<p>I dropped out of college in my freshman year due to depression and did poorly in my classes. This was 5 years ago. I spent the next 2 year totally lost in life. Thankfully, I was able to solve the problems in my personal life and I was determined to finish my education. I took 55 hours at a community college (pretty much all the Gen Ed courses) and finished with a 3.9. I was able to get readmitted to my original university. My major is engineering. Right now, I've finished 38 hours (2 full time semesters and one summer) in the core engineering courses and I got a 3.8 GPA in them. I'm totally focused now and I want to go into a good graduate program. </p>
<p>I still have one more semester left before I apply, so I'll most likely have around 50+ hours of advanced engineering courses with around a 3.8 GPA. So my college transcript will look something like this when I apply:</p>
<ol>
<li>50+ advanced engineering courses at my 4 year university</li>
<li>55 hours of Gen Ed</li>
<li>bad semester 5 years ago in my 4 year university</li>
<li>28 AP credits from high school</li>
</ol>
<p>The graduate program I want to get into said they calculate admission GPA based on the last 60 hours of undergrad. I wonder if they can count a few hours of my CC credits in this because I don't have 60 hours of advanced engineering courses by the time I apply. I also wonder if they'll let my past failures slide?</p>
<p>I did well on the GRE and I can get good recommendation letters. Plus I have some research experience too.</p>
<p>I just hope i can't move on with my life and not have my past always haunt me.</p>
<p>First, no one will care one bit about whether you had AP credits. It’s grad school. Second, you will probably be fine. I can’t say for certain, obviously, but there are plenty of people who screw up for a semester or three and still make it into graduate school just fine.</p>
<p>It should be no problem. The bad semester was a long time ago and you have proven that you can do the academics. It does not really matter how they calculate your GPA, it looks good.</p>
<p>OP, I had a similar issue - I was in school for 8 semesters of aerospace engineering before I was kicked out for bad grades. Took 6 years off, re-entered my original school in electrical engineering, finished with a 3.85. Applied to 4 grad schools. One top-5 and two top-25 departments accepted me as is, one top-10 program accepted me only after I went to the campus on my own dime and pled my case, one top-5 program said a very quick “thanks, but no thanks”. The latter two programs both had issues specifically with my prior performance - while my alma mater only counted my new GPA, those two schools calculated a total GPA on their own. I would not be surprised if you had a similar experience.</p>
<p>Cosmicfish, I’m aware that some schools look at your complete undergrad grades, like MIT or Stanford, and I’m sure the latter two you mentioned are in those categories. I’m not even going to apply to such schools.</p>
<p>I’m going to apply to schools that specifically states that they only look at the last 60 hours, and it’s a state school in my state. So I should have no problems right?</p>
<p>
They both looked at my full transcript, yes. Both ignored the entry in my transcript where my alma mater said “we are forgiving grades prior to MM/YYYY and GPA calculations only include courses taken after this date.”</p>
<p>
Well, grad admissions occurs in two rounds - an initial down-select based on easy metrics like GPA and GRE, and then an up-select where they look at everything. It is likely, based on your GPA, that you will have no problems in the down-select from your earlier academic stint. But it is possible that some potential advisors will have an issue and pass you over in the up-select.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>the school I’m aiming for is UIUC. Does anyone know how their admission process works?</p>