<p>Hi all,
I am a 23 year old just beginning my college journey. I have an unusual high school backround as I was highly involved with horses throughout that time period and opted to home to school to afford myself the opportunity to travel and compete. That plan eventually led to my obtaining my GED. I ended up taking a farrier (horse shoer) apprenticeship after high school and going to horse shoeing school at Cornell (not impressive, just a four month program) and opening my own shoeing business a few years back. I am very passionate about and determined to study engineering. I am enrolled at a university that does not offer engineering. I just completed my first semester of basic courses as a chem major with a 4.0. I am looking for any advice as to how to make my application appealing due to the fact that on paper I'm not sure I look enticing. Any reccommendations for schools would be helpful as well. I am most interested in materials science/engineering. </p>
<p>Side note (my sat scores are past five years old and decent, nothing amazing)</p>
<p>I think that the fact that you have been running your own business is compelling enough. Clearly you have the desire to study engineering otherwise you would not have decided to go back to school. The maturity that you have developed in running your own business will serve you well.</p>
<p>As for recommendations for schools, you need to determine what kind of school is your preference:</p>
<ol>
<li>Large or small</li>
<li>Public or private</li>
<li>Urban or college-town</li>
</ol>
<p>You also need to determine if you have geographic restrictions, but most important are the finances. Don’t go for a school which puts you in enormous debt. as long as the program is ABET accredited, then it is likely that you will get a solid education and be prepared for a good first job.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts/response. I’m not picky on any of the three items mentioned. I’m seeking a great education and am willing to travel to obtain it. My only preference might be to stay in a warm climate. I seem to be running into issues as far as schools wanting high school transcripts/sat scores. I feel like I’m in a square peg/round hole scenario and feeling discouraged by all the ‘‘impressive stats’’ out there.</p>
<p>Frankly, you have a much more impressive application than most of the high schoolers who post here, regardless of your actual stats (a 4.0 is still awesome btw!). The biggest problem will be affording college since many of the transfer friendly schools with engineering are publics which heavily subsidize the in state residents but force OOS ones to pay a large premium. Since you’re almost 24 you’ll be an independent for financial aid purposes which makes a difference in what colleges expect you can pay. </p>
<p>Many of the transfer friendly schools are used to non-traditional students and may have someone on the transfer staff readily available to answer your questions. I know at my school, it’s quite common for transfers to have dropped out or just obtained the GED, and the advisers are more than willing to help those students navigate the process.</p>
<p>I’m supremely frustrated. Everywhere seems to have some requirement that I can’t fill. Either enough of my courses don’t transfer to meet their minimum credit requirement , or they have a two semesters of English requirement (couldn’t get into English class first semester) I don’t want to stay at a university spending money to study something I don’t want just to build up enough credits!</p>
<p>I’m a senior in high school, and I usually just browse the engineering forum, but if the difficulty is finding a college that doesn’t have many requirements and provides a quality education, you could look at UAH (university of Alabama at Huntsville). I didn’t see an english requirement listed on their website. (the other schools I’ve applied to see to require 6 hours of english… I tried to find more for you)</p>
<p>I think you need to identify some colleges you are interested in and then contact the admissions office directly. Clearly they will want some documentation to assess your application from but if you actually speak to an admission counselor, it may be possible to get some flexibility. Clearly your situation is a bit unusual because you only have one semester of courses (at a Community College?). It might be that the schools will simply ask you to present your second semester transcripts before they make a final decision. Fortunately, Transfer applications are processed much later than Freshman ones.</p>
<p>As for schools, look into the smaller [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools. Not too many of them are in warm climates but they often have good financial aid and since they are small, they may be willing to discuss your situation and make allowances. Plus, they are all strong engineering schools.</p>