<p>Hello CC. After three years of attending my four year university, the academic committee regretfully voted to permanently dismiss me as of May. With the three failures issued to me this past spring semester, I exceeded the school's maximum of six unique failures. The reasons for my struggle are identifiable, but not well-understood. Although a strong writer, I have suffered enormously in completing assignments that require even a moderate amount of writing. When attempting to compose even a "short" paper of just a couple pages, I become immediately distraught and overwhelmed from anxiety. I never know where to begin papers, find it very difficult to organize/structure the paper, and have this irrational need to make every word, line, and sentence impeccable. This leads to procrastination, and repeated procrastination eventually leads to an extreme form of avoidance behavior, where I simply don't turn in papers. Instead of deigning to complete a poorly constructed essay that would earn me a C, I refuse to hand in anything, resulting in either a withdrawal from the class or an F. This devastating psychological barrier appears to be prevalent in students with ADHD; as such, yesterday I scheduled an appointment with a psychologist (and yes I do exhibit some other common ADHD symptoms as well, mostly related to poor organizational skills). I faced similar problems in high school: at one point, I was on the brink of expulsion for not having completed a research paper for my English class. There were at least 4 other essays I can point to off the top of my head that I never completed (nor began) in high school; however, I somehow managed to evade any further damage to my transcript. I actually remember my history professor returning a grading rubric to me for a ~10-15 page research paper I never did. I was awarded an 85. I have finally come to terms with the fact that while I am bright and motivated to perform well in certain areas, I do struggle in others. And that is ok...given that I do something to correct !
it, or m
itigate its effects. In any case...despite my abysmal academic history my work experience is phenomenal. I am completing my fourth relevant internship in finance this summer. Keep in mind I am supposed to be entering my senior year. Most of those who attend "target" institutions for banks (i.e., all the iveys plus a few others) boast resumes that only pale in comparison to mine. Trust me, there aren't too many people who have had the opportunity to intern at a hedge fund before entering college. Please note I am not trying to trivialize the importance of college. I simply want to show that on paper I am a very competitive candidate for even the most sought after positions on Wall Street, my GPA aside, of course. In the finance industry, strong work experience can go a long way.</p>
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<p>Paragraphs are your friends:</p>
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<li><p>No, you can apply, but you will need to explain about your dismissal on your application.</p></li>
<li><p>As a sr transfer applicant, none.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t know whether or not it’s ‘worth it’, but it sounds like a year off is going to be necessary for some schools.</p></li>
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<p>Take the whole year off. Do the necessary work with your psychologist/psychiatrist to get yourself squarely on track and to determine if/when/where you should start to study again. It may not be necessary for you to complete a college degree at all if you are competent in your chosen profession.</p>
<p>Even though you have been dismissed by your college/university, most institutions will re-admit students who have been out of college for a certain period if time, and who can demonstrate their readiness to return. Find out from your advisor what would be required of you in order to return someday. Those steps are likely to be similar to what another institution would expect of you before admission as a transfer.</p>
<p>Sorry I should clarify a couple of things. First, although I have been at my school for three years, I have only have enough credits to merit Junior level standing. Secondly, I was surprised by the unusual way my school handled my academic problems. I was never issued a warning, put on probation, etc; never received an email from the academic committee or my advisor about my academics; the terms of the handbook are very ambiguous concerning academic struggles and the steps taken by academic performance committee. I can delve into more technical details about why I feel I was unjustly dismissed to begin with if anyone is interested. In addition, it appears that my advisor is no longer employed by my university, so my only recourse seems to be filing an appeal. </p>
<p>There are a few reasons I am leaning more towards transferring (as opposed to reapplying at my current school):</p>
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<li><p>Transferring to another school will effectively be a complete reset for me. I won’t have to taint my resume with an embarrassing 2.4 anymore. Even if my appeal were accepted, I could only raise my GPA by maybe a few points. Enrolling in a completely new school, however, allows me to reach for a high GPA. Should I ever consider graduate school, a poor GPA will definitely spoil my chances of gaining entry into top programs.</p></li>
<li><p>I live about 4 hours away from my university and would like to remain closer to home.</p></li>
<li><p>I am not too particularly fond of many aspects of my current institution. I love the friends I have made, but overall this was not the type of environment I expected. Essentially, I am not crushed because I have been dismissed from a dream school, or one that I can say I proudly attend. So saying goodbye won’t be anything close to emotionally straining for me, as it is easily replaceable IMO.</p></li>
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<p>I believe when you transfer, your GPA does follow you and will be reflected on your transcript in some form. It’s not that easy to get rid of your past in education. Just FYI.</p>
<p>Stephan, you need to deal with your anxiety problems. You can apply wherever you want but I honestly don’t see an admission to Stern based on ‘stellar work experience’ in two internships and as an event planner. Frankly, I think you should walk away from school, go to counseling and get a job. Another idea is to complete your degree through testing-- somewhere like Charter Oak or Regents. You could take a CLEP in Spanish, another one in Italian and probably get another semester of credit right there.</p>
<p>I appreciate your input 2college, but I have interned four times. Not two. I think you are also unaware that I will never be able to continue my career in finance if I don’t have an undergraduate degree…and no Charter Oak doesn’t count. I mentioned that the big banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, etc) mainly recruit from top schools. With that said, it is still feasible to be employed by these firms even without attending Harvard Yale, and the rest of the ivies. Interning at Deutsche Bank the summer after my sophomore year, I am actually a prime example of this. </p>
<p>Enrolling in Charter Oak or other online universities, however, is a completely different story as the stigma associated with these schools will mar my chances entirely. Since you obviously are not well-versed in the intricacies of the recruiting process for financial firms, I’m not sure your assertion that Stern will auto-reject me is in any way valid (not saying you’re necessarily wrong, but on the basis of what given me, I cannot hold it to be true). For anyone else interested in genuinely offering sound advice, I would ask that you fully read my post before you contribute to the thread. Otherwise please refrain from posting…</p>
<p>That was one of the most the most ignorant post I’ve ever encountered on here. Stop littering this forum with your valueless and uninformed drivel.</p>
<p>stephan520 -</p>
<p>What is stopping you from contacting the people you interned with, and asking for a semester or year-long position while you take a “leave of absence” from your university? You don’t necessarily have to tell them that you flunked out. If you are really good, they will have ideas for you. If you are really, really good, they won’t care where you finish college (or even if you do finish college). Sometimes “I studied at XYZ U” without explicitly stating a year of graduation is good enough. Once you are on the job, if you eventually learn that you do need to finish a degree of some kind somewhere, let your boss help you find a good place to do that, and get the company to help pay for it.</p>
<p>You do not take constructive criticism well. So I’ll tell you what you want to hear. </p>
<p>You will definitely get into Stern! It doesn’t matter that you haven’t done well in school because you’re a special snow flake! If you explain your medical condition to admissions officers they will certainly understand why you have not performed up your true potential. Good luck at NYU! You’re a shoe in!</p>
<p>Yes, Guy. Let’s keep derailing this thread further. lastchance2win’s post was by no means constructive, especially the second half, which was nothing less than rude, demeaning, and baseless. I asked five questions in the beginning of this thread, four of which were completely ignored by the two of you. You instead opted to bash me because I simply asked a question. Thankfully, some posters like entomom and happymomof1 are kind enough to actually help me, and allow CC to be the fantastic resource that it is. You, on the other hand, have contributed nothing to this discussion. Now can we all please revert to the original purpose of this thread?</p>
<p>Stephan, actually I have a very close relative in finance. His profile is nothing like yours. There are many people competing for those jobs and your gpa really isn’t competitive for admission to Stern. Again, you need to step away from school and deal with what sounds to be an anxiety issue that is complicating your ADHD. The reason I suggested Charter Oak isn’t because I think you won’t get accepted elsewhere; it’s because, based on what you wrote, I don’t think you can complete your education elsewhere now. You could be admitted to a state school or a smaller, private school (not Stern) but you have not dealt with the issues that prevented you from handing in papers and completing your degree at your last school. You will be worse off if you continue your pattern of not handing in papers/ not completing classes/ low gpa at two schools. Your best bet is to leave school, go to counseling and get a job. Once you have that done, you can revisit where to attend. Of course, you can do what you want.</p>
<p>Oh I completely agree with you, 2college. Your first post suggested that I drop out of school permanently. I am very open to taking a year or two off to deal with my anxiety, after which I would enroll in a 4 year university. The purpose of question 1, which I guess I should have rephrased in retrospect, was to get a sense of the caliber of schools willing to admit me once I have fully resolved my anxiety issues. Perhaps that can’t even be determined right now. But for the record I wasn’t really expecting an admission to Stern. If I were to be granted admission into only state schools, then I would be perfectly content with attending. Again, I was just trying to get an idea of what steps the typical student takes after a dismissal, and if that means taking an extended leave of absence from schooling altogether, then that’s fine.</p>
<p>No, I didn’t mean forever but I also think your original post is asking about applying now for entrance in the Spring-- and I think a bit longer leave would help you because you will want your application to support the idea that these issues have been dealt with. Once some time has passed, you could look to take a few classes somewhere as a non-degree student, get really good grades, and then apply-- further bolstering your argument that you’ve dealt with the issues.</p>
<p>Sounds very reasonable, 2college. Since I didn’t recognize you as a valued poster a few posts back, I would like to now thank you for your input. You’ve been helpful.</p>