Bad grades four years ago, 4.0 now.

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I will try to make this short and sweet.</p>

<p>When I first attended Michigan State 4 years ago, I earned 20 credits with a 2.52 cumm. GPA. I completely failed a Calc. class. </p>

<p>I dropped out, joined the U.S. Marine Corps and got my self straightened out. I am now about to get out and return to Santa Monica College (I am a resident of California and intend to stay.) I have taken Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus and English Composition and easily earned a 4.0 with my new found motivation for school. </p>

<p>I would like to go back in time and whoop my own ass for not realizing how fortunate I am to be able to get an education. I TRULY believe this now after having my ass in the dirt for four years. Too many students do not understand this. </p>

<p>Long intro, my bad..</p>

<p>So I am returning to school full time and have 100% confidence in my ability to achieve a 3.9+ GPA, as my sole priority now is to get educated. </p>

<p>Question tho.. From your experience, </p>

<ul>
<li><p>Would it be advantageous for me to transfer my old credits to CC, and then re-take the courses?</p></li>
<li><p>I have thought about returning to Michigan State for a semester to retake Calculus. The only problem is that, although MSU's administration agreed to allow students to retake courses with a grade above 2.0, the computing system is unable to handle this new implementation, so technically no student is allowed to retake a course if they earned a grade above a 2.0. Thus the only class I would be able to retake is the calc class that I failed. Is this even worth it?</p></li>
<li><p>And finally, assuming that I was able to retake all the classes and achieve a 3.9+, how much would the grades from 6 years ago (I will be applying in 2) affect me? For the record I am participating in awesome ECC's, a lot of leadership experience, and unique life experiences.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>I would like to attend UCLA, USC, UCSB, UCSD, possible UCD, Occidental, any of the Clairemont colleges, Pepperdine and perhaps a few others I am forgetting.</p>

<p>I am extremely grateful for all constructive criticism and feed back, I will read it all. </p>

<p>I hope my experiences have caused you to appreciate your education a little bit more.</p>

<p>Respectfully,</p>

<p>T.N.G.</p>

2

<p>If you have not already provided your old transcript to SMC, you should get that taken care of. They will tell you if any of those credits transfer, and as what. You may have the option to say you don’t want to bother to transfer the credits, but you don’t have the option to not get the transcript to them.</p>

<p>The best plan is probably just to take Calculus from scratch at SMC. Anyone looking at your records will see that when you were young and stupid you wiped out in Calculus, but now that you are older and wiser you can do just fine. Lots of us have academic records like that.</p>

<p>As for which CSU or UC you will be able to aspire to in a couple more years, that would be something to ask the advisors at SMC. They are the experts. You also could have a chat with the veterans advisors at the universities that you are thinking of targeting. They will have ideas for you too.</p>

<p>I’d also recommend that you check out the Veterans Sub-forum. It is hidden under the heading “Specialty College Admissions Topics” inside the College Admissions Forum. Yeah, they could hardly make it harder to find, but what can you do? Here’s the direct link: [Veterans</a> - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/veterans/]Veterans”>Veterans - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best in your new civilian life!</p>

3

<p>There are a few vets going through the transfer process right now. I’m a vet as well, but have graduated a few years back.</p>

<p>PM me, I may be able to provide answers to some of your questions…</p>

<p>I think you need at least 15 posts to PM though… so, add a few posts and then contact me.</p>

4

<p>Hey, thanks for responding guys, i feel better with your advice. I will be sure to check out the forum for vets, and send a few pms your way.</p>

<p>Respectfully,</p>

<p>TNG</p>