I don't know what to do, any ideas?

ctfdacow
Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:48:47 +0000

I’m applying to transfer this fall and trying to get into UCLA or Berkeley (at least that’s the goal). My GPA is actually bad for my major to those schools. Majoring in Econ, currently have a 3.73ish. The average accepted applicant for econ at UCLA was 3.94 or something. I haven’t done really any EC but I did start a business so I’m relying on that.

Right now I’m in a dilemma. I want to keep my GPA as high as possible (of course) but I did poorly on my 3 transferable classes. I have 1 nontransferable but that won’t matter. First one was global econ, not required for GE or my major. Average was less than 100/150, everyone including the teacher was surprised (hardest test I’ve ever taken) so I dropped that. Second is Physics (no idea why I took physics. I only needed a lab so I should have taken an easy lab). I spent literally 2 weeks straight, everyday, studying for Physics. Aaand I still don’t get it. I get enough to pass probably, but that would kill my GPA for a class that isn’t required. And finally Calc. Like I said before, I spent 2 weeks studying for Physics, meaning I took time out of Calc (dumb of me). But this lead to all my classes having poor grades, enough to pass, but not enough to maintain my GPA.

So here’s the thing; I have 60 credits already not including this fall quarter, I’m only required to complete 60 entering winter. So I’m a quarter ahead. Should I drop one and just focus on Calc which I already have a really bad start on or drop both and pretty much take the quarter off? How bad would it look in admissions if they saw that I just had a gap in fall if I did do that?

Another thing is if I did drop Physics I’d take Astronomy which is a guaranteed A. Calc I’d just retake again but I’d have the 2 weeks that I wasted on astronomy before the first midterm. (I also got a C in 1A so I can’t get another C in 1B otherwise it looks horrible).

I have until Friday to decide.

tl;dr : Doing bad in the only 2 transferable classes that I have and have enough credits to skip a quarter, should I drop them to save my GPA? Applying this quarter, how bad would that look?