<p>This is a great thread. I’m glad to see so many people were able to pull themselves out of such huge slumps instead of becoming complacent with their inadequate standings.</p>
<p>I’m sure these stories can inspire those who have lost sight of their original goals because of their poor performance records.</p>
<p>hey 
im not a success story yet, but hopefully… and yea my situation is hardly as bad as many others on here, but still :)</p>
<p>im an intl student from sweden, and in HS I did good, had the heaviest courseload possible, had an A average, played soccer ca 30+ hours/week (and was at one point selected to tryout for the junior national team, though i backed out due to an injury), went running ca. 10 miles/day, played a lot of tennis(was at a city level, pretty prestigious:) ), started a charity that collected $10 000 + for poor families in india to help afford medical supplies, and also about 600 pieces of clothing this + a lot of minor jobs at soccer camps and tournaments… id say i was a pretty great student, and i had at least 10 teachers that would definitely write me glowing recs :)</p>
<p>for college, i wanted to come to the us, and i chose to go to hawaii pacific university, because, well… it was in hawaii… 
not familiar at all with the whole US college process, i didnt know how to research it and everything ( + i was blinded by the location :P) and i saw a commercial for them where they said they were a top school in the nation (complete BS)… so i went there… pulled of a 3.92 my first semester, and after my first year i had a 3.85 but as time went on, more and more stuff kept happening at my school… they dropped/changed my major without telling me, they dont provide necessary equipment for labs, the teachers dont know the classes they teach, the campus is literally overrun by homeless people, drug addicts and pre-op transsexuals(i dont mind them that much in general, but they shouldnt be at a college campus???) i just started losing my patience with the school, and i started to realize that it was really really easy to get into the school… i found out most of my friends had like 2.5 GPAs in high school… and with time, i just started hating the school (for a lot more reasons than i mentioned)… </p>
<p>so last semester, i got like:
CHEM + LAB - A+A
BIO + LAB - B+C
CALC - C (which was ridiculous because pre-calc 1 and 2 i got averages > 100%! and also, i took CALC in HS and got an A there, + on our national standardized test, i got almost a perfect score, and was in like the top 5% in the country… and have never gotten less than an A in a math class, IN MY LIFE)… it was all due to my hating the school…
HISTORY - B …
this all dropped my GPA to a 3.55(from the prev. 3.85) because of the reasons i mentioned before, and a personal tragedy during finals week(what timing huh… ? ) … and this semester, im not doing as bad, but still not doing great, think ill have maybe a 3.3 - 3.5 GPA or so… </p>
<p>this is a really really bad downwards trend and it sucks… i mean, not to brag, but im a great student… there is no problem intelligence wise, in fact all standardized tests have shown that i am a long way above average… but i just cant feel motivated in a place that i despise soo much… </p>
<p>at the moment ive applied to a few schools for transfer, and hopefully ill either get into USC or Ucolorado - boulder i really know that i will do a lot better there because they actually have all the things i lack at my current school… i believe that with my new motivation, ill be able to get at least a 3.7+ for the rest of my 2 years, and then together with great MCATS and EC’s, i am hoping to transfer into a top med school… we’ll see how it turns out :)</p>
<p>basically, what is important is to notice yourself slipping before its too late and pick yourself up or get out of the environment that is making it all go so bad… there is no way i could stand another semester here, even though i have good friends, i just feel like i am supposed to be doing so much better and am destined for better things, and im just wasting my time… esp. when i know that out of HS i could most likely have gotten into a lot of very very great schools… have for example seen int. students with worse GPA/tests/ECs get into ivy leagues so it just feels so stupid to throw it all away… </p>
<p>well, ill be finding out during the coming few weeks hoping for the best WISH ME LUCK! :)</p>
<p>wow this thread is very motivating to me!</p>
<p>My high school years did not go very well, i ended up with 2.5 gpa. The college I got into wasnt my top choice and although the people there are nice I am begenning to find that drinking as a past time and lazing about were not ways i wanted to spend my spare time. I was sure that I would do well but found out how different the system was in a very shocking way…suffice to say I ended with a 2.3 gpa my 1st semester 
and a 3.0 my second semester </p>
<p>My top transfer choices were Cornell, Emory, McGill, and WUStl…also I am biomolec major intent on going to a really reputed med school, and now sadly my dreams are shattered…I am starting to slip into a depression at the thought of this ugly prospect…I need help…</p>
<p>bumpbumpbump</p>
<p>Yes, this thread is very motivating1!</p>
<p>Does anyone have a comeback sucess story for a CAL STATE OR UC? Our cut backs are pretty scarry right now and so many people are not being allowed to transfer. I’m really freaked out my past grades will haunt me even know I have retaken everything. I have a 3.5 gpa which includes retakes/A replacements, but I also have a F in a dumb real estate/non essential class from a past community college that I think will haunt me. Can anyone see the light at the end of the tunnel?</p>
<p>bump this thread</p>
<p>please elaborate</p>
<p>Explain the hearing problem in the essay. That’s what I’m doing for my transfer since my grades have been affected by faulty equipment and a serious infection that almost put me in surgery.</p>
<p>bump this post</p>
<p>I come from a really rough background. Short of it is my mom and dad were drug smugglers, and the family I was left to be raised with after they were sent to jail or deported, were also heavily into drugs. lots of abuse and no direction. I did horribly throughout school. I barely even graduated highschool I ranked somewhere around the 700’s in a graduating class of just under 800 students. I think my cumulative GPA was somewhere around a 2.03 or something. </p>
<p>I didn’t care about college, but knew I had to go because I thought I’d be working at McDonald’s all my life if all I had was a high school diploma. I was luckily accepted into my local university, Florida International University, here in Miami. I say luckily because I really should not have gotten in. I say lucky because the average freshman highschool GPA is 3.69, with equally high SAT scores both of which I did not have. </p>
<p>I studied Business, because I thought that would be the safest degree to earn. I hated it. Life in my house was horrible, my “guardian” (Not mom or dad) was addicted to drugs, couldn’t get her life together, had an abusive boyfriend and even burned the house down once! I had no financial aid and all my money earned at Starbucks was going to support my family. </p>
<p>I took a class here and there when I could. Most of the time I would drop the class. I had a horrible GPA as a freshman, and was on academic probation. </p>
<p>around 2007, I went off to memphis to go into something like a halfway house. There I received counseling for three months and was finally away from all the craziness. I came back, moved out of my family’s house. became independent and when I could finally afford it, I went back to school. Still, I didn’t have financial aid, so it was hard. I could only take a class here and there. </p>
<p>I changed my major to psychology because I still figured I had work to do on myself. but also added political science because I found I have a passion for politics. Eventually someone mentioned that I should look into law schools and that’s when it clicked. I became incredibly motivated and raised my GPA. I ended up being asked to join the Honor’s College and now I am taking six classes and just received straight A’s. </p>
<p>Next semester I am going to apply to transfer to Georgetown, Boston College, Boston University, George Washington, American as well as William and Mary. </p>
<p>Lets see what happens, but, if the worse that can happen is I have to stay at FIU, thats not bad at all. I consider myself a success already.</p>
<p>Here’s my story:</p>
<p>Went to high school and ended up with a mediocre GPA. I didn’t get into any of my top-choice universities, so I took a semester off and interned at a VC.</p>
<p>I went on to study at a community college for 3 semesters and then applied to UC Berkeley’s Haas and Brown University. Got into both and, in the end, chose Brown.</p>
<p>BUMP!</p>
<p>Hi, this is my first post on this site, been reading it for years and now I finally got something to say.</p>
<p>I was a bum in high school. I got suspended very often, I think between my sophmore and senior years I had something like 80 “in-school” suspensions. My grades also stunk to high heavens, I graduated (by the skin of my teeth) with a 2.0 gpa. I knew I was smarter than this.</p>
<p>Obviously I had to go to a community college to pretty much learn how to be a student before I could really be serious about even attending a four year institution. I ended up doing very well my two years in community college. I cleaned up my act. Studied hard and got good grades; I left with a 3.4 gpa and I got in to every school I applied to. I chose Temple because I grew up outside Philly and always wanted to go to school there.</p>
<p>My first semester courses at TU were quite a leap from the ones at community college. I really struggled…I’m very depressed about it. I only know one of my grades so far and it’s a D+…and I MIGHT get one B out of the other three courses I took. The first few months at Temple were the worst of my life despite making many friends and being on my own for the first time in my life. I felt overwhelmed by the course loads…I really couldn’t keep up. I’ll probably end up below a 2.0 and I feel like all the hard work I did at community college went down the tubes. Now I’m sorta under the gun to get a few A’s next semester just so my gpa can even be mediocre.</p>
<p>Can someone offer me any advice?</p>
<p>any more stories?</p>
<p>bump this thread</p>
<p>bump this thread</p>
<p>No success story as of yet, and this is about more than a bad 1/2 year, haha. I was an undergrad at Boston University.
My dad fell and was injured on the job toward the end of high school, and my mom has always been a housewife, so our income virtually disintegrated. From that point on, my father struggled with drugs, alcohol, violent outbursts, etc. I would wake up in my dorm (I’m originally from NY) to phone calls from my scared younger brother, who would tell me how he and my mom were locked in the bathroom because my father was threatening them with a knife blah blah blah… So I spent as much time home as possible, sacrificing my grades in the process. I spent 2 years at BU, with an overall GPA of just below 2.0. I only completed 42 credits. I ended up losing my full ride since my GPA was never consistently above 2.0. Needless to say I worked my ass off when I was actually there, and most of my exam grades and paper grades reflect that. For the past year I’ve been working retail in Boston trying to figure out what to do with my life. My adviser told me to screw the odds and reach out to a few schools, and that he would support me the entire way (and give me a stellar recommendation). So that’s what I’m trying to do-- reaching out to CUNY Hunter, Hobart and William Smith, and UMass
Amherst, hoping that I’ll be given a second chance at having the future I used to think was going to be default. I sure hope I’m taken seriously… :/</p>
<p>Note: For those interested, my father just received a settlement of like 14 million. My mom and younger brother will be getting a decent amount of that and finding a new place for themselves. Problems over (hopefully).</p>
<p>These stories are so inspirational! I hope to be one soon. I had a 2.5 cumulative high school GPA, but I have a 4.0 in college. You guys rock!</p>
<p>Hi guys! Ok so i just recently finished my second semester in collage (community college) i failed all four of my classes the first semester and failed those same two my second semester, but passed my other two classes English 1 amd Computer Science. I know i could have easily passed those two classes the first time if i had actually, and slacked off not really applying my self, but for most of my first semester i had maintained As in th classes but failed at the end for not trying hard enough. I really want to eventuall transfer to a four year univ. but fear that beacuse my first year of college, i have permenantly scared my college record and chance of ever getting accepted in to any other shools or programs. If seriously apply my self and get mostly As and maybe a couple Bs from here on out do you think i have any chance at getting in to my dream schools??
Please help</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My success story is that i finally graduated. I won’t say how many years that it took but it was much, much longer than what people plan on when they consider going to school. When i first started school, i wasn’t happy at all and got a few bad grades. One was for a class that i disliked so much that i decided never to return. I did just that, instead of dropping it or withdrawing-so had a nice fat “F” on my record right from the beginning.</p>
<p>i had to go to community college because there was no possible way of getting into a university with the HS curriculum that i had. After the initial discomfort at the CC, i went back (to another campus-same school) and was very happy.</p>
<p>I got the AA and then was able to go to the university. The AA came from 2 different CC’s in 2 different states over a period of many years. Once in University though, i blew on through it and graduated. I never got anything below a B again (except for maybe 2-C’s). That is why i tell people it is never too late to go to school and don’t worry about how long it takes to finish.</p>