I’m not talking about like 3.6 GPAs. Are there any success stories for people who had a 3.00 UW GPA and under? I just thought it would be motivating to hear now that semester one has just ended. Any success story in general would be nice.
I don’t know if it will let me link, but here is a try:
If it doesn’t work, go to the Parents Forum, look for the threads with ‘3.0’ in the thread name.
I didn’t have a 3.0, but I chose to attend community college and then transferred to a Cal State. I spent six years getting my degree. It took me a while to get serious about college. I skipped classes, dropped, etc…and finally was put on academic probation, at comm college. But the time I graduated, I had made the Dean’s list a couple of times.
That was all back in the 80s. Now, I have a new career that I love (all thanks to my degree), which is good timing because I will soon be an empty nester. You can go to college anywhere and be successful and happy. Good luck!
My son graduated with a 2.8 or so. He just finished his first semester of college with 4 B+'s and an A-. He’s very happy where he is and working hard (probably for the first time!).
My oldest had a great, fun HS career - Mr. Popularity…but his grades sucked. He went to a local LAC, applied himself, studied and worked hard, and parlayed that into a Masters in Education & Admin at a large public. Now he works at a flagship U managing first year programs, and still having fun! So, yes, it can be done. Good Luck to you!
There are lots of “start at community college, transfer to state university, graduate with bachelor’s degree” stories. Some of them are after working or military service immediately after high school (perhaps realizing then that earning a bachelor’s degree would be career-helpful).
I got 3.0 in high school long time ago but 99.9% in SAT and got into Cornell, UVA and NYU – and got 2.9 GPA in college. Applied to Harvard but got rejected. But D average in engineering and 3.9+ average in English Lit even as a recent immigrant whose English was not fluent and even though I had gotten 800 in SAT math. When I went to my advisor to request changing my major to English Lit, he had an astounded look on his face as if to say “What the hel* you think you are doing?” but I told him I need to graduate college without flunking out and I felt I should at least improve my writing. I basically learned to write by majoring in English Lit at Cornell, and after I had C+ in my first class, I managed to get As from then on. I was too lazy to tackle engineering major but could do very well in “creative” courses where I could think about and formulate papers in my mind while I was drinking coffee or walking on the campus or skipping lectures and lying in bed. I also managed to get into a top 5 law school by arguing persuasively that had I started college as an English Lit major, I would have graduated from college with something like 3.9 GPA, and therefore lousy GPA should not be held against me. I then got 2.9 GPA from law school also because instead of studying I worked and gained practical experience. Had no desire to work at a big law firm (once they saw my GPA, big law firms said “sayonara”) so I just worked to gain practical experience and started my own law office quickly. Looking back, my biggest asset was I had no fear of failing even though my parents were poor. Actually, failing in my career was not an option even though I could and did fail in my classes.
Oh, I also know a guy with a bad personality who went to a community college then did well there and managed to transfer to NY Law School and then had a nice legal career. So, in USA, not all is lost even after you fail in classes. It’s how you take punches that determines whether you will end up standing at the end.
I’m willing to bet that by “college success stories” the OP does not have in mind the inspiring stories above of people who either turned things around academically in college or went on to satisfying careers. Instead it is likely an unexpected acceptance letter from a very selective college, preferably Ivy.
My GPA was so low that I dropped out of high school. I got sick of working fast food jobs, so I got my GED. 23 years later, I have a masters degree and I’m an established computer professional. A 3.0 can get you into a decent university if you have a good SAT score. If not, who cares? Go to a community college and transfer. It’s a whole lot cheaper to do that.