So, here’s my situation… I’ve preformed well in school my whole life, but I dropped out of high school my sophomore year due to a series of unfortunate events leading to depression. 3 years later i finally snapped out of it and got my GED after realizing that i need to continue my academic career before it’s too late (my score was 182). After that, I began taking courses at FRCC to transfer to an engineering school. Thus far, i have taken Chemistry 101, Chemistry 111, English Comp 121, Pre Calculus, Calculus 1, and Physics 101. My Cumulative GPA for every STEM class i have taken is ever so slightly over 3.7 and i got a 96% in English Comp.
I get the feeling that even though i am doing well at FRCC, not having a high school diploma will mean that my transfer application will be rejected immediately. Am I wrong for thinking this way? Should i even bother submitting an application to CSM?
Any feedback will help, thanks.
Why not check the “Ready to Apply Mines?” webpage: http://www.mines.edu/applynow
If the following description fits you, then you are ready to apply to Mines as a transfer applicant:
Note also that schools are required to spell out their high school completion policies in Section C3 of the Common Data Set. The current Mines CDS says “High school diploma is required and GED is accepted.”
https://inside.mines.edu/UserFiles/File/president/IR/CommonDataSet/CDS17.pdf
if you were applying to Mines as a freshman, with nothing to show but a poor high school record and a GED, then your chances might not be good. But you would be applying as a transfer applicant, and in that case your FRCC record will be of primary interest.
@Corbett
Thanks for the response, your information was very helpful!
But, roughly what % of the student body at CSM has a GED?
There is no easy way to get that info. You would have to ask the Mines administration; they might (or might not) track it internally.
But even if they gave you a number, it would be meaningless without further context. Suppose the number is low. Does that mean that Mines discriminates against GED-holders? Not necessarily – it could just mean that few GED-holders apply to Mines. So to get the proper context, you would also need to know what % of the CSM applicant pool has a GED. In fact, you would need to know the % for the CSM transfer applicant pool specifically. These are all questions that only the Mines administration would be able to answer – if they even bother to track it.
To repeat what I said before: a poor high school record and a GED would likely be a significant disadvantage for someone applying as a freshman applicant. In that case, it’s unlikely that the admissions committee would be impressed; a freshman applicant in this situation might not have much chance, unless there were fantastic SAT/ACT scores to compensate for the poor high school record.
But the admissions rules are completely different for transfer applicants. First of all, CSM doesn’t care about the high school record of transfer applicants. Transfer applicants aren’t asked to submit high school transcripts, unless they are less than 12 months out of high school (transfer applicants who get accepted and decide to enroll do have to submit copies of their diploma/GED, but this is just for the administrative record, it isn’t needed as the application review process). Second, CSM doesn’t care about the SAT/ACT scores of transfer applicants. If you didn’t take standardized tests in high school, you don’t have to take them now.
OK, so what does CSM care about with respect to transfer applicants? Two things:
- Performance in college. Once you have a significant college record, high school performance doesn't matter any more, just as the SAT doesn't matter any more.
- The $45 application fee.
If you have a strong community college record, and if you have $45, then you should apply. What have you got to lose, other than $45 ?
http://www.mines.edu/UndergraduateTransfer
Note also that the acceptance rate at Mines is higher for transfer students. Here are the numbers from the latest Common Data Set:
Freshman admissions: 12,284 applied, 4,957 accepted, acceptance rate of 40.4%
Transfer admissions: 529 applied, 252 accepted, acceptance rate of 47.6%
At 47.6%, the odds aren’t terrible.
Yeah, 47% odds is actually a LOT better than i thought, thanks again for helping me wrap my head around this. I usually don’t have confidence issues when it comes to things like this but for some reason applying to CSM makes me very anxious. @Corbett
Note also that FRCC is one of five CCs that Mines has a formal transfer agreement with. The existence of this FRCC-Mines agreement suggests that FRCC is probably one of the top “feeder schools” into Mines. There’s likely to be a counselor somewhere at FRCC who knows how to place FRCC grads into Mines, and who can give you detailed info about your chances based on your FRCC record.
http://inside.mines.edu/Transfer-Student-Information
Here in California, the 4-year state universities (University of California system, California State University system) are expected to give high priority to California community college grads in transfer admissions. At UC Berkeley, for example, 92.6% of the Fall 2016 transfer admits came from CA community colleges. The state fully expects the 4-year public schools to provide a viable path so that successful graduates of the 2-year public schools can continue their education. I don’t know if Colorado has similar policies, but it wouldn’t surprise me.