[CHANCES] REALLY crappy GPA. Pretty good ACT. Not so great ECs. What are my chances?!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

<p>Please give this thread a look and offer any insight you can. My grades haven't shown any improvement throughout highschool (my junior year grades were actually the worst). I go to a fairly competitive school, so my class rank is complete crap. However, I took the ACTs and did fairly well with a 31.</p>

<p>For ECs, I was in "Youth and Government" sophomore and junior year, played tennis through our park district through all 3 years (but not from school), I was part of the Principal's Advisory Committee, in which me and about 30 other people in my lunch period would meet with the principal each month and talk about things which need to be dealt with at our school (such as garbage on the floor, school lunches, etc.). I'm also part of a youth committee at a cultural (Indian) association, where I basically just find things for the kids to do or help host children's events (this doesn't have any affiliation with my school). Also, I've been volunteering at a hospital once a week since sophomore year (hopefully I can get 50 hours by the time I send my applications).</p>

<p>I'm looking for colleges in the Midwest, and live in Illinois. The closer the better. I'm probably going to end up going into Computer Engineering, but I'm not 100% sure yet so I'll probably go in undecided or under LAS.</p>

<p>To clear up any confusion, I failed honors pre-calculus during the school year 2nd semester, so I'm taking 2nd semester (regular precalc) over the summer again.The GPA is on a 4.0 scale for regular classes, and on a 5.0 scale for honors/AP classes...</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Sem 1:
Comp Apps 1: B
Hon Eng 1: D
Spanish 1: C
Hon Geometry: C
Gym: B
Hon Biology: B
Honors World History: C</p>

<p>Sem 2
Notetaking: C
Hon Eng 1: D
Spanish 1: B
Hon Geometry: D
Gym: B
Hon Biology: C-
Honors World History: D</p>

<p>Summer School
Alg 2 trig Semester 1: B
Alg 2 trig Semester 2: C</p>

<p>Freshman Year GPA: 2.63</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Sem 1
English II: B
Spanish II: C
Honors Alg II Trig: C
Health: B
Honors Chem: D
American History: C</p>

<p>Sem 2
Eng II: B
Creative Writing: A
Spanish II: B
Honors Alg II Trig: C
Gym: A
Honors Chem: C
American History: B</p>

<p>Summer School
Government: A
Economics: A</p>

<p>Cumalitive GPA after 10th Grade: 2.88</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Sem 1
AP English III: C
Spanish III: C
Honors Pre-calculus: C
Gym: A
AP Chemistry: D
Honors Physics: C
Psychology: B</p>

<p>Sem 2
AP Eng III: D
Gym: A
Honors Pre-Calculus: F
Spanish III: D
AP Chemistry: D
Honors Physics: C
AP Psychology: D</p>

<p>Junior year GPA: 2.00
Cumulative GPA after Junior Year: 2.739</p>

<p>This Summer:
Graphic Arts: A
Pre-calculus: A (probably)</p>

<p>I don't know what my Cumilative GPA will be after these summer classes, but I'll probably end up with a 2.74 as my final GPA when I start applying.</p>

<p>ANY comments, words of advice, criticism, suggestions, and so forth are welcome. THANK YOU!</p>

2

<p>nnnnope. I don't even think you could get into aggy or aviation.</p>

3

<p>Your ECs and ACT are good. You don't have to participate in school activities for them to count for ECs. Why is your GPA so low? Did you not study or put effort into your work? </p>

<p>All I can say is apply for Computer Engineering. ENG is hard to get into, but in the application, check the box that also puts you in LAS as a second choice. Show your passion for engineering, and in your application, explain why your GPA is low. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>UIUC has a requirement that you need a 3.0UW at least to apply, and even if you had a 3.0UW, you'd be at the bottom vs everyone else so you can't get in</p>

<p>so sorry, if i were you i'd focus my apps on another college (call the admission office at UIUC to confirm that i'm right)</p>

5

<p>Contrary to what is stated above, there is no minimum GPA requirement to appy to UIUC. Moreover, class rank is more important than GPA. However, you seem to admit a low class rank and your GPA indicates that. As stated by others, your chances of admission are likely very low.</p>

6

<p>Your good ACT score can't possibly make up for all those bad grades. Prove that you're a good student by making all A's and B's next year. Even if you can do this, you may have to spend some time getting A's at community college before you can get into a good four-year college. If you have the ability and work hard, you'll eventually be able to study where you want.</p>

7

<p>Deffinately apply - what does it hurt? a 40 dollar application fee and an hour or two of your time? If thats a loss to you, then REALLY consider what you want.</p>

<p>As it has been mentioned, spend sometime at a community college. If you get good grades and take descent courses (hopefully ones that will apply to your degree), generally they will look at those as opposed to lower high school ones. Especially if you get over a certain amount of college credits. I think its 30 or 60 (i know thats a big margin) but after a point they will not even look at your high school ones.</p>

<p>Any taffy....</p>

<p>are you saying that Aviation is some easy accept all that who apply institute?
cause you probably are right but i loved how you put it.</p>

8

<p>oops, my mistake</p>

<p>only grad school requires a minimum GPA</p>

9

<p>
[quote]

Any taffy....</p>

<p>are you saying that Aviation is some easy accept all that who apply institute?
cause you probably are right but i loved how you put it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm in aviation and yes, its the easiest major to get accepted into (but with a heavy price tag, like 8 grand a year... worth it tho), but one of the hardest majors to stay in. AVI 101 had like 70 students and one year later we are down to about half that for AVI 130. Its tough stuff.</p>

10

<p>i applied with similar numbers - around a 2.9 unweighted and 3.3 weighted, 31 act and not so many EC's. my application was deferred, manually reviewed, and rejected. i'm pretty sure you need at Least a 3.0 UW to be considered and probably at least a 3.4 - 3.5 to have a decent chance.</p>

11

<p>I think that UIUC will be quite a reach for you. You have good Ec's but most colleges look at the school transcript first and immediatly weed out a look of people before even looking at Ec's. I would say, that to have any chance you would have to get amazing grades this year and send the grades to UIUC even if they do not require senior year grades.</p>