I’m 20 and I’m from New York State. I’m not currently in school due to unfortunate circumstances. I left community college to take care of a sick relative and to work. I will start with my high school years. I was the didn’t care guy. I wasn’t the kid who was straight A’s and perfect attendance. I didn’t do any extracurriculars. My grades were OK though. If I had to guess, I was probably a B+ or B- student. I nearly failed my junior year. I completely failed chemistry as I gave up trying because I didn’t understand. I failed geometry because I didn’t understand and we had a different teacher every few days. I took the SAT and got an overall score of around 900 (I can’t remember). I graduated in June 2016. I enrolled in a local community college that fall. The first semester I failed 2 classes. The second semester I retook both and got an A or B in one. I failed the other one along with chemistry once again. I also have a very hard time adjusting to something new. After some long and hard thought, I decided that it would be in my best interest to take a year or 2 off and work. I spent a lot of time taking care of that relative. The more time goes one, the more I regret not trying harder in school. I know I could’ve easily been the top 10 of my class. I could’ve been accepted to the Ivy League. I guess there’s no reason I can’t still aim very high. Because even if I were to aim high and try to get into an Ivy League school, I would still be able to get into many good schools all over the country. I’ll list off my stats to make it a little easier.
-Likely a B/C student in high school
-Failed 2 classes in high school
-900 or so SAT score (Could I retake the SAT for a higher score?)
-Around a 2.0/2.3 GPA for my first year of community college
-Failed 2 classes in college
-Retook one and passed
-Retook the other and failed
-Failed Chemistry
-Interested in Mechanical Engineering or Biomedical Engineering
-Interested in a Master’s level degree
What kind of chance do I have at being able to transfer to a good school? I’m planning on retaking the failed classes and striving to get a 4.0 GPA. I don’t want to get into a school that accepts everyone. I want a good challenge and I’d like to attend classes at an institution that is academically rigorous due to the fact that I know I would be able to do it. I want to push the limits of what I think I can do. I’m interested in a few schools. I’m interested in MIT, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton (although it’s highly unlikely), and Yale (still probably unlikely). I’m not interested in these Universities because of the name and prestige, I’m interested because of the quality and rigorous programs they offer. There are also many benefits for students. Paying for an education won’t be an issue (not going into details). I understand that even transferring to an Ivy League school is incredibly difficult but, it’s not impossible. I’ve often heard that UCLA, MIT, and CMU can often be just as difficult. I do have a few other schools in mind in the likely event that I am rejected from those schools. I know that at my current standing, I’d have no chance at all. I intend on doing much better and achieving a 4.0 GPA. What chance would I realistically have at getting into a good school?
As an OOS transfer to UCLA, you have the lowest priority in the transferring process. The priority is California CC transfers followed by UC/CSU to UC transfers, in-state 4 year univeristy transfers than OOS transfers. You need to make sure that all your courses will transfer, you have all required courses completed by Fall prior to your transfer and you maintain at least a 3.7+ GPA so pretty much all A’s.
You mention that all your college costs will be covered so $65K/year to attend UCLA will be covered and this amount will probably continue to rise by the time you transfer.
GPA is the #1 factor that is considered for transfers. Your personal insight essays along with any major related EC’s will also be considered.
My daughter is dyslexic, dyscalculic, and dysgraphic. I don’t know of any place that will give us $65k/year for college. What group will grant $130k for two years of college based on a mild learning disorder?
The NYS Excelsior Grant will cover the ~$6k tuition at a SUNY if your parents earn less than $125k. If they’re low income (~$40k/year) you may qualify for a ~$6k/year federal Pell Grant. And you can take the $7500/year federal student loan as a junior and senior. That’s (at most) $19.5k/year (if you attend a SUNY). It’s $13.5k if you attend an OOS school.
What @Gumbymom says is mostly right on the money. In regards to UCLA, there’s low acceptance rates for transfers, and since we don’t really know what kind of program you’re interested in, it’s uncertain to guess what odds you may have. Some majors have less competition for admission, whereas others have much higher competition. Depending on your career goals, you might want consider other potential majors and possible other universities as a backup plan, in case UCLA sends a rejection. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep your options open.
As far as increasing your chances go, I believe there is an honors program that can help you get certified for TAP (might want to double check on this), along with a high GPA. Of course, a high GPA won’t guarantee admission, but a low GPA can very well exclude you out of acceptance. You’ll want to brush up on your writing skills to deliver persuasive and compelling essays to admission reviewers when its time to do the UC applications.
I know you mentioned that tuition & room/board fees should be covered, but as an OOS student, it would be best to consider your main reasons and goals with respect to attending UCLA. OOS tuition continues to be on the rise, and I’m fairly certain there won’t be as much grant or scholarship offers for OOS candidates. You might qualify for some federal grants, but no state grants. Worst-case scenario, if your parents can’t pay for school, you’ll probably have to take out loans. Hopefully you can take out mainly federal loans rather than private loans because interest rates are way lower. However, you’ll still be left with substantial student loan debt. My suggestion would be to start saving as much as you can now (via a job and save all your money now while your parents can still support you) to help with expenses. Have a long discussion with your parents about helping out if they can.
I think your SAT score will be an issue. I’d do some prep and retake it. Are you enrolled in your community college now? Do as well as you can and when it’s time to start sending transfer apps ask the transfer office for suggestions.
Unfortunately you do not have any chance of getting into those schools as an undergrad, not even as a transfer. It is unlikely you could bring your SAT from a 900 to the 1450+ those schools want to see. STEM transfers are especially competitive.
However, you might be able to get your masters degree from one of them, but you’d really have to knock it out of the ballpark the rest of your undergrad years. That community college transcript sticks with you on your grad school applications, so you’ve got some work ahead of you. Get to it!
It is extremely difficult for students to transfer to top schools even when they have stellar grades and standardized test scores, and from other competitive 4 year colleges. Better for you to be realistic. Return to a community college, try to pass, with good grades, basic core and required courses for a STEM degree. Engineering majors are extremely difficult, and if the prerequisite courses are too challenging, better to go in another direction. Please don’t waste time trying to go to an elite. And as an aside, Yale is not really known for its engineering programs.
You are in New York State. Cornell is the transfer-friendliest of all the “Ivy” league institutions, and favors transfers from the NY community colleges. Spend some time at your own community college website and at Cornell’s website, and see what pathways could get you there.
Even if Cornell turns out to not be a good transfer target after finishing up at the community college, the public universities in NYS have good options for you. For grad school admissions, where you finish your undergrad degree is not as important as how you finish it. You have more options than you think.
Many are being delicate and supportive. Which is fine. But to really help this poster, it might be better to be realistic. Look at the list of grades, and test scores. Reaching for an elite school is simply completely unrealistic at this point. This poster needs to build a foundation of success in school and go from there.
OP, you have to demonstrate that you can indeed do the work, and the best way for you to do that is to go back to your community college, sit down with an advisor and lay out a course plan that will let you get the 2 full years of CC completed, with the courses you need to transfer. Then you put your head down and actually work at school.
Based on your own assessment of yourself, you should be able to get straight As in for the next 3 semesters. THAT will put you in a good position to apply to transfer to a 4 year university. Transferring into engineering is hard, and there are a lot of pre-requisites. As @happymomof1 pointed out, you are very lucky in your state options- Stony Brook & Binghamton have really good engineering programs, not to mention Rochester, RPI, and a bunch of others. Cornell is super-elite for engineering- but also hard to get into, and harder to stay in.
I’ll also add to @jym626’s point: for engineering, non ‘elite’ schools are as good (often better) than many of the ‘elites’. Somebody who struggled with geometry and chemistry is going to find more than enough challenge with the calculus and physics classes required for any engineering degree. I am happy to believe that you are super smart- but don’t make the mistake of thinking that the engineering students at SUNY must not be very smart: they are plenty smart also.
Thanks, @collegemom3717. Your post is also spot on. Schools will look at a student’s ability to successfully handle rigorous courses. If a student has not demonstrated that they can handle the work, it’s unlikely that any school, except perhaps an open enrollment school, will consider such an applicant. An elite school - no way. The OP mentioned elsewhere that he has had learning disabilities, but feels he has managed most of them. He also mentioned something about being able to get, or qualify for funding to cover room, board, books, etc. Would be curious what this funding is.
I’m not talking about finances, Please don’t bring up finances as I don’t revolve around that and I’m wondering if it’s a good or bad idea for me to return to college.
I would start here: “I want to design vehicles (cars, bikes, boats, planes, etc.)” And then I’d figure out a way to get to that goal. What part of the country do you live in?
I live in the Northeast. New York State. I don’t want to stay in state for quite a few reasons. My Community College has a small campus around the corner from my house. The main campus is half hour to an hour away depending on weather. Am I worrying too much about what’s next rather than what’s happening now? I’m overwhelmed as I no longer remember how to do a lot of the mathematical problems from before.
Try taking a class at the community college around the corner. Even if it’s something short term and low commitment and non-credit, like an SAT prep course. See how it goes and work from there.
Don’t worry about the end of the road just now. Worry about taking a step in the right direction.
Now here’s my other problem. I work full time, in an extremely important position at a car dealership. I have to leave by 5:30AM-6:00AM and be to work at 7:30. It’s an hour’s drive but I give extra time for weather and traffic. I get out at 4-6:000PM and arrive home anywhere from 5:30PM-8PM depending on how late I work. I work Monday to Saturday. I can’t leave just yet as I have to pay off the loan on my car (about $2000 left). Plus I would prefer to have a savings of at least $1500 in case something happens. I’m thinking of maybe taking a couple classes this summer. Could I just show up to campus to speak with someone about this or would I have to be a current student?