<p>I'm wondering if there are those who had did really badly their first/second year and transferred out to their desired college. Perhaps taking some time off, or increasing GPA.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation, I'm taking a semester off right now so I won't hurt myself further and sort everything out. I currently have a 2.8 GPA with 60 credits and I'm applying as a transfer to a number of unis, after suffering from a hearing problem during my first two years.</p>
<p>So, have you succeeded on their own terms after doing badly in your early college years?</p>
<p>Hi OP - my story is old and did not include a transfer but might still help. I wasn't mature or ready academically for college and struggled for 2 years. I went to a school with +/- grading scale and my first 3 semesters I got all at least one of all the low grades (and was estatic with my D- since I passed) ... and after 3 semesters my GPA was about 2.4. Then things kicked in for me, I found a major I LOVED, and did great for my last couple of years ... and graduated with a 2.98 GPA. Despite those grappy first 3 semesters and not so hot overall GPA immediately after my undergrad graduation I went to a top 10 engineering grad school ... and ten years later a top 10 B-school ... clearly these grad schools looked past my immature start and focussed on my established performance once I got going. Good luck!</p>
<p>haha, I have a good one for you. My freshman year of college, my cumulative gpa with 24 units was a 0.02. I still did bad for 2 1/2 more years with lots of W's and other low grades, but my last semester at my 4 year I did well. I Returned to a community college, got all As for 8 units in summer, and then in 17 for fall and spring. My cumulative gpa was a 2.8/9 ish after everything. My counselor told me that I had no chance at USC and UCSD, and that USD was a major reach.... I got into USD, UCSD and USC... I am currently at USC and I love it. Moral of the story is, no matter how bad it looks, if you work hard and pull it all together you will be noticed and it will all pay off. Something I heard relates a lot to this- "the harder you work, the luckier you get"..... Its true.... and its never too late to turn it around. I decided to start working hard towards transfer with dreams of ending up at USC when I had a 2.2 gpa with around 50-60 units.</p>
<p>Oh, and your situation is much better than mine was, so I say that you have a great shot at a lot of great schools.</p>
<p>I love this thread. I dont have a success story like evo yet, but I hope to have one later. i did very bad in HS, with a 2.8 GPA, and not so stellar in college either. I currently attend the University of Michigan-Dearborn (The sissy Michigan), its a tier 4 sister school of the university of michigan-annarbor. Right now I have a 3.30 GPA with 34 credits completed, and working on 16 this fall. i hope to get into the ann arbor campus by this winter. maybe with a little bit of luck, i can achieve this.</p>
<p>Evo and Togo I really enjoyed reading those, it's people like you I admire, GREAT JOB! Man at 0.02 GPA??! and you finally managed USC, that's incredible. Constable, I wish you all the best, Michigan is a really great school, probably one of the best overall schools, they rank top in almost anything and they probably have the coolest team name with the WOLVERINES, I really do hope you get in. I'm trying to have my own success story as well :P</p>
<p>I received a 3.0 first semester freshman year (which is always tough no matter where you are) then worked to get a 3.7 second semester and a 3.9 first semester of sophomore year. I ended up transferring after 3 semesters to William and Mary - the school of my dreams.</p>
<p>It was easy to do when you put your mind to it...you can definitely do it!</p>
<p>I have a story...not yet a success one...but hopefully.</p>
<p>My first semester of college was pitiful. I felt like a failure for not getting into the school I wanted to go to, so I slacked off. I ended up with a 3.0 with no friends and no self esteem. Well, as dumb as this may sound, I was inspired by a quote. I was walking through downtown LA after my first semester finals and I saw this quote tagged on a wall "In this world there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead". At that moment I realized that I was living in the past, yearning for the "good ol'" days of high school, not coming face to face with the fact that I was at the college I was at and that If i wanted to succeed I couldn't lose sight of the future I envisioned for myself. Well, that really got me going. So far I've had a 4.0 for 3 semesters in pretty tough classes, a culmt. GPA of 3.75, and I'm getting ready to transfer to a university in New York (preferably NYU) for Spring 09. Even if I don't get in, I know that I'm working towards my future and that makes it worth it.</p>
<p>Thanks for your post. It was a great encouragement to me, because I am not really motivated to study because I hate my school. Furthermore, I hate most of the classes I am taking. Oh well, my GPA for the last semester was decent and I applied to NYU and UPenn LPS for spring 2009. Hope I get into one of them.</p>
<p>When I got out of high school a few years ago, I thought college was going to be a breeze, on top of the fact that I was not motivated at all and had no idea what I wanted to do either. The first semester, I managed to pull "F"s in all four classes I was taking! I had some soul searching to do.. so I took some time off. </p>
<p>Two years later, I went back to the same community college and worked my ass off, pulling mostly "A" grades.. but my cumulative GPA was still really bad to get into any UC campuses due to the fact that I had four "F"s on my transcript. I heard from a counselor that I could try to get an academic renewal and even if it does not get approved, at least I would have had tried.</p>
<p>So I applied for AR and told the committee honestly that I had done bad during my first semester because I was naive and had no idea what I wanted to do. I was nearing transfer and "did not want one bad semester to haunt me for the rest of my life," in those exact words.</p>
<p>Though I was convinced that the college committee had declined my appeal, I opened the letter just a few days later to find out that they had removed the semester from my GPA and those classes would not be accounted for when I applied to any colleges (by confirming this through email with the admissions of the colleges I wanted to apply to). Now I will be transferring with 3.7 UC Transfer GPA and could not be happier.</p>
<p>I wish and hope that things turn out well for everyone else just as they turned out for me.
Sometimes a person just needs to see what they like and want to do for the rest of their lives.. and most of all, be honest and know your limits.</p>
<p>I have a story that includes several academic years. In high school due to severe family problems, I dropped out of high school at age 16 to work and had a 1.6 GPA. Several years later (still no diploma) I decided to take a class at a local community college, since I fell ill I only ended up taking the class for two days and then thought I had dropped it. Unfortunately it turned into an F because apparently the class never completely dropped. Ten years later after starting a family and getting married both my husband and I decided to start college the right way. We enrolled in the same community college (neither of us still had a high school diploma). As soon as we started classes I realized my GPA was horrible because the only record was that one class w/ an F from 10 years prior. I petitioned to have it changed to a W. In the meantime I worked full time w/ kids and went to school full time. My husband & I switched off w/ class times. Finally after several W's and close calls in some classes, I worked my GPA up. I then transferred to Berkeley and then my husband managed to also get into Berkeley the following year. The interesting thing is that I didn't feel complete w/out my high school diploma, so right before transferring to Berkeley I took my GED, and if you could believe it I was actually scared that I wouldn't do well on the exam. Everything came out great. I know what it's like to have long gaps in your education or not completing things in traditional order or having responsibilities while in school. Like the other stories, it can be done... good luck to you and I'm sure you will be successful.</p>
<p>Bah, I'm in a similar situation, but no success story as of yet.. I went to a college I wasn't totally excited about (decided to go a week before class started because I realized I just couldn't live at home, and the local community colleges didn't have dorms).. Now I really like the college life, but I'm out of state, have more debt than I know what to do with (and I can't register for spring until I get it taken care of), and to top it all off, I'm failing virtually everything.</p>
<p>I know this sounds conceited, but I'm far too intelligent for this school.. Thanks to a rocky senior year and an inability to apply anywhere (fear of rejection, yikes), I'm at a school that isn't horrible, but isn't exactly great.. And thanks to my inability to due any work (like someone else said, slacking because I feel like I shouldn't be here.. stupid, I know), I feel like I"m STUCK here. </p>
<p>Where does one go from here? How can I turn around my college record and get into the level of school I should have gone to in the first place?</p>
<p>I go to a school with a weird grading scale (in most of my classes, I have to get above a 94% to get full credit for an A, or above a 84% to get full credit for a B, etc., which really skews my GPA). In addition to that, I also somehow tested into a Spanish class that's way too hard for me. And my best class doesn't even count for admissions purposes, because its a religion class (which means that they probably won't even count it as a part of my GPA). </p>
<p>Those three factors combined have led to not-so-stellar grades for my first semester (I haven't taken my finals yet, but I'm estimating that without my religion grade, it will be somewhere between a 2.5 and a 2.7). </p>
<p>And I'm really confused because I want to withdraw from my current school now and take a semester off before starting at a new school in the fall. BUT I'm also afraid of withdrawing, because I don't want to be screwed if I don't get in anywhere else. In theory, I should be able to transfer into the schools I'm applying to (my state schools), because they typically accept anyone with above a 2.5 college GPA, but I'm still really paranoid.</p>
<p>BelleGirl, I'm halfway what you're going through. My story isn't exactly a "success" but it's a work in progress. I flunked out of my first university with a 1.68 GPA -- I was put into A.P second semester with a 1.98, so it was a no brainer to take it easy third semester, but being the idiot that I am tried to retake the two courses I failed while carrying a the max academic load. . . my plan failed. I still had that arrogant attitude come third semester. I wasn't excited about attending since I didn't get into my first choice, joined as many clubs that interested me for three semesters but to no avail found no niche, my immaturity, more like arrogance, thinking that I shouldn't be here lead me to fail most of my third semester classes -- and they weren't even hard -- at least two were, but still. I did three semester (including summer) at my local JUCO and applied to five schools (local privates and state schools, nothing fancy) and was accepted into three (the main reason being I would have my associates by the end of this fall term). The school I'll be attending next term is pudunk U but I feel it's the right fit for me -- I'll be finally happy. Even if I get a 4.0 for the remaining four semesters, my cumulative GPA will be still under a 3.0, but it's still better than nothing. It's going to be hard for me to find internships not to mention my chances for graduate school will be a crap shoot. All said and done, it's a second chance that I have to take.</p>
<p>I would like to add my story, even though I havent Transferred yet. But anyway, I started at a Community College out of High School. I basically got 4 F's and I received No Credits because I dropped out of the classes. I was going their for 3 1/2 years and my financial aid got dropped. My GPA at the time was a 1.8 or 1.9, that was very terrible. Basically, what I did was I had to work and save up my money. I was immature and did not take school seriously. After My Financial Aid got dropped, I couldnt pay for College. So I had to work and I did it for 3 1/2 years I saved up. So Fall Semester of 2007, I went back the same Community College because I wanted to get my degree. That Fall Semester I got 2 A's and 2 B's. The Next Semester I got 4 B's, My GPA right now is up to a 2.8. This Semester is almost over with, I doing well in my classes now. I do plan on transferring and getting my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting. I always thought that 4 year Colleges and Business Schools would not accept me because of my bad College record. But by reading the successful stories on here, I hope it happens to me as well.</p>
<p>i started college after a pitiful high school career. first three semesters were D's, F's, near 8 W's, two B's and two C's, which left me with a cum. gpa of .98 (i sh1t you not). I took a semester off to become an EMT with hopes of turning myself around to go premed.. figured out i hated biology, fell into philosophy, and started doing well. my first semester back (after the EMT class), i went A, A, B, W. then retook the class in which i received the W over summer, and got a B. Next semester, A, A, B, B. Next semester, A, A, A, A, B, plus another A over summer. Which brings me to this semester, where i anticipate another 3 A's, or at worst A, A, B.
point being, in 3 semesters, i brought my grades up from 0.98 to 3.6, making me more than competitive for my major (philosophy) at most schools, and also gives me that invaluable and advantageous upward academic trend.
according to last year's statistics, not considering the added attention for upward swings, my shot at UCB, my dream school, is 70%. 89% for UCLA, my close second.
cross your fingers for me.</p>