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How does one get a 4.0 GPA?

How can one get into the college of their dreams with a low high school GPA?

  • My high school GPA is unfortunately very low (~2.3) due to some family issues I had going on 3 of my 4 years in high school. I went to a community college for a semester (but dropped out due to moving) and had a 4.0 GPA. How can I get into one of the colleges I'd love to attend with a GPA like mine?

  • Answer:

    Look up the transfer requirements for the college you'd like to attend. Some have requirements such as you can only transfer after completing a certain number of semesters at another college. You may want to re-enroll at community college to fulfill some more general education requirements and show some strong grades...especially if you've been out of the classroom for awhile. If you do choose to re-enroll, keep your grades up and try to find time for a student activity group that interests you or relates to whatever field you'd like to go into. Another thing I recommend doing is finding one or two other colleges to apply to in the event you get a thin envelope from your top choice. Nothing would be more soul crushing than not having a plan B when you had your heart set on transferring out of community college. In your application essays/personal statements it's extremely important to address how you've improved as a student after dealing with your issues in high school. You may even want to clue your letter of recommendation writers on what happened. Admissions officers want to see some proof beyond the grades on your transcript that you've got your act together.

Sam Coren at Quora Visit the source

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Unless you can have a very unique situation that can be explained in a manner that would excuse your poor grades in high school, your best bet is transferring into your best state school. In California, for example, the University of California system actively encourages you to go to CC first and then try to transfer into a UC if you got rejected in the first go-around. If you do well in CC, there is a good chance you can get into Berkeley or UCLA, which are both first-rate schools. Of course, this is not to discourage you from applying to your dream school, but most Ivies, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, etc. have transfer acceptance rates that are lower than their already abysmally low regular acceptance rates. If your state school isn't too hot, then I suggest gunning for schools like Emory, Vanderbilt, USC, NYU, which aren't quite Ivies but still provide a great education.

Igor Berman

Lower your bar for "colleges I'd love to attend" Recognize that there are some profiles for which, no matter how you spin it, certain colleges aren't going to accept you. Also recognize that having a "successful life," whatever that means to you, isn't dependent on where you go to school. Most of the other advice will help, there's no doubt. But (since this question is in the Stanford topic), just as an example, Stanford took 33 admits last year; having had the privilege to meet some of them briefly, a lot of them seemed to be post-military/international/had a reason for not getting into Stanford undergrad the "normal" way that wasn't "I couldn't get in."

Michael Yu

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