<p>I was a 3.8-4.0 student at Rutgers College who had a bad semester (due to personal circumstances and subsequent depression) as a Junior. That academic 180 culminated in a dismissal after not making a recovery during probation. </p>
<p>Now I am more confused than ever, because I don’t know what people in my situation do, and it’s not like I can go to my old Dean for a counseling session! Someone in a transfer thread said that there have been NYU transfers from community colleges, but I still haven’t found anything in the forums about recovering from a dismissal.</p>
<p>Given my history, would a 4.0 GPA at a community college (which I know I could pull off) after one semester be enough to get me accepted to a school with a better reputation than Rutgers? My dream school is NYU–should I kill the dream?</p>
<p>Confounding factors:</p>
<p>-I don’t have scores for the Writing portion of the SATs because they didn’t require them yet when I was an incoming freshman.
-I have legacy at NYU, if that helps, although…
-…I come from a disadvantaged background in spite of that. Being white and female is working against me since AA is stronger than ever this year; it’s also one of the most stringent years for admissions in history due to Boomer kids coming of age (and 2008 isn’t looking up–read the NY Times article if you want to feel as ill as I do).
-Even more upsetting to me is that my ECs are weak because I have had to work since I was a teenager (and had to work full-time during my college years to support myself). </p>
<p>I realize how illogical it must seem to aspire to attend a better school than the one from which I was dismissed. But even though I am obviously not Ivy material, I felt overqualified for RU while I was there, and I don’t want to go back to that or someplace worse. What’s the best I can hope for? NYU or BC would be a dream come true…</p>
<p>What would it take to get me there, if it’s even plausible?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance! It’s been a rough two years…</p>