Success Stories: Bad HS Record w/ Great College Record

Transfer Students
421

<p>College by far. </p>

<p>I know more, I want to learn. No problems at home. Well even though there are some, I’m an adult so I just stay out of it. I have more freedom. The girls I meet are smarter. People WANT to be here. In high school, people are just there. They can’t be anywhere else.</p>

<p>In college, there’s a small percentage that are there because mommy and daddy said they have to, but mostly people are there because they want to be there. Being smart is attractive. Being successful and working hard is attractive. </p>

<p>In high school, it’s “who do you know?” or “what party did you go to?” but here it’s differe.t</p>

422

<p>Essenar, I’m not getting any need-based aid from my community college, lol. Apparently, my mother makes too much for me to be her only dependant or something like that so we’re expected to contribute a lot. which I way I’m aiming for my GPA to be as close to a 4.0 as possible without taking too many easy A classes because I need to make myself eligible for the most merit-based aid I can get to compensate for the lack of grants. But I’ve talked to people that are in health careers now (I’m a chemistry major intending on going to medical school after undergrad) and they’ve told me about all of the government funded programs that pay off your debt after you work for them a certain amount of time. And when I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled last week, the nurses told me that the hospital has this program where they’ll give you a loan for school and to pay it back, you work for them for 1 year and they take monthly payments out of your check for that year until you’re paid off. The more I hear about things like that, the less likely I am to stress of money for tution.</p>

<p>…room and board, on the other hand…</p>

<p>Oh, and I’m in Ohio.</p>

<hr>

<p>And I like college about a million times better than high school. High school sucked so hard, man, there’s no real way to describe it without you having been there.</p>

423

<p>High school sucked hard for me too, I have five times the social life I do here than I had in high school.</p>

424

<p>So today I was at a Family Y just chatting with my friends. After we finished I ended up going downstairs and I ran into a former classmate from high school. Well he looked at me and then said my name.</p>

<p>The classmate was an honor grad who made it to a well renowned university, he went on to tell me about how it didn’t work out and he is now at a less respected university. </p>

<p>Scared me a bit, what if I do make it to a top college but just fall?</p>

425

<p>

When you fall, not if, just pick yourself back up and keep going.</p>

<p>The more difficult a college is, the more times they’ll get you to fall/stumble. You’ll be stronger after you get up again. It’s by design.</p>

426

<p>Yea, well so far I have UConn (first choice), UGA (not even in consideration now), Georgia Tech (not going) and U of M at college park under my belt. </p>

<p>I wanna get out of GA for sure, my god there is so much in this state which just doesn’t click with me. </p>

<p>Funny thing, UGA = college that rejected me when I applied as a freshman applicant, first one to accept me when I sent in transfer applications.</p>

427

<p>^ Obviously, you’re not suppose to be making multiple threads that are distinct about certain perspectives from the rest of your other posts. This might’ve led you to the ban.</p>

428

<p>^ hahaha seachai. thank goodness i’m not the only one who noticed this.</p>

429

<p>I believe I read most of these and just have to say - WOW! You guys inspire me!</p>

<p>I started out doing well but am probably going to graduate with a 2.8 UW GPA (3.1 W) and going to a state school. I hope to do well and maybe even attend at Ivy one day!</p>

430

<p>I don’t know my HS record, but it was probably about 2.8 or something (UW). I had a 1730 SAT, 1200/1600 on the old system</p>

<p>I had to go to SUNY Stony Brook. For my grades, it was the best I could do. I got rejected from UW Madison (of course). I think about 40 percent of my graduating class went to community college because of their bad grades.</p>

<p>Anyway, so I spent 4 long semesters at Stony Brook. I’m finishing my 4th. I applied to UNC and a host of other schools with my 3.6. Had I not taken hard classes, I don’t think my 3.6 would have cut it honestly, but I was admitted! I’m headed to UNC this fall. I am (as you’d think) deliriously happy.</p>

<p>The lessons I’ve learned throughout the process:</p>

<p>-It’s never too late with a HS transcript - you always have a chance to redeem yourself in college.</p>

<p>-If you’re going to go to a commuter school, be a commuter!</p>

<p>-It matters (a lot) how hard the classes you’re taking are. GPA matters, but it’s just a number. College admissions officers know how to judge how hard you worked somehow.</p>

<p>-Do everything you can and hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst (generic, but true)</p>

<p>-If you want to transfer, it’s tedious and painful (and making the grades is hard) but the end result will be worth it!</p>

431

<p>This thread is best read with the songs “Pokemom: I wanna be the very best” and “Faith of the Heart”</p>

<p>But enough about music. This thread is very inspirational and I hope to make a contribution to this thread in two years. I too, am a person who just didn’t try enough in high school due to a video game addiction that took a toll on my GPA. I will be attending a branch college of a meh-ish uni in Florida and will hope to have a great GPA to transfer in to a good uni in the north-east with merit scholarships/good B-School.</p>

432

<p>Is it really even possible to transfer to the top schools (i.e. Penn, Columbia, Harvard, etc.) if you did average in high school? Or do they actually favor the people that manage to overcome bad high school grades to do extremely well in college?</p>

433

<p>@ Techerdz</p>

<p>Dude, I can totally relate to what you’re going through. I hate it here in NY and totally wanna leave this place.</p>

434

<p>

</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter how bad your high school grades were. If you work hard enough at community colleges to demonstrate how serious you’re committed to school, then the top schools will look at your transfer application very closely.</p>

435

<p>I graduated from high school with a 1.7 GPA and no ECs.</p>

<p>I am currently going to graduate from a community college with a concentration in science (A.S. degree), a 3.1 GPA, and many ECs (including, but not limited too: Editor of school paper, VP of Student Senate, and a host of other officer positions and committees).</p>

<p>I applied to: Suffolk, Tufts, University of Rhode Island, Rutgers, University of Maryland CP, University of the Pacific, and UMass Boston. (yeah, I know, a strange list of schools, but they all have my chosen major and/or other reasons why they were selected).</p>

<p>So far:</p>

<p>Suffolk; accepted. They accepted around 85% of my credits and met my financial need 100%.</p>

<p>University of the Pacific; denied. They said that ‘my GPA in major-related courses was too low’ and suggested that I reapply after I take a few more science courses. That is okay, I was not looking forward to living in Stockton, anyways.</p>

<p>Rutgers; dropped me from the application pool because I did not ‘complete’ my application in time. Funny, since I applied almost five months before the deadline.</p>

<p>Tufts; still waiting to hear. They tell me to expect a decision within the first two weeks of May.</p>

<p>UMass Boston; Nothing yet and don’t expect to hear from them until sometime in July…long after I have made a decision…</p>

<p>URI; First they said they did not have my college transcript. Then they said that they did not have my HS transcript even though they told me it was not required; sent it to them anyways. Now they say they are waiting for my current grades. Expect to hear from them around mid-May if they ever ‘receive’ my final transcript. </p>

<p>UMaryland; Claims that they do not have my college transcript even though I sent it to them three times already.</p>

436

<p>I usually come to this site and see how transfers are doing. When I saw this thread I couldn’t help but to pop my post cherry</p>

<p>In HS I earned a 1.8 GPA with no ECs. I didn’t bother taking the SAT and SOL exams in high school. Recently I took the SAT exam in order to apply to the McIntire business program at UVA. </p>

<p>Currently earning my associate’s degree at NVCC in Business Admin with around 3.7.</p>

<p>So far I have been accepted into GMU, JMU, VT and waiting for W&M and UVA.</p>

437

<p>^Hey, did you take a GAP after HS or you went straight to College?</p>

438

<p>Alright, so I didn’t do as badly as other people here, but it still wasn’t great. I graduated with a 3.8 weighted GPA, thanks to some C+'s, a W/P, and a lot of B’s. It’s worth noting that I went to an extremely competitive high school in Singapore. At my high school that wasn’t nearly good enough for the Ivies or their peers. To get into Cornell or Chicago you needed at least a 4.0, for Duke, MIT, Penn, Dartmouth, or Brown a 4.2, and for CalTech, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford a 4.5 or above (all of those are weighted grades). I was lucky enough to get into Vassar. I also happened to have really good test scores: 2240 SAT and ten 5’s and three 4’s on the AP exams. </p>

<p>At Vassar, I worked extremely hard, didn’t drink or party, and got a 3.92 my first semester and at my second semester midterms. I also got involved with several great clubs like Amnesty International and the Vassar Prison Initiative, which I became treasurer of. Over winter break I worked hard on my essays, and had a good batch by the time I was ready to apply. Most importantly though, I had a great reason to transfer: I really wanted to pursue Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic, which were not offered by Vassar or, in the case of Arabic, terminated after 2 years. I really have to say that I may well have stayed at Vassar if they offered those courses. </p>

<p>Anyway, May came around and I got into the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences. Moral of the story? You can go to a great school if you screw up in High School. You just need to work hard and not screw around in college, write good essays, get good test scores, and have a really solid reason for transferring. In closing: Go Quakers!</p>

439

<p>Well, if it’s worth anything, I was just accepted into NYU’s CAS and had a 1.8 HS senior year GPA. My grades were hovering around a 3.0 until my senior year, when I got into a near-fatal car accident in August and saw my grades plummet. It was a really difficult year for me and I was pretty much down and out after getting my admission to UCLA rescinded.</p>

<p>I was forced to go to a Tier 3 college that I didn’t want to go to. However, I was more motivated than ever because I knew that I was better than the situation I had put myself in, and that I had what it took to perform at the highest of levels. After my freshman year, I now have a 4.0 GPA and, after getting myself involved around campus and working my butt off on my transfer apps, I am lucky enough to say that I’m heading to NYU (assuming I don’t get into the other schools I applied to).</p>

<p>Anyone can do it, guys. It just takes hard work, some natural talent, and a stroke of luck.</p>

440

<p>horrible high school student
S.A.T.‘s
Didnt’ care about school</p>

<p>went to a tier 4 school
4.0</p>

<p>got into UNC CHapel Hill & NYU</p>

<p>anything is possible</p>

<p>but rejected from UPENN</p>

<p>:(</p>