Academic forgiveness/Second chance and top graduate schools

[[Quadratic]]

Hello, to make a long story short I had a couple bad semesters and killed my GPA. My personal life was pretty crazy for about 2 years and my motivation and focus on school suffered greatly. I've taken a couple years off from school to get my mind and personal affairs in order and will be returning this coming Fall or in the Spring of 2012 with a much better state of mind. After much deliberation I decided to apply for the Second Chance program at my university, which completely wipes all credit hours earned/attempted and resets my GPA to zero, and is irreversible. The university obliged my request.

My question is what effect will this have on my chances of getting into a top-tier graduate school? My understanding is that even though my GPA has been reset, my history with the university is still shown on my transcript and may be used for graduate school admissions. I would like to complete a couple semesters at my university and then transfer to a larger school to earn my undergrad degree in physics, as that degree is not available where I was attending.

If I can kick some major butt for the next 4 years and have some of the other qualities a school like MIT or Caltech looks for in it's phD candidates, would I have the same chance any other student would have of being accepted? Or would I be at an even greater disadvantage?

 

[Thermalne]

So are you starting from the beginning of undergraduate degree?

If so, I doubt it will affect your graduate school chances.

 

[[Quadratic]]

Yep, starting completely from scratch. It isn't too much of an inconvenience for me because I only had 30 something hours.

Thanks for your input, I hope you're right.

 

[Simfish]

Hello, to make a long story short I had a couple bad semesters and killed my GPA. My personal life was pretty crazy for about 2 years and my motivation and focus on school suffered greatly. I've taken a couple years off from school to get my mind and personal affairs in order and will be returning this coming Fall or in the Spring of 2012 with a much better state of mind. After much deliberation I decided to apply for the Second Chance program at my university, which completely wipes all credit hours earned/attempted and resets my GPA to zero, and is irreversible. The university obliged my request.

Wow, I'm surprised that such a program exists. If you don't mind, can you say what the name of the university is? (you can PM it). I'm quite curious

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

From what I understand and what I'm always told, people in your situation the solution is always to show an upward trend. And if you apply to a top grad school and you're called for an interview, I guess you can explain it to them in the interview. Also you can try and do a lot of outside/extra-curricular stuff and do well on standardized test.

Good luck in your second chance. We all make mistakes / screw up but those that let it keep them down are the ones who succeed. Good luck

 

[twofish-quant]

Just a note. You should stop thinking in terms of "top graduate schools." Physics graduate school doesn't work according to a ranking, and the more quickly you stop thinking in those terms, the better off you will be.

My question is what effect will this have on my chances of getting into a top-tier graduate school? My understanding is that even though my GPA has been reset, my history with the university is still shown on my transcript and may be used for graduate school admissions.

If you do well, then I can't imagine how it would decrease your chances of getting into physics graduate school versus the situation you were in before.

If I can kick some major butt for the next 4 years and have some of the other qualities a school like MIT or Caltech looks for in it's phD candidates, would I have the same chance any other student would have of being accepted?

Impossible to say as it depends on the the professor that looks at the application.

 

[twofish-quant]

And if you apply to a top grad school and you're called for an interview, I guess you can explain it to them in the interview. Also you can try and do a lot of outside/extra-curricular stuff and do well on standardized test.

1) Most graduate schools don't do interviews
2) outside/extra-curricular stuff is irrelevant in graduate admissions. Tests other than the PGRE are also generally irrelevant.
3) It's important for undergraduates to spend their undergraduate years to figure out what research they like/don't like doing, and to figure out which particular schools are strong in those areas. There are areas of physics that MIT and Caltech are miserable in, and one mistake that undergraduates make is to look for a "big name" without knowing that these are generally useless.

 

[Edin_Dzeko]

1) Most graduate schools don't do interviews
2) outside/extra-curricular stuff is irrelevant in graduate admissions. Tests other than the PGRE are also generally irrelevant.
3) It's important for undergraduates to spend their undergraduate years to figure out what research they like/don't like doing, and to figure out which particular schools are strong in those areas. There are areas of physics that MIT and Caltech are miserable in, and one mistake that undergraduates make is to look for a "big name" without knowing that these are generally useless.

Oh I see. The thing is I'm coming from a pre-medical background and for med schools, research and volunteering counts and can be used in your favor. The MCAT (not sure if you're familiar with it) can help an applicant with a decent GPA. So I was speaking from a medical point of view. I didn't know that things were different in engineering

 

[diligence]

Engineering? Didn't you originally say physics? I'm pretty sure there's a big difference between what engineering grad schools look for and what physics grad schools look for, although I couldn't tell you exactly what it is.

 

[diligence]

oh sorry, just noticed you're not the OP