Another Chance?

Student Lounge Veterans
1

<p>Hello. I am in the Navy and will be getting out at the end of my first enlistment in about 6 months or so. When I was 19 I went to San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the Fall '04 and Spring '05 semesters and had a really bad freshman year. My cumulative GPA for the two semesters was around 1.74 and i was on academic probation my second semester. I left after the second semester to attend community college in Los Angeles and held somewhere around a 3.0 average there. My SFSU transcript was transferred to the community college, however, so my current GPA for the two schools 2.04 or so. Then I joined the navy.</p>

<p>So here I am with almost enough coursework completed at a California community college to transfer to a UC or Cal State and a truly dismal GPA. I'll be 27 when I'm discharged and will have been out of school for 5 years. As I'm sure you all know there are huge differences between me then and me now.</p>

<p>My GPA, however, is such that I'm probably not even eligible to apply to any public university in California. Do I need to fix my GPA by contacting SFSU and Pierce College and somehow have my record expunged? Is that even possible? Do I need to contact someone at a university I want to go to and throw myself at their mercy? Do I need to attend community college and do really well, and say to the university "so i did really bad 7 years ago, but here are my most recent awesome grades!"</p>

<p>I've contacted SFSU several times but they've been surprisingly unhelpful with this. They really want a phone call, but I'm currently deployed on a ship and can't really use the phone just to go back and forth with admissions/records department of my old school. I was kind of hoping that someone out there has a similar story they can relate to my situation. I really appreciate any help.</p>

<p>-Dean Olson</p>

2

<p>You should go back to community college, maintain a respectable GPA and then transfer to a 4 year school. You can get your previous grades removed with something called academic renewal. This will basically eliminate your previous gpa and won’t effect your new grades. To get into a CSU all you need is a 2.5 GPA (go for at least 3.0 to be safe). You will need at least 3.5 to safety get into a UC school. Don’t worry; a lot of people go back to school again after doing really bad the first time. Being a veteran is definitely a plus and make sure to mention that in your admissions essay.</p>

<p>It seems like you have completed a lot of coursework already. Unfortunately, your GPA is really low and you would have to repeat a lot of your courses over again. When you are at community college, make sure to go to assist.org. This website will show you all the pre-req classes you need to take for your major for all the different state schools. For example, if you are trying to transfer as a business major to SFSU from a community college, go on the site and select the community college and SFSU. It will list out all the pre-reqs for that major at SFSU. Every school is different, even if its the same major, so be aware of that or you might get screwed and not have the requirements. Good luck</p>