Low average student , do i have any choices?

Applying to College
41

<p>Lamdun . . . no offense . . . but that is simply not true. I've pulled all nighters before but there is no reason or logic behind what you claim to have done. Locking yourself in a room and having no life is basically equivalent to losing your childhood . . . if you work that hard in college . . .that is equally pathetic.</p>

<p>You don't need to do things like he suggests to get into top universities. I got into Duke and still had a very active social life, including friends, relationships, parties. </p>

<p>If the price of college was that high, a VERY precious few would try to achieve it. And the fact that plenty of students have made it into equivalent or better institutions as Lamdun has WITHOUT doing any of the things he portrays as neccesary illustrates the fact that, frankly, he's nothing but a workhorse with no sense of fun whatsoever.</p>

42

<p>There is a good reason to concentrate on studying now and fun later: fluid intelligence rapidly decreases from birth until the early 20s; this is the time when one should learn absolutely as much as they can. Wait until your middle age, when intelligence is largely crystallized, to, if you want, stop learning and have fun.</p>

43

<p>I think that Lamdun may have slightly been out of wack, the op's original post really annoyed me as well. To me it sounded like he felt like he deserved to go to a top school and that state schools are not good enough for him. Espicially in California, where we have one of the best public college systems around. </p>

<p>To the OP: I implore you to look at CSUs and lower level UCs your GPA is not good enough to get into a top school that I think where it might be worth to pay a ton of money to go to. UoP, Chapman and many others in my opinion are not worth it espicially when you can get the same kind of education for ALOT cheaper.</p>

<p>I would also be classified as a late bloomer. I had a 3.3 GPA with freshman year dragging me down immensley. But unlike the OP, I accepted the consquences and am very satisfied of where I ended up.</p>

44

<p>drbott when was the last time you saw a middle aged man having fun?</p>

45

<p>""Those are the select few. How many Fortune 500 CEO's are high school/college drop outs? You may say that they are not happy with their lives...but how do you know? How many high school drop outs are happy with their lives? You can't measure that either. So are you judging a successful life by making a lot of money? Well, it's really hard to judge success by money..."</p>

<p>So what are you judging success by? Are you judging it by what college a person attends? That's what your original post makes it seem like: "So technically, grades in high school can determine the rest of you life." What you are implying in this post is that we should measure success by happiness and as you stated we can't really measure these people's happiness, so there is no way to measure success."</p>

<p>You are not reading what my post said. There is a reason I used the word CAN.</p>

<p>""Um that's why I said it measure how hard of a worker you are. Try reading my entire post."</p>

<p>You should try reading my entire post as well. I stated: "...and being able to force yourself to do hours of MEANINGLESS work." So it does show you are a hard worker but many kids have no desire to do this largely meaningless and tedious work that they know they'll never have to use in the real world."</p>

<p>Thanks for reaffirming my point. The kids with "no desire" are not hard workers, because they don't do the work.</p>

<p>""Money buys secruity, and when a person has secruity they don't have to worry about a lot of things. Then, they can deal with other things in their life (perhaps things that make them happy?). Oh wait no...that never happens."</p>

<p>Wait so are we going back to the money measures success? Earlier you stated: "So are you judging a successful life by making a lot of money? Well, it's really hard to judge success by money..." Well, your making it seem like rich people are almost certainly going to be happier. If a person is making a lot of money doing something he doesn't enjoy he's likely not going to be happy."</p>

<p>Once again, I used the word CAN for a reason.</p>

<p>""Nice generalization. My point of view is coming from a kid who went to a private high school, so things may be different at a public school."</p>

<p>I'm sure private school kids are soooooo much different. They probably don't care at all about their grades and the reason that they take calculus and four years of a foreign language isn't because they think it will look good on a high school transcript but because they love learning."</p>

<p>I took 4 years of Latin and 3 years of Greek so I could read ancient Greek and Latin texts. And yes, I have actually used calculus in a business class. It really helped me find a solution before the other kids (with no calculus background) found a solution.</p>

46

<p>illumin4tus said: "drbott when was the last time you saw a middle aged man having fun?"</p>

<p>Exactly! Almost no one takes into account types of intelligence!</p>

47

<p>"I think that Lamdun may have slightly been out of wack, the op's original post really annoyed me as well. To me it sounded like he felt like he deserved to go to a top school and that state schools are not good enough for him. Espicially in California, where we have one of the best public college systems around. </p>

<p>To the OP: I implore you to look at CSUs and lower level UCs your GPA is not good enough to get into a top school that I think where it might be worth to pay a ton of money to go to. UoP, Chapman and many others in my opinion are not worth it espicially when you can get the same kind of education for ALOT cheaper.</p>

<p>I would also be classified as a late bloomer. I had a 3.3 GPA with freshman year dragging me down immensley. But unlike the OP, I accepted the consquences and am very satisfied of where I ended up."</p>

<p>I was just about to make this arugement, but I guess you beat me to it :). Although the original poster might have worked hard for a year, should s/he really be compared to kids that have been working just as hard, or harder, for 4?</p>

<p>Community colleges, I think, are institutions sent from university heaven. It gives you a second chance at your dream schools (if you've just realized you might not be on track) and it saves you a bunch of money in the process.</p>

<p>In the assumption that state universites are somehow inferior to private universities is where I really start getting annoyed. I didn't settle for a state university, it was my first choice, as I'm sure is the case with many other students.</p>

48

<p>To the OP- I don't really know what the point of saying you moved here from Africa in '98 was. That would place it at what, 3rd or 4th grade for you? That's no excuse for bad grades in high school. I know people who have moved here IN HIGH SCHOOL without speaking a word of English from places like Korea, Japan, and Brasil then turning around and pulling As in AP English the next year. And they had social lives. In a college essay, it might be impressive to note your experiences there, but it's not going to give you an excuse.</p>

<p>3.0 is no longer "good" because students have ceased to make it good. Competition is up and so kids are working harder to make the 4.0s. If you don't work to match those kids (think the overachieving CCers), then you're going to get left behind with no one to blame but yourself.</p>

<p>Anyway.. look into community colleges, junior colleges (doesn't California have those?), and the lower UCs. CC is probably the best choice if you have your heart set on a higher UC.</p>

49

<p>Oh come on! Someone with a 3.0 won't need to go to community college. There are so many good options. I believe the list posted by simpson early on had some great choices. For all of you who are whining and saying, "what about state schools" or "state schools are good". Yes, they are good schools but they are not for everyone. Anyone who wants a small, intimate environment won't be happy in a state school. That's why there are smaller schools, because not everyone likes sitting at the back of a 100+ person lecture. </p>

<p>Some people start to get good grades early, some late. The fact is a 3.0 isn't amazing but it doesn't relegate you to community college. To the OP, you have choices. You shouldn't listen to the people who believe that you need to have 3.5+ to get into a school beyond community college. It's ridiculous.</p>

50

<p>True, there are tons of places someone with a 3.0 can go but it's money dependent. Not too many full rides or academic scholarships will be on the table with numbers like that.</p>

51

<p>Of course that will be limited but he's asking for options, not full rides.</p>

52

<p>A 3.0 is very good for some people. There are kids who work there asses of to get Bs.</p>

53

<p>And those kids don't go to good colleges. That's how life is. Damn people and their feelings of entitlement. </p>

<p>To schoenhs, I wasn't saying that it was his only choice. However, it's much more cost efficient to go to a community college and transfer to a better school than to go to a mediocre school that you don't like and waste money. I'm with you on state schools though- I'd NEVER go to one because they are much too large. I don't know of a decent state school with less than 5000 people, which is what I like. That's why I'm going to a private school.</p>

54

<p>I know that, my response was in regards to Lamdun saying how a 3.0 is not good. To those kids who work there hardest and a 3.0 is the best they can do. To them, a 3.0 is a great GPA.</p>

55

<p>Here's my personal experience:</p>

<p>I will be graduating with about a 2.8, which the GPA I have had pretty much all of high school. However, I got a 28 on the ACT and a 750 on the Verbal portion of the SAT. I'm also an underepresented minority, performed a summer internship, and I was editor in chief of my student newspaper.</p>

<p>I got into one of the best journalism schools in the country, and recieved a very good scholarship.</p>

<p>People kept telling me that my grades would keep me out of good schools. Now, the school I'm going to is a public university, but is a very good and prestigious school in my major. I worked hard to compile a professional resume that showed extra effort on my part, as well as showcased my ECs, work experience and summer internship. </p>

<p>Its not all about grades, but you have to have other redeeming qualities, whether it be performing an internship or high test scores. Also, being good at writing essays will really help when it comes to applying for scholarships--more so than your class rank will. </p>

<p>Most of all, I think its important to do a lot of research into schools that are a good fit for your major but may not be as well-known or selective. Also look into schools whose admissions offices look more at test scores than GPA. </p>

<p>But don't let arrogant overachievers tell you you won't get anything better than the average state school. You might need to go public, but there are a lot of great public schools, and if you do well in other areas besides grades, and have a good resume, you can achieve more than you might have thought.</p>

56

<p>"Sorry, but a 3.0 hasn't been considered "good" in a long time. And forgive me for arguing, but i need to let some of my feelings out. Please don't think you deserve so much better just because you weren't as lazy this year as you were the last couple of years. If you had tried hard all 4 years, then I could respect you. But I know way too many good friends who busted their ass since middle school but still had to go to a simply "average" college. And you know what? It's NOT unfair, even if my loved ones get hurt by it.</p>

<p>The fact is, there are millions of students out there who have 3.0ish grades and top colleges can't accept a fraction of them even if they had better grades. So how the heck do you expect the college to look at one person and say "oh wow, this person finally got his act together and will definitely blossom in college"?</p>

<p>And believe me, regardless how hard you think YOU tried, the person who got 4.0+ and a truckload of ECs and high SATs who got into the top schools tried so much harder. I know I did.</p>

<p>I don't know what you did to try harder. What? did you start doing your homework for once? Maybe studied for that test instead of playing games?</p>

<p>You haven't tried hard until you pull one all-nighter after another, until your schedule is packed for 12 hours of the day but you still take on that internship, until you've spent every single free hour of the day (which isnt many) doing endless SAT practice tests.</p>

<p>And trust me, you haven't tried hard enough until your friends simply stopped calling you to go hang out because they know that you won't be able to go.</p>

<p>I've been through all that, and so have many others on this board. I got into Stanford and many others got into other top schools. But we never had it easy, not one bit. Our road here was marked by sweat and tears.</p>

<p>4.0 students have 4.0s for a reason - they have determination and the brainpower to do well in school regardless of the situation. THATS why they are in demand.</p>

<p>So please, PLEASE stop saying it's unfair."</p>

<p>I shudder to wonder if you'll ever have fun in life.
There are only so many people that can become multimillionaires and retire at 27.</p>

57

<p>uhh a 3.0 at my school was a 90 avg... 3.1 a 91, 3.2 a 92 and so on... am I missing something here?</p>

58

<p>and none of those multimillionaires studied as much as Lamdun seems to</p>