Chance me....

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Ok, I am curious to know what posters will think of my situation. Not that any particular answer will deter me from applying to my list of schools, but like I said, just curious.</p>

<p>I currently attend a CC and I am looking to transfer to a school in the Boston area. The schools that I am looking at all offer something that I desire in a four-year college. Some more than others. My current GPA is 2.71...yeah, yeah. I have my reasons (and excuses) for that and hopefully I will graduate from the CC with a GPA over 3.0. Anyways, here are the schools:</p>

<p>-Northeastern.
-Boston University.
-Tufts.
-MIT (ok laugh, but I am serious).
-Suffolk.</p>

<p>My EC's:</p>

<p>-Founder and president of a club that is active on campus and in the community.
-V.P. of the Student Senate.
-Arts/Entertainment editor for school newspaper.
-Staff writer for the school newspaper.
-Organized and am part of a student team to build an ROV for competition (the comp is not until June).
-I have two volunteer positions that are related to my course of study. Both are for non-profits. </p>

<p>Other stuff:</p>

<p>-I am a science major with the majority of my courses in biology.<br>
-One of the reasons for my low GPA is that I have received two D's so far. Both were in 5-credit courses, so that did some significant damage to my GPA.
-I am 33 years old (ok, stop laughing).
-I work 30 hours a week or so. </p>

<p>What do you think?</p>

2

<p>I think that it’s great you’re going for it at 33. I also think your list of schools is unrealistic. MIT and Tufts are for sure and we’d need more info to assess the others. Do you have SAT or ACT scores? Can you/are you planning to retake the D’s?</p>

3

<p>Unrealistic!?! Well, I don’t know what other schools around Boston to apply to since they are all private colleges except for UMass Boston, so in a sense I don’t have a choice but to apply to them unless I want to focus solely on UMass Boston. I have nothing against UMass Boston, but why put all my eggs in one basket. Isn’t that why these schools are called reaches?</p>

<p>In case you are wondering, I am looking at colleges around Boston because my wife is applying to three colleges in the area for grad school and she is in top running for two of them. </p>

<p>–I do not have the SAT or ACT. Never took them. When I was in high school it was assumed that I was not going to college. Not because of grades, but because of money. I have been to CC in the past, though, so it is not like I am totally new to college. I know that MIT requires these test scores from all applicants regardless of where they are in life, so I plan on taking them sometime towards the end of the year. I am curious to see how I do anyways. </p>

<p>–Retaking those courses…Hmmmm…possibly one. I signed to take one of them over the summer, then dropped it. I signed up to take it again next fall, then dropped it. It is possible that I might take the other in the Spring of 0-10. Here is my predicament:</p>

<p>1) My major only requires a minimum GPA and no F’s for graduation. So, D’s get degrees, as they say. I have been advised to only retake the courses if I want them to transfer. Good advice? Bad advice? Not sure. </p>

<p>2) Since I had a semester long review session of these two courses, I am sure that I would pull in a better grade the second time around. However, I am not sure what message I want to send to potential future schools; that I (A) bounced back from these set-backs and was able to ‘prove’ mastery over the subject(s), or (B) that I did not let these grades get me down, I put them behind me, and moved on to other rigorous courses.</p>

<p>As for more info…I used to post on here under the username Cunningham (but forgot my user info and old email address password) so I am aware that adcoms sometimes cruise these forums, so I am iffy about giving out too much information even though what I already posted may be enough to identify me.</p>

4

<p>Bad advice not to retake. The colleges you want to transfer to will look at every grade for admissions purposes whether the class will transfer or not.</p>

<p>As for reaches, there are realistic ones and unrealistic ones. A 3.0 from Harvard would make MIT and Tufts unrealistic! You may as well put your energy into application at schools where you have a shot. There are so many colleges in the Boston area there have to be several that would be realistic for you. Try posting on the parent’s board giving all of this info for help in formulating a list.</p>

5

<p>This is tough. MIT and Tufts are tremendous reaches, but I can see Northeastern, BU, or Suffolk. Good luck!</p>