Looking for some general advice

Applying to College
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<p>Hi, I was looking for some general advice about my situation, since I'm sort of unsure as to where to go from here.</p>

<p>I graduated high school 6-7 years ago, did horribly in it, because I was a stupid punk in my youth (2.4 GPA), although I never did all that badly on standardized testing (had a 1340 SAT score, back in the day when the max was 1600.) After high school I went straight into working some jobs, trying to support myself, and when I figured my life wasn't working out so well and I had no idea what I was going to do, I joined the military to get some discipline and direction. I served for four years, and recently got out with an honorable discharge. The military really made me realize that I wanted to go to college and get a useful degree, something that will lead to a field that will keep me well-employed and doing something useful for society. I recently signed up to retake the SATs (since my SAT scores are too old to be of any use for me) and paid for the online practice program. I've taken seven of the ten practice tests so far, and I usually get 750-800 writing, 740-770 critical reading, and 720-760 math, so I'm hoping even if I choke a bit on the actual test that I'll get scores around at least 2100. (I'm scheduled to take the test this saturday.)</p>

<p>In my youth, I never even bothered looking into colleges, since I figured I wasn't going to be going to one (And believe me, I'm kicking myself in the ass nowadays for my poor grades.) I was thinking about looking into engineering, specifically biomedical engineering, for my degree, but a lot of schools have really high requirements for engineering programs, and I'm afraid my poor high school performance will hurt me (as well as the fact that I really have no academic letters of recommendation.)</p>

<p>I guess the sort of advice I'm looking for is, well, if anyone knows-how much do colleges look at high school grades if the applicant has been out of school for a while? Would my military service be considered on my application, or do they not care about that? Does anyone know of any good engineering programs that might realistically accept me?</p>

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<p>This long after high school, your grades will not be taken too strongly into account. But if you perhaps take a couple of classes at a community college or online and do well in them, it could only help you.</p>

<p>Military service would look good, and could even provide you with some scholarships. Here’s the board for veterans:
[Veterans</a> - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/veterans/]Veterans”>Veterans - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>This thread in particular may interest you: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/veterans/760520-new-gi-bill-offers-major-benefits-veterans.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/veterans/760520-new-gi-bill-offers-major-benefits-veterans.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Some schools to consider:
SUNYs. If SUNY Binghamton, Geneseo, or Stonybrook have biomedical engineering, they would be excellent choices. I don’t know which of the 3 has/have it, but I’m sure you could find out on their websites. If not, the other SUNYs are good, as well.</p>

<p>RPI. (Rensellear Polytechnic Institute… sorry if it’s spelled wrong). A friend of mine went there for biomed engineering. I think with a good SAT and veteran status, you could get in there.</p>

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<p>Also take a look at the Non-Traditional Student forum, it’s for people who have been out of HS for several years.</p>

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<p>Yours is a situation where it would make a lot of sense to try to set up an appointment with admissions staff at a few schools as well as at your local community college to talk about what you need to do as a non-traditional applicant to demonstrate readiness. A few of these conversations (and the CC vets forum) should give you a good feel for your next steps.</p>