<p>Hey again, CC. I'm a Freshmen at a Top 20 LAC and unfortunately didn't do well first semester of college. Story short, I have a 2.23 GPA as of now. </p>
<p>English: B-
First year seminar: B+
Calculus: D-
Chemistry: W (Withdrew, Dropped w/o penalty)</p>
<p>I'd blame it on a tough "high school-to-college" transition, poor course selection or rampant grade deflation however I do realize I'm going to have to seriously rise to the occasion in order to pull my GPA up. I'm hoping to apply as a Junior transfer to a higher-caliber university (ideally Stanford, HY, Columbia, USC, UCLA, Duke, etc). I'm well aware of Ivy and other high caliber student retention rates and transfer admission trends and that my chances are slim to none but I'd still like to put myself in the best position possible academically. Not just for the prospect of transferring but for grad school and employment in the future. My school requires me to take 4 courses per semester. So, using various online GPA calculators I've found that if I were to take...</p>
<p>Assuming I'm able to get all As (which I know is a stretch, but still)</p>
<p>4 Classes per Semester: 3.52/3.56 by end of Sophomore Fall Term (If I didn't make up the class I dropped first semester/If I took a 5th course to make up for dropping one first semester of college)
5 Classes per Semester: 3.59 by end of Sophomore Fall Term
6 Classes per Semester: 3.65 by end of Sophomore Fall Term </p>
<p>So what shall I do? It's not uncommon for students to take a fifth course for a semester but a sixth course is.</p>
<p>any thoughts?</p>
<p>Can you take summer classes to boost your GPA instead? That might make it easier to raise your GPA up.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t do it. Taking that many classes is more likely to wreck your GPA than to help it, as the more work you have, the less time you’ll be able to devote to the others. Side note, if you’re struggling this much at your current school, going somewhere tougher might not be the best plan…</p>
<p>As for your choices of transfer, UCLA is probably a lot less selective than the others you listed, though even a 3.65 would put you below the average transfer GPA. They do give priority to California CC transfers though, and I think the acceptance rate for transfers there is maybe 20%? It’s a public school, so they have space reserved for transfers.</p>
<p>Also, most schools’ll want 60 credits (or 90 quarter units) to consider you a junior, so know the requirements and make sure you’re meeting them. But otherwise I wouldn’t suggest overloading on credits.</p>
<p>If you retake that calculus class, that will definitely boost your GPA. Out of curiosity, why do you want to transfer to a better college if you’re not doing so well in the college you’re in right now. I think It’s a little too early to be thinking about transferring. Anyway, taking 5-6 4 units classes is not a joke. Can you really handle 20-24 units of intense classes? I say retake the calculus class next semester with another 3 classes. Don’t fool around this time; try harder and give it your best.</p>
<p>Considering you used an online GPA calculator to figure that out I’m not surprised you got a D in calc 1…</p>
<p>Sorry, I had to.</p>
<p>fluteloop: I’m not entirely sure my school offers summer courses. I’m not sure I’d be able to take a summer course at a different college but if possible I definitely would.</p>
<p>failure622: I see your point but I’m not entirely convinced that my school is any less rigorous than higher ranked schools. I’m told our curriculum is just as comparable but that’s only what I hear from upperclassmen so I suppose I should take that with a grain of salt. I should be caught up with credits, too by then.</p>
<p>thanks you 2. still looking for my responses…</p>
<p>@ThisIsMichigan I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to Math. But, hey, I’m not a human calculator. I honestly only took Calculus to get rid of the gen ed requirement. I was hoping I’d make it easy on myself. Wishful thinking…</p>
<p>And to answer your question mermaker, I’m wanting to leave for personal reasons. I’m just not feeling integrated into my college even though I’m highly involved on campus. My first semester was lackluster because getting help for Calculus (and Chem) initially really monopolized much of my time, esp. for my other two courses. I’m not very good w/ Math or Science, so I just thought I’d get the requirements out of the way first. I didn’t realize I’d be struggling this much though.</p>
<p>Calc seems like a strange choice for gen ed, what is you major?</p>
<p>Not sure yet, probably Politics, Rhetoric, or some other Humanities related major. the Gen Ed requirement was a quantitative literacy req., and there were lower-leveled 100 math courses available, but me being overconfident decided to take Calc 1 even though I haven’t taken Calc in my life :(</p>
<p>Calculus 1 does not require previous calculus, but does require decent math skills up to trigonometry and precalculus from high school. But a humanities or social studies major (other than economics) would likely find an introductory statistics course to be more useful.</p>
<p>UCLA’s transfer admissions profiles are here:
[Profile</a> of Admitted Transfer Students - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof.htm]Profile”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof.htm)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link ucbalumnus, helps put things in perspective. I’m well aware Calculus 1 doesn’t require prior knowledge of the subject but the thing is most if not all the students in my course had already taken Calculus 1 and some even Calculus 2 in HS, prior to this class. And even with the wealth of knowledge and experience within the class the class average was always around a 75% which IMO was pretty low for a class like that. I wasn’t expecting that and I hadn’t even taken a math course my senior year of HS (scheduling conflicts that year). I did take Stat though, and did fairly well.</p>
<p>Many college instructors design tests with a target median score of around 50% and then “curve” the grading scale. It is not like high school where the instructor has to make 60-70% of the test easy problems for the C/D students to be able to pass.</p>