Applying to school, don't want to use old grades?

<p>It's not that I want to hide my previous academic record or lie in any way, but it's been about 7 years since I've been in college and my grades when I was in before were far less than stellar. At this point all it can do is hold me back from getting into a good school, and even then I'd have to fight that much harder to raise my GPA. A fresh start would not only give me the refresher of the intro classes (especially math!) but would give me the opportunity to do things right now that I feel like I'm really ready to go to College.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if this is possible however, and would really like some insight as to how to go about this the right way. Thanks!</p>

<p>Whenever you apply for admission to an accredited college or university in the US, you will be asked to provide academic transcripts from every other accredited college and university in the US that you have attended up to that date. There is no way around it. You will have to send those old ugly grades.</p>

<p>However, you have been doing other things with your life in the past seven years that many colleges and universities will happy to take into consideration in the admission process. Don’t let those old bad grades hold you back too much. If you are trying to figure out how to get yourself up to speed, and you’d like a chance to prove what you are capable of in the classroom, enroll in classes at your local community college. Most are open admission, which means that they won’t care about your grades at your previous college/university even if they do need a copy of the transcript to put in your admission file. Pick up the phone tomorrow, and call them. They have lots of experience working with returning students like you.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

<p>Some colleges have a rule where if the grade is more than five or so years old, they won’t consider it. Even if they don’t, I’m sure they’ll understand that you have probably changed a lot in the past seven years, especially if you write an essay explaining the situation.</p>

<p>thank you both. You’ve really helped more than you know.</p>