Is grad school a possibility for me?

[joeG215]

My first two years of attending the university i basically flunked out. I was in a bad personal situation that just messed me up. I shouldn't have been going to school at all. But, I did. I had may be a .75 gpa or something. Needless to say, I was academically dismissed from the school.

After that I made some major changes in my life and started going to community college. Two years later (today) I got my AA with a 3.8 gpa. I applied for readmission through a salvage program where they reset your gpa to 0.00 but you retain the courses that were taken at CC.

So currently I have a "0.00 gpa" and two years left for my degree (Biology w/ minor in Psych). I realize that it the first couple of years are always going to be on my record. My question is if anyone has had some type of experience in this situation? Do you believe if I continue to receive A's in the majority of my classes, they might "forgive" those first two years and have a chance at a decent grad program? I plan to speak to an advisor on Monday about this, but I just thought I'll throw this question out here, see what you guys think.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pengwuino]

By "resetting to 0.00", does that mean you have 0 units with 0 gpa points? Or well, I guess what I'm trying to say is if you get straight A's until you get your BS, would you have a 4.0 or a roughly 2.00?

 

[joeG215]

By "resetting to 0.00", does that mean you have 0 units with 0 gpa points? Or well, I guess what I'm trying to say is if you get straight A's until you get your BS, would you have a 4.0 or a roughly 2.00?

Sorry i was somewhat unclear about that.

I would have 60 credits with a 0.00. Straight A's from now till BS would give me a 4.0, but I have that big stain on my record. That's what I'm worried about.

 

[Feldoh]

It seems to be that if you failed out but then re-did essentially everything with a 4.0 overall I'm sure you'd be considered. Just remember that GPA isn't everything.

 

[hitmeoff]

Remember that different schools calculate GPA in different ways. Even if your school says they will reset your GPA to zero, I seriously doubt they will "erase" the record of what you did before and those grades will still be on your transcripts.

When I applied to Pharmacy school, once school (USC) calculated my GPA based on everything I took, EVERYTHING. Meaning that even though I retook some classes to raise my GPA they calculated my GPA counting using both my original class grade and the grade I got when I retook the class. Another school (WesternU) only counted the highest grade earned in a class towards my GPA.

Every school has its own policy for how they will calculate your GPA based on what youve taken in your entire academic career. However, I do believe that in 90% of the cases, your upper division coursework is the most important in terms of judging your academic ability.

I am not in grad school, but am in a similar position as you. I went into UCLA as a freshman and was dismissed within a year because I was a bad student. I eventually was readmitted and ALMOST completed my BA in Sociology and Psychology and even then my grades weren't great (I still wasnt mature enough).

After leaving school for another three years, I went back to scratch and began working towards filling out the requirements for getting into Pharm School and along the way fell in love with math and physics all over again. After two years at my community college, getting great grades in every class (GEs, Bio, Chem, Math and Physics), I am now attending UCI doing a physics and math double major and intend to great in my major. I am 30 years old now, married and 100x more mature than I was and serious about my work.

I would like to think that a grad school will not only look at my achievements in the relevant coursework (my upper division math and physics courses) and also my maturity level and understand why I did as poorly as I did my first go round at a university.

Ive talked to several current grad students, recent grads and professors and they all seem to think that I should have nothing to worry about so long as I continue to do well in my major courses.

 

[joeG215]

I know that all my grades are going to stay in my records but I'm hoping that they look at the academic maturity as you say. That along with some research experience and I should have a fighting chance.