Anyone know much about Vrginia Community Colleges and Academic Renewal?

Applying to College
1

I would really appreciate some advice.

For starters I am 28 and want to go back to school to earn a Bachelor’s degree. I went to college after HS and basically screwed around for about 5 years and never graduated. During that time I spent one year each at two 4 year colleges and a total of 5 semesters at two different Virginia CCs. I wasted a lot of time and got some very bad grades. It’s not something I am proud of.

It’s been five years since I was last in school and now I want to start over again. What I want to do is get the AA from the local CC and then do guaranteed admission to one of the state’s 4 year colleges, hopefully UVa.

What I need to know is, is that unrealistic cosidering my bad record from years ago? My GPA back then was probably something like a 1.0 or 1.5.

The CC I want to attend now is a different one from the two I went to before. If I complete the AA there with good grades will that be enough to qualify for guaranteed admission or will they factor in my bad grades from years ago too?

I know that there is a process called “academic renewal” where grades from long ago can be discounted and you can start building your GPA from scratch. Is that still possible since I went to 4 different colleges?

2

Academic renewal is usually institution-specific. That is to say, you’ll need to go back to the original community college and formally petition for renewal. Even then, the old grades aren’t erased from your transcript. They’re just categorized differently so that you may now qualify for things like graduating honors.

So, UVa and other transfer schools will definitely see all of those grades and, accordingly, consider them as part of your application. As for guaranteed transfer? I know this sort of thing exists, but with UVa? Seems too good to be true.

Good luck!