<p>I am a Pennsylvania community college student who is looking to transfer to UMCP and becoming a Terrapin for the Fall 2015 semester. Last semester, I had an astounding 3.94 GPA (4.0 GPA in courses that will transfer). As many of you know, the winter of 2014 has been a crazy and wild one. As a result, combined with many other factors, my GPA has dropped. So far, I only know two of my grades: I have an A in Biology II, but a C in Gen Chem II (I'll know the other three grades by Friday). I'm thoroughly disappointed as I expected to do very well this semester. I know that this C puts me at a huge disadvantage when applying for UMCP Biochemistry since it is an LEP. This will also come back to bite me when I apply for medical school. How big will my uphill battle for UMCP Biochemistry be? </p>
<p>P.S. There may be hope, however. I have several extracurriculars, nice accolades, and a GPA that will still be above 3.5</p>
<p>Only the Biochemistry department can tell you that answer. Here is what is online <a href=“http://www.lep.umd.edu/cmns.pdf”>http://www.lep.umd.edu/cmns.pdf</a> which leads me to believe that a single C is potentially not a deal-breaker - note that the “transfer” minimum grade on that link is referring to in-school transfers, so not sure how they would view a C as an external transfer for admission to a LEP. For the university itself, a single C should not be a deal breaker if your gpa is above 3.5 as expected.</p>
<p>The bigger question for you is how you went from all A’s to potentially a single A and a C. Please understand that I’m saying this as a mom, and not trying to bust on you…Do yourself a favor and don’t blame the wild winter weather as you implied because a)it didn’t affect anyone else, and b)it didn’t affect other classes, just the ChemII. So, the question is did you not understand the material or did you just get overconfident from your first semester grades and not apply yourself. For your major, the problem is not the grade as much as mastery of the material since it is fundamental to a lot of the upper level stuff. </p>
<p>@maryversity You are right: I should not blame my academic problems from this semester simply on the bad weather. I am not even slightly offended by what you said. The grade that I received is totally my responsibility. </p>
<p>With that said, however, I did much better than I originally anticipated. While I did receive a C in Gen Chem II, I did receive A’s in Biology II, Honors English II, and Honors American History II. I received a B- in Trigonometry, but that course is not transferable to UMCP. My semester GPA ended up being 3.30, but my cumulative GPA is 3.60! If I perform well in my courses next semester (Calculus II, Organic Chemistry I, Physics for Science and Engineering I, Honors Speech Communication, and possibly Intro to Psychology), I think that I will have an excellent chance at admission to the University of Maryland!</p>
<p>That’s great to hear! Keeping the rest of your grades strong is def in your favor! Best of luck - hope to hear good news about transfer admission in the near future!</p>
