Freshman Year Grades Pull My GPA Down. How much will it affect me?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm in my third year in a Top 3 Canadian university with national reputation. I'm taking Civil Engineering, and will be applying to Civil grad schools in US. Here's my situation:</p>

<p>My first year GPA was 2.6. I had a little bit of adaptation problem since I'm an international student from Serbia. In second year, I had a 3.4 GPA but my cumulative is still somewhere around 2.85 (which really sucks). According to my calculations, even though I get 4.00 GPA for both third year and fourth year, my cumulative is going to be 3.4... I have no clue how effective GRE scores are. I also applied for a very reputable research award for this summer and I will be co-writing a paper if everything goes well. I'm aiming for schools like Berkeley, Stanford, CMU, Northwestern, UIUC, Columbia and Wisconsin. </p>

<p>1) I'm wondering... My cumulative sucks because of that horrible first year. But if I get two 4.00's in a row for the next two years, will I still have a chance?</p>

<p>2) Can someone evaluate my chances for these schools?</p>

<p>3) My school also includes a second cumulative GPA in our official transcript that excludes first year. That one will be around 3.7 (assuming that I get 4.00s for the rest of my semesters). How much will that help me? Will grad schools just consider that?</p>

<p>4) Should I take a year off to do more research and then apply?</p>

<p>Any suggestions will help me a lot! Thanks...</p>

2

<p>1) I’m wondering… My cumulative sucks because of that horrible first year. But if I get two 4.00’s in a row for the next two years, will I still have a chance?</p>

<p>Your Junior year counts much more than your freshman year, because almost all of the courses you will be taking will be Engineering courses. It’s very important that you do well in those.</p>

<p>2) Can someone evaluate my chances for these schools?</p>

<p>No.</p>

<p>3) My school also includes a second cumulative GPA in our official transcript that excludes first year. That one will be around 3.7 (assuming that I get 4.00s for the rest of my semesters). How much will that help me? Will grad schools just consider that?</p>

<p>Engineering grad schools will look at that as well, but like I said earlier, they want to know how you did in your Engineering classes more than anything.</p>

<p>4) Should I take a year off to do more research and then apply?</p>

<p>If you can afford it, you might stretch your 3rd and 4th year out over the span of three years, and offer to assist a professor in his or her research – assuming you find a professor whose research looks interesting to you. This will look good to grad schools, and it will make it a lot easier to get letters of recommendation.</p>