I'm trying to get into college, any college really. My GPA is really bad though, like ridiculous. It's my senior year and I'm gonna take my SATs soon. Do you think theres any way to get into a college? Good essays, recommendation letters..?

That depends severely on your personal situation. If you (a) are disadvantaged for socioeconomic or health reasons, (b) have low grades because you have an extraordinarily high IQ and rejected normal schooling in order to properly educate yourself, or (c) are really good with people, then a really high SAT/ACT might get you into a good school.
However, in addition to good test scores, you will need to talk to the dean and make one hell of an impression.

If you can't meet the criteria above, don't freak out. Go to a community college as suggested, get a good score on your SAT/ACT, and after at least two years you will be able to get in to a decent university no problem.

The best thing for you to do is to go to a junior college first. spend two years there, get a great GPA, save yourself thousands of dollars, most of these JC's have transfer agreements with state colleges. Get on one of those and transfer. In my area students who spend the first two years in a JC, do better in their junior and senior year than their counterparts who started at that 4 year college. Hope that helps.

That really depends on just how bad your GPA is, and how well you end up actually doing on the SATs.

I suggest talking to your school guidance counselor. They'll have more information for you.

But if your GPA is really that bad, and you don't get into a college/university right out of high school, go to community college for a couple of years, and do well there. Then you should be able to transfer to a college/university.

Good luck!

Easy. Community colleges will accept almost anyone as long as you have the minimum SAT/ACT scores or pass their placement tests. Once you get into one of those you can get the good grades and get in anywhere else. You should go to a community college first anyway so that you don't waste money on expensive tuition for the first two years.

I second that community college reccommendation, if you cannot get admitted to a good 4-year. There you would be exposed to a lot of working students who are paying their own way to a second chance. In many areas community colleges have transfer programs by which you can go on to a 4-year without losing earned course credit.

The SAT is a predictor of college grades. So the solution is to get ACTUAL college grades. Go to a community college and get terrific grades, apply for a transfer to the college of your choice. It's as simple as "buy low, sell high."

Well there is one thing you can do, and that is to do great on your Sat's, you do really well on this, alot of the grades can be thrown to the side, but you better do really well, or you will end up going to a lower end college.

Well, you can always have mummy and daddy give a whole boatload of money to their alma mater...that's worked well for several well known politicians.

You could try going to a community college first and establishing yourself there.

I agree with milkman in that sometimes people with high IQ's sometimes have low gpa's. Elementary education including High School don't allow for independent thinking, instead they teach you to think inside the box, instead of expanding your mind and having independen thought. If you feel that you are basically intelligent, but didn't quite fit into high school, then you could try taking an IQ test, and see where your IQ lies. That's one option. College, on the other hand, teaches you to think for yourself.


When I was in high school I always wanted to know, not only the facts, but why did history develop the way it did, and what lead to scientists to make their discoveries. It wasn't until I was an adult that I took an IQ test and I scored about like 175, which is very high.

If you want to get into college, try doing what I did. I went to a community college and received a 3.5 GPA. I used my community college transcript as a basis to get into a good university. In about 2 years I should be graduating with a double Bachelor's/Masters degree.

Here are the steps you should take. (1) community college, (2) 4-year university.

Right now, we are in March and I'm assuming that you are still in your senior year. Start applying now for community colleges if you haven't done so already. Also submit your application for financial aid (You need to parents tax info to do this).

PS:
This might now apply to you, but as a heads up, you will be considered a "dependent student" for financial aid purposes until you either get married, be above 22-23 years old, or move out. If you ever find yourself in a situation in that your parents are not sigining off on the financial aid application, or are refusing to provide tax info or SS numbers like they are required to do so, then you have another option that not readily advertised: You can file a form that will be a loophole that will basically allow you to be declared an "independent student". I've seen many students lose out on financial aid and having to drop out of school because their parents would sometimes withold information that is required for FA in punishment for not choosing the career that their parents wanted for them, or for some other small reason.

PS:
Another head up, don't forget that starting college is like starting over again. Once you get a good GPA, then it basically overrides high school. There are many incentives available to college students: You could get Federal work study - where they will give you a part time job in school, there are stipends to get you involved in research fields, including psychology and anthropology, some of these programs will give you a stipend of 900 monthly and allow you to assist your professors in research. Basically, your whole life is ahead of you.