<p>I'm in a unique situation and I was hoping someone here could possibly help me.</p>
<p>I attended three different colleges from ages 18-21 and performed poorly at each. I don't want to disclose too much information, but of the five semesters I attended college, my GPA was only above 2.0 for one of those semesters. Unfortunately, I don't have much of an excuse for my poor performance aside from a severe anxiety disorder (for which I've only recently started taking medication for).</p>
<p>Anyway, I began attending another CC last year and I'm currently maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Although I provided my current CC with my old transcripts, the previous credits were never transferred because they were more than five years old. I plan on graduating soon and transferring to a state university that has an articulation agreement with my community college. My academic advisers never mentioned that my previous poor grades would be an issue, but I'm still concerned. The admissions advisers at the state university will inevitably see my past grades when I submit all of my transcripts. If asked, how do I explain my situation to them?</p>
<p>Explain how the severe anxiety disorder affected your ability to do well in school. Obviously since you started taking meds you have been doing very well(4.0 gpa) so you should highlight that.</p>
<p>This shouldnt be much of a problem. Essentially the university wants to see that you can do well at their school, which your 4.0 clearly shows. Like contra said, tell them that once you started taking your meds, you did fine. I doubt they make an issue out of it.</p>
<p>As the above posters pointed out, use your admissions essay to point out that you made attempts despite your disorder before, and once the medication controlled it you were able to persevere and produce a solid GPA. A friend of mine just transferred into UCLA’s poli sci program who was in a similar situation as you except with a smaller gap (2 years) and no medical condition to speak of. She was just lazy. Bombed for two years at a community college, tons of W’s, abysmal performance, then just bailed completely. Spent two years working full time, then went back for a couple of years and performed fairly well (she’s transferring in with a 3.67, which is by no means a great GPA) and just explained in her essay that she had no direction before, etc. You’ll be fine, just focus on keeping those grades up and writing one hell of an essay. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^^
Excuse me; a 3.67 is by no means a great GPA?
Seriously?</p>
<p>@Jo, a 3.67 is a great GPA, but it’s all relative. Coming from a CC and trying to transfer to UCLA, you usually need a 3.8-ish, among other things, to have a decent shot.</p>
<p>@Jo: As hahahahah (your username name makes it impossible to quote you without laughing, nice) said from a CC 3.67 is actually pretty average for transferring into UCLA’s poli sci. Check out assist.org, it shows the transfer rates and average of accepted GPAs.</p>
<p>A friend of mine is in a VERY similar situation, except his gap is even longer than the OP’s; we’re talking around 5 years or so. He didn’t really have a medical condition either and was also just being lazy and didn’t really have the motivation or direction needed to make it through community college. He finally realized his mistakes just this past year and has already gotten 50+ units done and managed to keep a 4.0 GPA. He’s sort of also worried about his past but hoping a great essay can help his case…</p>
<p>“I plan on graduating soon and transferring to a state university that has an articulation agreement with my community college.”"</p>
<p>Sit down with the counselors at your CC and talk with them about the restrictions on this articulation agreement. Your old bad grades may very well not be any kind of problem considering that you will have completed a full AA/AS at your current institution.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>