UC to CSU on Academic Probation

This is my roommates scenario. We both transferred to a UC this past fall quarter. He ended up failing all of his classes because he basically stopped going to class. He hasn’t returned for Winter quarter and is in academic probation. Fearing for his grades in fall, he decided to apply to transfer to CSUN (local) for Fall 2018. The question is, would CSUN take him after he already transferred to UCSB and got a 0.0 GPA in his first quarter? He’s scared to call CSUN for fear that they’ll discard his application on the spot.

He’d have to write a pretty good explanation. If he only took like 1 or 2 classes then it might not be the end of the world, but honestly the prospects probably don’t look too good. Not that transferring to a CSU is going to suddenly going to take a 0.00 GPA up to passing. Such marks are indicative of a problem beyond institutional difficulty, which you mentioned in your post. Your friend needs to change himself, not his school.

they might… he needs to sit down face to face with an advisor at UCSB and an admissions person at Northridge and discuss the situation to figure out his path forward. Perhaps some time away from school would be a good thing. .

He took 12 units. He would have to take 20 units in Spring and 16 in Summer to prevent financial aid from billing him for lack of the minimum amount of units for full time. I don’t see that as feasible for him.

CSUN is going to find out about his attendance at UCSB whether he tells them or not. Their is a national student database colleges check. Best case is they then demand the missing transcripts, worst is they revoke his admission because he signed an application he said was truthful and complete when it wasn’t.

I agree that some time off might not be a bad idea. Normally I would also say maybe just go back to a cc (or wherever you transferred from), but since he already did that and then immediately ran into a problem after transferring, time off might be better. That or just dedicate himself to passing instead of not going to class, since if that’s the only problem, there seems to be a pretty clear remedy.

Maybe college just isn’t for him, and there’s no shame in that - he could possibly enter an apprenticeship program and learn a trade, or just take some time off from school to figure out his priorities.

@need2go2UCLA that’s a bit extreme suggesting he get an apprenticeship because he messed up one quarter. My question is why not take a term or two off and then go back to the UC and get back on track.

Starting as a freshman at any college always involves a transition and many students don’t do so hot. It’s not the end of the world for your friend and I’m not sure he should just throw in the towel and transfer out under the assumption he can’t cut it. And as you said, the issue was simply that he didn’t go to class.

I think that what your roommate should do might depend upon why he stopped going to class. He is going to need a good explanation of why this happened. He probably should take time off at least until he fixes whatever the problem is that caused this.

If he has lost his financial aid then that might force him to drop out. He also had better withdraw from classes for the current semester if he isn’t attending. Does his parents know that this is happening?

@caz430 It is not up to you to fix this. You need to make sure that this doesn’t result in your having any problems with your classes.

He should talk to a counselor at UCSB ASAP