<p>Hello everyone, This is my first post and I hope someone here can help me. I am 29 years old and I plan on going to back to CC to transfer to a 4 year university ( I live in Los Angeles). I attended CC from 2001 to 2005 on and off with horrendous results (F's, W's). According to the records I have completed 37 units with a GPA of 1.74. My question is, is there anyway to start over? at a new CC for example? Even if I got straight A's in the rest of my classes my GPA would still be terrible. Everyone seems so knowledgable here and I am getting different answers from people. I attended Los Angeles Pierce College. I am very serious about transferring to a good school and I am hoping it is not too late to do something about it. The bad grades were because I wasnt attending, not because of any academic difficulties. I am prepared to start from scratch and would appreciate any feedback as to whether this is even possible or what route you would or have taken. Thank you very much for your time everyone, I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to try to get straight A’s in every class up to transferring. When you apply for transfer, you must submit every transcript showing every college course you’ve taken or currently have in progress. Schools have a way of finding transcripts you did not submit through the student national clearinghouse database.</p>
<p>With that being said, do not give up all hope. Schools like to see improvement and upward trend in grades. Be prepared to explain why you had such poor grades starting out and what you did to improve your study habits and motivation.</p>
<p>I’m afraid you can’t start from scratch, your college history will always be with you. But that said, colleges do look for improvement, particularly since you’re a non-traditional student who has taken out time to do other things. You need to come back and really show your renewed investment and maturity through your grades, LORs, participation in campus and other ECs, etc.</p>
<p>As well as the Transfer Students forum, you might want to also take a look at threads on the UC Transfers subforum and on this one for non-traditional students:</p>
<p>You must report ALL your prior college transcripts</p>
<p>The good news: if you ace your new classes, PRIVATE colleges will generally look almost exclusively at your newest grades (especially since there was a big gap in time) in terms of your ability to do work at the transfer university. They will see your grade <em>trends</em> and reward you accordingly. This is especially true for mid-tier private colleges and if you really wow them with your newest grades (all As).</p>
<p>The bad news: transferring to CSUs and UCs is almost <em>exclusively</em> based on your TOTAL GPA from all colleges attended. You probably need to get at least a 2.8 or higher to get into a CSU (I would aim for a cumulative of a 3.0 for your local LA-area CSU…if you want to go to an out-of-local-area CSU you probably need more like a 3.2).</p>
<p>This is no longer the era of students with a 2.0 getting into CSUs willy nilly - not enough spots and students with really low GPAs are being denied. Thus, you may want to also look at mid-tier privates or even OOS as you begin this new quest. I have a friend who went to Ohio State because his GPA was a mere 3.0 and he didn’t want to deal with the CSU system (and rejections).</p>
<p>Although you have to send transcripts from all of your schools, I think that the five-year gap will be helpful if you prove yourself this time around. I also think that if you start at a different CC, it will not use your old GPA when compiling your new one. Even if California universities will blend your GPAs together, any admissions counselor will easily see that you bounced around and then got your act together if that is what you do. This is America. We let you have another chance.</p>
<p>CA has a ‘forgiveness’ program whereby your past grades, if they are 5 or more years old, can be thrown out. You need to apply for this through your cc.</p>
<p>However, by “thrown out” – it doesn’t mean the disappear from the original transcript. Also, the forgiveness program applies to the CC itself … BUT since the CSUs and UCs see the original transcript AND the CSUs and UCs retain the right to forgive or not forgive prior grades… does this forgiveness of grades program really even help transfer students? I am not sure on that aspect of the program.</p>
<p>For example, at SJSU, they have a grade forgiveness program that can be used IF it is needed to help a student graduate with a 2.0 … however, all the grades remain on transcripts and any honors etc are still based on ALL work completed at any prior institute. I don’t get the idea that SJSU accepts prior grade forgiveness from prior institutions in this process – SJSU maintains the right to decide once a student is at SJSU. So grade forgiveness seems to benefit the SJSU student AFTER they are enrolled but not before. I may have read that incorrectly, but that is how I interpreted some of the fine print.</p>
<p>What you have to realize is that a human reviews the transcripts. If one is awful and the other is great, the admissions counselor will be albe to see that there has been a drastic change. Also, the OP can go for an interview and explain his change of heart about school and his great improvement because he has finally decided what he wants to do. You cannot remove the human element from this equation.</p>
<p>@ MD Mom: I agree there is a human element for many colleges in their app process. However, at the UCs and especially at the CSUs the “human element” has been drastically removed because cumulative GPA ending up being the SOLE criteria for ranking and accepting transfer students. In fact, the CSU transfer application does NOT even ask or provide a place to write an essay or list ECs. If one reads impaction notices and other memos, what one gleens is that the transfer process for the CSUs is purely a ranking system on GPA… the only tiered aspect is that they take first from local transfers (based on the community college most credits were earned), then from California-wide transfers, and lastly OOS transfers. </p>
<p>UCs have a little bit more wiggle room (listings ECs and an essay), but unless his GPA becomes competitive, the UCs will be quite a stretch at this time for the OP.</p>
<p>The budget crunch in CA has meant that kids with far higher GPAs and more consistent transcripts are being turned away. </p>
<p>At the privates, yes, grade trends will definitely help the OP.</p>
<p>The OP has a serious GPA problem… if he takes 37 MORE credits and earns a 4.0 with those grades… and add them to the 37 credits he currently has with a 1.7 - his cumulative GPA is still only a 2.87 – I promise you, kids under a 3.0 are being turned away from CSUs. (He can probably get into EITHER his local CSU or one of the less popular CSUs like Monterey Bay – but he will definitely miss the cutoff for quite a few CSUs these days).</p>
<p>And that new shiny 2.87 assumes straight As (no A-, no B+) … which he hasn’t established he can manage yet. If he is able to retake/replace some of those earlier grades, that may be helpful to his GPA but that will take more time.</p>
<p>Wow thank you everyone for all of the responses. Seeing that I cant start over and that there is no way to raise the GPA to a respectable level, to be honest it feels a little hopeless. If they just go by that number at UC’s and CSU’s it seems that my chances are slim to none (everyone is right competition is fierce, people are getting rejected by CSU’s). So all of the people I know that went to another CC to re-do everything are in danger have having their degree revoked? It seems everyone around has been doing this for years, but I am not one for the dishonest route (even though it seems to have worked out for countless people, which is unfair to the rest of us). Here is some additional info, I left high school senior year without graduating and I still have not completed my GED, does this mean the classes I have taken still count? Or do I need to have my GED before officially taking college courses. I know its a very specific question, but talking to some counselors at CC is difficult, I dont blame them, they are very busy, but they are always trying to usher you out for the next person, we get 5 mins tops. Thank you again everyone, this place is awesome.</p>
<p>Why don’t you try to make an appointment at a four-year university and ask some of your questions? Also, doesn’t California have one of those agreements with some of the surrounding states where you can pay in-state tuition? </p>
<p>I just think that the message you are hearing here is that all is lost and I just don’t buy it. Maybe California won’t work but there are thousands of schools in the U.S. and one of them is going to give you a break IF you improve next time around.</p>
<p>DamonD - don’t despair! MD Mom’s advice is good - go talk to a college counselor. Also check out the websites for any CCC you plan to attend. Each of the major CCCs in Calif. have transfer centers now to help ensure you do what it takes to transfer. They have counselors devoted to transfer requirements. CCCs also ususally have programs for “non-traditional” students, as another poster mentioned. </p>
<p>Listed below are links to special programs and transfer programs at two CCC in the LA area - Pierce and Pasadena, as examples. Pasadena, Santa Monica and El Camino are the 3 CCC in the LA area that have good reps sending a high number of students on to 4 year colleges. (Of course many other CCC are just as good!!)</p>