Not Sure What to Do about Bad Grades
 

Hello all,
I've been eyeing the Greek life for quite some time, but I wanted to adjust to the collegic life before throwing myself into a commitment I wasn't ready for; I didn't rush my first year. And I definitely was not ready: my grades completely suffered. My grades started off from below a 2.0 but had an upward trend; right now I'm hanging on below a 2.5. I have about 3 weeks left with summer school: I am repeating 2 classes that I failed in the beginning of the year. I received my midterm grades back and I'm really happy to say that I have very high As in both classes! Now I don't want to get ahead of myself with a final worth the rest of my grade, but if I end up receiving a B in both classes, my GPA will jump to over a 3.0.

Unfortunately my under-3.0-GPA the past year will haunt me forever, and I feel that it will during recruitment. I think I've improved so much as a person this whole year, but my GPA won't reflect that. For example, I started to eat well and be active regularly. I'm still overweight (shedded several pounds so far and hopin' to get into a healthy weight soon!), but I've gained so much confidence and positivity through this process. I developed more teamwork and leadership skills by being involved in 3 extracurricular activities and volunteering at our Women's Resource Center. Also, I actually study now!!!! Sorry about that whole gloat party LOL I didn't mean to brag, but... I am working hard in many aspects of my life! So... Is there anything I could do to alleviate my bad grades in the past and hopefully still let these girls know that I want to contribute in any way and am willing to make them a priority (after family and studies, but that's a given, right?)?

(This is all assuming that my grades for summer school will be as well as I hope. I don't think I could allow myself to rush if I didn't get the grades in first. I know the Greek life is a huge commitment, and I can't betray these girls; I would need to put my utmost efforts into the sorority if I joined!)

Thank you for reading... Sorry for being a mouthful.. or eyeful? The internet is confusing LOL

Thankfully you can make up for 1 semester of bad grades over a period of time, especially when it's your first semester of college. If when you have your summer grades you are still not at a competitive GPA for your campus sororities, I would probably take one more semester to bump up the GPA further and then try to rush a sorority that is doing informal rush in the spring. You can't talk your way into a pledge class by explaining you've learned your lesson. In most cases, the GPA limit is hard and fast. If you're below the line, that's it.

I'm not sure how your GPA can go from below a 2.0 to over a 3.0 just by retaking 2 classes and getting B's, but presuming that's accurate, I'd go through rush and hope for the best. There are too many variables to say what is going to happen, except that if your GPA is below a 2.5 it probably won't end well, and below a 2.75 is not going to (excusing the pun) make the grade at a lot of campuses. Above that, your grades are probably not a problem, and you only have the 900 other variables to think about.

The other important thing to know is that many schools do not count summer school grades in calculating the GPA for a continuing student's recruitment. The only information the sororities receive from the school are from your first two semesters.

I know this is kind of a tangent, but if the school has a freshman forgiveness program, you can retake classes and it'll actually replace the old grade instead of averaging in.

At my university, you may take a course up to three times and have your grade replaced. For example, say you take a class and get an F the first time, retake it and get a D the second time, then you are allowed to retake it a third time and not only will the grade be completely replaced (assuming you earn a higher grade, of course), the previous class attempts will not show up on your transcript. After the third time, however, your attempts stay on your transcript forever, as well as the final grade, and your grade will be averaged with previous attempts, rather than replaced. As far as I am aware, you may do this for any course, it is not limited to 'freshman' or introductory courses.