<p>I am an old(er) transfer student who attended 3 different community colleges over 10 years ago my grades were horrible (W's, F's, and D's). Two years ago, I enrolled in a fresh community college and now have 60 transferable units with a GPA of 3.74. While touring the UC application, it states:</p>
<p>"Make sure to enter all colleges and universities you have attended in any country regardless of how long you attended, whether courses were completed or whether you believe the record will affect your chances for admission or yield transferable credit. Omitting a school can jeopardize your admission to UC."</p>
<p>My question:</p>
<p>Can they find my bad transcripts? Should i disclose my bad semesters? Is there a data base that stores all college records? What would you do? Has anyone faced this? If so what did you do?</p>
<p>It’s fairly trivial for a school to find records from all (American) colleges you have attended. So yes, you absolutely need to disclose everywhere you went, or you will not be going to a UC.</p>
<p>So they do search for all college records? How do you know this?</p>
<p>There’s an organization called the National Student Clearinghouse. Among other services, they offer something which gives the college a full report of all schools you have enrolled in. </p>
<p>Now, I don’t actually know that they DO use this on every applicant. But the alternative is worse, because they’re certainly going to check before you get a degree. And if they find out after you’re already attending, you don’t get just rejected, you get EXPELLED.</p>
<p>Expulsion? I have not heard of one case. Can you provide me an article or post? Where did you get this information?</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation. The answer I found, after much googling was a thread on here, though it got so heated and was dishonest that I think it was removed. </p>
<p>It has to do with the Ferpa Act and how they deal with the Clearing House. Short answer: If you NEVER received any sort of financial aid at those community colleges OR transferred their credit to your new community college then yes, there are steps you can take to ensure that a school cannot and will not find out. If you did receive federal aid ever, then you are SOL for sure.</p>
<p>Your grades and enrollment are private and you have the right to privacy (though the schools also have the right to have you disclose it if you’re applying). If you have received financial aid at any of those schools and you’re applying for aid at your new school they will find out because your package is compiled based on past credits AND past grades, believe it or not. Also, if you received financial aid while you got your bad grades, then you’re double screwed. Research the FERPA act.</p>
<p>The good news is that although yes, sending your transrcipts will put you at a disadvantage, I’m almost sure there is some sort of an expiration on them, at least mentally in the admission’s committee’s eyes. They recognize that it is not just ability, it’s about priorities. Best of luck…</p>
<p>Hi oldman-</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer to the logistics of how far back folks look and the risks associated with not disclosing things, but here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>You are not the same person you were 10 years ago, and that probably makes for an interesting story. I know several stories about kids who did miserably (barely passed) in high school, then went to cc, did well and transferred successfully, to very decent schools (temple, tulane). </p>
<p>I may be naive, but I think the story about your more recent successes will be more interesting than the long ago past.</p>
<p>Yeah, amarkov has no idea what he is talking about saying they will check before you graduate, lol. No one does that. If they check at all, it would be when you apply, and even that is doubtful.</p>
<p>There is an informal “satute of limitations” on old schooling. No school is really going to care about how you did 10 years ago. However, rather than hide it, you can use the most recent 2 years as contrast with the “bad old days” and basically use it as proof of how much you have matured and settled down. If you choose not to share the old grades I wouldn’t worry about it, but I wouldn’t be afraid of them either. In fact, I think that, accompanied with an essay of how your life has changed over that time, it is a distinct positive.</p>