Veteran seeking anyone with experience getting into a competitive engineering school

Student Lounge Veterans
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I would like to hear from any other veterans who have been able to be accepted into a good engineering program, as a freshman, with more than 6 years since they went to H.S. I am an Air Force reservist, as well as a full time technician for the Air Force; I obviously plan on quitting the technician job. I will leave the reserves too, if I have to in order to arrange my affairs for an appropriate institution. </p>

<p>I am interested in a College of Engineering or Sciences. I have a really strong drive and clear motives as to why I want to go, however, I would really prefer to start as a freshman to be afforded the opportunity to get some of the discipline’s knowledge under my belt before choosing my exact undergraduate path. </p>

<p>I am studying to take the SATs when I return from my current deployment in February. I will also be taking subject tests for the sciences/math between then and summer. Beyond that, I would appreciate anyone's advice, hopefully grounded from personal experience from going through the process themselves. I am assuming the my H.S. transcript doesn't matter too much at this point; I only had around a 2.8 or 3.0, so I don't think it will count for too much. </p>

<p>Here are the Universities I am interested in:</p>

<p>UCSB, UCSD, Columbia, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Stanford, MIT... Of course I would love the latter, but I don't see how I could possibly make myself competitive even if I had perfect SAT scores. Please advise from your experience. (feel free to suggest other similar institutions as well!)</p>

<p>Finally, I am running into a "pickle" that I am hoping someone can confirm or dispel for me. I almost have my CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) degree (associates.) This isn't really much of a real scholastic accomplishment to me; it's just a bunch of credits handed to you from tech school and then you can CLEP a few classes. Acquiring it, however, can greatly help with my career, if I were to stay in the reserves. My question is whether or not I HAVE TO DECLARE this to Universities when I apply. Remember that I want to go as a freshman, not a transfer student. After some email traffic with a counselor at Stanford, I have been left with the impression that if you have any college credits, you will be considered a transfer student. Well, do they have a way of knowing if I have college credits or degrees, beyond me telling them?
--- I’ll be impressed if someone has an answer to this last part. I have not been able to find one for a while now.</p>

<p>If you've read this far, I appreciate your time and I look forward to anyone’s correspondence and stories!</p>

<p>Also, if anyone thinks there is a more appropriate forum for this post, please correct my ignorance.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

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<p>I currently go to Michigan(LSA) and was in a similar situation last year but I was forced to transfer in. I was in the Army for just over 7 years and applied to Michigan as a freshman. I also had poor stats in HS but I chose not to retake the SAT. I was unfortunately rejected and was encouraged to go to school and earn a 3.0+ which I did. Immediately following my first semester(ended with a 4.0) I reapplied and was accepted a few weeks later for the Summer 1/2 term. Not exactly the way you’re looking to do things, but I figured I’d share my experience. </p>

<p>I don’t think any school has anyway of knowing how many credits you have outside their institution, unless you declare it to them. Higher ranked schools aren’t very keen on giving credit for military schooling either. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks! I am glad to hear that you were able to transfer after only one semester at a community college ( I assume ?) I wasn’t sure if you could transfer before your two year mark. I’m sure its different per institution. Anyways, I appreciate the insight; it is nice to know that the transfer option can happen faster than two years. </p>

<p>I don’t want to blow my G.I. Bill at a community college. But for me to quit my job, I won’t be able to wait too long before pulling benefits unless I want to put stress on my capital reserves. And I would prefer to not go to school and work at the same time, but I would be willing to do it for lower division classes. </p>

<p>Anyways, thank you again!</p>

<p>Still looking forward to other peoples experiences.</p>

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<p>There were 6 veterans that came in this year out of 28 to Stanford…you will be applying as a transfer regardless, however, you won’t get any credits for the CCAF classes since they’re pretty meaningless beyond the AF. Every veteran came in with some credits. Your goal sounds similar to mine…I sent you a PM and am happy to help any way I can. I spent 1 yr at a CC, then a year at a large state school, before making my move here to Stanford, also got into Cornell, UPenn etc. sounds like you want to accomplish similar things…GI Bill will set you up well if you apply to Columbia-GS (only option as a transfer)…they’re very vet friendly but $$$ is terrible w/out GI Bill…I’m Air Guard so only 50% qualified so didn’t bother w/Columbia.</p>

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<p>Anyways…</p>

<p>Thank you for getting back to me. I am trying to have some light shined on a very unlit path that leads from an 8 year military career to a top tier University. I am trying to prepare myself for a place like Stanford, however, this is just for I can shoot for that and land somewhere competitive. I don’t expect I would get into Stanford, but I really don’t know. </p>

<p>Going to a competitive brick and mortar campus from a non-traditional position, versus coming out of high school seems to be a pretty big grey area, even on the internet. After multiple correspondences with different Universities, to include Stanford, I really didn’t get much advice beyond, “check out our admissions section on the website”, which is catered to promising high school grads. The best I got was an assurance that they have a “holistic” approach to reviewing applications. </p>

<p>So, I am trying to figure out how I can best compete to get into a great campus, while not coming out of high school. My high school record wasn’t too great, ~2.8 GPA. However, even if it was stellar, I don’t see that holding much merit given it was 8 years ago. In the recent past, I have been avoiding school because I do not want to transfer into a University from community college, because that would mean I’d have to work while going to school; I want to avoid that. I have been preparing for the SATs and SAT II tests along with challenging myself with a bunch of MOOCs (edx.org is awesome, might I add). I am hoping that these items along with excellent letters and essays will be enough to land me somewhere competitive and not some cash cow online miltiary degree factory. </p>

<p>It sounded like you had some experience marching down this unfamiliar path. So I was seeking to hear your story and listen to your wisdom from experience. I am looking to go down the path of engineering and/or hard sciences. I am preparing mentally and financially to ensure I can continue past undergraduate studies immediately after their completion. However, I am not getting ahead of myself and for now just want to ensure I can began my academic career at a competitive location. </p>

<p>I appreciate your time and the fact that you reached back out to me. Have a good day!</p>

<p>Jonathan</p>

<p>Feel free to email me, given the private message abilities of this website are horrible. </p>

<p>bluebarron</p>

<p>at gmail</p>

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<p>unfortunately none of the veteran transfers went in straight from military service with no college classes under their belts. You will 100% have to take some classes, yes a CC will work, to have any hope of getting into any of these top tier places. If you haven’t touched school since high school I think you’d be in for a very rude awakening. Ultimately it wouldn’t be fair of the school to expect you to hit the ground running academically after a mediocre HS experience grade wise. </p>

<p>I say all this as a 2.8 hs student myself. If you’re a vet you can get post 9/11 which will pay housing for you as well as your tuition…do that starting this spring and apply in 15 months with high grades and I bet you’ll have great success. I would highly recommend Dartmouth, UPenn-LPS, and Columbia-GS if you want to gain admission to an Ivy</p>

<p>If you are intent on going straight into school, as someone who hasn’t taken classes since hs, you apply under freshmen admissions. That 2.8 will do you no favors and is all they will have to judge you on right now. You can probably get into state schools, if that is acceptable in your eyes, and aim to transfer down the road.</p>

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<p>I am reminded of you a few years back because I dreamed like you. We all want to start with a clean slate. However, this may not be realistic as you will have to declare your previous work and education experiences- for credit. But don’t worry. If you are targeting a prestigious school, then right from the git go, you have to start focusing on the schools various admission policies. If you are intent on acquiring an engineering degree from that school, then find out what the standards are- it may be tough- but there are ways to navigate through this. If you are intent, as you implied, that you want to start out as a freshmen, then you may be in for a tough competition with prospective high school graduates- with stellar GPAs. This may not be the route for you.</p>

<p>One common method is to find out if the school your prospecting for has a partner community college. If it does, then you may have to attend the community college. This is the chance to raise up that GPA and get in that groove. Most of the professors teaching at community colleges are also professors teaching at the Universities. Once you meet that GPA , together with your military service, then you can apply for admission to your target school. This is the route that I did. You may have a better one. But my method worked.</p>

<p>Now. I am a graduating senior (spring 2014) at UCF taking up Environmental Engineering. Previous to that I am a retired Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy with 19 years forward deployed - arduous duty. </p>

<p>After the Navy, I attended school and worked full time. I could not afford to quit my day job ( I have a family) so I went to school in the evenings. Two to three classes per semester including summers. It is slow and painful at times but it worked out eventually. The key here is to sustain yourself academically - and your way of life- with the resources you have. You have to be in harmony with “sacrifice.”</p>