<p>Here's my story: I was a middle of the road student at an inner city high school (graduated with an 88.35 average a rank of 52/432 and SAT scores of 520 for math, 620 for critical reading, and 730 for writing.) I had a ton of AP/ IBO credits and was heavily involved in musical organizations. I attended the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam for a year. Within a month of my attendance, I knew music was not for me. Despite striking a deal with my parents to stick it out for the remainder of the year, I got involved in partying, drinking, and other things- and was in an abusive relationship that took up a majority of my thinking. I hardly went to class (though the classes I attended I excelled in) and finished the year with a 1.6 GPA and on academic probation.</p>
<p>The Summer following that year (2010) the (uncharacteristic) events of the prior school year manifested themself in a breakdown. i ended up deciding to live home for a year and attend community college. I have worked very hard, rediscovered myself, and now have a 3.62 GPA. I am looking to transfer for next semester (Fall 2011) as a journalism/ communications major. I am looking at SUNY Oneonta, Purchase, BU, and Allegheny College. Is it realistic to assume any of these schools will accept me?</p>
<p>It went like first semester- 2.8, second .6, third 3.6</p>
<p>The 3.6 is from a different school and in a different major than the other grades. My other grades were only received in the form of credits. According to my transcript, I have a 3.62. But colleges are going to have to look at last year, aren’t they?</p>
<p>Because I haven’t matriculated my grades from last year, my grades look like this. This is my “student records” copied and pasted:
CRN Subject Course Section Course Title Campus Final Grade Attempted Earned </p>
<p>GPA Hours</p>
<p>Quality Points</p>
<p>10232 ENGL 204 01 American Literature I Main A </p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>12.00</p>
<p>13637 ENGL 220 01 Literature into Film Main A </p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>12.00</p>
<p>10382 FREN 100 500 French Language & Culture I Main A </p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>12.00</p>
<p>11781 HLTH 131 03 Stress and Health Main A </p>
<p>1.000</p>
<p>1.000</p>
<p>1.000</p>
<p>4.00</p>
<p>15682 HUSV 210 360 Human Sexuality Main B </p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>3.000</p>
<p>9.00</p>
<p>11108 INDS 112 01 Community Service Seminar III Main B </p>
<p>My problem is my family has virtually no income beyond unemployment checks. Colleges can not punish every student who had a bad year. I can’t afford a private school without a significant amount of money given to me, and frankly, I’m a fantastic writer and I’m really smart. Too smart to go to some private school where people go after they fail.</p>
<p>“Too smart to go to some private school where people go after they fail” is a blatant mischaracterization of private universities. Students do not attend private universities when they fail. In fact, effectively all of the “best” colleges are private schools.</p>
<p>I would suggest finishing your lower division classes at the community college, then apply to transfer as a junior. You will be in a different applicant pool, have three straight semesters of strong grades and should have strong letters of recommendation as well.</p>
<p>While I agree that another semester or so at community college could make you a stronger transfer candidate, I wouldn’t discourage you from applying now. What harm could it do? If you feel ready to transfer, you should give it a shot. As for state universities only looking at your overall GPA, not your year-to-year averages, I’d never heard that before, and I’m not sure it’s true. As an example, here’s some information from New Paltz’s freshman admissions page:</p>
<p>What kind of high school average is expected?</p>
<p>•Our review of your academic work will be by academic year. </p>
<p>•We can get a clear, year-by-year picture of your achievement and motivation throughout the course of your high school career. </p>
<p>“As so many high schools now present weighted averages, we may recalculate the overall average in accordance with the high school profile if a significant difference is noted between the overall high school average and the end of year averages for individual core courses. We will use only the five core subjects when recalculating your average.”</p>
<p>I doubt the process would be much different for transfer students. Since you’d be submitting transcripts from several institutions, I’d think it would be even more obvious in your case that your various GPAs would be considered separately.</p>
<p>Good luck and congratulations on turning things around!</p>
<p>Tomorrow, take copies of your academic records and pop in at the Transfer Office of your CC. Sit down with a counselor there and talk about your options. They have a lot of experience helping people re-start their academic lives, and they will be able to help you determine what is the best option for you. Ask about articulation agreements between your CC and 4-year colleges/universities. You have great potential. You might find out that your best option is to finish up an AA where you are. You also might find out that with all of your AP and IB credits that that AA is a lot closer than you think.</p>
<p>Ok, you did what we down here call “Fresh Start”. That’s fine. I’d suspect; however, that you would be well served by waiting until you finish your two years at CC then transferring, if only because most state schools accept roughly 50% of the eventual graduating class at that point (at least that’s how it is in FL). Though I have little doubt that CC is not the optimal place for you, I would urge you strongly to keep up your grades and work harder there to create a rosy app which they’ll have little choice but to accept. Also, from the courses you’ve posted, you haven’t really shown an intellectual interest in a given area. I don’t know about the distribution requirements at your CC, but it would serve you well to have a clear set of interests demonstrated by your courses.</p>
<p>Having a declined prior transfer app may actually hurt you later onwards, but on the flip side, you’ll never know unless you try, but make sure any materials you submit are impeccable, because, if you do get rejected, they’ll be reviewing those again for your application later onwards, and if you’re accepted, they’ll form a major part of your record.</p>
<p>Thanks- I’m sorry for freaking out a little. I’m really scared, and the work I did last year was not congruent with my general academic character. I got my priorities out of order.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I made myself clear in that I will be receiving my associates in liberal arts May 2011. My courses this semester (with the exception of one, required, math class) point in the clear direction of a major in the area of english/ writing. I also have an internship I have been in all year as a librarian. </p>