Transferring from ASU to U of A

<p>Hi everyone,
I have stumbled upon this site and I hope you guys will be able to help me. I’m a junior at ASU with a 2.7 gpa majoring in biological sciences. I came to college as a straight a student with a 4.0 and was able to maintain almost the same grade freshmen year. However, I got involved in campus life and my social network has expanded in a way that made it extremely impossible to focus on school work. I had a gpa below a 2.0 for my fall semester of sophomore year. I picked up the semester after and got a 3.0 that semester which raised my gpa to 2.9. The rollercoaster continued, I drop it fall semester and pick it up by spring but it seems almost impossible to get it to 3.0 or above. I also have about 7 W’s on my transcript-for medical reasons though. Long story short, I’m thinking if I transfer to U of A I can build up my gpa from a scratch, get rid of all of the Ws, and have a fresh start. I’m interested in the health field, so I think U of A has great programs. Do you think this is a good idea? Or you think the idea is quite risky? I don’t mind graduating 2 or 3 semester later, I simply don’t want to graduate with a gpa below a 3.0</p>

<p>U of A has a grading structure that is more rigorous than ASU. It’s still the only school in the PAC-10 that doesn’t have plus or minuses in the structure. Also one must have a 3.25 for ASU honors vs 3.5 for U of A.
Too, this late in the game why not just stick with ASU?</p>

<p>However, the 4.0 that you get from having all 90% scores is the same as the one you’d get from having 100% scores. At ASU, though, your 90% would only give you a 3.67. Thus, it may be easier for some students to obtain a higher GPA from the University of Arizona.</p>

<p>Sort of off topic, but I violently oppose the +/- letter grading system. Implementing it is a cheap way to ensure only loser majors can actually get high GPAs, because getting 95%+ in an engr. course is damn near impossible even after the curve.</p>

<p>Answering the OP back on topic, I’d buckle down and stick it out. You mention your social network as being one of the reasons your gpa died…control your social network and don’t let it control you. If you move to UA, you’ll probably fall into the same cycle all over again. If you need to immediately boost your GPA, just to get your foot in the door for interviews, then take some easy freshman classes and ace them. This won’t work though if you’re applying to graduate school where they do want to see transcripts.</p>

<p>W’s don’t really matter. Employers almost never ask for a transcript…instead they just want to see degree verification (to prove you actually graduated). Again though, for graduate school they might actually care, but you can always say “medical reasons” in whatever essays they want.</p>

<p>Thank you guys. I have found out the source of the problem. I was studying a major that was not interesting me at all. Now that I’m about to switch my major to psychology, I think things will change and I should be able to pick up my gpa. Thanks once again for all of your inputs.</p>