Going to a great engineering program, but over 6 years after H.S.

Applying to College
1

(excuse me, but I am reposting from the veterans forum. It didn’t look like there was much traffic there)

Hello,

I would like to hear from any other veterans who have been able to be accepted into a good engineering program, as a freshman, with more than 6 years since they went to H.S. I am an Air Force reservist, as well as a full time technician for the Air Force; I obviously plan on quitting the technician job. I will leave the reserves too, if I have to in order to arrange my affairs for an appropriate institution.

I am interested in a College of Engineering or Sciences. I have a really strong drive and clear motives as to why I want to go, however, I would really prefer to start as a freshman to be afforded the opportunity to get some of the discipline’s knowledge under my belt before choosing my exact undergraduate path.

I am studying to take the SATs when I return from my current deployment in February. I will also be taking subject tests for the sciences/math between then and summer. Beyond that, I would appreciate anyone’s advice, hopefully grounded from personal experience from going through the process themselves. I am assuming the my H.S. transcript doesn’t matter too much at this point; I only had around a 2.8 or 3.0, so I don’t think it will count for too much.

Here are the Universities I am interested in:

UCSB, UCSD, Columbia, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Stanford, MIT… Of course I would love the latter, but I don’t see how I could possibly make myself competitive even if I had perfect SAT scores. Please advise from your experience. (feel free to suggest other similar institutions as well!)

Finally, I am running into a “pickle” that I am hoping someone can confirm or dispel for me. I almost have my CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) degree (associates.) This isn’t really much of a real scholastic accomplishment to me; it’s just a bunch of credits handed to you from tech school and then you can CLEP a few classes. Acquiring it, however, can greatly help with my career, if I were to stay in the reserves. My question is whether or not I HAVE TO DECLARE this to Universities when I apply. Remember that I want to go as a freshman, not a transfer student. After some email traffic with a counselor at Stanford, I have been left with the impression that if you have any college credits, you will be considered a transfer student. Well, do they have a way of knowing if I have college credits or degrees, beyond me telling them?
— I’ll be impressed if someone has an answer to this last part. I have not been able to find one for a while now.

If you’ve read this far, I appreciate your time and I look forward to anyone’s correspondence and stories!

Also, if anyone thinks there is a more appropriate forum for this post, please correct my ignorance.

Thank you!

2

I’ll answer the last part first, can reply more later when I have time.
<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org</a>
if you show up there then the schools know.

3

Thank you. Ill take a look at this website when I can a chance this week. I take it you need some sort of account?

4

In short, yes, you will be a transfer student to any school you attend (if you’ve exceeded X hours - applicable to some schools) and you will need to provide a transcript from any/all schools you have attended post HS.

Where do you currently live?

Add Rice to your list, particularly if you have interests in bio. Add Caltech to your list if you have aero/physics interests.

5

I just really hate the idea that I have denied myself the ability to go to college as a freshman because I took one college class in HS and a few others over the years just for self improvement; I don’t even want the credit for the classes.

Perhaps I am misinformed. Heres what I was told by Stanford: Any college credits and you’re considered a transfer student.

To me, a transfer student means you NEED x amount of units prior to applying. Or is that not true, not true for all colleges? Can I try to be a “transfer student” with 10 units? Or should that be something I seek out per University.

I was hoping that as long as I was willing to forefit the credit for these classes, that I would not need to claim them.

I live in Southern California. But I am willing to move anywhere.

6

Some colleges cut off for transfer students at 12 credits, others don’t count courses taken while you were in high school. Some schools won’t require HS transcripts for transfer students with over 30 credits and some don’t require SAT’s for freshmen if you graduated 10 years ago or more. Whay I’m getting at is that policies are different for each school.

Also, just remember that any and all college academic records are a lot like prison records.

7

LOL interesting analogy.

da6onet is correct that the answer to your question(s) is variable.

The college class you took in high school likely won’t count as you were not matriculated at the college and taking the class for college credit as a student of that college.