Photo Courtesy: Tyler Cianciulli
With hopes of going to law school, Tyler Cianciulli knew he needed to maintain good grades and a high GPA.
Cianciulli transferred to the University of Miami after one year at Villanova University, but the transition was not easy.
“I wanted to go out a lot to meet new people since I transferred, which I did, and it took me away from my schoolwork,” Cianciulli said.
At the end of his sophomore year, Cianciulli met with Miami Business School Senior Advisor Karen Donno to schedule classes for junior year.
She told him something that made him feel like he was letting himself and his whole family down:
“Your grades are not good enough for you to get into law school.”
Cianciulli thought his world was crumbling and that all of his efforts and all-nighters had been pointless.
“Those words really hit me,” he said.
After a year and a half of hard work, studying and test taking, Cianciulli recently was accepted to UM Law, where he was awarded a half-tuition scholarship, but will be attending Touro Law School. He said he also was accepted at four other law schools with full scholarships.
Grateful that he made the remarkable academic turnaround, Cianculli credits Donno for the cold dose of reality.
“If she didn’t say those words to me, I don’t think I would have ever changed my ways,” Cianciulli said.