Well I don't know if i am the only one who feels that the 5 years spent at the university were totally useless.
Especially if it's a shitty school like mine. I've graduated in 2012 and since then I've worked mostly in construction, the work was mostly drafting. That made me quit many times and search for a job more into architectural design but for no avail. I've decided to pursue MA degree in my struggle to be a real architect, however because my low GPA 2.9/4 (ranked 10th on my 90 students class)I got rejected from many schools in Canada and US.
I am trying to counterbalance the low GPA with a good portfolio but when i look into the portfolio' s of students from other schools i feel worthless. I dont know what to do??!!
,,,,
Apr 28, 16 1:48 pm
Keep redoing your portfolio until it is first rate.
accesskb
Apr 28, 16 1:52 pm
forget about the gpa.. If your portfolio ain't up to par, you ain't getting in. period. You can't expect schools to accept all low gpa and shitty portfolio applicants right? If you really want to get accepted, put in more work to improve your portfolio. Otherwise, stick to your current job.
Non Sequitur
Apr 28, 16 1:53 pm
Work on that portfolio but be aware that many schools have a GPA cut-off bottom so even if you've got the mother of all portfolios, it may very well never get looked at because they can dismiss your application due to shitty grades.
Try your hand at a design oriented college to boost your skills.
lacalr
Apr 28, 16 3:18 pm
Is it worth retaking some of the classes at a local community college maybe? But like the other posters said I think the focus should be on the portfolio and personal statement.
no_form
Apr 28, 16 3:26 pm
also try to boost your GRE scores if they do that in Canada. i think a good portfolio is important, but it's really more about what's in it. if it's not 100% polished that's okay with me. i'd rather see interesting work even if it's not documented that great. and btw interesting work isn't sexy renderings. show me personal creative projects, drawings, and anything else that you've designed with some rigor and is unique. if it's mostly professional work, that's okay too. at least they understand how to make a building. design skills can be improved in school.
3tk
Apr 28, 16 5:06 pm
Fix the portfolio, get good recommendations (i.e. work hard, deliver above expectations, work outside of work hours to increase your skills and knowledge).
sjimenez.sj
Apr 30, 16 12:22 am
Don't discourage yourself Abdullah you have to keep on pursuing your passion. All good things in life are not easily obtained. It takes dedication, sacrifice and a substantial amount of toil. I can attest that a stellar and well produced portfolio will get you into any program in the US.....even with a low GPA! I graduated undergrad with a 2.9 and scored average on my GRE and got accepted into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan & Virginia Tech. These were the only programs I applied to, but feel confident that any ivy league school would have accepted my application. The ivy league price tag is what deterred me away. I will leave you with this....since you have a low GPA it's imperative to develop a superb portfolio that will force the reviewer to accept you solely based on your creativity & innate talent. I personally dedicated 2 years to refine & hone my skills and abilities to produced a captivating design portfolio. Your personal statement/letter of intent needs to be interesting and compelling to the reader and must creatively correlate with your portfolio . Do extensive research on the particular programs you are applying to and find a peculiar connection that demonstrates to the committee you are a match made in heaven. Good luck!
nikita_nikita
Apr 30, 16 2:08 pm
My GPA is 2.7 and I didn't take GRE at all. Accepted to Berkeley and other universities I applied. Therefore, GPA is not a problem, work with your portfolio. Good luck!
accesskb
May 1, 16 10:15 pm
To sjimenex and nikita - Do you know what percentage grade is your gpa? I see charts online and 2.9 could be 84% (high if you ask me) or around 72% (kinda low) depending.
Volunteer
May 2, 16 7:08 am
What school did you graduate from, when, and what was your major?
nikita_nikita
May 2, 16 2:51 pm
@accesskb I used WES to calculate it from my Russian grades. To be honest, my grades are low even in Russian equivalent. Maybe it was important that I have high grades for architecture-oriented disciplines, but very low for the others like painting or political science, and there are a lot of such disciplines in my uni's bachelor program.
MinimalCrazy
May 3, 16 6:31 am
Hey I had a similar situation not really. I have a 2.x gpa (worse than you) with a decent/highish final year gpa. I managed to get into a few march schools (no ivey) with my portfolio and intent alone despite my low gpa! So theres a chance, dont give up!!!
MinimalCrazy
May 3, 16 6:33 am
Mind you all these programs (most) had a cut off around 3 but they still accepted me so the cut off is not the end of the world!
accesskb
May 3, 16 7:41 am
MinimalCrazy which schools did you get accepted to? Did you do your undergrad in America?
MinimalCrazy
May 4, 16 12:18 am
Im gonna keep quiet about them in case I need them for next year as I declined the offer to work at this place. I took a job with a starchitecture office, decided I would learn more than being in school being taught outdated technology. Hopefully I get into a certain Ivey i admire next year, i didn't try this year. To OP, dont let the haters on this forum get to you! Most of the people here are nobodies, and their advice is as useful as my dog. Theyre good for information about local building code, or that typical "executive architect" stuff such as cdocs and bylaws purely because they have years of experience! Just keep improving your portfolio! Its never too late in life! When people look down upon you, show them they don't know shit. Its worked so far in my life very well, and hopefully it will to you.
On the fence
May 4, 16 9:39 am
So you went to some shithole school, as you stated. What school was this?
Anyways, you feel the five years were useless. Which they aren't. You can still work in architecture and get a license.
You got a low GPA 2.9/4.0 at a useless shithole school. And whatever projects you worked on during school that are in your portfolio make you feel worthless.
You had five years to up your game and get supposedly easy A's and B's at the shithole school but instead shafted yourself with C's. Your grades reflect the work you put into your school projects which is now shown in your portfolio. Now you want to know what to do?
I would suggest you reach out to some former professors or other intern architects or architects and ask them to help you develop your school ideas and rework that portfolio.
A D
May 5, 16 3:39 am
Thank you all so much for your comments and advices.
akshitsethi
Oct 2, 20 7:54 pm
Hey guys,
I completed my B.arch from india with a relatively low GPA of around 2.2. I'm mostly applying to schools in Canada and Australia for M.arch. I'm pretty confident about my academic portfolio and have had almost a year and half worth of work experience.
What are the chances in my scenario for top schools like UBC, McGill, UofT, Waterloo?
Non Sequitur
Oct 2, 20 8:01 pm
UofT is the only one. There is no way a top school like Loo or McGill will consider you. Low Gpa is not indicative of a quality graduate student prospect.
akshitsethi
Oct 2, 20 8:11 pm
Thankyou for the reply!
riyapatil
Jan 5, 23 8:00 pm
Hey guys,
I want to complete my bachelors (B.arch) in colleges in the United states, Canada or UK. I have a moderate gpa. In my current junior year though I have a relatively low gpa of 2.6. I am currently working on my portfolio and trying to make it as best as I can. So my question is will I get accepted into colleges like iitc, rice, Syracuse, ucb, ucla or any other colleges etc?
POST COMMENT
Non Sequitur
Jan 5, 23 8:13 pm
B.arch degrees don’t exist in Canada anymore. Also, expect to spend a fortune on tuition because no way you’re getting merit scholarships with shit grades.
Richard Balkins
Jan 6, 23 3:33 am
First, where do you plan to practice? In the U.S., just complete the B.Arch. If you are already enrolled in U.S. and have not been kicked out of the major for insufficient grades, finish the degree. Do better on remaining courses and if necessary, take some additional courses and get A's and B's. If you are in high school, maybe start in a 4-yr. Bachelors in Architecture program taking courses in the major at maybe 12-13 credits to gain college level courses in the major and general education courses (college level) and get high grades. Your college GPA is completely separate from your high school GPA. If you do good there and get A's and B's on all courses (and if you can take courses at even slightly below fulltime enrollment while living with your parents close enough to the university that you can drive or walk or ride a bike to it), you likely should be able to perform very well and get high grades because there should be no excuse for not performing well in that case.
Key, don't get involved in a bunch of stuff outside of class that will overburden you. Architecture courses are demanding but you also need to learn a few things: Don't procrastinate; Be creative and look at various option to design a solution but be decisive because you need to exercise responsible time management; ask the instructor or teaching assistant or other parties to clarify and ask questions so that you understand what you need to do, project goals, etc. You kind of have to do that with clients when you want to be clear what the client wants. Do not get in a habit of chronic all-nighters. Take time to sleep and maintain your health. Do take all-nighter when you need to but no more and doing the other things suggested will help in minimizing that. As you work on those things, you can get your GPA up.
If you are already in an architecture degree program, you could retake courses for a better grade and that will help if you need to get the grades up so you can have the degree conferred. In the U.S., there are other options in states that can allow you to get licensed without completing the degree but you will have to be able to get employed at an architecture office and manage to stay employed or otherwise do remarkably well with work that you get employed rather quickly if you get laid off. Whatever, it is not the end of the world but you need to start taking steps to improve your grade - if that means taking less courses per term or semester.... yes, do it, if you can, so you perform better and it will improve gpa if you can put the time you need to do the work and get As and periodically a B. For every four or five courses, try to get 3 to 4 As and maybe one being a B unless you can get all As. This will not always be the case to get all As but try to get more As than Bs and no Cs unless you only need to do that for classes that are not part of the architecture major such as general ed. In those cases, then maybe lets the non-architecture courses be mostly Bs and Cs and maybe some might be an A but you may need to focus on making sure your courses for architecture major (including studio courses) are As and B at lowest grade.
You can let the typical college writing course or psychology course be a C so you don't put too much effort on those courses when you need to put the time in the architecture courses to meet the grade. This plays back to time management and prioritization. Extracurricular activities that are not part of your major and does not provide value to your GPA... say no to that if you need time to work on your homework and all and those will just get in the way. Your low GPA indicates you are not putting enough time in your coursework.
You will want to budget about 4 hours per credit per week outside of in-class time working on your homework (homework includes studio time outside of the official class hours for the studio) to get a B. Now, estimate 6 hours per credit (outside of class/lecture time) per week. Now Studios might be low on "lecture" sessions so you will be needing to add another hour or two. So figure 7 to 10 hours a week per credit for studio courses if you do the things suggested to know what you are to do, what the studio project program is, what is being wanted.
Asking appropriate questions to clarify what you don't clearly understand, and listening, and taking notes. You need to be attentive and alert. You need to be more serious about 'damage control' regarding your GPA. Does not mean you need to be an ass**** to your friends but politely saying no to going to parties or whatever else that is distracting you and causing poorer performance so you can improve your GPA. If they are really friends, then they should understand.
You are in college so you can earn the degree not to party around or goof off. You may need to rephrase things but that's why you are there and went to get an architecture degree.
Richard Balkins
Jan 6, 23 3:40 am
Right now, you should be able to improve the GPA with relative ease without a lot of retaking courses for better grade and/or a mountain of additional courses, you should be able to get the GPA above 3.0 over the next 3-4 years of courses.
riyapatil
Jan 6, 23 9:37 pm
Thank you for the advice but I would also like to address that my college doesn't offer any extra credit and the percentage for the academic year is calculated only on the basis of exams. It's currently not possible to take my 2.6 GPA till minimum of 3.0 ,I can work on my GPA for my senior year of high school and make a massive improvement but the marks from my junior year will still show up in my record .I can also have a a great portfolio to match up my grades and have a decent impression on the college board members. To have good grades in my senior year l'Il have to submit my college application letters late, by the time my high school is finished.
I’d also like to know that if I would get accepted into a decent college if I work hard for my senior year and have a good portfolio?
Richard Balkins
Jan 7, 23 12:23 am
Since you are in high school, you may need to start with say, a 4-yr b.s. or b.a in architecture that does not require a 3.0 gpa for admissions and take enough courses getting A's and B's to get a 3.0 or higher GPA. Your starting college GPA is not defined until you complete college classes. Although you may have taken some college courses while in high school, only the college courses would be the starting college GPA which may be different than high school GPA. Once you have enough credits at college getting good enough grades to maintain a higher than 3.0 GPA at college, you can then transfer to the college you want upon admission approval basing on college GPA not the high school GPA. Are you following? There is a point in most colleges where they base on college GPA not high school. College GPA is not based on high school courses only college courses that you enroll in through any college allowing students in high school to take some college courses. If you have not taken college courses, yet.... your college GPA will be different after the first term or semester based on your grades in college. College GPA will not be based on any high school courses, only college courses. Once you have a 30 semester credits or 45 term credits (essentially 1year in college) or more, you can transfer based on college GPA not high school. Some colleges may allow you to be evaluated on college GPA after less than a year's worth of college courses. Regarding portfolio, it should be good and exceptionally good if you have a relatively weak GPA to shine above others that are admitted. Others here may be able to provide more advice on portfolios. You do not have to be admitted on your first year or instantly after high school. Some people have had to be in college for a year or something before being admitted. Don't panic. There are options and you are not in as dire straights as you may think you are. There is some difference in requirements for admissions via transfer versus admissions directly from high school graduation.
Richard Balkins
Jan 7, 23 4:08 pm
Do look at the colleges that you are interested in and transfer requirements (not only on the institution's requirements but also look at the applicable architecture department's admission requirements for transfer students transferring from another college. This way, YOU can look at that as an opportunity to essentially reset your GPA based on college credits not your high school. At University of Oregon (UO), your GPA would be based on college if you have 36 term credits or 24 semester credits. The architecture program will use your college GPA for admissions if the UO admissions to the university will be basing your admissions on college GPA versus high school. HOWEVER, the architecture department may evaluate your college GPA at a higher level such as higher than 3.0 GPA instead of what the general university admissions requirements because individual degree programs may have a higher threshold of academic performance. However, most architecture programs including UO's architecture program does in fact have other admissions requirements to evaluate such as your portfolio submission requirement, essays. They will evaluate on multiple factors not just the GPA. In your case, you may only need to do about 2-3 terms or 2 semesters or equivalent and get good grades. If there is a local community college, you can take the general education courses that will transfer to the university with the architecture program, that fulfills general education requirements, you may be able to take 6-14 credits a term or semester and do really well on those courses so your transfer GPA would be higher. If you live close enough to a college or university that has a preprofessional architecture program potentially with an NAAB accredited master's degree that has a fairly open admissions at the bachelor's level, you can take some architecture courses there which can help with content for a portfolio. Then transfer to an NAAB accredited B.Arch program t- if you get admitted in the architectural program's admissions process. If you do really good on the initial ~1 year of college courses, your college GPA can be much higher than 2.6 or 3.0. There's no reason you can't work it to your favor in this. Nothing illegal. Just don't take too many credits at one time and dedicate your focus and not get distracted, procrastinate, or otherwise.
Richard Balkins
Jan 7, 23 4:28 pm
If you do 6-8 credits a term before applying & transferring to architecture school, you should be able to get 4.0 GPA consistently. Your cumulative GPA should be 3.8 or higher. If you take 9-11 credits, you should be able to sustain a 3.4 or higher at you current academic skill if you take the advice given. At 12-14 credits, you should be able to maintain a 3.0 or higher. Over time, you should improve those skills and continue to maintain it at a +0.2 to +0.4 to that GPA. Over time, individual courses will have less effect on moving your GPA so a fail will do little to cumulative GPA but so would getting a single course with an A or even an entire term. Some programs have a special requirement in progress such as maintaining a major gpa and other similar requirements. Major gpa is like a cumulative GPA but only calculating GPA from courses in the major not the general education courses in determining how you are performing in the major. Some courses requires to a B or higher grade to pass the level to count for getting the degree and having a lower grade like C would require the course to be retaken. That is the case with some of the architecture programs.
Well I don't know if i am the only one who feels that the 5 years spent at the university were totally useless.
Especially if it's a shitty school like mine. I've graduated in 2012 and since then I've worked mostly in construction, the work was mostly drafting. That made me quit many times and search for a job more into architectural design but for no avail. I've decided to pursue MA degree in my struggle to be a real architect, however because my low GPA 2.9/4 (ranked 10th on my 90 students class)I got rejected from many schools in Canada and US.
I am trying to counterbalance the low GPA with a good portfolio but when i look into the portfolio' s of students from other schools i feel worthless. I dont know what to do??!!
Keep redoing your portfolio until it is first rate.
forget about the gpa.. If your portfolio ain't up to par, you ain't getting in. period. You can't expect schools to accept all low gpa and shitty portfolio applicants right? If you really want to get accepted, put in more work to improve your portfolio. Otherwise, stick to your current job.
Work on that portfolio but be aware that many schools have a GPA cut-off bottom so even if you've got the mother of all portfolios, it may very well never get looked at because they can dismiss your application due to shitty grades.
Try your hand at a design oriented college to boost your skills.
Is it worth retaking some of the classes at a local community college maybe? But like the other posters said I think the focus should be on the portfolio and personal statement.
also try to boost your GRE scores if they do that in Canada. i think a good portfolio is important, but it's really more about what's in it. if it's not 100% polished that's okay with me. i'd rather see interesting work even if it's not documented that great. and btw interesting work isn't sexy renderings. show me personal creative projects, drawings, and anything else that you've designed with some rigor and is unique. if it's mostly professional work, that's okay too. at least they understand how to make a building. design skills can be improved in school.
Fix the portfolio, get good recommendations (i.e. work hard, deliver above expectations, work outside of work hours to increase your skills and knowledge).
Don't discourage yourself Abdullah you have to keep on pursuing your passion. All good things in life are not easily obtained. It takes dedication, sacrifice and a substantial amount of toil. I can attest that a stellar and well produced portfolio will get you into any program in the US.....even with a low GPA! I graduated undergrad with a 2.9 and scored average on my GRE and got accepted into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan & Virginia Tech. These were the only programs I applied to, but feel confident that any ivy league school would have accepted my application. The ivy league price tag is what deterred me away. I will leave you with this....since you have a low GPA it's imperative to develop a superb portfolio that will force the reviewer to accept you solely based on your creativity & innate talent. I personally dedicated 2 years to refine & hone my skills and abilities to produced a captivating design portfolio. Your personal statement/letter of intent needs to be interesting and compelling to the reader and must creatively correlate with your portfolio . Do extensive research on the particular programs you are applying to and find a peculiar connection that demonstrates to the committee you are a match made in heaven. Good luck!
My GPA is 2.7 and I didn't take GRE at all. Accepted to Berkeley and other universities I applied. Therefore, GPA is not a problem, work with your portfolio. Good luck!
To sjimenex and nikita - Do you know what percentage grade is your gpa? I see charts online and 2.9 could be 84% (high if you ask me) or around 72% (kinda low) depending.
What school did you graduate from, when, and what was your major?
@accesskb I used WES to calculate it from my Russian grades. To be honest, my grades are low even in Russian equivalent. Maybe it was important that I have high grades for architecture-oriented disciplines, but very low for the others like painting or political science, and there are a lot of such disciplines in my uni's bachelor program.
Hey I had a similar situation not really. I have a 2.x gpa (worse than you) with a decent/highish final year gpa. I managed to get into a few march schools (no ivey) with my portfolio and intent alone despite my low gpa! So theres a chance, dont give up!!!
Mind you all these programs (most) had a cut off around 3 but they still accepted me so the cut off is not the end of the world!
MinimalCrazy which schools did you get accepted to? Did you do your undergrad in America?
Im gonna keep quiet about them in case I need them for next year as I declined the offer to work at this place. I took a job with a starchitecture office, decided I would learn more than being in school being taught outdated technology. Hopefully I get into a certain Ivey i admire next year, i didn't try this year. To OP, dont let the haters on this forum get to you! Most of the people here are nobodies, and their advice is as useful as my dog. Theyre good for information about local building code, or that typical "executive architect" stuff such as cdocs and bylaws purely because they have years of experience! Just keep improving your portfolio! Its never too late in life! When people look down upon you, show them they don't know shit. Its worked so far in my life very well, and hopefully it will to you.
So you went to some shithole school, as you stated. What school was this?
Anyways, you feel the five years were useless. Which they aren't. You can still work in architecture and get a license.
You got a low GPA 2.9/4.0 at a useless shithole school. And whatever projects you worked on during school that are in your portfolio make you feel worthless.
You had five years to up your game and get supposedly easy A's and B's at the shithole school but instead shafted yourself with C's. Your grades reflect the work you put into your school projects which is now shown in your portfolio. Now you want to know what to do?
I would suggest you reach out to some former professors or other intern architects or architects and ask them to help you develop your school ideas and rework that portfolio.
Thank you all so much for your comments and advices.
Hey guys,
I completed my B.arch from india with a relatively low GPA of around 2.2. I'm mostly applying to schools in Canada and Australia for M.arch. I'm pretty confident about my academic portfolio and have had almost a year and half worth of work experience.
What are the chances in my scenario for top schools like UBC, McGill, UofT, Waterloo?
UofT is the only one. There is no way a top school like Loo or McGill will consider you. Low Gpa is not indicative of a quality graduate student prospect.
Thankyou for the reply!
Hey guys,
I want to complete my bachelors (B.arch) in colleges in the United states, Canada or UK. I have a moderate gpa. In my current junior year though I have a relatively low gpa of 2.6. I am currently working on my portfolio and trying to make it as best as I can. So my question is will I get accepted into colleges like iitc, rice, Syracuse, ucb, ucla or any other colleges etc?
POST COMMENT
B.arch degrees don’t exist in Canada anymore. Also, expect to spend a fortune on tuition because no way you’re getting merit scholarships with shit grades.
First, where do you plan to practice? In the U.S., just complete the B.Arch. If you are already enrolled in U.S. and have not been kicked out of the major for insufficient grades, finish the degree. Do better on remaining courses and if necessary, take some additional courses and get A's and B's. If you are in high school, maybe start in a 4-yr. Bachelors in Architecture program taking courses in the major at maybe 12-13 credits to gain college level courses in the major and general education courses (college level) and get high grades. Your college GPA is completely separate from your high school GPA. If you do good there and get A's and B's on all courses (and if you can take courses at even slightly below fulltime enrollment while living with your parents close enough to the university that you can drive or walk or ride a bike to it), you likely should be able to perform very well and get high grades because there should be no excuse for not performing well in that case.
Key, don't get involved in a bunch of stuff outside of class that will overburden you. Architecture courses are demanding but you also need to learn a few things: Don't procrastinate; Be creative and look at various option to design a solution but be decisive because you need to exercise responsible time management; ask the instructor or teaching assistant or other parties to clarify and ask questions so that you understand what you need to do, project goals, etc. You kind of have to do that with clients when you want to be clear what the client wants. Do not get in a habit of chronic all-nighters. Take time to sleep and maintain your health. Do take all-nighter when you need to but no more and doing the other things suggested will help in minimizing that. As you work on those things, you can get your GPA up.
If you are already in an architecture degree program, you could retake courses for a better grade and that will help if you need to get the grades up so you can have the degree conferred. In the U.S., there are other options in states that can allow you to get licensed without completing the degree but you will have to be able to get employed at an architecture office and manage to stay employed or otherwise do remarkably well with work that you get employed rather quickly if you get laid off. Whatever, it is not the end of the world but you need to start taking steps to improve your grade - if that means taking less courses per term or semester.... yes, do it, if you can, so you perform better and it will improve gpa if you can put the time you need to do the work and get As and periodically a B. For every four or five courses, try to get 3 to 4 As and maybe one being a B unless you can get all As. This will not always be the case to get all As but try to get more As than Bs and no Cs unless you only need to do that for classes that are not part of the architecture major such as general ed. In those cases, then maybe lets the non-architecture courses be mostly Bs and Cs and maybe some might be an A but you may need to focus on making sure your courses for architecture major (including studio courses) are As and B at lowest grade.
You can let the typical college writing course or psychology course be a C so you don't put too much effort on those courses when you need to put the time in the architecture courses to meet the grade. This plays back to time management and prioritization. Extracurricular activities that are not part of your major and does not provide value to your GPA... say no to that if you need time to work on your homework and all and those will just get in the way. Your low GPA indicates you are not putting enough time in your coursework.
You will want to budget about 4 hours per credit per week outside of in-class time working on your homework (homework includes studio time outside of the official class hours for the studio) to get a B. Now, estimate 6 hours per credit (outside of class/lecture time) per week. Now Studios might be low on "lecture" sessions so you will be needing to add another hour or two. So figure 7 to 10 hours a week per credit for studio courses if you do the things suggested to know what you are to do, what the studio project program is, what is being wanted.
Asking appropriate questions to clarify what you don't clearly understand, and listening, and taking notes. You need to be attentive and alert. You need to be more serious about 'damage control' regarding your GPA. Does not mean you need to be an ass**** to your friends but politely saying no to going to parties or whatever else that is distracting you and causing poorer performance so you can improve your GPA. If they are really friends, then they should understand.
You are in college so you can earn the degree not to party around or goof off. You may need to rephrase things but that's why you are there and went to get an architecture degree.
Right now, you should be able to improve the GPA with relative ease without a lot of retaking courses for better grade and/or a mountain of additional courses, you should be able to get the GPA above 3.0 over the next 3-4 years of courses.
Thank you for the advice but I would also like to address that my college doesn't offer any extra credit and the percentage for the academic year is calculated only on the basis of exams.
It's currently not possible to take my 2.6 GPA till minimum of 3.0 ,I can work on my GPA for my senior year of high school and make a massive improvement but the marks from my junior year will still show up in my record .I can also have a a great portfolio to match up my grades and have a decent impression on the college board members.
To have good grades in my senior year l'Il have to submit my college application letters late, by the time my high school is finished.
I’d also like to know that if I would get accepted into a decent college if I work hard for my senior year and have a good portfolio?
Since you are in high school, you may need to start with say, a 4-yr b.s. or b.a in architecture that does not require a 3.0 gpa for admissions and take enough courses getting A's and B's to get a 3.0 or higher GPA. Your starting college GPA is not defined until you complete college classes. Although you may have taken some college courses while in high school, only the college courses would be the starting college GPA which may be different than high school GPA. Once you have enough credits at college getting good enough grades to maintain a higher than 3.0 GPA at college, you can then transfer to the college you want upon admission approval basing on college GPA not the high school GPA. Are you following? There is a point in most colleges where they base on college GPA not high school. College GPA is not based on high school courses only college courses that you enroll in through any college allowing students in high school to take some college courses. If you have not taken college courses, yet.... your college GPA will be different after the first term or semester based on your grades in college. College GPA will not be based on any high school courses, only college courses. Once you have a 30 semester credits or 45 term credits (essentially 1year in college) or more, you can transfer based on college GPA not high school. Some colleges may allow you to be evaluated on college GPA after less than a year's worth of college courses. Regarding portfolio, it should be good and exceptionally good if you have a relatively weak GPA to shine above others that are admitted. Others here may be able to provide more advice on portfolios. You do not have to be admitted on your first year or instantly after high school. Some people have had to be in college for a year or something before being admitted. Don't panic. There are options and you are not in as dire straights as you may think you are. There is some difference in requirements for admissions via transfer versus admissions directly from high school graduation.
Do look at the colleges that you are interested in and transfer requirements (not only on the institution's requirements but also look at the applicable architecture department's admission requirements for transfer students transferring from another college. This way, YOU can look at that as an opportunity to essentially reset your GPA based on college credits not your high school. At University of Oregon (UO), your GPA would be based on college if you have 36 term credits or 24 semester credits. The architecture program will use your college GPA for admissions if the UO admissions to the university will be basing your admissions on college GPA versus high school. HOWEVER, the architecture department may evaluate your college GPA at a higher level such as higher than 3.0 GPA instead of what the general university admissions requirements because individual degree programs may have a higher threshold of academic performance. However, most architecture programs including UO's architecture program does in fact have other admissions requirements to evaluate such as your portfolio submission requirement, essays. They will evaluate on multiple factors not just the GPA. In your case, you may only need to do about 2-3 terms or 2 semesters or equivalent and get good grades. If there is a local community college, you can take the general education courses that will transfer to the university with the architecture program, that fulfills general education requirements, you may be able to take 6-14 credits a term or semester and do really well on those courses so your transfer GPA would be higher. If you live close enough to a college or university that has a preprofessional architecture program potentially with an NAAB accredited master's degree that has a fairly open admissions at the bachelor's level, you can take some architecture courses there which can help with content for a portfolio. Then transfer to an NAAB accredited B.Arch program t- if you get admitted in the architectural program's admissions process. If you do really good on the initial ~1 year of college courses, your college GPA can be much higher than 2.6 or 3.0. There's no reason you can't work it to your favor in this. Nothing illegal. Just don't take too many credits at one time and dedicate your focus and not get distracted, procrastinate, or otherwise.
If you do 6-8 credits a term before applying & transferring to architecture school, you should be able to get 4.0 GPA consistently. Your cumulative GPA should be 3.8 or higher. If you take 9-11 credits, you should be able to sustain a 3.4 or higher at you current academic skill if you take the advice given. At 12-14 credits, you should be able to maintain a 3.0 or higher. Over time, you should improve those skills and continue to maintain it at a +0.2 to +0.4 to that GPA. Over time, individual courses will have less effect on moving your GPA so a fail will do little to cumulative GPA but so would getting a single course with an A or even an entire term. Some programs have a special requirement in progress such as maintaining a major gpa and other similar requirements. Major gpa is like a cumulative GPA but only calculating GPA from courses in the major not the general education courses in determining how you are performing in the major. Some courses requires to a B or higher grade to pass the level to count for getting the degree and having a lower grade like C would require the course to be retaken. That is the case with some of the architecture programs.