<p>I am starting my sophomore year at a local community college this year, and I am hoping to transfer to a well respected school (my first choice being Northwestern University). Unfortunately, i did not do very well in high school. I did, however, raise my grades during my freshman year at my community college.</p>
<p>I am hoping to major in mathematics (it has always been a passion of mine), and I plan to continue onto medical school.</p>
<p>IN HIGH SCHOOL
uw gpa= 3.34
w gpa= 3.60
ACT= 28
EC= Spanish national honors society, Math national honors society, four years on the high school ice hockey team</p>
<p>IN CC
gpa= 4.00
EC= future health care professionals club, member of phi theta kappa honors society</p>
<p>Aside from academics, i do believe i have a hook.</p>
<p>During my senior year of high school, i started taking flying lessons (one of the reasons i didn’t put too much time into my studies at that time). I ended up loving everything about aviation. So, i ended up going to the local community college in order to continue taking lessons (flight time is NOT cheap). </p>
<p>Anyways, I now have my private pilot’s license, and I am now almost finished with my instrument rating. I am currently on track to become a certified flight instructor by the time i am ready to transfer (next summer). I plan on instructing after transferring to help pay for school.</p>
<p>I know a few instructors who will write excellent recommendations. I also plan to intern in a science program in my community next summer. </p>
<p>I worry my hook is not big enough to shadow my unimpressive high school gpa. Thoughts?</p>
<p>It’s your community college grades that will undo the damage of your less than spectacular high school grades. The pilot’s license and the instrument rating are nice accomplishments, but they don’t really have anything to do with college admissions, so they’re really not a hook.</p>
<p>A hook is something that will fulfill an institutional want or need of a college or university. So athletes who play a sport that’s important at the college have a hook because the college needs players for its team. Applicants who come from a wealthy family that could write a generous check to the university also have a hook because colleges and universities need the support of wealthy donors. Unfortunately, except for a very specialized college like Embry-Riddle, I don’t really know of a college or university that has a particular need for–or really even a particular desire for–instrument rated pilots in its student body.</p>
<p>I think your really good community college grades will make you a strong, competitive applicant for a number of highly respectable universities and four-year colleges. But Northwestern specifically? Hard to say. Northwestern is a very tough nut to crack. But I think you will have good options.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response! Even though my aviation accomplishment isn’t considered a hook, would this still be something that could make my application “pop”?</p>
<p>I wasn’t very active in high school extracurricular work, so i wonder if it would redeem me.</p>
<p>That’s great to hear that my community college grades will help with my somewhat lacking high school ones though!</p>
<p>I think aviation does make your app pop. You probably want to make a big deal of it as far as your ECs and essay goes. </p>
<p>AFAIK people usually try to apply to 4 year colleges after their first two years at a CC, so maybe you won’t get accepted this year. I don’t know too much about CC to competitive school transfers. However, your CC GPA looks pretty good, 28 isn’t a horrible score, and your passion for aviation could definitely, as you put it, “redeem you.” </p>
<p>I know you could definitely get in to one of my state’s flagships (KY) before, and definitely could know, so if you want to go to a 4 year it is definitely doable. NW is great, but if you want out of a CC I know that you can get it.</p>