Best response for low GPA

just briefly outline ur problems above. Then explained that you dont have much time therefore you put more effort on the course you really interested in such like...(pick up the corses you do well).Demonstrate to them you have great potential.

sounds like you have a good response right there

phrase it such that it comes out along the lines of "I had some personal issues to deal with which are resolved now but were also a time crunch." While not using it as an excuse, it is a fairly plausible explanation. Then simply state you overstretched yourself trying to do too much at the same time.

This is a great answer to the standard "what's your biggest failing/weakness" question by the way, always good to turn a weakness into a learning experience.

Does your university allow you to retake courses? I had a buddy who wanted BB and couldn't get it anywhere but MM so he did an extra semester and retook his worst classes to boost his gpa.

nope my university doesn't allow you to retake the course. you're only allowed to retake your courses only if you've failed a course and need a specific course for your degree.

the thing is, I finish my last year of studies on exchange and I really don't intend on going back to my school. there's really not much point. even if i intend on boosting my gpa, bird courses have nothing related to my major and with the way how marking goes, you could do really well and still get an average mark at my school.

thanks guys! I would like more opinions!

How low are we talking here? And what university curves to a C?

You'd be surprised. But then obviously, many people here are spoilt by the grade inflations at ivies.

Not completely true Brisbane. Military academies and places like Berkeley engineering are full of kids that could have gotten into an Ivy, but their avg GPA is a fair bit lower than 3.0. Dunno about as low as a 2, though.

I don't want to make this into an argument because different schools have different policies on their grading and policies. At my school, they set their avg to a C then that's the way it is. In my major, 50% of the people are weeded out by the start of soph yr. And yes by in large I agree with your statement that ivies are filled with smart students. But you also forget, other schools with similar reputation are also filled with smart students. The difference is that ivies have laxer policies on the grades. At my school, there are plenty of smart people and some of them I know will definitely have gotten into an ivy if they had applied to and circumstances allowed them to. And yet, many people face the same fate because of school policies. I am not making this up, if you look at my transcript, they put the course avg on, 90% of the course avgs are at C and sometimes even C-. I've spent a semester at an Ivy too and I know that course averages are set much more liberal and professors aren't forced into curving the class, even at Chicago.

So there's no point debating about this since it's not something that is controllable by us. Lots of students at our school are frustrated about this as well. The school has superb reputation internationally, students who enter the school are from top 10% of their class in HS, yet no body outside the school knows about the strict marking policies.

My roommate sophomore year undergraduate was from my hometown. He was our valedictorian, very high SATs, perfect math...real quant guy. He had to leave his ivy-league school (money thing) and come to state school. He had a 3.9 at Princeton, our school doesn’t allow your GPA to transfer when you come in and he graduated with a 3.2 (BARLEY). His first semester was a 1.9…real wake up call for him.

I’m not saying that ivys are easier, grade inflation, blah blah. I will say big schools don’t give a shit about you, don’t care if you fail and need a certain percentage to do so. (Check out the graduation rate on a small private or ivy vs public school). I’m sure other factors come in, but there’s an awful big discrepancy.

Moral of the story = go to a small school, take business classes cause they’re way easier than any other major.

Don’t ever bitch or whine about grade inflation or your school being hard to anyone…ever…just step up and deal with it. You made the choice to go there, and you’re accepted to excel regardless of weathers its easy or hard. If any interviewer or prospective employer starts hearing bogus excuses this early in the employment stage he’s going to be running for the hills.

Yea markets, I totally agree with what you just said.

my school certainly did not inflate grades I am aware that some universities do use grade inflation... People i knew tended to have a 3.0-3.3 or a 3.7+.... Know many many people that had around a 2.75. I would say average gpa from my school was around 2.8. I personally am in favor of using % grades opposed to the 4 point scale. So many times my 89.X or 79.X robbed me.

I think if you believe you have performed well but your school curves grades down you should find out what percentile you are in for your class and mention that if it better represents how well youve done. markets405- was this a while ago? doesnt princeton have grade deflation?

Princeton does have grade deflation...

my brother goes to cooper union[very tough engineering school] and holy shit more than half of the class has less than 2.5 gpa. i mean the classes are so hard the average is like a c/c-. so i definitely agree with what pooface is saying. but how do you explain that to recruiters/employers? i am sure just saying my school is really tough wont cut it but can you use some statistics to answer why my gpa is low?

Grade inflation definitely exists.

I went to a top UC (think UC Berkeley and UCLA), and transferred to a top Ivy (think Harvard, Princeton, Yale) after two years.

I probably studied twice as hard at the UC, and after two years I left with a mid-3 GPA. While studying at the Ivy, I was heavily inebriated for probably 4 days out of the week. I studied a lot less than I did at the UC (I remember going clubbing during finals week), and I left the Ivy with a 3.9+ GPA.

Grade inflation is unfortunate, but I try to keep my own experience in mind when screening candidates.

If your grade is deflated that much at your school, I'd put class rank instead of GPA on the Application. If they don't give you that, bad choice of school in the first place, since most people just look at the GPA with little regard for inflation/deflation.

aye markets, big schools don't give a fuck about their students, because they make up with numbers, what they lack in personal attention.

I never really found the importance of personal attention.,..

Yea I was too naive when I first applied. Thought that since I was a top student in HS I could've beat the trend and obviously had a downward spiral from then on where I couldn't transfer to a school where I wanted to go.

But anyhow, can someone give me some more suggestions on how to tackle this problem?