interest into, and really care about. Your ECs show who you are as a person.

Since you have changed schools three times in high school I can see how it may have been difficult for you to feel settled in anywhere and develop school-related (or other) ECs and also to feel morivated academically. Here’s to a new start for you! Have hope for your future!

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I just want to thank everyone who has posted here. I was having a breakdown just a few hours ago, but reading your replies and talking to my family has made me more hopeful. Responding to many of the questions people have asked; I understand math and physics with crystal clarity, but my grades have ranged from C’s to A’s. The only EC that I’m currently in is a 3D CAD club that we have about once a week for an hour and a half, and my parents suggested that I do math tutoring for my high school and my brother’s elementary school, something I’ve always been really good at and enjoy to do. I’m going to see about joining the NHS for my senior year.

The very best I’m looking at is a 3.2-3.3 cumulative unweighted GPA and a 3.5-3.6 weighted GPA assuming I can really step up my game this and next year. As a final question, how impactful are SAT and ACT scores? Everywhere I look has a different opinion- it doesn’t demonstrate your work ethic, but it shows intellectual capability. How do colleges view them?

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@Dogghin, every school has its own criteria for evaluating students…some value GPAs more, some value test scores, others class rank. While not AS important, ECs, essays, recommendations also carry different weight at different schools. I think its often the interaction between all of the factors…The overall picture they show of you. If you had high test scores and low GPA BUT the GPA was flat the whole way through high school, admissions officers might just conclude that you’re an unmotivated student. However, high test scores (i.e. high ability and potential) coupled with a sharply upward trajectory demonstrates a student who is maturing and bcoming ain interesting high achiever. If you couple that with great teacher recommendations and a solid EC or two, and add in killer essays, you have a really good shot at decent schools. If you visit schools you’re interested in and interview with someone while you’re there, (and better yet, talk to professors in the school and do follow-up thank you notes and e-mails), that can help your chances too.

Are there any teachers in your school that you have a good repoire with? If so, try to let them get to know you and your interest in improving academically. Let them know about your aspirations! Many teachers love feeling like mentors and helping kids pursue their dreams. Since you have moved so much you haven’t had the opportunity to develop these long-term relationships. These teachers may be invaluable for writing great recommendations and detailing how hard you have worked to improve. I can tell you’re a polite and intelligent kid who many adults will respond well to!

I’m sorry to hear you were having a breakdown of sorts but I’m glad to hear your parents are so supportive! Please feel free to post on this forum whenever you have questions…there’s an amazing amount of accumulated knowlege here and lots of parents and professionals of all stripes willing to help (I’m just a relative newby and have absorbed so much info in the past year on CC.) If you post to other students here, be ready to take some things with a grain of salt and double check thier “info”…some students are great, while others can be rude and/or have some very unfounded ideas!

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Don’t take 4 APs next year if you are struggling with them this year. It’s a big mistake. Take a mix of courses, with the most challenging ones in subjects you like (math and science, sounds like). Get organized and do all your work and strive for As in all classes. Colleges want an upward trend.

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Take dual enrollment because you get a year’s credit, AP weighting, and can work when you feel most motivated.