Life Retargeting

Having read Will's post, I wanted to change how I answered so I don't sound so polar opposite. I agree with Will, and with your own judgment, that your GPA could be much higher. However, since you already know that and have stated as much that you're actively working on it, I don't think there's much advice to give about that. Before completely dumping (or trying to) your extracurricular load, I'd make a list of what's useful towards your graduate school application and what's not. There's no point in dropping everything, raising your GPA, then taking a break to start on all the stuff you dropped, then going to graduate school-- that's just wasting time.

Even if I'm going to be spending four year at law school (JD + LLM), I'm personally looking to do that as fast as I can, like Will is with his double major. That's why I skipped my senior year of HS and just went straight to college. Ultimately, I think the best thing would be for you to go straight to grad school (based on my law school and psychology graduate school experience), but the best way to know for sure would just be to email somebody in the admissions office of a school you're interested in. I've found that most of the time they're really nice about answering things like that.

As far as applying though, I really don't think you'd be wasting your time/money. I think it'd be important to have a back-up school, but if you've ever looked at a graduate school application, grades are far from the only qualifying factor. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it'll hurt you in the long run to completely drop your extracurricular activities. Right now you have low grades, and a lot of extra work. Even if you dump your extra stuff now, you've made it sound like that's just going to end up with you having medium grades and no work.

So what I'd do, for what it's worth, is I would sit down and make a list. Figure out where you have demographics going for you. For instance, I'm white, but I'm also gay. That's a point for me there. Factor in whatever your work resume is right now. I have three years under my belt personally. And then your extracurricular activities. I'm not in many clubs because I have to commute to school, but I basically share responsibility with my mom for my two younger siblings thanks to an absentee dad. I think you'll feel a lot better once you have that all out on paper. c:

Well Dan, after reading through what your situation is (and remembering your occasional life posts in "How was your day?" thread), this is what I have to say.

First off, I think you put way too much on your plate. I mean, you're about to be a 3rd year (junior) student (correct me if I'm wrong), and if you continue to do this, your grades will indeed tank.

Now to answer your question

Ultimately Southperry, my questions to you are as follows: while I'm not sure 100% what I want to do immediately upon graduation, having both options available of grad school and the work force are more appealing than just working. That being said, would it be a waste of time and money to apply with the grades I'd have then? Should I work for a year or two so when I apply my improved senior year grades factor in, along with a heftier resume thanks to working? Can I even get in to top tier grad programs at this point (Columbia is the dream, with NYU right behind and Northwestern behind that), or would waiting be better? Am I freaking out for nothing, and I do still stand a chance? Or is there something I haven't even thought through or considered?

To be honest with you, I did have a talk with my PolySci advisor recently about whether it was best to head straight to grad school or take a few years off, work, have fun, get life experience, etc, then apply to grad school few years later down the line. (In context, I'm going to be a junior next semester, on track to graduate in 3 years with double major in history and political science, and basically have to start prepping for life's shi'ity challenges earlier than my peers in my year). I would say that if you have to, take a few years off once you graduate! Being burnt out - especially in grad school - will NOT get you anywhere. But having fun, work, get life experience, etc (taking a few years off) might be a great alternative, and I would encourage you to look at that option. (And heck, it might benefit your grad school application, especially if your academics is decent/not the best out there) After I had that serious talk with my great PolySci advisor, I did think about it, and that's one of the options I will seriously consider when the time comes around.

Also, you need to bump up those grades. As I said earlier about "putting too much on your plate", while work experience and extracurricular are great and stuff, you're a student first and those grades will be incredibly important, especially when grad school admission officers are looking at your application. If you must, cut back on your extracurriculars/work just enough so you can focus on your studies but still commit to the remaining extracirriculars/work that you have. You still want to be a well-rounded individual who still keeps his/her academics in constant check. I'm not a grad school advisor or anything of that sorts, but at where you're heading right now, I can say that you're going to have that "despairing college rejection moment during senior year of high school" once more (and you very well know what I mean).

But on a positive side, you have time to make up all of this and still be able to come out strong in the very end. In addition, another big positive to this is that you thought for a moment what's going on in your life, and how great (or horrible) its going at current pace. You didn't wait until it's too late to confront yourself with those life questions. (especially the dreaded "I graduated; now what?/what should I do with my life?")

tl;dr - You still have a fighting chance. You're not done for just yet. Its just you need to rethink what your priorities are and focus on the things that really matter in the end. And hit them hard during your upperclassmen years in college.

Good luck Dan, I know you can do this. You've gone a long way ever since I met you, and I have faith you can pull through this difficult moment in your college career, just like any other difficult moments you've had in the past. Stay strong.

It's cool bro. I'm in the same situation as you are. Same GPA range. You do have one advantage over me: you at least have a major. I still have to declare AND take pre-reqs. I'm going to have to take summer courses and probably an extra semester. Grad school is an option for me, but I still don't know what I could do. And to add to the woes, I would need to do an internship THIS summer, but since my GPA is so low and I don't have any real experience with anything in my major, I am not likely at all to be chosen, let alone looked at. I do have a part-time job from an internship i did last summer, but that is not at all related to my field, but at least I have the experience to find a job similar (or fall back to when I'm out of college).

I know what my problem is really: I fail miserably at tests. I've never been able to take high scale testing without a serious crash course and intense focusing on one subject. The thing about college though is that you can't do that because you have all these other classes to do the same with. I don't know about you or anyone else, I can't personally cram that much information for that many classes in the course of a week. In all my lab classes I can easily get A's or high B's. It sucks that you need to take the tests in order to get into the labs because you need to show that you know the material >.> College is one of the worst places for me only because I'm really good at field work and need these types of classes to actually boost my grade. I know a lot of the material, I just get too psyched out when it comes to the actual tests and I screw up every time. I've never gotten an A on any midterm or final. I only get a's on papers or lab assignments, which are quite minor in comparison to the tests.

In all honesty, I think we're both in a decent situation- we have enough time to at least bump our GPAs into the 3.0 range and we also have a good few extra curriculars to help bolster our resumes and applications. I think talking with an advisor for things like "what are my options after I graduate and I don't have a godly GPA?" "What can I do with this degree?" is really important at this point. And taking a year off or at least 1 semester off may put you in a better mind set- one semester of just working a small job to clear your mind would not be a bad thing; just make sure you have a general idea what you want to do after your break. Mostly people want to get a job ASAP because the material is still fresh in heir minds and they can know how to apply it. Whereas someone with a year off would have semi-outdated knowledge depending on your major (e.g. engineering or chemistry, stuff that changes every few months). Good Luck to you and me both dude. We'll need a hell of a lot of it, but we;ll get through it all.

In addition to some great points from Willis (thanks for one of the best comments you've ever given me), this is, in short, the region of answer I was looking for:

As far as applying though, I really don't think you'd be wasting your time/money. I think it'd be important to have a back-up school, but if you've ever looked at a graduate school application, grades are far from the only qualifying factor. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it'll hurt you in the long run to completely drop your extracurricular activities. Right now you have low grades, and a lot of extra work. Even if you dump your extra stuff now, you've made it sound like that's just going to end up with you having medium grades and no work.

I should clarify: I've made important changes to my life, but ones that aren't radical. Quick specifics: this semester I worked 14-20 hours a week in luxury retail (which, as I've recently been happy to discover, is more important for my future career as a fashion journalist than I'd thought), worked as the Media Chair for the College Democrats of Madison, and wrote as the Men's Style Consultant staff member for MODA Magazine, a fashion/lifestyle magazine that a group of students and myself are starting and building on campus and beyond. In addition I had a funky academic schedule that wasn't really conducive to fitting in all of these responsibilities.

Changes: resigned from my position on College Dems, but will still be an "active" member, though with time commitments obviously in line with what I can give, no longer forced to give. Changed jobs from 14-20 hours a week retail to 12 hours a week on campus, exceedingly flexible biology lab work. And created a great academic schedule for me with no Friday classes.

Long story short is I've perfectly cut out the excess in my life and focused it all on, like you said, the elements essential for my future aspirations. And I have bigger plans beyond the aforementioned, ones that will fit well in my schedule without sacrificing any time/effort needed in bolstering my GPA, which is, of course, the biggest issue of the moment. To give a little more information, that includes doing more creative writing in my free time to build my portfolio and submit for publication, and do a fashion journalism internship in NYC this summer.

So with all that stated more specifically, would I still make for an appealing candidate? I'd gather that the answer is yes, considering it was beforehand, but I'm curious as to your more specific commentary on this matter with this new information.

And if it helps, quick demographics: also white and 25% puerto rican (though that counts for pomegranate being less than 50%), also gay (and have an extensive history of extracurricular involvement and work in the LGBT community on campus and in the Midwest), both parents have Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

Again, I want to qualify what I say by reminding you that my only graduate experience is in Psychology and Law, thus you might want to run this by a guidance counselor. However! Your record sounds stellar. I think you're worrying more than you should (I can relate). I couldn't think of any way to improve on what you've got now other than to encourage you to not take that post-BA, pre-grad break that some have encouraged. Again, I don't know that this applies to journalism, but to the psychology and law-related admissions people I've talked to, the consensus seems to be that even if you're productive with that break, it's assumed you completely forgot everything about school, ever.

However, you have stellar extra-curricular activities, you're on your way back to decent grades, and for the sake of demographics you're a gay Puerto Rican, which is basically striking demographics gold. Furthermore, for icing on the cake, I'm sure you could utilize some creative writing talent and use this "dark time in your life" to whip up an inspirational essay about staying true to yourself or something existential like that. In all, I'd say that the people at Columbia should watch out-- you're gonna be storming their campus in no time.

I'm probably going to get heavily flamed for this, but your GPA won't mean too much once you're in the work-field. Honestly, just do what you can, and you'll find out where you stand once you graduate. What "I" am personally doing right now is just worry about what I have in the present, and then move on by working. If I don't like where I am at in my life, then I'll go ahead and keep on learning in school. However, I find it reckless to just go straight ahead and learn as a graduate. You might find out that you're getting ahead of yourself. Just see if the workload is enough for you to earn a living, and if you think it isn't enough, go forward. Don't waste money to get those two additional years unless you really need it, is what I'm trying to say.

Then again, I'm really pessimistic, and hate people that are all "Yeah, go as high as you can in college". That's a whole load of bullsh`it and they know it. You should only go higher if you're looking for more opportunities and advances. That's why I'm kinda iffy about going for a Master's since I'm majoring in Information Systems. It's not worth it, because those two additional years just screams "Oh hey, I wasted two more additional years with loans up my anus and I can't ever pay it off if I can't find a job".

It's your social experience, and your knowledge that you retained and/or gained from classes that will get you a job. Not your degree. I know one guy that's making 6-digits right now, and he doesn't even have a degree. He's a programmer, and he never went to college. But anyways, I'm getting off-track with this, so I'll stop.

I should clarify: I've made important changes to my life, but ones that aren't radical. Quick specifics: this semester I worked 14-20 hours a week in luxury retail (which, as I've recently been happy to discover, is more important for my future career as a fashion journalist than I'd thought), worked as the Media Chair for the College Democrats of Madison, and wrote as the Men's Style Consultant staff member for MODA Magazine, a fashion/lifestyle magazine that a group of students and myself are starting and building on campus and beyond. In addition I had a funky academic schedule that wasn't really conducive to fitting in all of these responsibilities.

Changes: resigned from my position on College Dems, but will still be an "active" member, though with time commitments obviously in line with what I can give, no longer forced to give. Changed jobs from 14-20 hours a week retail to 12 hours a week on campus, exceedingly flexible biology lab work. And created a great academic schedule for me with no Friday classes.

Long story short is I've perfectly cut out the excess in my life and focused it all on, like you said, the elements essential for my future aspirations. And I have bigger plans beyond the aforementioned, ones that will fit well in my schedule without sacrificing any time/effort needed in bolstering my GPA, which is, of course, the biggest issue of the moment. To give a little more information, that includes doing more creative writing in my free time to build my portfolio and submit for publication, and do a fashion journalism internship in NYC this summer.

So with all that stated more specifically, would I still make for an appealing candidate? I'd gather that the answer is yes, considering it was beforehand, but I'm curious as to your more specific commentary on this matter with this new information.

And if it helps, quick demographics: also white and 25% puerto rican (though that counts for pomegranate being less than 50%), also gay (and have an extensive history of extracurricular involvement and work in the LGBT community on campus and in the Midwest), both parents have Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

While I'd like more information (but that crosses the line for incredibly obvious reasons), here's what I have to say based on what you have provided:

You indeed have a nice variety of extracurricular, as well as work experience. You helped start up a fashion magazine at UW-Madison. Be Media Chair of UW-Madison UDems. Salesperson in a luxury retail store. Combined on-hands extracirriculars and work experience made me see why you chose the fashion journalism path.

But of course, I noted (and somewhat remembered some months back) that you had a crazy-ass academic schedule for this semester alone. With that in mind...

At the current path you're going, you're doing quite well. Potentially your profile could be stellar. Now its dem grades you have to worry about now. Right now you know that your current GPA will turn off grad admin officers. But if you bring that GPA up to something along decent, you'll be a bit better off. Given that you said that next semester everything's going to be a bit less hectic academically, see if that works out. If so, try to maintain the academic workload equivalent to what you're doing right now (next semester) for future semesters. Also, do keep what you're currently doing with extracirriculars and work(and they are indeed wonderful and such, I won't deny that, and could really help you get to bigger things in life in the future), but be mindful of how finite your time is.

tl;dr - you're doing great things right now, and that will indeed help you get in the right direction in the future. Just need to fix a few broken links and you'll be alright.

If I misinterpreted anything Dan, please let me know.

(And for the record, I did not emphasize academics over extracirriculars; I simply emphasized balance. Just something I want to clarify)

Dude. You've got a whole bunch of awesome stuff to back up your average GPA. I think you're golden for a career in what you want to do. I think you're worrying too much now xD

Yeah you can boost the GPA a bit, but who doesn't need to? Keep doing what you're doing!

I'm probably going to get heavily flamed for this, but your GPA won't mean too much once you're in the work-field. Honestly, just do what you can, and you'll find out where you stand once you graduate. What "I" am personally doing right now is just worry about what I have in the present, and then move on by working. If I don't like where I am at in my life, then I'll go ahead and keep on learning in school. However, I find it reckless to just go straight ahead and learn as a graduate. You might find out that you're getting ahead of yourself. Just see if the workload is enough for you to earn a living, and if you think it isn't enough, go forward. Don't waste money to get those two additional years unless you really need it, is what I'm trying to say.

Then again, I'm really pessimistic, and hate people that are all "Yeah, go as high as you can in college". That's a whole load of bullsh`it and they know it. You should only go higher if you're looking for more opportunities and advances. That's why I'm kinda iffy about going for a Master's since I'm majoring in Information Systems. It's not worth it, because those two additional years just screams "Oh hey, I wasted two more additional years with loans up my anus and I can't ever pay it off if I can't find a job".

It's your social experience, and your knowledge that you retained and/or gained from classes that will get you a job. Not your degree. I know one guy that's making 6-digits right now, and he doesn't even have a degree. He's a programmer, and he never went to college. But anyways, I'm getting off-track with this, so I'll stop.

Kind of sounds like valid advice to me; I don't know why anybody would flame you. The only reason I didn't bring this up myself is because I assumed that the OP had already made the decision that graduate school was something that would benefit him. Just to reverberate what everybody else is saying though, I think the OP is golden as far as his chances of getting into graduate school go.