<p>Hi, This general concept has been covered before, but i'm really struggling and need some guidance.</p>
<p>I started out my University education really poorly, failing two large, lab carrying credit courses required for my major (Mechanical Engineering) in the span of a year. Chemistry 251 and Calculus 251, both 4 semester hours.</p>
<p>After the Spring term of my sophomore year at George Fox, (a term in which I got a 2.5 over 12 credit hours), I had to leave because of financial reasons. My dad had lost his job earlier in the year, mid-spring term, and now I am officially withdrawn from George Fox after a leave of absence. My GPA at that point was a meager 2.145</p>
<p>Since I have left George Fox, I have changed dramatically. And when I say dramatically, I mean DRAMATICALLY.</p>
<p>Over that summer, I worked a full time job and during lunch breaks I taught myself differential calculus (along with basic integrals). One thing led to another and I enrolled in a Chemistry 251 class ,earning a B/. I also enrolled in correspondence courses in Linear Algebra and Calculus 253 from University of Oklahoma and Brigham Young.</p>
<p>I'm doing really well in those courses and can expect at the very least a B, if not an A in both. Over my last 36 credit hours, I have over a 3 point GPA (that includes classes taken at George Fox, with close to a 3.5 GPA over the past 20 credit hours) and by the time I need to start sending in my transfer applications to Universities, I should have around a 2.5 cumulative GPA from all institutions I have attended (or higher if the application deadline lets me finish off the year).</p>
<p>So what can I do to show that i'm not the person I was two years ago? That i'm not a clueless kid with a 2.0 point GPA that is going to be on academic probation every other semester?</p>
<p>I need to transfer schools by the end of the year so that I can stay (relatively) on track to get my degree and neither me or my parents (who are still recovering from lost income, can afford a school with a bad financial aid history). I'll use bullet points to summarize the rest of my thoughts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Academic forgiveness. How reasonable would this option be for my two failed classes?
-Strong upward trend in my GPA. Will admissions officers look at my overall GPA, or will they lean towards giving me a shot because of my recent progress?</li>
<li>Would extra curriculars come in play? I played soccer for two years at George Fox and also was a columnist for a large sports company for about a year and a half on internship. I also designed, coded, marketed, and wrote for a website that I created for about the same length of time.
-Is it possible to get around the minimum GPA cutoff for transfer applicants?</li>
</ul>
<p>What can I do to show admissions officers that I can excel at their University? Or would it all just be futile because of my past failures?</p>
<p>Thanks for letting me bounce ideas off of you, whoever you may end up being.</p>