Flunked out of college, now what?

Long story short: I got out of high school and went to community college, then I transferred to a CSU (California State Univ) to major in microbiology but I’ve been doing do badly in class that I have basically flunked out of school. I had failed physics and ochem twice and my school had not accepted my petition. I’m kicked out because my gpa is now below a 2.0. Is it still possible for me to go back to community college and transfer again to a different state school? And would I have to submit the transcript I had for my last school? What are my chances of being admitted to any university at this point?

What caused you to do badly?

Can I asked what factors prevented you from succeeding in school? You might want to resolve your personal issues, or whatever caused you to do poorly before, and then try again.

It was my first time moving out and I was facing financial situations at home so I took up two part time jobs to pay for rent so my parents wouldn’t have to. But I know all this is just excuse, I want to get back in college and redeem myself.

I am thinking work for a year or two, return to community college and do a LOT better, then try to transfer to a 4 year university, probably a CSU. However, your community college grades are going to need to be very good in order to prove to the universities that you have turned things around.

You need to be ready to fully commit yourself to studying before returning even to community college. Being fully committed includes having the financial issues resolved so that you will not need to work more than about 10 hours a week while you are a full time student (maybe 20 tops). At this point I think that you have figured out that community college is more difficult than high school, and university is more difficult than community college.

Yes, if you apply to universities in the future you are going to need to include the transcript from your earlier attempt at university.

I might add: The majority of Americans never get a 4 year university degree. Most do well without it.

All future universities will see your previous grades. There is a clearinghouse of info where they willaee that you attended, so you can’t avoid it.

I’d say you should take some time off and work, and maybe gain some maturity and financial stability before trying again. I suspect your major maybe isn’t for you given the classes you failed as well, so you will want to do some thinking about that.

I think the two above posters have strong advice: get everything in your life straightened out. Once it is, and you can give school the kind of time it requires, then go ahead and do CC again.

Microbiology might not be for you. So at CC you might want to take a variety of courses to figure out other areas of interest. Study hard and try to achieve, say, at least a 3.5 (to give yourself a decent transfer chance). Then when you get into a 4-year school again, you’ll have some idea, hopefully, of what you want to major in, and the commitment and capacity to get it done.

You say you “went” to CC-- does that mean you completed 2 years and have your Associate’s Degree? If not, then you can certainly transfer back and finish it.

Since you have been disqualified from CSU what you are looking at may be something along the lines of reinstatement rather than transfer even if you attend another campus. However I’m not sure about this.

Since you are in a situation few people out here are going to have experience with I think you’re better off talking to folks in the academic advising center at CSU, whether it’s your current campus or a different one that is now close to you. Most CSU campuses if not all I have this. For example here is the link to the one at Fullerton http://www.fullerton.edu/aac/ and as you see you can get advising just by walking in

Looking at some of the info on the page I gave they explain steps for students to gain readmission to the university. So it is something they have seen before and there is a pathway back. I think the advisers have any campus near you should be able to help since the policies are likely some more at all the campuses.