Reapplying to college after Military service

<p>Ok.... here is my situation. Right after high school i was admitted to a four year college. I was dismissed after one year due to low GPA. After that i elected to join the military and serve my country. I have served my time and will be honorably discharged in the near future. While in the military i have acquired 33 semester hours and my gpa with is over 3.5 Now, i'm about to start applying to college and would like to attend a 4 year university. Not necessarily the same one i attended. My college expenses will be covered by montgomery GI bill so i'm not worried about finanacial aid really. I am committed to doing well and feel that i have done enough to be given a second chance. My questions are. ... Will i have a lot of trouble being admitted to a four year college?? Can i attend a different colllege, or do i have to go back to the original college. If i go to a new college will my GPA be factored in with my bad grades from originial school 4 years ago... or will the gpa start over at my new school. I would really appreciate some honest feedback. Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Most colleges worth their salt have specialist admissions officers that handle situations just like yours: returning veterans w/some college credit under their belts. You should look at colleges that interest you (you aren’t constrained to retn to the one you attended before) and see what they have to offer.</p>

<p>Also, don’t just assume that Montgomery takes care of everything. Once you start talking to the college counselors and financial aid people, you’ll see that shortfalls happen here and there. Charges and fees and living expenses crop up and you don’t want to be surprised. You dont’ want to be forced to take that a part time job might be needed when you should have applied to financial aid in the first place.</p>

<p>Welcome home (in advance) and best of luck to you.</p>

<p>Thank you for your service to the country, and welcome to CC!</p>

<p>I think you will not have any problems being accepted at a 4 year college, there are many programs newly developed for the returning veteran-student. While your original GPA may be requested, your life experiences, new courses, and added maturity will be the most important factors. </p>

<p>If you look on this site under “Specialty admissions”, there is a thread for veterans which contains a lot of very helpful information for and from veteran/applicants. Good luck in your application process!</p>

<p>As to the question of whether your orginal GPA in first year will be counted both for admission and later, the answer is yes but it won’t do significant harm. You have service experience and have accumulated some additonal grades since which are high. Many colleges will admit you despite the first year fiasco and rely mainly on what has occurred since and definitely consider that you are a veteran. Nevertheless, you may have issues getting into very high ranked colleges. One thing to consider is applying to a public university in your home state including any flagship college of the state both because of lower cost and because your chances of admission are likely very high; in fact in many states such colleges are required to give preference in admission over all others to returning veterans who are residents of the state. </p>

<p>Just note that with your credit hours, you will not be applying as a freshman but instead as a transfer, i.e., you have enough credits for at least being considered a sophomore. Thus, check with colleges to which you intend to apply as to process because timing of applications and decisions for transfer students differ, often significantly, from the timing for freshman applications.</p>