So one of my semesters at CC I took too many hard classes and so I did very poorly and ended up failing them so that I could retake them and get a higher grade. I retook all those classes in different semesters so that the same thing wouldn’t happen again and got A’s and 1 B. And if you retake a failed class, the new passing grade is the one that is portrayed in your GPA. So now I have a competitive GPA to be able to transfer to the UC’s I want, but my counselor told me that I should explain that failed semester on my personal statement (or extra comments or whatever) and say that it was because it was too big of a load of classes (which is the truth). I have never failed/dropped a class except for those that were in one semester and I only have 1 C+, the rest are A’s and B’s.The thing is, I know that it kinda shows that you have matured and grown (etc.) since those F’s were replaced by A’s and B’s, but to me it just kind of sounds like it was just incompetence from my part (although it was a lot of classes recognized as hard classes).
I was wondering if I should lie on my personal statement and make up an excuse (accident/family death/etc) to make those grades “more understandable”. I don’t want to because I know it’s unethical and I don’t know how big the risks are of getting caught, but those classes were failed on purpose to not get C’s [which would have ruined my GPA] and I had to stay another year at CC just so that I could attend a UC.
Please give your input on what I should do.
fyi: I’m an engineering major, those classes were major prep classes and the UC’s I’m trying to attend/apply to are UCSD, SB, and Irvine.
Definitely, definitely do not lie. There are a ton of people applying who experienced real hardships (such as deaths or illness) that held them back. They will understand if you had a difficult semester. If you are honest with them (and you really should be), they will understand. The fact that you were resilient enough to go back and take them all again is a good thing, especially since you did so well the second time around. The undergraduate department reads enough personal statements that I can’t imagine them not being able to sniff out a fraud.
It gives you more dimension to have made mistakes and come back from them.
If nothing else, you are in this position because you didn’t want to get bad grades. You failed for the sole purpose of being able to retake them.
Nobody died in your family. You’ve made your bed, now lie in it. And by “lie,” I don’t mean make up some BS excuse that someone died. It sounds like you’ve had to pay for it, considering you’ve stayed an extra year. But don’t give them some BS reason because you couldn’t handle what you signed up for.
Tell the truth. You will not gain anything by lying. Your counselor’s suggestions are what you should do.
As others have stated, some people have actually gone through hardships while attending school. You, on the other hand, have not.
The truth sounds like you worked the system to manipulate your GPA, I would definitely focus more on what you learned from that semester. Like yeah you sucked that semester but now thanks to that experience you have become a more effective student with respect to time management, or yeah you might as well have stayed on the couch that whole semester, but you gained a valuable life lesson in humility. You know the drill