Need advice as a somewhat nontraditional student going from CC to university.

Transfer Students
1

Hello everyone. I’m hoping that someone here might be able to give me some advice, because most of what I read online is directed toward a more traditional student going from highschool to college.

I hope this type of post is appropriate for the forum. I’m sorry if this is quite long, but I wanted to include some personal information relevant to my academic history, in an attempt to give some context to my situation.

I’ll be turning 25 years old next month and after taking one more course over the summer I will be eligible for graduation with an A.A. degree from the community college I currently attend.

Unfortunately I won’t be ready to transfer, yet, because I will still need a few prerequisite classes for the programs I’m interested in (based on the requirements of state schools from a computer database). I also feel that because I was not a good student in the past, completing more classes before attempting to transfer to a university might increase my chances.

I’ve spoken with the guidance counselors who work at the college I attend, but they haven’t been able to give me any information I’ve found to be helpful.

What I really want to know is what sort of universities should I be looking to transfer to? I have not been a good student throughout several periods of my life, and my transcripts reflect that.

When I was in high school I really disliked it. My father is very religious and believes that public education has a corrupting influence on students, so I was sent to a small, religious school for my education instead. By ninth grade literally everyone I knew had transferred to the local public high school because of the limited academic opportunities at the school I attended (graduating classes at my school usually consisted of three or four students).

I’ve never been a socially outgoing person and after losing contact with my friends I started to despise school and my grades really suffered, which caused some tension with the school administrators. By the end of my ninth grade year I wasn’t putting any effort in at all. I became really depressed and just wanted school to be over.

During tenth grade I convinced my parents to enroll me into an online homeschool program. Neither of my parents are computer literate, so I was able to get by on doing the absolute minimum amount of work required to keep from being kicked out and I got my GED as soon as I turned sixteen.

After I got my GED I enrolled at a local community college, where I didn’t really improve much academically. I was a B/C student and I, over the course of a few semesters, ended up dropping enough classes that I was put on Financial Aid suspension and ended up owing the college money for classes I had dropped after the refund.

That’s when it really hit me how badly I had messed up a really good opportunity. My issues with depression and anxiety got worse and I pretty much withdrew from everything.

A few months later I got some professional help for some of my issues and I started trying to get my life back together, and with a lot of help from people close to me, I think I’m well on my way.

I focused on getting myself together for a while and finally in 2015 I repaid the money I owed to the college and wrote an appeal to the financial aid department to allow me to return on probationary status (unfortunately both I and my family have very little money to spare, and I am reliant on financial aid to attend college).

Fortunately, they granted my appeal and gave me a second chance. I’ve been trying to make the most of it.

I took a placement test and was placed into a remedial math class (I had only taken algebra 1 in highschool), but by using the Khan Academy website and with the help of some wonderful youtubers I was able to catch up.

I’ve received A’s in all of the classes I have taken since returning, and I even won an award for academic achievement in the sciences this past semester. I’ve also been a paid math tutor for my college (and now I also tutor Spanish and General Chemistry) since summer 2016.

I’ve also been trying to learn as much as I can beyond my classes through youtube and programs like the MIT open courseware website.

Now, I’m reaching the point that I need to have a good idea of where I’m going to try transfer to, but I just feel completely lost in the whole process.

I’ve loved science my entire life and have always wanted to be a scientist. My professors have been encouraging me to persue that path, so I’m hopeful that I may be able to realise this dream one day, even though I still have so far to go.

I am, in particular, interested in Chemistry and Physics. Would it be unlikely that a potential school I could transfer to would allow me to double major in these subjects? Perhaps at least until I have taken enough classes that I feel comfortable committing to one or the other?

Really I guess the main point of my post is that I don’t really feel like I have any idea in what I’m doing in trying to find a university to transfer to. I also have no idea what sort of place would be willing to accept me.

I feel like I’ve made so many mistakes in the past, many of which show on my academic record, and I also don’t have any sort of noteworthy extra-curriculars or anything of that nature (there aren’t many opportunities for things like that at the college attend).

What kinds of schools accept students like me and what can I do to improve my chances of being accepted?

Here is a listing of the classes I have taken and grades I’ve received, for the sake of completeness (taken from my transcripts on the college website):

Fall 2008

Composition 1     -     B
Introduction to Sociology     -     B

Spring 2009

Introduction to Chemistry     -     F
Lab for Intro. Chemistry     -     C
Macroeconomics     -     NR
Composition 2     -     IF
General Psychology     -     B

Summer B 2010

Macroeconomics     -     B
Composition 2     -     C

Fall 2010

Principles of Biology 1     -     W
Lab for Prin. Bio. 1     -     W
Introduction to Chemistry     -     W
The Humanities 1     -     W
Introduction to Literature     -     W
Contemporary Ethics     -     W

Spring 2016

English Literature 1     -     A
Intro to Humanities     -     A
20th Century Humanities     -     A
Developmental Math Comb.     -      A

Summer 2016

Introduction to Chemistry     -     A
Lab for Intro. to Chem.     -     A
College Algebra     -     A

Fall 2016

Principles of Biology 1     -     A
Prin. of Bio. 1 Lab     -     A
General Chemistry 1     -     A
Lab for Gen. Chem. 1     -     A
Precalculus     -     A
Foundations of Spanish 1     -     A

As well as the classes I am currently taking (unless I do horribly on my finals, I will receive all A’s this semester), as well as those I will take over the next year:

Current Classes
Spring 2017

General Chemistry 2
Lab for Gen. Chem. 2
Analytical Geometry with Calculus 1
Foundations of Spanish 2

Future Classes

Summer 2017

Analytical Geometry with Calculus 2

Fall 2017

Analytical Geometry with Calculus 3
Physics with Calculus 1
Lab for Physics w/Calculus 1
Organic Chemistry 1
Lab for O. Chem. 1

Spring 2017

Elementary Differential Equations
Physics with Calculus 2
Lab for Physics w/Calculus
Organic Chemistry 2
Lab for O. Chem

I intend to matriculate to a four year university during the Fall 2018 semester.

Thank you very much to anyone willing to offer advice or simply words of comfort. I’m freaking out a little bit because a lot of the other people I work with in the tutoring center are graduaring or about to graduate and it feels like I’m the only one who doesn’t really have a plan.

2

What state are you in? Your CC should have articulation agreements with a bunch of publics in your state.

3

As @PurpleTitan is implying, your best bet for having courses transfer so you can finish your degree sooner will be in your state system. Definitely apply to some in-state publics. Is your state flagship good and can you get in there? Do you live in a state with a regional tuition exchange where you might have a wider set of opportunities with tuition discounts?

A lot of universities expect transfer students to know their major. You said you are interested in science. Do you intend to be in school for a very long time? 10+ years? Because to become a laboratory scientist, you would need to finish undergrad, a PhD, and most likely one or more post-docs as well. If you don’t think being a perpetual student is your thing, you might switch to a field like Chemical Engineering or Materials Science and Engineering where you can more easily get a job in your field with an undergraduate degree.

If you plan to go on to grad school, the most important things for your next step are getting the foundation courses in your major and enough exposure to sub-specialty fields that you know what you want to study in grad school.

You might start as a double-major since it’s hard to explore subfields at a community college, but you should definitely finish with a particular area of focus. Browse the course and major offerings at your large state universities and see the many options out there to research. You might find hybrid classes like physical chemistry that could allow you to combine interests.

4

I live in the state of Florida. My school does have an articulation agreement with the University of North Florida and there is a wider “2+2” articulation program here in Florida, but from the information I have been able to read it doesn’t guarantee any type of admission, only that upon admission most of your classes will transfer (although some students I’ve spoken with have had a lot of difficulties with how this is actually executed).

It all basically tells me to get into contact with the university I want to transfer to and make sure I can be accepted. Should I just contact the admissions department of any state school I’d be willing to go to?

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

5

Yes. Read the transfer admissions pages and major and course offerings for the schools you’re interested in before you call. If possible, go visit and meet with an academic advisor for your academic division or major. Ask what is most helpful to have before transferring and how well the department does with getting students into grad schools.

6

By state flagship, I am assuming you would mean the University of Florida for me as I am in Florida. I have no idea about whether or not I could be accepted there. Whenever I’ve asked academic advisors about individual schools, they’ve never given me any sort of indication as to whether or not they think I have a reasonable chance at admission.

I don’t think Florida has a regional tuition exchange, but I’m not sure, I’ve never heard of these types of programs.

I do realize it is a very long journey to work as a career scientist, and seeing that I am a bit older than the average student this is an even more legitimate concern. I’ve found that now that I have a different perspective about school that I really enjoy it. I’ve always loved to learn and honestly I’ve only been getting more excited about learning more about the topics I find to be truly interesting. I’m not going to say that it is impossible that at some point between now and graduate school I might decide that’s too much school and seel a masters degree in a related field in engineering. I really don’t know which way it will play out for sure, yet. But I’m excited either way. I don’t look at engineering as a second choice, I’m just hoping that as I’m able to take more advanced classes I’ll find my niche that I really fall in love with.

Thank you very much for your response, I really appreciate it. And thank you to both of the above posters for giving me legitimate advice without making me feel like I have the plague. I’ve talked to one of the academic advisors at my college who gives me the feeling they think I have sort of academic plague that makes me untouchable. Thank you for making me feel like I at least have the ability to come up with a reasonable plan for my future. I realise I’ve made a lot of mistakes and really shot myself in the foot at every turn, but I have hope that with a lot of luck and some help I can make it.

7

Being mature will be an asset in grad school, though. Yes, U of Florida would be your state flagship.

8

Things may have changed but many years ago I got a GED, went to St Pete Jr College (back when it really was a 2 year school). Earned an AA and AS and was was automatically accepted to any FL school. I ended up at FSU but had to interview for my major (very small program that only accepted 4 students a semester). Unless things have changed you should be able to get accepted into all Florida public schools with an AA.

I would suggest applying to any FL public school that interests you and then look at the financial packages and go from there.

9

I live in Florida as well, will be finishing my AA at a CC in southwest FL.
For the past couple months I’ve looked up all the information I could, called admission officers, ect.
Luckily in Florida once you have an AA, admission requirements are pretty relaxed. I’ve read of people getting into UF with 3.2 GPA’s. With the grades that you posted I would imagine that you would be perfectly fine transferring into FSU, UF, UCF, or any other good FL school. University of Florida in particular is known for their sciences. If I were you I would definitely stay in Florida because you’ll have a way better chance of getting an overall better quality education. You should also start doing research in the schools you are interested in attending and call admissions to ask any questions. Goodluck!

10

I was in a very similar situation to yours. The University of California is perhaps the best public university system in the world and they give a lot of credit to people like who had an issue in the past, were able to turn it around and make dramatic improvements. Because the fact is not everyone grows up in a home that is nurturing when it comes to education. Anyway if it is good enough for the UCs I see why it shouldn’t be good enough for Florida. Keep up the good work man.

11

Thank you everyone for the advice and the encouragement. I’m going to start contacting the admissions offices of state universities here in Florida and seeing if I can arrange some sort of meeting over the summer to see if I might be a good fit and talk a little about financial aid possibilities and majors. Hopefully this will also give me a chance to see about housing arrangements and such, as well.

Then I can go from there in applying to the ones that seem the most promising. Thanks again, I feel so much better going forward. I knew that, with as many people as there are in the world, I’m obviously not the only one who didn’t get off to a good academic start, but I’ve just never had anyone who could just lay out for me where I stand and give me some direction. I really appreciate each of you taking time out of your life to help me.

12

I feel your pain buddy. I’m 23 and I have some POOR grades from 2010/11/12. I took a hiatus and came back to school in 2015 and I have a 3.8. The thing that made a huge difference for me was re-taking the exact classes I messed up in, and using those new grades to replace the old grades, so it would bring my GPA up. Doing this depends on the policy at your community college, but it might be worth asking a counselor about.

13

Yeah, I retook Introduction to Chemistry and replaced my F with an A, and raised my GPA to a 3.74 as of this semester, although I was under the impression that all of the classes you have taken will be on your official transcripts that are sent to prospective universities. This may be different in different places, I would imagine things like this can vary from institution to institution, as there’s not much a university can do but take your transcripts at face value if a university did omit those classes.

Good work on the comeback with your grades! It’s good to see other people returning to school and succeeding. Thank you for thinking of this, it’s an area that’s a little fuzzy to me so I think I’ll try to find out exactly what the policy is on that here.