Low GPA, decent SAT, what should I do?

Northstarmom
Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:36:16 +0000

Probably some wealthy donors’ kids and recruited athletes with excellent scores get into Ivies with 3.1 gpas.

Bad grades – even with a reasonable excuse – will keep one out of many schools.

A 3.1, however, is a good enough average to get into most colleges in the country, though one isn’t likely to get into flagship publics or top 50 schools with such an average. A person with a 3.1 and a 0 EFC is not likely to get into a 4-year college that will offer the kind of large grants that such a person would need. They may get offers with large loans, however, but those offers aren’t worth taking because of the difficulty of paying back large loans.