<p>Hi, I'm asking this question for my SO. He attended college once as a traditionally aged college student straight from high school - excellent high school record, and got a full scholarship. Unfortunately - amongst other things - he just wasn't ready for college, so he spent 4.5 years at his small LAC racking up a rather mediocre-to-poor record. It's a miracle he even got a 2.1 at his school, since he had this horrible tendency of deciding that he wanted to drop a class and simply stopped attending instead of add/dropping, which resulted in Fs. (He claims he didn't realize that you had to submit paperwork. Again, not ready for college.)</p>
<p>He transferred for a semester to a public university in the area to save money. However, his ongoing issues had not resolved themselves, and due to a variety of factors he did the same thing - simply stopped attending classes less than halfway through the semester. His record at that school is four Fs and one B (from some merciful and/or forgetful professor).</p>
<p>He FINALLY left college and joined the Air Force in the fall of 2008, and he's currently an active duty airman with an excellent record. He came in as an E-3, was promoted to E-4 below-the-zone (6 months early; only top 15% of airmen get this early) and recently got his line number for promotion to E-5/NCO His squadron already considers him an NCO and he'll be one of the very few airmen who's promoted to a staff sergeant in just four years. Average time in service to get promoted to his level is 4.44 years; he had his line number at about 3 years exactly. He was also an honor graduate from Basic Military Training and was also an honoree during his technical school training.</p>
<p>So, great high school record, mediocre to poor college record and excellent military record.</p>
<p>His contract is up in August and we're in the process of fielding applications to colleges in NYC, particularly ones where his GI Bill benefits will cover all or most of the costs and places that favor military veterans. Top of his list is Columbia General Studies, but he's also applying to Fordham, Manhattan College, St. John's and the College of Mount Saint Vincent. I've talked to some people in the know and his chances of getting into GS are pretty decent given that he goes in to interview.</p>
<p>Here's the question: That transcript from the public university is clearly horrible, and he doesn't intend to transfer any of that credit in. I think I already know what the answer is (and usually tell transfer students this myself), but how bad would it be if he simply did not submit the transcript for that one semester? He thinks it shouldn't matter since he's not planning on transferring in the classes. I just don't want anything to jeopardize his status should he get accepted to the schools, but the more I look at that transcript the more I cringe about it.</p>
<p>Lots of us have old bad transcripts from when we were young and stupid. Don’t worry about this one. He is no longer quite so young, and he definitely is no longer that stupid. Stop looking and cringing, and have the transcript sent.</p>
<p>When you apply for admission to a degree program at an accredited college or university in the US you are obligated to send official copies of all of your transcripts. Period.</p>
<p>Colleges clearly state that you are required to send transcripts from ALL colleges attended, not just the colleges you want to transfer units from.</p>
<p>How bad would it be? If colleges find out that he hasn’t complied, his application won’t be considered.</p>
<p>He has time between those poor decisions and the better place that he is at now, and he can discuss this evolution on his application and in interviews. It’s not worth it to jeopardize his chances by not sending his transcript.</p>
As pointed out earlier, there are databases with this info so odds are pretty good he’d be caught. These services usually charge per query, so the colleges aren’t going to check until after they find out who’s enrolling. No problem for them in waiting, since they expect students to be honest and meet the clearly communicated expectation. Schools have to check to make sure financial aid is allowed (how else do they know he hasn’t used his GI benefit up?), so odds are good that once accepted and his check sent in, he’ll find out he’s been refused enrollment due to application falsification. Probably not a good situation to be in.</p>
<p>addendum: I think any adcom that reads his file is going to understand that the person applying now has matured greatly from the person who attended the LAC about a decade back. </p>
<p>Further, he is of an age where he probably qualifies to be considered for admission as a non-traditional student, a pathway designed exactly for those who may have (among other things) started and stopped college earlier, had poor grades, etc. Something he should look into.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all the responses! I shared them with him and he was very encouraged.</p>
<p>And yes, he is applying as a non-traditional student to all of these places. General Studies is specifically for students returning back to school after a long break, and Fordham and GS specifically have programs for veterans who are returning to school. I TAed a couple of GS students last semester (I am already a graduate student at Columbia) and they said that nearly everyone messed up in college the first time around and that’s why they’re there, so we’re hopeful.</p>