"Starting over"?

Applying to College
1

<p>Okay, so question.</p>

<p>I started out at School A in fall 2008, attended for about 3 semesters, did poorly (between self-admitted lack of motivation and between work and etc), got put on academic probation and then suspension; effectively I wasn't allowed to attend there again until waiting 2 years or getting 24 credits elsewhere. I didn't go anywhere else and I just focused on working - I've moved since then and haven't been in school since 2009 pretty much - quite a large gap, I know.</p>

<p>I want to get back into school, but my question is, would I -have- to apply as a transfer or would I just be able to apply as a freshman? My grades were so poor and I don't really care about transferring what few credits I did manage to earn (I literally probably have less than a full semester or two of credits for classes that I didn't fail or withdraw from), I'm more than willing to just start completely over, it's no big deal for me. Or are colleges still going to want previous transcripts and make me apply as a transfer? I did get loans from my previous school so I imagine they'd see those... I'm not really trying to "hide" anything per se, I'm just wondering if it's possible.</p>

<p>Another thing is that I owe the previous school some money and I can't even get a transcript from them until I lower the amount I owe, and I'm also working on paying my current student loans off. Would the school I want to go to be able to request the transcripts on my behalf, or would I still have to pay off some?</p>

<p>Or would a better option just be attending a CC and then transferring from there, paying off School A and sending -all- the transcripts when I eventually transfer to a 4-year school? Or would a CC still need my previous transcript from School A as well and not let me attend? Because if I can just attend a CC "hassle-free" in that sense, then I'm more than happy to just do that while working toward being able to actually get my transcript unlocked from School A.</p>

<p>This definitely is a bit of a messy predicament, I'll admit, but kudos to anyone who actually followed my ramble and is able to help me out with some answers.</p>

2

<p>You’re stuck, I’m afraid.</p>

<p>Colleges and universities will be able to find out about your prior college enrollment here: [Who</a> We Are | National Student Clearinghouse](<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/about/]Who”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/about/). Because you’ve been in college before, they’ll insist on transcripts.</p>

<p>One reason why they’ll do this, I think–apart from a legitimate desire to know about your academic history–is that they want to make sure you’re not skipping out on previous educational debts. They want to know that you’re in good financial standing with any colleges you’ve attended previously. You demonstrate this by showing that you can get a transcript. Perhaps there’s an element of solidarity among colleges in all of this–they may be kind of looking out for each other–but as much as that, colleges think that if you’ve left bad debts behind at your old college, you’re likely to do the same thing to them.</p>

<p>As far as I know, your first step has to be squaring your old accounts with the college you attend previously, even if you plan to attend your local community college.</p>