<p>I'm currently a junior at Northwestern. Because of a prolonged period of mental illness that is well recorded by psychiatric treatment, I have a very low GPA. Somewhere in the realm of a 2.5 in mechanical engineering. A majority of the grade deflation comes from incompletes that spanned two quarters. I hate the school, and I hate my major. I've come to the conclusion, along with my therapist, that transferring and taking control of my life is paramount for recovery.</p>
<p>What do I do? How can I transfer to a good school with my current GPA? I feel hopeless, as this is something that I need, yet cannot possibly hope for because of draconian policies in academia that basically make your grades follow you for all eternity.</p>
<p>I would really appreciate any kind of feedback/advice for my current situation. I’m in a bad place. ):</p>
<p>may i ask why you hate it? i really want to go to northwestern, actually…</p>
<p>I think you could get into plenty of state schools, as long as you don’t look upon it as downgrading, in fact arizona state has guaranteed admission for transfers with 2.5 gpa, which you have, so there’s at least one school who will accept you, ohio state might accept you as well, heck you might even get into an even better school if you can show how much you’ve learned from the process and how you can progress from it!</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>Northwestern is extremely preprofessional in its environment, and definitely does not have the kind of academic atmosphere that I was looking for. The engineering regimen is boorish, at best.</p>
<p>More importantly, the social life (in addition to the Greek life) is horrible, and the university itself leaves its undergraduates in squalor as far as overall quality of life.</p>
<p>In addition, I went through two and a half years of my time here with untreated major depression and OCD due to family matters and intense stress from military obligations. I guess that shaped a lot of my experiences.</p>
<p>I was mostly looking at Canadian schools because of their decent quality and low costs. University of Toronto and McGill were at the fore. I doubt I could get into them with my current situation, though. I have thought about University of Alabama, mostly because it’s my home state. That may be my best shot.</p>
<p>im not sure what you mean by boorish, but keep your head up there are a lot of public schools im sure that would accept you</p>
<p>If you are still interested in studying engineering and really interested in Canadian schools, then I’d suggest looking into the University of Waterloo.</p>
<p>Alabama would likely be the cheapest, if that’s a concern for you and if you can still get in-state tuition.</p>