Hello! Im new to this forum, so i hope you are all having a great day
I am a junior in a college prepatory highschool (one of the best) in Florida. But i am worried i wont get accepted into VMI because of my low gpa. My goal is to comission in the army as an officer through ROTC. I have a terrible gpa due to personal issues, but am very confident in getting a high test scores and excell in other areas. If i applied with the following, would i have somewhat of a chance to get accepted right after highschool? I really am serious about this as i have ambitious goals in life, and that includes becoming an officer in the army.
2.3 gpa (not good at all)
2.200 community hours in library, church, hospital ect...
3.Nearly perfect SAT/ACT scores (1550/32)
4.been to clubs such as FBLA, Japanese culture club, and chess club.
5.Have taken honors classes throughout my Highschool along with one/two AP Classes.
6.sports is not my strong area either, but i do work out and am physcially fit, along with Swimming and playing Tennis
7.I have leadership potential, with business/History/Politics as my favorite subjects.
8.i can get reccomendations from teachers and try to write an essay regarding my potential.
I admire your ambition and your desire to serve in the military. I think it can be a great school for young students. I hope it works out for you.
Obviously, there’s a gap between demonstrated potential (test scores) and achievement (GPA). You will ideally want to discuss this with the university, or advise it about the reasons. Not in a defensive way, but in a way that makes it helpful for admissions to understand. Perhaps even thinking about that discussion would be useful to you. Is there a motivation issue? A distraction issue (i.e. video games)? An attention issue (i.e. ADD)? Processing issue (i.e. dyslexia)? Execution issue (i.e. dysgraphia)?
Does VMI interview? If so, that seems like it would be helpful to you. You could discuss your academic results directly with an admissions officer.
Work hard on your grades going forward. That could raise your GPA and bring the achievement more in line with potential. Figuring out how to achieve at a higher level in the classroom will be important to college success as well. The discipline of a school like VMI might be helpful in that. Good luck!
Thank you for your words of encouragement :). And yes they actually interview, as they are a small school as a whole, so being connected with them wont be a problem.
The issue with my gpa was in freshman because i was very unmotivated and lazy (B,C, and occasionally a D). In Sophmore i was very driven to improve so i worked hard (As,Bs, and one F). And now in junior, since i got through a break up, i preety much felt depressed and unmotivated, and had no thought about the military until now (i am currently doing very bad in classes…im hoping my 4th quarter i can do better.) And senior year i plan to do the same as sophmore only better.
I honestly have no idea how to communicate this foward towards the admissions office there, as i am a bit nervous about not sounding stupid.
As a general rule, take a positive approach to conversations. Try not to worry about sounding stupid. That’s a negative approach, right? Instead, figure out what your are trying to accomplish and the best way to achieve that.
Think about it from the VMI admission officer’s perspective. They want to find good young people who can handle the school’s academics to attend VMI. They’re probably a positive person who roots for the students. And their primary responsibility is to fill up the seats at the school with people. They are just as interested in impressing you are you are in impressing them. After all, there are many other schools you could apply to/attend.
In your case, their biggest question would be, can this student succeed academically at VMI? The best way to do that is to work hard and do well going forward–that really demonstrates that. It would also show perseverance, which studies show is one of the most important traits for succeeding in college. We all have hard times; being able to overcome it allows us to be successful. So you could make your story that you hit a few bumps in the road. You knew your GPA was lower than it could be, but you worked hard to get it up as high as possible so that you could attend a school like VMI. Of course, it’s important that whatever you say, whatever you make your story, be authentic–actually be what you are feeling, thinking, and doing. Then you’ll do fine.
