College

They say the Junior year is the most important year of high school for getting into college. I have tried hard to keep my GPA up and before this school year, I had a 3.59 Cumulative. This past summer something life changing and kind of traumatic happened. It began to consume my life at school and at home causing me not to do very well. My GPA fell to a 3.1 and I am terrified about applying to colleges now. I am afraid they are going to look at my GPA and think I am a slacker. I am not a good test taker so my SAT scores are low, I am afraid they are going to think I am dumb. I am now afraid that I wont be able to get into college unless I choose to go to a not so good school or a community college. I wouldnt have a problem with community college except I was looking forward to living in dorms and getting away from this place.

[Flyers2011]

They don't look at JUST your GPA and SAT scores. I have a friend that got a great scholarship to a prestigious private school and she had low ACT scores and an 'average' GPA.

They look at community service, extra curricular activities, etc. Plus, they look at your senior year schedule to see if you're just taking 'cake' classes (easy classes) or if you're challenging yourself. Like for example, if you get an A+ in Slacking 101 they won't be impressed. Yeah, it'll be an A+ and a boost to your GPA, but it won't have as big an impact as per se, Calculus 3 AP. Even if you pull a C in that class they're gonna say, "Holy f**k, she took Calc 3 in high school. Amazing."

It's all about what you take. A 3.1 is not a BAD gpa. You can bring it up senior year, they will look at it, usually they don't take it into account if it stays the same, but if it goes way up (or way down) you'll be okay.

Next. Try the Horatio Alger Scholarship Association. My friend applied and won it. Basically the scholarship is awarded to kids applying to college that have overcome some kind of adversity (death of a parent, LGBT status, homelessness, etc). It's worth a try.

I don't know about your financial situation, but if no matter what it is, fill out a FAFSA. I repeat FILL OUT A FAFSA. That is the single most important thing you can do. Even if you don't think you will win a grant, it won't hurt to try.

Next, search for scholarships online. There are scholarships for EVERYTHING. I know a good website, but I'm not allowed to post it. Try searching 'ways to search for scholarships online' and see if you find a good website that's like a search engine that will allow you to fill out some information (age, sex, adversity if any, etc) and they will match you to the most appropriate scholarships.

Finally, talk to your high school guidance counselor. They can help you extremely, if they know what they're doing. If not, call some schools you are interested in and talk to admissions. They can give you a lot of information as to what they're looking for and the best way to win scholarships.

[Mogget]

A good letter of recommendation will help you far more than a few tenths of a GPA point.

[steel03]

Dude you're going to get into college. Relax. Every year, millions of supremely stupid people get into college.
Instead of worrying about actually getting in, do as much work as you possibly can NOW. That means searching and applying for scholarships, asking for letters of recommendation, and looking over commonapp.org before the 2011-12 application goes up to see what you'll be doing. And start working on that as soon as it's available (if you aren't aware, the common app is a waaaaaaaaaaaay easier alternative to filling out lots of school-specific applications, and it is to your advantage to use it). If you can be pretty much applied by the end of September, your life will be so much easier, because the paperwork doesn't end after you've chosen a school. You can expect to be filling out forms all through your senior year.
And keep in mind that all of ^this advice^ isn't to help you get into schools. If you have a 3.1 GPA, that's going to happen by itself. It's to save you unnecessary stress a few months down the road.

Other important thing: the thing about college is that it's the weirdest thing ever. There is nothing in your life so far that comes close to college. It's sort of like summer camp for a week or so at the beginning of the year. That's the closest thing. And everyone is going through that, not just you. You're bound to make friends wherever you go. And if you (a) have friends and (b) put in effort, you can get a good education pretty much anywhere. If you don't feel like you fit, transfer. Lots of people do it. You have all kinds of options. Don't feel like your high school transcript is going to define your life.

[vncc14]

Originally Posted by lulu165

They say the Junior year is the most important year of high school for getting into college. I have tried hard to keep my GPA up and before this school year, I had a 3.59 Cumulative. This past summer something life changing and kind of traumatic happened. It began to consume my life at school and at home causing me not to do very well. My GPA fell to a 3.1 and I am terrified about applying to colleges now. I am afraid they are going to look at my GPA and think I am a slacker. I am not a good test taker so my SAT scores are low, I am afraid they are going to think I am dumb. I am now afraid that I wont be able to get into college unless I choose to go to a not so good school or a community college. I wouldnt have a problem with community college except I was looking forward to living in dorms and getting away from this place.

You can also explain your circumstance somewhere in the application (college applications sometimes have some space where you can include details that you couldn't include elsewhere in the application, or you can write a letter...). It is important to let them know that your GPA dropped because of some external factor. Good luck!

[thedreamwatch]

3.1? RELAX. You will be just fine. I got into a private, very selective catholic university with a 3.3 cumulative. You are going to be okay. 1. You have all of senior year to bump your GPA up, if it's that important to you. 2. If you're still really worried about it, check out the websites of the colleges you might like to go to, oftentimes they show stats of the current freshman class (what they got on the ACT/SAT and what their GPA was in high school) or some colleges have "requirements" pages to show you what you'll need to get in. Though, honestly, if you're looking at state schools, you'll likely be just fine where you are now.