Bad performance in Top Tier college Transfer or Stay

Applying to College
1

<p>Overall my performance in college has been dismal. I messed up bad but I'm not giving up</p>

<p>Freshman year</p>

<p>Fall= 1.93
-Chem 1-Failed
-Calculus 1-Withdrawn
-Modern Biology honors-B
-Materials energy and Environment-B
-Computing @ CMU- Passed (pass or fail) (1credit course)</p>

<p>Spring= 2.54
-Calc 1-C
-Chem 1-C
-Pysch course-A
-English requirement-B
-Physics 1-C</p>

<p>Sophomore year
Fall= 1.00
Biochem-dropped
Organic Chem 1-failed
Computer programming-failed
Psychology (cognitive)-C
Chem Lab-C
Undergrad Biology Colloquium-Passed (pass or fail)</p>

<p>Spring= Not sure what’s going to happen</p>

<p>Overall I fell behind in the failing classes and performed dismal on the finals. Finals week was too crowded and my effort was too late. I had pulled too many all-nighters in that chem lab course from hell. I lost a lot of my confidence and energy i once used to have. I remember in high school science courses would be fun for me but here its hell!</p>

<p>Now I'm not sure if I'll be forced to withdraw or not but I might will due to it being my first semester pulling a loan and performance issues. I also may have add/adhd and I don't know how that plays into this equation</p>

<p>I go to Carnegie Mellon University btw (kinda want to stay it’s a good school)</p>

<p>My options now are</p>

<p>Stay at CMU
-Stay and rough it out as a bio/chem major but end up with a horrendous G.P.A. (they don't replace or hide failing grades on the cumulative GPA or transcripts)
-Transfer into the business school there and either go into a mba or graduate with much higher GPA (still may have 3 failing grades very competitive finding jobs)
-Transfer into the psychology school there (not very profitable unless a phd is obtained)</p>

<p>OR Withdraw and attend Community College for spring and/or summer and transfer/return from/to cmu</p>

<p>Earn about 15-30 credits </p>

<p>At least take
-calc 2,
-economics,
-Elective
-Either two technical (physics 2 and chem 2) or business (accounting and intro to business) related courses</p>

<p>College 1
University of Pittsburgh- (seems like best choice)
(pros still see my friends from cmu is in Pittsburgh and failing grades will be gone)
(cons-not top tier)
Options
-study business (easy but finding a job/mba would be very competitive)
-study engineering (once again it will be a hard 2 years left but profitable and interesting)
-Study bio/chem and go to med/pharmacy school (failing grades erased but once again I could end up with a 2.5 or something if i can't get my stuff together and be forced to do something like research graduating)</p>

<p>College 2
University of Maryland
Once again I probably would study the same things and have the same options as Pitt except for I would live in my home state going to a school with all my high school friends and be about 15 mins away from home. At the same time i would be away from pitt/cmu community/friends.</p>

<p>College 3
Stanford University
-Same major options as pitt/md (business or biology)
-Would be a stretch I probably would need straight A's coming out of CC but is an excellent school both in ranking and social atmosphere and seems less stressful/competitive/antisocial than cmu
-Still hard as hell though
-got wait listed as a senior applying to colleges</p>

<p>College 4
Hampton University
-May be able to even transfer next spring 2011 semester
-lower rank but better social atmosphere and less competitive than cmu
-I still want to study the same things (business/biology)</p>

<p>Transfer to either University of Georgia OR Duquesne University (small elite school in pittsburgh) OR some other 4 year institution.</p>

<p>My profile
-completed 3 semesters at CMU African American and 19 years old still
(9-21 credits in AP) (27-32 credits at CMU)-completed around 45 let’s say
-1850-1900 SAT
-3.6 GPA in high school
-I took/excelled in 7 AP courses</p>

<p>I already have credit for Chem 1, Calc 1, Physics 1, Two Psychology courses, Biology Honors, English composition, Materials, Energy, and Environment, and Chem Lab 1 (biology colloquium and computing @cmu were 1 credit courses) or 9-11 courses for about 27-30 credits</p>

<p>(9-21 credits in AP)
5-Biology
5-Pysch
5-World History
4-Statistics
4-Eng/literature
3-Physics
1-Chemistry (always been bad at it)</p>

<p>and my extracurriculars include
-Eagle Scout
-Track and field (High School)
-NHS and other small clubs (did an internship for at risk elementary children for one) (high school)
-Football (freshman year of college)
-Biology Student Advisory Committee (college)
Worked over each summer (Pizza Hut 10th and 11th grade summers, McDonalds 12th grade summer, Kohls and Sears Last summer)</p>

<p>I would really love to hear from either college advisers or professors, or students and parents who were in my case, or other undergrads to see what they have to input but anyone is welcome put their input.</p>

2

<p>From looking at your post it is quite obvious Science and Math are not your strong suit by any means. That said, give up on being a Doctor/Pharmacist, they’re not for everyone and you don’t have to be one to be successful in life. Furthermore, some of your “options” are also highly unrealistic at this point too. Transferring into either Maryland or Pitt will probably even make it harder on you in terms of gpa. The larger schools tend to inflate grades less than Carnegie Melon does in the first place. That is also assuming you could even transfer in, you think those schools will roll out the red carpet for a 2. something just because you went to a top 25? They have standards too. </p>

<p>Here are the three options you really have.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Stay at CMU and major in something you are legitimately good at. You seem to be ok at psychology. Also, you start finding some of the easy A courses to get some 4.0s into your gpa. Every school has some gut classes. (Note that this is probably the worst course of action.)</p></li>
<li><p>Go to either Hampton or a CC, they’re probably more suited to your academic ability or work ethic. Work on your study skills and habits and then transfer to a bigger U once you feel ready.</p></li>
<li><p>Drop out of college altogether and do something else. Our culture over-emphasizes how college = success, this isn’t true. You can still live a successful life and not go to college.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The last thing I advise you to do is really analyze your life goals and your current direction. Doing as bad as you did does not result from simply a hard course of study, it comes from a lack of studying/poor studying ability/poor planning. You really need to figure out why you are college and what you are doing there.</p>

<p>This sounds very mean and scathing but it is simply the truth. It takes a lot of courage for you to post what you did and I feel as though a honest opinion is the best thing in this situation. I hope you figure it all out and good luck in your future endeavors.</p>

3

<p>Your suggestions seem pretty good and realistic. </p>

<p>When I was talking about transferring to the several state schools I meant going to CC for the spring and perhaps summer, completing those basic courses getting over a 3.0 if not close to straight a’s earning a solid gpa. I had already checked the requirements and all of them require at least a 2.5 to a 3.0 from the last institution you attended if I was to maintain well grades in the semester of CC then I should probably be in a position to go to one of those schools like you mentioned.</p>

<p>Overall I’m not sure if I would want to go into psychology business seems to interest me more but I know it would be a much rougher transition and I’m far behind.</p>