Hi, I’m new to this site but had questions regarding transferring and my chances…
Im went to Northern Virginia Community College after graduating high school in 2009. After that, life happened and has been up in the air ever since to be completely honest. I was able to get an A.S in CompSci and Science, (90 credits) with a gpa of 3.5 in 2016. I tried to get into UVA, Columbia, Georgetown, and George Mason at the time and got rejected by all of them except GMU and have been there since. Fast forward to now Ive only completed 24 credits since then and my gpa there is a 3.0.
At this point I am really looking for a change of pace from the state Ive pretty much grown up and lived in most my life, with maybe better circumstances to help me just focus and finish on school. Factors that have contributed to me taking a long time is having to work and not have a stable place to live at while taking classes. I dont get enough financial aid to go full time. After reading that there are Universities that meet full financial aid, I want to try and transfer to one of those but worry Ive been in school too long, low gpa and that I have way too many credits at this point since most of them seem to be private universities.
I thought about trying to apply to UCSD, USC and maybe a few others in CA or other states but im not sure. Anyone had experience transferring a second time with a 3.0 gpa or similar?
you’ll need to make some dramatic life changes to get into USC or any of the decent UC’s with a 3.0. Also UC’s have bad aid and won’t be cheap as a VA resident. Sent you a DM on how I went from NVCC > Stanford
As an OOS applicant, expect to pay full fees at $65K/year to attend the UC’s since they offer little to no financial.
Based on 2017 UC Transfer GPA’s for the UC’s, a UC transferable GPA of 3.0 would get you into UC Merced, Riverside and Santa Cruz. For UCSD, the Admit GPA range was 3.33-3.86 not major specific.
Thanks for the replies. I wonder if there’s anywhere else I could maybe transfer to? Or would it be better to just finish at gmu though I probably would have to stay part time here in VA
There is nothing wrong with studying part-time at GMU and finishing your degree slowly. Lots of working adults do that. Go sit down with your cademic advisor, and draw up a clear plan for finishing your degree.
There also is nothing wrong with moving to CA, finding a job, and working for a year in order to establish in-state residency, then returning to college.
While that’s excellent advice, @happymomof1 , OP is asking whether there are other places to transfer into maybe outside of VA and CA both. So . . … let me see what I can think of.
U of Maine at Orono has CS and is currently offering a flagship-matching scholarship for tuition. Maybe this makes it cheaper for you?
New Mexico Tech and SD Mines both have CS. Their OOS tuition might be low-enough for you to attend those two schools. The academics are quite good. Also U of Wyoming is pretty inexpensive as far as these things go.
You can try @happymomof1 's strategy in several other states, which is to go live in the state and work for 1 year, gain in-state status, and then qualify for in-state tuition. That would open doors in NY both at SUNY and at CUNY schools, if you want to live in NYC. CUNY schools offer access to employment connections and internships in NYC. And the in-state costs are pretty cheap. This website, government run, will tell you the NET PRICE for you (on average) for your income level of every college in the country. Here is CUNY City College’s page. It shows that for lower income the total cost is like $800 – but that’s for in-state status, right? ( https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=city+college+cuny&s=all&id=190567 )
There are a few schools that welcome nontraditional students (loosely defined as any student who has had a nonlinear academic path – and I think you qualify for that). Some offer aid. That doesn’t necessarily make them affordable for you! But you might find one that is both affordable and that welcomes the nontraditional perspective that you offer.
Hampshire College – Hampshire uniquely has “articulation agreements” with many community colleges all over the country. That tells me that it wants to accept transfer students and appreciates their value, coming from various perspectives. Also they seem to have a merit scholarship in addition to need-based aid. This all may make Hampshire affordable. https://www.hampshire.edu/search/site/transfer Hampshire is also part of the Five College Consortium (https://www.fivecolleges.edu/ ) meaning that you would be able to take classes at any of five colleges (https://www.fivecolleges.edu/academics/courses ).
Here is a list of other colleges that welcome nontraditional students. Remember to look at each college individually. Some may offer great FA. Others may be using the nontrad program as a money maker for the school. Just because a school promises “full-need-met” FA for its freshman class, that doesn’t mean full need is met for its transfer students or for its nontrad students. Some schools will “welcome” nontrads with full-needs-met FA and some will not. They will subtly and not-so-subltly let you know that. Barnard “we can’t guarantee FA for transfers”. Other schools: we welcome our transfer students and provide full FA. Read those thngs carefully. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programs_and_colleges_for_non-traditional_students
Connecticut College – a) it has a cross-registration program with the service academy, which is across the street. The service academy has different tech classes than are available at Connecticut College. b) Connecticut College also has a special transfer-in program for computer science – https://www.conncoll.edu/computer-science-leaders/
Re the UCs your case sounds a bit complicated but the gist is if you have upper division courses the UC adds those units on top of lower division. Lower division caps at 70 semester units. Here are some examples:
Merced, Davis and Riverside have a unit ceiling max of 80 semester units
UCLA has a max of 86.5
The others are 90
So you really can’t go over those. Next, your gpa is 3.0, not the best (sorry!) and you neeed to complete the requirements for your major and most, if not all, of the GE. It sounds like you haven’t really settled on a major.
This is not even counting the very high additional tuition. Bottom line, the UCs are probably not too feasible. I would just stay at GMU or otherwise I’d consider finishing online at ASU. It’s a great school.
OP, since you have some computer skills have you spent much time on the GMU employment website to see if you could apply for full or part time jobs there? Keep looking every month and apply to what ever seems suitable. This could make it more convenient for you to combine work with school and you might find a job with enough hours to make you eligible for a break on tuition