<p>Okay so I asked a question about this yesterday, but I didn't mention a huge detail in my last question. </p>
<p>High school was not a fun time for me. In my freshman year, I went to a high school that none of my friends from elementary and middle school went to, and I got really depressed. It affected my grades too. So in my sophomore year, I was transferred to the high school that my friends went to. Things were okay, but then halfway through the year, the friends that I transferred for turned on me, so I got depressed again. In my junior year I pretty much kept to myself. My junior year was also the year I did the best academically.
In my senior year, I went to community college full time to finish high school early. </p>
<p>I am 18 years old and just out of high school, and I have 21 college credits, but I'm taking a summer course, so I'll have 24 by next month. My plan was to apply to universities next month to transfer to in the spring of 2011.
But my parents are making me stay at community college to get my associates degree. There reasons are as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>They think because I "ran" in high school, I'm gonna "run" in college. They said, "what happens if you transfer and you don't like it there? What are you gonna do from there?" But I didn't like high school. I already have some college experience, and I like college. I really don't think I'll go to a university and hate it. And all of the universities I'm looking into are less than an hour away. They just think I'm gonna run from my problems in college, like I did in high school. But I see a difference between high school and college.</li>
<li>My dad dropped out of college after his freshman year due to lack of motivation. He doesn't want me to make that same mistake. But at the same time, it's not fair to me for him to crush my college plans just because he didn't do well in college.
The reasons they don't want me transferring to a university have nothing to do with my academic work.
Do you think them making me stay at community college because of the above reasons is fair?</li>
</ol>
<p>Cheshire, thanks for sharing your story. My advice is to finish up at the CC you are attending and get your AA degree. I am not “siding” with your parents, it just makes sense to finish what you started at the CC and then transfer to a 4-year school as a junior. Who knows, your parents just may change their tune by then? Some of his fears of you “running” may go away after you complete another year of college without running. Your dad may also have financial concerns about how your next phase of school is going to get paid for, and he may just be using the running episodes as an excuse not to have to deal with this issue. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster. Earning an AA will demonstrate stability and a sense of purpose to four-year institutions. You should also be looking at where you want to transfer down the line; consult the transfer equivalent requirements at that institution, so the classes you take at the CC will be accepted as specific degree requirements instead of just free electives.</p>
<p>If you stay, there can be benefits if articulation agreements are in place between your CC and the four-year where you want to attend. With 21 credits, you are one-third of the way to an associate’s degree. It might pay off for you in what is accepted. You might want to check whether all 21 credits will transfer–then it doesn’t really matter credit wise. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Just a thought, but given the number of issues you’ve posted on the forum thus far, it’s a wonder they are supporting you at all. Maybe because you are still only 18, they are willing to continue the fight, but personally I think they are 100% right to want you to stay with the CC until you have matured a little more, and brought your academic work up to par.</p>
<p>Yes, it is fair. They are paying most of the bills for college. If you have your own financial means, you can move out tomorrow.</p>
<p>You are 18 and eager for independence and more challenge. Your parents are not ready to finance you moving away to another college just yet. (Note that even though your parents <em>say</em> different things that the end result is that you are still at home - listen more closely to what they <em>do</em> vs what they <em>say</em>. As weird as it may sound, your parents are in agreement about you staying at home right now.)</p>
<p>I would encourage you to gain independence in other ways right now - get more involved in ECs, write for scholarships, take on a job or get a better paying job, or perhaps an internship. Raise your GPA - drastically. A 2.9 is good, but there is a lot of room for improvement. </p>
<p>Since it doesn’t sound like you will be going anywhere for a year - instead of complaining, look for ways to enjoy your last year at home, to contribute back to the household without being asked, and take a look at this time as an interim time to improve relationships, your GPA, expand or intensify your career or volunteer related interests.</p>
<p>Don’t discount the issue of money. CC is a very affordable route that may be very attractive to your parents.</p>
<p>A note about transferring: be sure you look up <em>hard</em> stats on what the threshold GPA is for actual <em>admitted</em> transfer students. A minimum required GPA is just the starting point… often students need a much more competitive number that is above the minimum. For example in California for CSUs the minimum is 2.0 for transfers (raised for some majors/schools now to 2.4) but the actual threshhold for actual admitted students for many majors was 3.0 - 3.5.</p>
<p>It’s not that they don’t want you in college. They want you to prove to them that you are academically, emotionally, and socially ready for the traditional 4-year college experience.</p>
<p>On previous threads, you mention a 2.4GPA thus far in community college. I agree with your parents. Buckle down and spend the next year at community college proving to them that you are able to successfully handle both academics (earn a much higher GPA) and the emotional/social issues that come with being a young independent adult.</p>
<p>annika, you are kind of wrong. it’s not about money at all.
also, i have been helping my parents out around the house since i was in 6th grade. i have 2 younger brothers, one in high school and one in middle school, and they do nothing to help out around the house.
so i don’t need you telling me to grow up. if you say that my parents aren’t sending me to college because of money issues, maybe they should ‘mature’ and tell me that.
and all of you are disregrading the reasons why my parents don’t me to go to a university by saying it’s because of money and nothing else.</p>
<p>I’ve never said anything about money - I don’t know if that is an issue or not. It seems to me more like an issue of maturity, on which I agree with your parents. Wholeheartedly.</p>
<p>Just move out to a university…what are your parents gonna do about it? They can’t legally force you to stay at a CC. If you go to your state school (that’s a 4 year university), then it won’t be that expensive.</p>
<p>Well, this may not be the best move - reconciliation of goals is, in my opinion, preferable.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, if they have the power of the purse, they can force OP’s hand.</p>
<p>My (brief) opinion on this matter:</p>
<p>Try and finish out the associate’s degree. You can always go to a 4 year college afterward, and you’ll have plenty of time to convince your parents that you ought to go to one in the meanwhile.</p>
<p>And another issue that I’m not happy about is that I want to major in Human Services and my dad doesn’t want me to because he thinks that the careers in that field are too dangerous! I don’t want to major in something that I’m not interested in though!</p>
<p>Personally, I think you should get your associate’s degree and then transfer to a university, not only will you already have lot’s of college credits, but you will also have more experience closer to a college life than any of the other ‘out of high school’ undergraduate applicants, so it would count as an advantage to you.
If you speak to your parents, trying to settle an agreement, maybe you could tell them that you won’t ‘run away’ like you did in high school, because you have learned from your mistakes and if they don’t let you try you will never be able to proove this to them. Also, tell them that you are much more mature now than you were back then.
Whether you are mature or not, no one here can say, the reason being no one here know you well enough, but if you trust yourself that you have grown with a different perspective of when you were in high school, then you should definitely tell this to your parents and comit yourself to not let yourself ‘slip’ in college. </p>
<p>Also, if you think about it, it would only be a year until you get your degree and a year goes by really fast! If you feel like you need some change, then transfer to another community college, meet new people and finish your degree there, by the end of this experience you will only be grateful for the time you spent there learning. This will ‘transmit’ to the future university that you are very mature and you adapt well to change, not to metion because you have learnt it ‘the hard way’ in high school.</p>
<p>Good luck for you, and sometimes we have to stick to our instincts, as invisible as it might be.</p>
<p>Maybe if my grades weren’t so good and my GPA wasn’t decent, I would stay at CC. But I feel like in the last year, I have grown and matured. A lot of you answering my question tell me that it’s more of a maturity matter, but you can’t tell me that I currently have 15 transferable credits from taking college classes my senior year and I’m immature. I went to hell and back like none of you can believe. I admit that yes, I did bad in the fall semester. I did horrible. I took a full load of courses which was too much for me(but I was only 17 at the time) and I ended up on academic probation. I had a 1.5 GPA for the fall semester and my cumulative. In the spring semester I took one class less, and ended up with a 3.0 for the term, and a 2.2 for my cumulative. I took a summer class and now I have a 2.4, and I am currently taking another summer class which will be done next month, and hopefully I will have either a 2.8 or 2.9 GPA when I get my grade.
Call me immature all you want, but I believe that not anyone can do what I did, and I slipped up A LOT but what did I do? I picked myself up and succeeded.
I’m proud to say that this is probably my biggest accomplishment yet. And it’s something that my parents, my friends, my family, and myself are proud of.
So keep talking your crap. I don’t care.
And CC is hard. If it wasn’t hard, none of the courses taken would transfer.</p>
<p>In various posts, your gpa has been given as 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 2.9, and 3.1. Does it vary by the day or by the week? I don’t think you can go from a 2.4 to a 2.9 with one course. Your grades are most certainly not “so good”. The more you post, the more you reveal exactly why your parents are right.</p>
<p>Whats 71.5 divided by 24? 2.97blahblahblah. So it can with one course. I talked to an adviser.
And the only reason why I posted what I posted was to prove my maturity.
I’m sick of your little comments sylvan. Before you get all, ‘i’m right and your wrong and you have no idea about life’, try taking a walk in my shoes. What I did was motivating, and I succeeded. Like I said, not everyone can do what I did. Actually, what I did was impressive. And all of my family and friends are proud of me.
But it’s people like YOU that I don’t need to impress. And I’m not trying to. I have 15 transferable college credits more than everyone in my class that I graduated, which is impressive.
And the 3.1 GPA was the GPA I was hoping for the FUTURE, not what I have NOW.</p>
<p>One of my uncles is still trying to convince his parents that he has grown and matured at the age of 39. Even if you did actually change, something us here out on the internet can’t be sure of, I think it is unrealistic of you to expect your parents to immediately forget about all of you past troubles based on just a semester or two of good work. People, especially parents, just don’t forget that quickly. Whether or not it is fair really does not matter. The best thing you can do now is keep working hard to prove to your parents that you can handle college.</p>