<p>My dream school is UC Berkeley or even MIT (dream)</p>
<p>I am an IB student from Canada, and recently I've been doing very bad in my schoolwork, I've screwed up the first and second term school reports already, and school results over these years completely suck.</p>
<p>However I took the SAT test in May/June and I scored 2340 on the SAT I, and utilizing the time during Christmas, Easter and Summer break, I built a functional car that runs at about 30 mph all by myself using stuff at my garage and a few components bought via eBay, and I'm planning to move to to build something greater in these few months. I am planning to pursue mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>So, since MIT also looks at GPA (which worries me most), I was wondering, should I go and take a few APs, if I manage to do well in these tests, do I still stand a chance to MIT? How much do my school reports and results affect my chances if I do well in my APs.</p>
<p>P.S. My school results from grade 9 till now is really screwed up (GPA 2.0)</p>
<p>An option is community college to raise the GPA. Then transfer to MIT and Berkeley. If u go to a comm college in cali, it will be easier to transfer to Berkeley</p>
<p>I would still apply, but GPA is the first thing colleges look at. That being said they are reaches, but you still have a shot because of the fantastic SAT score. I’d apply to Cal tech/Georgia tech and a few other really good engineering schools to max your chances of getting into one.</p>
<p>I’m afraid there is a GPA requirement for out of state UCs. I believe it was 3.5, so they won’t even look at your application.</p>
<p>As for MIT, your GPA is nearly inexcusably low, or any other top tier school. I say nearly because you might have some undiagnosed learning disability, or some personal issues that you haven’t made explicit here. Even then, 2.0 is pushing it really hard. Even if you get in, do you really think you’ll be able to pull of a decent GPA at MIT, of all schools?</p>
<p>Not sure how it works in Canada, but yeah, go to a community college. Don’t transfer, take classes for 2 years, get an AA, and if your GPA is solid enough then, you can attempt to transfer in.</p>
<p>I’m MIT 2010, and I got in because I thrived in the instructional learning environment. Also because I was lucky.</p>
<p>That being said, don’t let your GPA discourage you. The way most of the world’s educational system works, there are many reasons to have less-than-perfect grades, and good grades doesn’t necessarily correlate to being smart/accomplished/capable. I’m not saying you’ll be a lock for MIT or even that you’ll have a good chance, because even the most stellar-on-paper candidates face enormous odds, and you certainly have a large GPA hurdle. However, if you have undisclosed reasons for your low GPA, and/or your personal engineering projects are as impressive as it sounds, and/or you turn in an inspiring essay, then you could certainly be considered. You should definitely try to improve your academics in the meantime since schools like to see improvement (triumphing over difficulties and all that). </p>
<p>As a piece of practical advice though, even if you don’t get into the school of your dreams, it sounds like you’re already miles ahead of high-and-mighty fancy-college-graduates in terms of potential for innovation and creation. Maybe some extra theory and math equations will be useful to you, but a couple of books from amazon will be cheaper than four years at $45k per. An expensive degree might buy you a leg up on the job market in a few years or land you in that cushy corner office sooner, but practical skill and a sensible head is going to trump most other things in the real world. From the sounds of it, you’re a DIY-type, and there’s a small but vibrant community of people who would welcome you degree or no degree. I’m not saying Berkeley or MIT or any of the other great engineering schools is not worth aspiring to. The education that you receive, the prestige from the degree, and more importantly the relationships that you form, are more than worth it. All I’m saying is that for someone like you, who seems to ooze loads of real-world if not academic potential, not getting into a fancy-school isn’t going to be the end of the world.</p>
<p>Also I have no idea how transfers work, so 0 opinion on that. However, it might not be a bad idea to defer the entire college experience by a year all together. Take some classes (to prove that you can do better academically) while say working at an internship? I think plenty of tech start-ups would be impressed that you’ve built a car (and would be available for cheap). And, it’ll probably garner you an outstanding recommendation. I don’t know whether this will help you get into a top eng. school, but it will certainly get you industry exposure.</p>