So, I made two D's my first year in college

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I plan to transfer to my state's flagship. Supposing I have a 3.75+ GPA my next three years, will I have a shot at decent grad schools (top 50? top 75?) I plan to major in philosophy and/or econ.</p>

2

<p>Grad school is about GRE, grades IN YOUR MAJOR, and research and recommendations from Professor to Professor. If your two Ds are isolated, and not in your major, they don’t matter much.</p>

3

<p>Even if your major is philosophy and you’re applying to business or econ grad school?</p>

4

<p>If you are thinking of an MBA program, you should plan to work for at least two years before you apply. Your work experience is very important in MBA admissions. And that also means that one or two old, bad grades from your first year of college really will barely matter at all.</p>

5

<p>if you are intending to apply to an academic grad program such as Econ, it is going to be important to get to know some of the profs at your state’s flagship when you transfer. I’m not talking about brown-nosing, but about doing well in their classes, making informed comments in class, and getting to know them thru office hours. They are going to be well connected in the grad school network and will have colleages from their grad school days at many of the top schools. You will find them useful as advisors on where to apply, what the top programs are for the areas you’re interested in, etc.</p>

<p>As for those D grades, if you do well in the future they won’t matter a bit. However I’m wondering a bit how you can project a 3.75 in the future, a pretty impressive number, given your academic showing so far.</p>

6

<p>I can easily have a 3.75+ if I actually tried. Now, whether I will try in the future remains to be seen, of course.</p>

<p>But thanks for the advice. Just how important is having a good relationship with my professors though? Is it crucial? Is it only (almost) necessary for top 50 grad schools?</p>

7

<p>^ the more regarded the graduate program, the more necessary it is for you to be hand delivered to that program by a Professor that program respects…</p>