Transfering with bad general ed GPA, good major GPA?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I started at a local CC when I was 16 and had no idea what I wanted to do. I messed around a bit taking every IGETC(general ed) course and landed myself a 3.1 gpa. I skipped classes all the time, missed some quizzes, withdrew from several classes because I didnt care about my life.</p>

<p>Im 20 now, and when I realized I wanted to get into mech/bioengineering I started working a lot harder and taking the prerequisite courses, but at that point my GPA was already kinda screwing me over for good schools like UCLA, and I had already wasted years of my life taking courses that are irrelevant for engineering.</p>

<p>I have now taken Precalc, Calc 1, Intro to Chem, Gen Chem, C Programming, and one physics course and have gotten an A in all of them, but its only raised my GPA to 3.3. I still have several math and physics courses left to take to complete transfer prereqs, but I cant imagine it would put me above a 3.5, assuming I got A's in all of them.</p>

<p>So my question is, will I just be flat out rejected by schools like UCLA or Berkley based on my total GPA, or will they basically ignore the general ed courses I got W's/bad grades in (like a C in anthro for skipping class) and just look at my engineering prerequisite grades?</p>

<p>And would it benefit me to take a bunch of easy non-major courses just to boost my total gpa? Im thinking of taking some easy online Bio and Computer Applications classes just for easy, non time consuming A's. Would that be a waste of time?</p>

2

<p>If you have SEVERAL math and physics courses (like you said), I cannot see how you cannot raise your GPA to at least a 3.4-something. I also cannot imagine at least UCLA not letting you in with a 3.4-something UNLESS they are overwhelmed with applicants.</p>

3

<p>well I just know that all Engineering Majors at UCLA are impacted, and last time I checked the average gpa for admittance was around 3.7. Im just worried the sub par general ed grades will reflect too poorly on me.</p>

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<p>Wow…a 3.7 just to get INTO the program??</p>

<p>Well, since you are not computer science, I cannot say “who cares about a UCLA” because I do not know how school-name plays into the bio-engineering industry.</p>

5

<p>I think you should aim lower and think about top programs for graduate school. There is no harm in applying, but GPA matters and these schools are usually looking for flawless transcripts. They don’t want to hear about why you weren’t motivated in the past. So, do well in college & earn a good GRE score to attend a top grad school.</p>