<p>Back in the fall of 2010, I enrolled at Villanova University near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was specifically admitted to the Villanova School of Business (VSB), recently ranked as high as the #7 Und. B-school in the country. To make a long story short, I was immature and enjoyed the social scene much more than I should have, and ended up with a rough 1.7-1.8 GPA to end my freshman year. My parents removed me, despite the University allowing me to return, and I was left with relatively few options.</p>
<p>The option chosen for me by my parents and my regretful actions was community college. So I went on to complete an easy Fall semester of 2011 there ending with a 3.75 GPA and 17 credits. This semester I chose to enroll at a local university, Florida Atlantic U, to try to add a little credibility to my transcript and show a continued upward trend. I do once again anticipate achieving at least a 3.5 GPA while taking the toughest classes they offer, in one of the heaviest workloads the registration office has ever seen.</p>
<p>I'm trying to figure out my options, and the whole transfer process is baffling to me. I'm only really accustomed to dealing with the freshman application process and it's straight-forward metrics and standards. I don't know how relevant the information is, but I was a great student in H.S., took a bounty of AP classes, had a great GPA (though I don't remember it off the top of my head), and a 2150 on my SATs.</p>
<p>It's been a very long, painful, embarrassing, and at times depressing year for me. I know that I want to continue with the field of study I have chosen, and want to attend a school that gives me the best possible education in undergrad business, more specifically finance.</p>
<p>Can anyone help me out with this? I almost don't know where to begin.</p>
<p>Any and all suggestions or help is appreciated!</p>
<p>Telayl - How I wish I could! And it would be easier right? But my father has removed doing so from the discussion completely. We’ve argued and fought over it for 10 solid months. Vehemently heated arguments that involve him kicking me out of the house, ect, ect. I’m going to apply regardless, and give it one last shot because it’s the place I love, but I need to have other options.</p>
<p>Will your parents still be supporting you financially?</p>
<p>Start by compiling a list of schools with programs you’re interested in. Narrow it down based on school size, location, and cost.
Request transcripts from your high school, Villanova, your CC, and Florida Atlantic, and send SAT scores to your schools.
Get to know your professors at CC or Florida for potential letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>Think about timing and graduation. Are you trying to transfer for Fall 2012? If so, application deadlines are just around the corner. That isn’t a lot of time, so you might consider staying another year at CC. There are limits on the number of credits you may earn and still transfer, so I would not continue taking classes at Florida Atlantic unless that is where you’d like to earn your degree. An extra year would give you time to show admissions at any school that you are serious about doing well, since they would only have one semester of work to go by for this coming fall.</p>
<p>A lot of transfer students, myself included, are or were in similar positions. Try not to worry too much. It’s a long process, but it’s worth it.</p>
<p>Brishe - Thanks for your comments. My parents will be supporting me financially, and I do need to transfer this year. Alot of the deadlines I’m seeing are later in March, April, and even some all the way into May. So unless I’m mistaken I do have time. I understand that they will only see the CC work, but neither my parents nor I am willing to continue down here for another semester or year. With that in mind, do you have any more helpful suggestions?</p>
<p>You still have time but the deadlines forMichigan, Cornell, Carnegie and Chicago to name a few are already passed. </p>
<p>I don’t really understand your father there. You showed that you had changed and that you were able to stand an heavy workload now. Doesn’t it show him that you have matured enough to return to an academically challenging environment?</p>
<p>Telayl - To be completely honest, no one understands my father. He’s very arrogant and can never be wrong. When he removed me from Villanova he did so with a smirk on his face and spite in the way he spoke to me. He can’t be wrong, and thinks that sending me back to Villanova is wrong. He’ll dispute any claim that the University allowed, or will allow me to return by arguing that they just want his money.</p>
<p>I know a few deadlines have past, but I still have time with many. Besides, do you really see me getting into UMich or Cornell at this point? Ya, I wish. Not trying to be snarky. I just need some schools that are more realistic at this point, and it’s a lot harder to wittle down the massive list of schools when you don’t have metrics to really compare yourself against.</p>
<p>Your dad seems like a great lad to deal with for college life. Thus you forget about Villanova.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, I am not sure you should completely dismiss top schools. Yes you had a terrible first semester but you showed that you were able to get your **** together and move on. You also have a decent SAT and a probably concordant high school GPA. Thus, you have a shot at some decent school, maybe not Cornell or Michigan but decent anyway.</p>
<p>Hence you will definitely have to explain how you grew up and matured since you left Villanova and how you want to venture through more challenges, more possibilities, make the world a better place and so on in your transfer essay but this should be able to get you in your state school at very least.</p>
<p>You should have a look at LACs and top 100 universities. You should also know that financial aid is less important for transfers and that you may get either an edge during admission by not needing it or shoot a bullet in your feet but it’s worth a shot.</p>
<p>Telayl - Ya he’s something. My second semester did improve ending up with like a 2.8 for Spring. And this fall semester of course improved on that. So yes, I’m hoping to ride the upward train.</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind words. More than anything right now, I could use an injection of encouragement and optimism after the past year or so of beating myself up over this. I just need to get a list of U’s that I can apply to. Most of them I’m sure won’t take the CC credit, and my father despite his harping will just have to accept that. But I still hope they’ll take it at face value as me doing the best I could with my situation. And I should get the credits from FAU, as it’s a fairly large 4-year institution.</p>
<p>I’ll take a look at those lists. Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean about the financial aid? Is it just a crapshoot as to whether not requiring it will help or hurt me? Or is it definitely something in my favor?</p>
<p>First off - props for getting your life back on track and persevering through everything with your father.</p>
<p>As far as where to apply goes, are you looking to continue in business? Are there any states you want to avoid or want to specifically go to school in? Do you just want to go to the most prestigious school you can? </p>
<p>I would say just as a starting point, look at some schools comparable to:</p>
<p>University of Rochester
William & Mary
University of Florida (safety)
Notre Dame (potential reach)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
American University (safety)
GW
Bucknell
Emory (reach)</p>
<p>Or if you’re looking more towards LAC’s…</p>
<p>Macalester
Washington & Lee
Davidson
Wesleyan (reach)
Grinnell</p>
<p>You imply above that the colleges you’re applying to will only see the CC classes. This is not the case, you must also show them the year at UV. Colleges ask you to show them every transcript from work you’ve done post high school.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for all the help. I really do appreciate it. All the help you’re giving me is so great!</p>
<p>catspajamas - I am looking to continue in business, and it’s not as easy I thought to narrow my search for that. </p>
<p>No, I don’t really care about location. I don’t particularly want to live in a state in the North Dakota, Iowa region (not to offend anyone), but it’s really not much of an issue. My father, being the strange man that he is, told me that I couldn’t go west of the Mississippi (don’t ask me why, idk). That can be re-worked however if there are real opportunities for me that I should take advantage of in the Western half of the U.S. (I live in Florida). I can live anywhere.</p>
<p>I do want to go to the most prestigious school I can, but I am hoping to have (albeit limited) options.</p>
<p>That list you just made was incredibly heartening, I didn’t think any of those type of schools were in play for me. I don’t see the likes of Notre Dame (despite having applied once already, and having a sibling go there) or Emory being reaches, I feel lightyears away from schools like that. I’d love to be wrong and even have the opportunity to consider them reaches. I’m thrilled to see you put GW as I was accepted there as a freshman and would love to attend that particular school. The same goes for William and Mary and Bucknell. Maybe I just don’t understand how the transfer process works, but I didn’t think any of these types of schools could be considered possible in my situation.</p>
<p>The LACs are great as well. You really made my day.</p>
<p>Waverly - Thanks for the response mate, much appreciated. To clarify, what I meant was simply that from this academic year only my results from the CC Fall semester would be available. Meaning that my FAU grades would not be seen, because I wouldn’t be done with this semester yet, obviously.</p>
<p>Yes I do know that I must send the VU info. That’s no problem.</p>
<p>I’ve heard some good things about Indiana’s business school.</p>
<p>I’m almost in exactly the same situation as you. I went to Drexel in Philly during the 2010-2011 school year as a computer science major. I disliked most of my classes and partied way more than I should have. I ended up with a 2.0 GPA cumulative. I did reasonably well in High school, with a 3.7 GPA, 1800 SATs, and 30 ACTs. I also took 4 AP classes in HS. This year I’m going to a community college near home and had a 3.6 GPA last semester. I expect to get at least the same GPA this semester. Staying another semester or year at the community college isn’t an option, since I’ve already taken classes that would fulfill most if not all of the gen ed requirements at most colleges, and the CC doesn’t offer classes in what my major will be (either neuroscience or cognitive science). I was looking at state schools to transfer to, such as Temple, but I wanted to see how far up the scale of colleges I could reasonably apply to. This post helps me out a lot, and gives me some hope by seeing that I’m not the only one that messed up freshman year so badly. Thanks and good luck to you, friend!</p>
<p>Bump…any other suggestions? I have begun the process. But I’m still trying to figure out what schools I can reasonably shoot for. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Hey everyone, I too am in the same situation. I attended UC Irvine my freshman year and I tanked my gpa to say the least…I ended with a 1.7. I now attend a community college and feel at piece with my situation (got a 3.2 this past semester) however, I’d appreciate some advice on schools to look into. I’d like to have a career in healthcare and am hoping to major in biology or physiology. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Also for everyone else in the same situation…as my counselor said “we’re not defined by our freshman year of college”. Some of us had a rough transition, or made bad choices…whatever the case the important thing is that we’ve learned from our mistakes and are moving forward with our lives. Keep your head up.</p>
<p>I think I’ll be applying to St. Marys of California, Santa Clara Univeristy, USC, and Occidental…I haven’t really looked into schools outside of California but I’d really appreciate some suggestions lol</p>