Am I in trouble?
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:19 pm
This is going to serve as a means for me to gripe and ask some important questions, so bear with me.
First, I don't know how to get professor recommendations. I have 2 more semesters left and I'm finding it very difficult to find small classes at such a large university. I'm not very good at getting to know professors and doing so would basically be just to get recommendations. Most of the ones I've talked to tell me the class is too large to write me a decent recommendation and that I should try to talk to professors I've known in the past or from smaller classes, however, those don't exist for me.
I don't have a whole lot going on for my resume. I'm in one student organization and I've had one job during my college career. That's about it. How bad is this going to hurt me? I'm not trying to get into HYS, but I'd like to go to UT or somewhere in that area ranking-wise.
Also, does a double major matter? After doing a ton of switching back and forth between Gov and History, I only need 5 more courses to obtain a degree in Government. I'm probably going to do it anyways just as a way to boost my gpa a little bit more and I figure it can't really hurt.
Here's what I'm really here to gripe about. Through my college career I made 2 colossal mistakes that I will regret until the day I die. I took Spanish 1 and a duplicate U.S. history course here at UT. The duplicate history course was because my adviser didn't catch that my AP credit became academic history at my prior university so the original score that wouldn't had counted did count, and their website gave me false information because it didn't take it into account either. I got a B+ in that course, so in comparison to the mistake of taking Spanish here it is nothing. I took Spanish at UTSA my freshmen year and got an A. I took Spanish 1 here at UT because they did an overhaul of their Spanish department and the only way I could count my UTSA Spanish grade was to either do accelerated programs during the summer (I would have failed) or take the new extended Spanish 1 here, which is a 6 hr course as oppose to the old 5 hour course. I took that route, thought my prior knowledge in Spanish would help me out and I also didn't think I could take Spanish at the community college because the last 24/30 hrs have to be in residence (turns out that's not a number set in stone, no one told me though). SO... now I have a B minus in a 6 hour course that turns out, since I'm taking the rest of my Spanish at a community college, will be completely worthless to me as is the History course. Those 2 courses combined mean I lost .1 of my GPA due to sheer ignorance and bad advising. And as far as I know, I can't undo them. I can't erase them even though I already had credit, I can't revert them to pass/fail, I'm just screwed. After doing more calculating it turns out I have to get 10 A's just to get back to where I'd be without the B minus... so that may show you why this long, sad rant needed to happen. I really feel like this mistake may have been the fatal blow that keeps me from getting into a decent law school. I haven't taken the LSAT so I don't know for sure yet.
My GPA right now is a 3.68. By the end of this semester it should be somewhere around a 3.71 to a 3.73. Maybe I can even get it a little higher than that after another 3 semesters but because of the B minus it will never be higher than a 3.8. So, what do you think my chances are? What should I be doing now? Is there any means of getting rid of the B minus (I know there isn't but on the off chance someone has heard something, it's a big enough of a problem to at least ask)?
Thanks for your time, after coming to this realization I thought it'd help to at least put it all down on paper.
First, I don't know how to get professor recommendations. I have 2 more semesters left and I'm finding it very difficult to find small classes at such a large university. I'm not very good at getting to know professors and doing so would basically be just to get recommendations. Most of the ones I've talked to tell me the class is too large to write me a decent recommendation and that I should try to talk to professors I've known in the past or from smaller classes, however, those don't exist for me.
I don't have a whole lot going on for my resume. I'm in one student organization and I've had one job during my college career. That's about it. How bad is this going to hurt me? I'm not trying to get into HYS, but I'd like to go to UT or somewhere in that area ranking-wise.
Also, does a double major matter? After doing a ton of switching back and forth between Gov and History, I only need 5 more courses to obtain a degree in Government. I'm probably going to do it anyways just as a way to boost my gpa a little bit more and I figure it can't really hurt.
Here's what I'm really here to gripe about. Through my college career I made 2 colossal mistakes that I will regret until the day I die. I took Spanish 1 and a duplicate U.S. history course here at UT. The duplicate history course was because my adviser didn't catch that my AP credit became academic history at my prior university so the original score that wouldn't had counted did count, and their website gave me false information because it didn't take it into account either. I got a B+ in that course, so in comparison to the mistake of taking Spanish here it is nothing. I took Spanish at UTSA my freshmen year and got an A. I took Spanish 1 here at UT because they did an overhaul of their Spanish department and the only way I could count my UTSA Spanish grade was to either do accelerated programs during the summer (I would have failed) or take the new extended Spanish 1 here, which is a 6 hr course as oppose to the old 5 hour course. I took that route, thought my prior knowledge in Spanish would help me out and I also didn't think I could take Spanish at the community college because the last 24/30 hrs have to be in residence (turns out that's not a number set in stone, no one told me though). SO... now I have a B minus in a 6 hour course that turns out, since I'm taking the rest of my Spanish at a community college, will be completely worthless to me as is the History course. Those 2 courses combined mean I lost .1 of my GPA due to sheer ignorance and bad advising. And as far as I know, I can't undo them. I can't erase them even though I already had credit, I can't revert them to pass/fail, I'm just screwed. After doing more calculating it turns out I have to get 10 A's just to get back to where I'd be without the B minus... so that may show you why this long, sad rant needed to happen. I really feel like this mistake may have been the fatal blow that keeps me from getting into a decent law school. I haven't taken the LSAT so I don't know for sure yet.
My GPA right now is a 3.68. By the end of this semester it should be somewhere around a 3.71 to a 3.73. Maybe I can even get it a little higher than that after another 3 semesters but because of the B minus it will never be higher than a 3.8. So, what do you think my chances are? What should I be doing now? Is there any means of getting rid of the B minus (I know there isn't but on the off chance someone has heard something, it's a big enough of a problem to at least ask)?
Thanks for your time, after coming to this realization I thought it'd help to at least put it all down on paper.
