<p>I go to a top 30 university, I came from a horrible high school. My GPA after my first three semesters was a 2.4 - heres the deal: my freshman year I had NO idea what I was doing academically, and I was on a time intensive sports team. I got the hang of studying by the end, but I was sleep deprived and depressed. My sophomore year was when the engineering curriculum kicked up, and I was once again out of my depth. I was studying efficiently, but I was doing 18 units of hard math, physics, and science, and I drowned. I was clearly not on the right path, so I switched majors- that spring I got a 3.94. In the summer I took a CS class and did really well, and now my GPA is a 2.8. </p>
<p>Still in my new major and loving it, I understand how to balance my time and study well, and I really want to go to graduate school. Here's my question: did my horrible first few semesters ruin my chances? I intend on working my ass off for the next two years and earning great grades, and I've gotten to know a few professors and will be volunteering with at least one of them. If all goes well (eg I earn high B's and A's from here on out) I can graduate above a 3.0.</p>
<p>After graduation I plan on taking a gap year to get some relevant work experience, and then go to grad school (I want admissions to see my whole transcript). Also plan on studying relentlessly for the GRE. I'm very serious about my future, I just got lost for a little while. </p>
<p>Sure. Some schools will ignore your application because of the overall GPA without regard to anything else - the first sort of applications is often fast and brutal with little regard for nuance. But if you make it past that point, they are usually pretty understanding of rough early semesters, and you should be fine. I would expect that, compared to others with a comparable application but more “even” GPA, you will get rejected by more schools (especially at the top end) but will receive better and more enthusiastic offers from those schools where you are offered admission.</p>
<p>I am not an expert on graduate school admissions, in general, by any stretch, but I do happen to have a son who was urged by a mentoring professor to remain at the university where he got his undergraduate degree in order to pursue his graduate degree. My son was doing research for this professor as an undergrad. The two of them really hit it off, professionally and on a personal level. You mentioned that you know a few professors and will be volunteering with at least one of them. My son didn’t have a background like yours – his credentials remained excellent throughout his undergrad – but based on how much influence this one professor had on this son’s education, it would seem to me that if you do great work for one or both of your professors at your current school, and if you make a great impression on them in other ways as well (are you somebody that they and their grad students would like to continue to work with?), and if you keep up your grades as you intend to, then you will, at a minimum, have a good chance of attending your current school for a master’s degree. If you’re somebody they come to admire and rely on, they may well urge you to apply for grad school there. And even if they don’t urge you to stay on with them (and that could be for various reasons that have nothing to do with your qualifications or lack thereof), they may be very happy to write some great letters of recommendation for you.</p>
<p>I would say that you definitely did not blow it. I mean, you’ve created more of an uphill battle for yourself than necessary. But if you do great work and become an asset to one or both professors and their current team of grad students, I think you can earn some great letters of recommendation for other schools and possibly an invitation to stay on at your current school. All is not lost. In fact, some faculty and staff members admire and empathize with students who have struggled, acknowledged their own contributions, and then brought themselves up out of their own hardships. GPA’s and grades are not everything when it comes to grad school admissions.</p>
<p>I will second the idea that your current school will be more forgiving of your situation than any other school. I experienced a similar academic trajectory, and my own school threw the best offer they had at me. Other schools had to be convinced that “new me” was not the same as “old me” and was better than my cGPA suggested. My school already knew that.</p>