California Student- Do poor grades effect admissions a decade later? Do W's and F's stick forever?

Transfer Students
1

I graduated High School in June 2008 and attended Santa Monica College starting in Fall of 2008 and in the first year reeked havoc on my transcript. In my first year I got 2 W’s and two F’s. The two W’s were for an English class that I later received on of those F’s in. I retook the other course I got an F in and got a B. I then tried to take two classes the next semester and got an F in one class and had to withdraw from the other (I couldn’t get to class because of the parking situation). I decided to just take one class for the next two semesters and had to withdraw from each course (the parking situation was impossible). In the time I was there I racked up 3 F’s and five W’s (I did well in many other classes, but this is all of the bad stuff). At that point I decided college just wasn’t for me and dropped out.

Flash forward to about a year ago, I decided I was going to give college one more shot and enrolled at El Camino College and took two distance learning classes from Coastline CC. I have taken ten classes and averaged a 3.76 GPA. I am retaking one of the classes I got a W and later an F online the SMC this spring, and have retaken the English class I botched at SMC through El Camino.

With all of that said, I am still a good way from having the credits necessary to transfer. My transcripts for Coastline and El Camino are great but I really screwed the pooch at SMC. Will these W’s and F’s play a role in the admissions a decade later, even if I am doing great and have retaken the courses? Is there anything that I can and should be doing? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

2

For repeated courses, see the following for UC policy:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/repeating/index.html

3

I guess that I should add that I do not plan on transferring to a UC. I want to transfer to CSU Long Beach (it’s the only school in my area with the bachelor program I want.)

4

It is not obvious what the repeated course policies are for CSU generally or CSULB in particular from their web sites. You may have to ask CSULB directly.