Poll: Am I Screwed?

[SlasherX]

So I'm a junior in High School and right now is that time that I'm starting to send out feelers to colleges and get info and things along those line before I start to actually get serious with it in senior year and send applications.

So recently I was talking to my academic councilor and she said that I might not be able to get into colleges that I want, and I was justifiably like wtf. See I want to become either a history teacher or historian. So I have kept a high GPA in my SS class 4.0 and if I do go into history with a teaching focus I plan on having an English minor and I have a 3.5 GPA in English. Now these are both good GPA's and are what I plan on getting into college on.

But theres apparently a problem. My 3.4 overall GPA isn't good enough apparently because I have solid 3.0 in sciences and a shitty 2.5 in maths. My electives are good enough, straight A's in computer class which would be an alternative to teaching for me.

Now she said that with my GPA I wouldn't be able to get into any decent college and might have to go to some shitty college or a community college and I wondering if I'm screwed or shes just dumb since I have a good GPA in things I'm interested in and teaching isn't the hardest thing to get into college with.


Edit: I got about a 2000 give a few point I was a little bit below 2100 on the SAT, we don't do the ACT here. It was a 800 (perfect score) on Critical Reading, 700 give or take on Writing and a 500 give or take on math, and I'm involved in te Literary magazine and school and am in a few clubs, do morning news and take AP courses in English Social Studies and Computer Classes and take Honors in everything else, I have a 4.1 weighted GPA and to that guy that keeps saying I'm not serious in school and I'm that I won't succeed in the career I plan on choosing for my life since I don't do well at math, fuck off back to /b/ you troll asshat.

 

[PROcrastinator]

That is actually a really high GPA. You should be able to enter a good college with that. The colleges around my area usually look for something more than 2.5 overall. So id say your good

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

Depends on things like AP Classes, SAT Scores, Extra Curriculars, Volunteer Work, etc.

3.4 isn't ideal but you should be able to make it work. Try and get it up to around 3.7 by the time you apply next year and you shouldn't have any trouble.

 

[DEAD34345]

Where's the poll?

Also, I'm sure you'll be OK if you're going into a field connected to the things you have a high GPA in. You're likely right about teaching, they are usually desperate to get more people teaching and would likely snatch you up, especially if you went to a dedicated teaching college of some kind. I wouldn't worry too much... sure, try to improve your GPA if possible (Not sure how that system works), but I think you will be able to get into a decent college as long as you do well in right things.

 

[PureChaos]

being from the UK, all the GPA numbers and stuff confuses me. don't have any of that over here. either way, it's always worth trying for. if you can get the maths up, awesome

 

[SilentCom]

I think you should be fine getting into a college unless you're trying to get into an Ivy League college.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Personally, I'd recommend community college for the first two years for just about everyone. It's much cheaper and easier to get into, and transferring to universities becomes vastly easier. They pay little attention to what you did in high school.

Plus, in my experience, the people in community colleges are much more fun to hang out with. They're usually older people who are there because they want to be, not because they figured they were just supposed to go to college. Much more maturity; fewer obnoxious party-goers and pretentious douchebags.

And the teachers/professors are pretty much the same both places, though the ones at community colleges seem to be more interested in helping while the ones at universities seem to care more about rising to the top of their field. (In general. Obviously there are exceptions.)

You'd be taking the same classes regardless, since you need to get your GEs out of the way.

I'd still apply to your chosen universities, though. No need to burn any bridges.

 

[DamnedChoir]

I got a 2.8 in High-School, and I went to community college. I got a 3.9-ish in College and did a ton of extracurriculars, and I transferred to UCLA and got accepted into two honors societies and am now looking at PhD programs.

Don't listen to your counselor, High-School means nothing.

 

[AgentDarkmoon]

A lot hinges on your ACT and SAT scores for getting into a serious college straight out of high school in America. And if that's the path you choose then you will want to improve that math and science, since if you really are doing good in everything else then they seem to be bringing you down a lot unnecessarily. In my experience, both colleges and employers tend to look at your overall GPA rather than class-specific, and at the other things you do with your time.

Good luck, and don't let your counselor get you down too much. The worst that can happen is you apply and get a rejection letter.

 

[Kaytastrophe]

We don't really use the 4.0 GPA scale in Canada. However, based on my experiences of applying for college (and subsequently grad school) is that they will overlook marks to a degree if it looks like you were involved a lot at school (student government, sports, clubs, music etc.) So I don't know what your application process is but if you can be sure to highlight every little extra curricular thing you did. If they see that you help foster a community spirit and such they will want you to their school. Good luck.

 

[voetballeeuw]

3.4 is probably fine as long as you don't go into the higher tier colleges. Did you do any AP classes? How's your SAT score?

 

[Exterminas]

Sorry but if you suck at school you should not be a teacher.
We don't let people who crash their cars design the new modells.

Mod Edit: Flaming/Trolling

Huh.
Since the mods think I was trolling I propably should illustrated that point some more.

Becoming a teacher is hard. It is a full study that requirres you to learn a lot of stuff you will consider to be pointless, useless and annyoing. No matter what speciality you pick, the University/College will find something about it that will suck. But you will to have pull though it and you will have to be great at it to suceed.

On a side note: Teachers are propably the most underestimated profession that requirres studying at a higher school.

So after College you are a teacher. Being a teacher is hard. Because you will have to deal with a lot of stuff you will not want to deal with. Annyong partens/students/government decisions. In fact, what makes a great teacher a great teacher is not how he handles the stuff he choose to encounter, but how he handles the stuff he didn't volunteer for.

Now then. I claim that the TE "sucks" at school, because he tells me that he has straight As in the subjects that he picked and barely adequate marks in the other stuff. But exactly that other stuff is where your discipline and your resolve are measured. Both are key elements to being a teacher and a succesfull student in general.

Everyone out there is great at something. Everyone has an A somewhere. But not everybody gets to pick his College. Why? Because being good at something you like isn't what sets you appart in today's world. Being good at something you hate does.

You can thing of these facts whatever you want, but they certainly aren't trolling.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Don't listen to your counselor, High-School means nothing.

Ditto. I think most people go into community college (if they seek to gain a greater degree of education) before entering University and those that don't just end up in therapy from overwork or reaction from. :O

 

[letfireraindown]

I had worse grades when I was in Highschool. I ended up going to a Tech college, entering a transfer program, got above the gpa that the program required and transfered into one of the better schools in my state. It's definitely a different path, but it worked with what I did between high school and college.

If you got the money for school or the situations for tuition aid that works. I didn't, so there was time between those two for me.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Ugh I really dont get the gpa system the states has.

My cousins tried to explain it to me before and I was just like o.o

OT: If your councilor is anything like the one we had in my school its proably safe to say she can be ignored. Her advice to me when I said I was thinking of joining the gards(police) 'it's very dangerous'......

 

[Susan Arendt]

So I'm a junior in High School and right now is that time that I'm starting to send out feelers to colleges and get info and things along those line before I start to actually get serious with it in senior year and send applications.

So recently I was talking to my academic councilor and she said that I might not be able to get into colleges that I want, and I was justifiably like wtf. See I want to become either a history teacher or historian. So I have kept a high GPA in my SS class 4.0 and if I do go into history with a teaching focus I plan on having an English minor and I have a 3.5 GPA in English. Now these are both good GPA's and are what I plan on getting into college on.

But theres apparently a problem. My 3.4 overall GPA isn't good enough apparently because I have solid 3.0 in sciences and a shitty 2.5 in maths. My electives are good enough, straight A's in computer class which would be an alternative to teaching for me.

Now she said that with my GPA I wouldn't be able to get into any decent college and might have to go to some shitty college or a community college and I wondering if I'm screwed or shes just dumb since I have a good GPA in things I'm interested in and teaching isn't the hardest thing to get into college with.

GPA in individual classes isn't as important as overall GPA when it comes to applying to college. Of course, there are many factors that colleges look at - GPA, SATs, your entrance essay(s), personal interviews, and the makeup of the student body. I easily met the requirements of one local college, but got turned down because I was local. That particular school wanted to foster a more cosmopolitan image, and having a bunch of students from down the street didn't help that.

If your 3.4 is your GPA across all your subjects, and you do well on your SATs, unless you're looking at Ivy League schools, you should be just fine.