Have earned 7 F grades in CC, but have improved since, how will this affect transfer to Sac State?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California State University - GENERAL
1

Hello I have been a student at American River Community College for 4 years. I am a mathematics major and desire very strongly to get a bachelors in mathematics and am going to apply for transfer in Spring 2020. I have completed all of the necessary lower division courses(including the Calculus series, linear algebra, differential equations, and a programming class), and General Education courses according to assist.org. My worry is that I have earned 7 F grades and 3 W grades early on in my career at American River College. These were due largely to working jobs with unpredictable hours, involving early morning/late night in the same week, etc and poor living circumstances such as living in my car at some periods due to not being able to pay rent on top of school expenses.

Another thing which may be relevant is that early on in my career at American River College I assessed into Calculus(which I did to try to expedite my time there) and skipped Precalculus, which I believe actually negatively affected my later math grades due to some unpreparedness.

However a year ago I got a much more suitable job with stable and appropriate hours as well as a great and affordable living situation. Over the past year my grades have all been B and A grades(taking a full time school schedules of 12 units). My GPA is currently a 2.3. How will this poor grade history impact my chances of admission into the Mathematics program at Sac State? Do you have any advice for how I can maximize my chances of admission, other than continue earning descent grades?

2

That your GPA is 2.3 with seven previous 'F’s is impressive. It is possible to transfer with that GPA, but that’s at the extreme low end of what they accept: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/california-state-university-sacramento (Click Applying/Academics & GPA and scroll down.)

3

CSU Sacramento is an impacted campus, so the minimum GPA to transfer is higher than 2.0. Unfortunately, they do not say how high the threshold was in the past. They also do not say what the effect of being in the local area is.

https://www.csus.edu/admissions/impaction.html

If you are not successful at transferring, check if you can repeat the failed courses at the same college and that CSU admissions will use only the most recent grade in that case.

4

AR is ‘local’ to Sac so you will probably be OK with a 2.5ish GPA - as long as you aren’t applying to a selective major… You may be able to re-take a couple of your Fs and replace them with fresh grades - that would have a big GPA impact.
I’d make a face to face appointment with a transfer admissions advisor at Sac, bring your transcript and have them help you map your next steps.

Good luck.