Hello all, I want to double major in Pre-Med, and Engineering. My first choice is NYU, my second is Columbia, my third is Rutgers, and my forth is Fordham.
I have taken the SAT, but I haven’t yet received my scores although I am fairly confident.
My concern here is my freshman and sophomore year. I haven’t done as well as I should in those years, my average GPA was a 2.8, and I admit it was my fault for not paying attention, and I deeply regret it. Junior year, I dramatically improved by making First Honors (Average above a 90, with no grade lower than an 85) consecutively with my lowest grade generally being a 93. I am now in my senior year and so far I am doing far better than junior year my lowest grade at this point is a 95 (I hope to maintain this all year). I didn’t partake in any extracurricular activities freshman and sophomore year except for football training, and junior year I spent the whole year working in a school organized club that sponsored an African village in Ghana for whom we raised funds for in order to repair their school and we ultimately raised enough money to send a student to high school along with sending school supplies. I really want to attend NYU for a double major in Pre-Med and Engineering so that I can graduate and proceed onto NYU School of Medicine as I have a goal of becoming a neurosurgeon.
your freshman and sophomore year gpa is really going to hurt you, especially for NYU and Columbia. Columbia is almost impossible. I’m not sure about Rutgers and NYU, but you really need a variety of activities to get in to a school these days.
You should go to your local state school–kill it the first year (or two) and then apply to transfer to NYU. Currently, I don’t think you stand that much of a chance, except for maybe Fordham. But if Fordham isn’t your first choice, it might be worth it to consider saving money by going to your state school and then transferring to NYU, where you can expect a very large tuition bill.
Even though I have improved sharply closing out junior year with a 3.8 GPA for that year, my chances are still low? I’m managing all 100’s for the first marking period of senior year, will that help any?
When going into tough majors especially, high GPAs are basically required. They want to know that you can handle difficult courses, and a 2.8 GPA freshman and sophomore year doesn’t show that.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t apply, but be sure to have some safety schools incase you do not get into your top picks.
Word of advice: spend a lot of time preparing for both the ACT and SAT. Stellar test scores could somewhat balance your subpar GPA. Lets say you pull a 3.8 junior year, the GPA you’d be sending to schools would be a 3.13. Look up the class profiles of the mentioned schools and compare a 3.13 against their average GPAs.