Hello everyone, hoping to get some recommendations on my situation.
I’m 26 and I’ve been out of school for 7 years now. I went to music school right out of HS to study music business. I ended up failing most of my classes after a little company I started in my first semester started to pickup steam and I wasn’t able to juggle all of my responsibilities. I got an academic warning, returned for a second semester thinking I could find a way to balance the time only to end up failing all of my classes again.
The next year I took some online classes through UMass online, also ended up failing or getting incompletes on all of those courses. I wanted to continue my education but my business got in the way.
I’ve since sold the business and am looking to continue my education but I’ve read conflicting advice on what my next steps should be.
I’m interested in studying Neuroscience, with an eye towards continuing to either med or grad school. I’ve been interested and actively reading up on the field for a few years now, so I have a decent idea of what I’m getting into.
So here’s the question, what should I do next to get started? Take a few classes through a local state university (both online & on-campus) as a non-degree seeking student before applying to a 4-year? Community college?
I’m also interested in applying to some programs in the UK, would really appreciate any advice on my situation. I am a much more mature individual nowadays and I’m ready to get started.
Congrats on returning to college. I’ll give you my experience and maybe it’ll help.
I enrolled at a community college. Took the most rigorous classes I could. In your case make sure you take science courses with labs! that relate to the major you’re interested in.
Did the absolute best I could in my classes - so far I have a 4.0. The point is you want to show transfer schools you have learned from your previous experience of failing and are now ready. Side note: I took only 9 credit hours the first semester to ease my way after 12 years out of school.
Start researching potential transfer schools from the very beginning. Go through their transfer/academic requirements to get an idea of what they’re looking for.
Tell your advisor your plans but don’t rely only on them. There’s so many students in my school most advisors simply give you a sheet with what you need for an associate’s but I found some selective liberal arts colleges don’t take “pre-professional” courses like accounting or journalism. Or the minimum math class they would transfer credit for was Calculus.
Get as involved as possible in extra curricular activities.
Get to know your professors. Pick a couple from your science classes or ones in which you did extremely well and let them know your plans. They’ll be valuable sources of advice, and recommendations.
Keep in mind some schools ask for SAT/ACT scores, if this is the case and you think you can do better start practicing and retake the test.
Start working on your applications sooner rather than later to avoid unnecessary stress (specially with getting recommendations and transcripts out).
Good luck!
Oh and check about online courses! It varies by schools but some don’t accept them for transfer. It’s best to look at the schools that interest you and send them an email if their policy is not clear.
Also, many community colleges have “articulation agreements” with 4-year institutions. Some of those institutions are extremely prestigious, such as Grinnell, Cornell, Hampshire etc. (Hampshire has a special program for nontraditional students.) You may want to hook yourself into one of those feeder programs at a community college. You can research articulation agreements by googling that term plus the name of your favorite 4-year institution. Alternately, don’t be afraid to just call the admissions office at your desired 4-year college. Tell them what you’re doing and ask for their advice. At Cornell admissions to programs goes through the admissions office, obviously, but also at the department level for some departments. Calling that department and understanding from them what they require is helpful to you. You will find out just what classes and what level of rigor they are seeking. This is esp. true of the sciences at Cornell. Also get a list of any articulation agreements. Admissions officers and departments will be happy to get to know you as a person in this way. If they see you following through, see that you’re successful, you may build a better opportunity for yourself. I’d limit my communications with them to just one or at most two a year throughout your process, but view your communications as a way to build your reputation with admissions. will this guaranteee admission? No. Nothing guarantees admission, but it will increase your chances. And you will be prepared for your second choice schools as well. (Many other factors besides your grades and test scores go into admissions decisions. Some of these, such as number of openings in a class, you have no control over.)