<p>My GPA is around 3.2
mostly due to me not completing homework.
This does sound bad, especially that is the reason of a low GPA.
My guidance said this will not look good in all admissions, especially when my standard test scores are high, because colleges will think I'm a person who doesn't do work and only show up on tests. That scares colleges.
does MIT think like this too?
what if I say because I have better things to do than homework. Because I already mastered the course and I wish to use those time to do other studies. Does MIT will think differently on that GPA?
I'm doing 5 AP test this year and I got no time for homework. I have to teach myself everything because I'm not taking those AP course this year.</p>
<p>If I'm a transfer student to MIT, would MIT only look at my GPA in the college or will they also look at my GPA in High school?
If I am in get the same GPA in 2 different colleges, say, CMU and Stony Brook. Does earning 4 GPA on CMU looks better than earning a 4 in Stony Brook?
This can affect the choice of my back up college, inexpensive or stronger colleges</p>
<p>Having a reduced GPA because of not completing homework would not be a particularly positive sign in the eyes of MIT admissions. Have you tried to work out an arrangement with your teachers such that you can demonstrate your knowledge of the material in some other way, if they are counting homework as part of the grade?</p>
<p>As for going somewhere else and hoping to transfer… Transfer admissions are far more competitive than freshman admissions at MIT. In some years, the number of transfer applicants accepted is in the single digits (or even zero). Most successful applicants have taken a range of math and science courses in their first university and have done very, very well in them. With the very small numbers of students who transfer in to MIT, there really is no “formula” that will tell you how to be successful. (In fact, there’s no “formula” in any type of MIT admissions, much as you and many other students would love to find one.) Read the Admissions website information about Transfer Admissions to get the feel for what would be required. And then have another plan, since transfer admission to MIT is so rare as to be almost a non-event for most applicants. (Sorry if that sounds harsh, just reporting facts…)</p>
<p>I wish there are other ways…
My US teacher giving out more homework than all other homeworks of all my subjects combined.
I’m in New York, so we take the regent tests.
I took it and got 97 on it in January, but I still have to take the class, even though I am suppose to “masted” the course according to NY Board of Ed.
I’m would be having a 96/100 weighted GPA this year if it’s not because of her homeworks.</p>
<p>This makes it sound like you think you’re too good to do the work. Nearly everyone at MIT took courses pre-college where they already knew all the material. Yet we did enough work to make the grade.</p>
<p>Even more of a problem than the arrogance is the idea that you should only have to do work that you like. It is very likely that at some point during an MIT undergraduate career, you will have to take a class that you don’t like. If you are a rare person for whom this is not the case, it is still overwhelmingly likely that you will have to do assignments that you dislike or think are pointless at some point. If you have good preparation, it is likely that you will take a class where you already know most of the material (for instance, few pass out of intro chem, but most people who take it already know part of the material).</p>
<p>Given this, why on earth should MIT take someone who thinks he/she doesn’t have to do work if he/she doesn’t like it? Sorry, my sympathy for you is limited, and I suspect that MIT’s would be too if that’s the best you can come up with.</p>
<p>A) I refused to do the work because it was boring and I already knew it. I should not have to do work to prove my mastery of material I already know.</p>
<p>B) I refused to do the work because it was boring and I already knew it. I understand that this is a reason but not an excuse for what I did, and I understand that my high school experience in no way reflects reality where every day I will have to do things I do not want to do. I will work my hardest to make things better and demonstrate that I am responsible enough to do the work, even though it bores me. I will take up any complaints I have about the curriculum or education system with the appropriate people in the appropriate venues, but will not allow it to bleed over into my academic performance.</p>
<p>You sound like you’re hovering over (A) right now. I would suggest working hard to make it over to (B). You need to prove you can do the work, and if you can prove it exceptionally, it will help your case a lot.</p>
<p>(I had a low GPA. I got in. It took a <em>lot</em> of effort on my part.)</p>
It can be viewed as arrogance. So arrogance are the only way to use all the time to do things I’m passion about?
I found it’s just logical to make use of most of the time, doing homework is not a good use when I can do something else.
It’s not because I think I’m more superior than the class, it’s more about what’s more important to me. I found use those time to study something else more important, so I do them.
So maybe my basic pholisophy in life is wrong.
People have to limit their interest so they can impress college admission.</p>
<p>To become B, I just have to do the homework? There are not alternative? I have a limited amount of life time in this world, and that time is going to be on homework for the grade. Guess the sociality have to punish anyone too different.</p>
<p>No, you don’t have to be arrogant to pursue what you love, at all. You can take all your time to do the things you’re passionate about. You can let it absorb you and never have to worry about anything else save for food and shelter.</p>
<p>Having said that, if you do all that, don’t expect to get into MIT. MIT isn’t <em>punishing</em> you by not admitting you. Admission isn’t some right you have as long as you do “all the right things.” In order to admit you, they need a good idea that you will be able AND WILLING to do all the work that comes with attending this institute. How do you expect them to realize this if you don’t give them any evidence of it? They are not mind readers, and it’s also not fair to make them just take it on faith that you can do it.</p>
<p>So by all means, pursue all your pleasures down all the avenues they take you, without regard to any future goals. Just don’t feel cheated or slighted that they didn’t take you to MIT.</p>
<p>News flash. In order to do pretty much anything of merit in any academic field, you will have to do stuff you don’t like some of the time, stuff that understandably bores you. I do not care how passionate you are about something, that something will not consist entirely of work you find interesting and exciting. Being able to put up with the tedious part is part of what work ethic <em>is</em>.</p>
<p>If you are not willing to do work that you find uninteresting in order to make adequate grades - and note that I’m not saying you have to be perfect on it, or even do the best you can, you just have to do enough to have a competitive overall GPA - why on earth should MIT think that you will be willing to do it in MIT’s classes, or in your future work that MIT would train you to do?</p>
<p>MIT encourages following your passions, but pragmatism is a big part of the school culture. You don’t get far in your passions without pragmatism, unless your passions consist primarily of navel-gazing and telling yourself how awesome you are.</p>
<p>Well, is there an upward trend in GPA? If you’re getting a 3.2 average your senior/junior year, I can’t see MIT admitting you (unless there’s something really magical about the rest of your APP). If it’s due to, say, a .5 GPA your freshman year, and the rest of your years have been better, that’s a different story. </p>
<p>Statistically, I’m quite sure that MIT accepts well under 1% of the people who aren’t in the top 20% of their class.</p>
<p>thx al6200’s suggestino. I just have to do my best in my rest of my high school life to increase my GPA so I can have a slight chance of getting accepted…</p>
<p>Nothing else can cover my GPA flaw? include National AP scholar?</p>
<p>I just had a talk with my mom, and she told me, “It’s better to copy homework from other people than not doing it,” if it’s in the old time, I would laugh at it. Fate does have a piece of irony.
but that’s a unimportant tangent…</p>
<p>I see GPA is the best indicator for a person than SATs or other test available. According to everyone else’s description, I guess I failed my life. glad I still have 1.25 years to make it up.</p>
<p>“…I just had a talk with my mom, and she told me, ‘It’s better to copy homework from other people than not doing it’…According to everyone else’s description, I guess I failed my life.”</p>
<p>Usually a mother’s advice is worth heeding but in your case, you would “fail in life” if you followed your mother’s evil advice. Self-respect is vastly more important than grades or test scores or the name of the college you attend. It’s unfortunate that your mother lacks a moral center but you do not have to drop to her level. Do your best and you’ll find yourself at a fine university. Lie and cheat and you will eventually end up miserable.</p>
<p>Don’t cheat by copying someone else’s homework–that’s totally unacceptable, and I can’t believe your mom would seriously suggest it. Just do it. Your apparent lack of discipline will create doubt in admissions at many colleges, not just MIT.</p>
<p>What kind of recs do you think you are you going to get from teachers? You need to put in the work in at least some of your subjects, or your recs will stink.</p>
<p>My mom believe a intelligent person have to be more flexible on issues. Like some teacher will never check homework carefully, doing a crappy job or doing a good job is the same thing. Copy from someone else or do by myself is also the same thing. According to my mom’s philosophy, do the least work and gain most return by doing w/e possible, morally correct or not.</p>
<p>She thinks because I’m simple and honest, people who are not simple and honest will take advantages of me.</p>
<p>Sometimes, I ask me the question, what if I did what she told me to do, no one but me would know, and maybe my life can be a bit more easy. The answer might be yes, but I always have a high moral stand on issues and I want to stay that way.</p>
<p>My rec from math teachers will be nice, social study will screw me up… I have to work on that next year. I will do my best on improve my GPA. Putting other things behind for a while.</p>
<p>I have moral beliefs because that’s what I learned in school and stuff. btw my school is totally not a place for good moral developing, but I guess I’m above the influence, I don’t know why I don’t cheat on tests, or copy homework for GPA sake. I don’t know how did I develop such a good moral compare to most people around me.</p>
<p>and for not able to answer that question.
Of course I can’t answer that question. I need statistics, I need research articles to prove the answer of the question, right now, I will go with what make me feel better–do the morally correct actions.
All the proof of honest person can eventually get nice things are from literature and stories and anecdotes.
Prove a point by using literature instead of science is not acceptable…for me at least(I dislike English essay most in high school ).
Science also can’t prove the other side of the argurement, so I’m still the morally sound person.</p>
<p>“…I will go with what make me feel better–do the morally correct actions…”</p>
<p>Wherever you end up going to school and whatever you end up doing in life, you will find that you will attract people with the same moral character (good, kind, honest) and will ultimately be happier than if you adopt your mother’s perspective and treat life as a game to be won or lost by any means available (cheating, lying, stealing.)</p>
<p>I would put my 2 cents in, if you don’t mind.
Cent #1:
First of all, a 97 in USGov Regents does not mean you know the material. It just means you actually make an effort to read the question (as the answers to that question are in the wording itself). Colleges do not even look at that grade.
Now, a quick note on copying other’s work. If you say you know the material, I doubt that doing the homework by yourself will take more time than copying it from someone else. </p>
<p>Cent #2:
Just like you, I went to a crappy NY pubic school where Math B teachers did not know the concept of imaginary “i”. Just like you, I hated the humanities classes with all my heart. Just like in your case, these classes brought my GPA down.
In my college essays to Caltech and MIT, I wrote that I would trade a night with the telescope I had built for a million psychology grades, explaining the reason I got a C in that class. I was rejected EA from MIT and deferred from Caltech. I did not have anything interesting for RD round, so I got waitlisted when the decisions came out. Trying desperately to impress the AdCom, I did something I did not like and sent the result saying basically: “…if needed, I can do work, even though I hate it”. Soon, I got phone call from Caltech admissions office. Maybe it wasn’t the reason or maybe I am an exception rather than the rule, but I am inclined to say that colleges like Caltech or MIT want to see this ability to do something you dislike, and the ability to do it well.</p>
<p>So, I guess the point of this story was to say that I know how you feel, that you are not the only one suffering under that system of education, that it is quite common to be willing to sacrifice drudgery for passion, but if you ever want to go to a good institution and get the most out of it, you better swallow the complaints and learn to cope with reality, reality being the fact that sooner than you think you’ll have to fill out tax forms, pay mortgage and read long insurance policy booklets to minimize the advantage those companies are taking of you. And believe me, it will be much more boring and will take much more time than history homeworks…</p>
<p>Of course, it will ultimately come down to your own decision. Who knows, if you continue doing what you do, you might still get into MIT. In that case, congrats and good luck to you… But if you don’t… don’t blame it on your teacher.</p>
<p>thanks for that info, Hriundeli… Your opinion is worth more than reading a thousand books (a Chinese proverb :))</p>
<p>Yes, I actually got a good grade for my Economics in my junior year, but in my senior year, my favorite Economics teacher left, and another woman came who doesn’t know her material, who constantly forgot some economic concepts, making me feel disappointed and rather study at home. Yes, I get a worse grade for Economics now. It seems she has her own definitions rather than the IB ones.</p>
<p>However, I am glad now I didn’t make any comment upon that. But, I think I should at least pinpoint some kind of explanation for that now… :)</p>