<p>I am currently an active duty Marine and will get out in October. I am 27 and attended college previously, ending in 2004. During that time I managed to get academically suspended from my college and dig myself into a 1.5 gpa. I have been rejected from my state universities and am currently petitioning for them to look at my application again. Community college is somewhat pointless, because I have over 100 credit hours completed and it would take me nearly 60 hours of straight A's to get up to a 2.0. I have submitted a petition letter, letters of recommendation, award certificates, and military education transcripts. I am looking to attend an Illinois state school. Does anyone have any advice, I know the past is not good but how can I fix it if no one is even willing to allow me to make the effort. Thanks for any advice you can provide.</p>
<p>First, and foremost, thankyou for your service to the country! You are obviously adifferent person after four years as a Marine, and any decent admissions committee should be able to recognise that. </p>
<p>I would continue with the petition, and if it is not successful, contact your state U.S. Senator and or Congressman/woman to write a letter of support, and have their rep call the admissions office and speak with the director personally. Be sure the senator or congressman has copies of your recommendations, awards & mil.transcripts. </p>
<p>Also, in your essay, explain how you were a different person when you had the low GPA, how the military experience has matured you, etc. Best of luck, you will get there, I'm sure!</p>
<p>Some ideas for you:</p>
<p>University of Maryland University College offers on-base and on-line courses. Military personnel and certain dependents pay in-state tuition. Contact their counselors for advice on what they could do for a student like you. <a href="Redirect">url=http://www.umuc.edu</a> - <a href="http://www.umuc.edu/index.shtml">http://www.umuc.edu/index.shtml</a> - UMUC</p>
<p>Ashford University offers on-site and on-line courses. The campus is in Clinton, Iowa. I attended the graduation there last spring and was amazed at how many of the distance students came from all over the country and all over the world to walk across the stage. Every single one had someone in the audience to cheer for them. I don't know the details on the veterans benefits they offer, but I do know that they will accept up to 90 semester hours of transfer credit depending on the program that you are going into. Visit their website at <a href="http://www.ashford.edu%5B/url%5D">www.ashford.edu</a></p>
<p>Contact the "Adult Student" or "Non-Traditional Student" or whatever the name for it is at the universities that you are interested in. There may even be a specific Veterans Office or Club. They work with students exactly like yourself every day of the week, and someone there should be able to help you with this process.</p>
<p>And, as for trying to raise your overall GPA, well just forget that for the time being. If you were to take (or retake) courses at the community college now, you will probably earn all A's because you are, after all, a Marine! The colleges/universities that you apply to are more interested in recent grades than in past grades. That is, if you have say 15 credits of A's from 2008-2009, and 100 credits of 1.5 from 2004, they will look at this and say to themselves, "Yup, the Marine Corps shaped up another kid. Let him in."</p>
<p>Wishing you much success in your civilian life.</p>
<p>thank you for your responses and advice, it is much appreciated. I will definitely look into all of these approaches.</p>
<p>I know many schools will not graduate students who do not have at least a 2.0 average--as in, if you got mostly D's and F's, have you really learned the material?</p>
<p>Brandon80 - </p>
<p>As soon as I posted this morning, I thought of a couple more resources for you. There are other threads here at cc started by returned/returning veterans like you, and I was able to find one of them. Also a fellow Marine, also in Illinois:</p>
<p>You could try contacting RandomGuy7 for his advice.</p>
<p>My sister who has a Marine son and a Marine daughter-in-law has found lots of support through the local chapter of Marine Moms. You could ask them for their advice and experience. Here are a couple of links:</p>
<p>Marine</a> Moms Online</p>
<p>gettinin - If you transfer, your courses may transfer, but the grades themselves don't. Your GPA for graduation is usually based only on the work you've done at that last school. This means that if you have a boatload of bad grades from when you were young and foolish, but you've taken some time off and you've grown up, and now your grades are good, all will be more-or-less forgiven.</p>
<p>And here is another Marine's thread for you. </p>
<p>stclairbj might have some good advice for you too.</p>
<p>I have finally figured out (I think) how to search the forums here at cc. Searching the transfer forum for "Marine" pulled up a whole bunch of threads, but I didn't read them. I just dug out the threads that I remembered reading earlier in the year. You might want to try a broader search and see what you come up with.</p>
<p>thank you again for the help and support. However, today my petition for admission was rejected by the executive director of admissions. I will look into some different avenues, and keep trying. thanks</p>