aihara

In my undergrad studies, I got mostly As and a few Bs in all semesters except one, which I flunked each class. I feel stupid tell you this, but the reason I flunked is because I was intending on withdrawing the semester because I was very busy with a side business of my at the time. So I essentially stopped attending classes after the first couple of weeks. However, I missed the deadline to withdraw (due to my forgetful, unorganized nature at the time).

The good thing is, that semester was years ago. I took a break in between my education when I started up a pretty successful business of my own. Every since, I have about 80 hours of solid grades. The course I "flunked", I also retook them and got As.

I can have professors confirming that I was intending to drop at the time, since it's pretty obvious from my lack of work turned in after the first 2 weeks.

Anyway, how do I minimize the bad mistake of years ago and still have a decent shot at a good grad school or MBA program? My overall GPA is around 3.0, it would be around 3.7 if I didn't make that mistake. I really regret my past mistake but that's useless to say. My main goal is to show the admission officers that I'm a smart guy and I can handle the coursework. Most importantly, show them I've matured and I care.

Thanks

gsaray

As soon as they see 3.0 on your transcript, your application is going to go in the garbage bin, EXCEPT, you send them an email before submitting your application and tell about your situation.

dapi12345

Above poster is totally misleading you. I had a very simile situation; said 1 line in my statement about how I didn't regret it, I learned from it. I moved on. The rest of my application stood for itself. Strong CV, strong letters, strong statement. Gpa/gre not a big deal and not a predictor of success. I'm not the only example at my school either.

juillet

A 3.0 doesn't mean automatic garbage bin, especially if your GPA would've been a 3.7 without only one semester. Graduate admissions professors look at your transcript holistically.

I would be honest but brief. You may consider including this in a supplemental essay instead of the main statement, but just mention that you intended to withdraw from the classes to pursue your business interests, but missed the deadline and therefore received Fs instead of Ws. Follow that up with something positive, like about how your current business grew out of that initial attempt and you learned something about managing multiple projects/endeavors at once.

jontaejones

First off, don't listen to anybody who says you can't get into grad school (a Masters program at least) w/o a 3.0. Completely untrue. We don't even know what your major is!

2nd, the SAME thing happened to me. Only it was one course, not a whole semester. No offense, but that is really, REALLY incompetent. It's incompetent for one class. For a whole semester, it borders on sublime incompetence.

But that is neither here nor there, some of us make mistakes when young.

Here's what I tried. Contact the registrar/admissions office at your old school. I did and they put me in touch with the Dean of the College. I wrote him a note saying what happened AND got a letter from the professor of the course saying I was never in the course. The Dean refused my request but he DOES have the power to strike those grades from your transcript apparently.

It's worth a try for you.