Fresh Start at Community College, or Am I Doomed?

Applying to College
1

<p>I went to engineering school straight out of high school (state university), I dropped out after my third semester with a ~2.3 gpa, one F, and 5 W's. </p>

<p>Now I'm at community college doing an A.S. in engineering, retaking all the classes I did poorly in at university. I'm earning A's and plan to graduate with a 3.9 gpa and about 70-80 credits. </p>

<p>So, I'm sure I can get into another university after doing that. Of course at university, I'll ideally do a 3.9 or 4.0 gpa. </p>

<p>Assuming that, how doomed am I? At first, I didn't even give it much thought. I figured, "I paid for my first attempt at college, went in debt, and got a terrible education in return, why is it another college's business if I only wanna send them my CC transcript--I'm retaking ALL general ed's?" </p>

<p>But to my horror, I found out that colleges are really Nazi-like with these things. Their policies are so big-brother, that I am left with NO choice but to send ALL my transcripts every time I apply to transfer or go to grad-school. </p>

<p>So, how much will this hurt me? I want to go to graduate school. Otherwise, there is no reason I'd do hard engineering/science. How much will this bring me down? Are grad-schools going to be like "oh this kid took calc at university and got a C+ and then took it again at CC and got an A, that doesn't count." Are they going to calculate ALL the grades and credits together, so that a 3.9 from CC and 4.0 from university (second time) will actually be reduced to a 3.2 or something?</p>

2

<p>Good new grades are taken more seriously than old bad ones because lots of us were young and stupid when we were young and stupid, and some of us have grown up to be college professors who sit on grad school admissions committees.</p>

<p>Keep getting good grades at your CC. Transfer to a 4-year institution and keep getting good grades. Do your best to get into a lab group with an investigator who is working on something that is interesting to you, and then get that person to advise you on finding the best grad school for your long-range goals. Different grad schools will evaluate your GPAs differently. Some will average all the grades together, others will only care about the new good grades in your major. Since you don’t know yet where you will be applying (and the policies about interpreting grades can change from one year to the next) don’t worry about this just yet. Know this though: any institution or research group that cannot recognize that you are older, wiser, and truly committed to the field of study is one that you don’t want to work with anyway.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>