<p>I graduated high school in 2010 with a 3.55 GPA and a 26 on the ACT. I had applied to Madison, only to get wait-listed. I ended up deciding to go to UW-Platteville.</p>
<p>I'm currently a sophomore, pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. I'll admit, my first year I slacked off extensively (combination of too much freedom at once and overconfidence in my abilities... plus college chemistry and calculus are brutal), landing myself a 2.67 weighted GPA for the year.</p>
<p>I'm now half way through the current semester, taking a combination of physics, statics, calculus 2, and some other courses. As it stands, I'm on track to make it on the dean's list for the semester with about a 3.8 GPA, which would bring my cumulative weighted GPA up to ~3.01. The funny thing is that my GPA is higher unweighted than weighted. I'm not sure which they would be looking at. If unweighted, then I'd jump up to about a 3.125.</p>
<p>I've been extremely active in a few extra curriculars (Engineers Without Borders, ASME, and a multimedia club) this semester, and I've also spent the past two summers working in manufacturing at a local company, getting hands on experience in a field I'll be working in some day. I'm also planning on getting letters of recommendation from an English professor I got along with very well, as well as my current physics professor who I also have a good relationship with. </p>
<p>I know my grades definitely are not hot, but I'm curious as to what my chances may be, all said and done. I'm hoping that my improvement in grades demonstrates that I've gotten my act together. </p>
<p>Cheers.</p>
<p>P.S. I'm a Wisconsin resident. Born and raised in Madison.</p>
<p>Looking back, I hope I interpreted weighted versus unweighted correctly. My weighted GPA would be the grade times the number of credits (i.e. a 5 credit class with an A is 10) whereas unweighted you would just add 4 for an A, 3 for a B, etc. despite it being a certain number of credits?</p>
<p>Your college gpa is based on the number of credits per course. No weighted/unweighted grades. A 5 credit A is 4 x 5 or 20 points. Add up the total points (don’t forget pluses and minuses- a 0.3 difference) and divide by the total number of credits…</p>
<p>Transfer students need at least a 3.0. Sounds like you will qualify, and doing much better helps. ECs instead of studies was a mistake- work on the academics.</p>
<p>btw- college chemistry and calculus are NOT brutal, especially for science and engineering majors. Be sure you are getting a solid background to prepare you for a tough engineering major at UW-Madison. Review material you missed during the courses before taking courses where the material is needed. You may find your version of calculus is less comprehensive than the courses offered at UW-Madison. Be prepared to study hard and not have time for as much extracurricular activity.</p>
<p>The average transfer GPA is 3.4, so if you can at least get close to that plus have a couple decent letters of recommendation you’ll probably be good to go.</p>
<p>And as wis75 states, there is no weighting of college grades. A great way to figure out where you stand and what you need to do to get to where you want to be is to setup all of your grades in an Excel spreadsheet. Then you can add in future classes and tinker with their grades, seeing where that eventually puts your final GPA at.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks. I misinterpreted some other threads I was looking at as far as GPA goes.</p>
<p>As far as the toughness of chemistry and calculus: the chemistry courses here have an extremely high failure rate, so I would say they were not easy. I managed a B the first semester and a C the second. AP Calculus I aced in high school, but in college I slacked off. As I said, I’ve improved my methods and I have a B+ currently in Calculus 2, an A+ (or A since they don’t count it as a plus unfortunately) in Physics, and an A in Statics. My other courses I’m maintaining As in, as well.</p>
<p>I only started getting into the ECs this semester, which is the semester I’m doing well in. Go figure.</p>
<p>I figure if I keep at the rate I’m going, my GPA will be around a 3.2/3.3 by the end of the year. Granted, this isn’t what UW will see when applying.</p>
<p>In response to the difficulty of the courses you have taken so far, I extremely encourage you to consider a different mindset. I am a junior here at UW in Mechanical Engineering and am doing quite well (~3.55 GPA). Calc 1-3, Differential Equations, Statics, General Chem. 1 & 2 are called weed out classes for a reason in this major, they are getting you prepared for what’s to come. Heat Transfer, Thermo, Fluids, e.t.c. Most of which are significantly more involved than those I had previously mentioned. Let’s just say last year in my sophomore year. Calculus 3 and Differential equations were my easiest classes each semester, respectively.</p>
<p>Brenn, be sure you are honest with yourself. Your grades reflect knowledge gained compared to knowledge offered and needed for other courses. It is good to hear that Platteville has required standards for getting good grades. I suspect the Chemistry course is a standard one (UW-Madison has at least 3 general chemistry courses, yours was comparable to the one requiring the least HS preparation) and students underestimated the work involved. Calculus at UW-Madison covers more material than AP courses do- many who passed the AP exam will start over with first semester calculus or struggle with the second course. </p>
<p>Are you taking courses to get grades for transfer or are you learning as much as you can? You need to be getting as firm a foundation as you can to be able to handle engineering, both at Platteville and at Madison. The courses in math, science and engineering get tougher in the major. Not everyone has the ability to handle it. Interest alone will not carry you through. You will discover material you wished you had mastered the first time around- makes it easier to handle the new stuff.</p>
<p>Class difficulty is relative of course, but if we’re using UW-Madison’s class difficulty as the standard, then a high failure in a class at a UW System school doesn’t necessarily point to that class being difficult. Students at UW System schools, on average, aren’t as focused and prepared as UW-Madison students, and as a whole UW-Madison classes are significantly more difficult than classes at UW System schools.</p>