What are my Options?

Transfer Students
1

So a little about me. I went to an engineering school at the ripe old age of 19 and promptly proceeded to screw my grades. for 2 years (1.9 GPA on academic probation) Frankly I was not ready for the level of math and science I was started at. Looking back I fully accept responsibility for my failure, I could have done things to fix my grades back then but did not.

Now, almost six years later I have found what I love. After working as an engineering tech for a major engineering company that supports contracts at the Carderock Naval Base I have come to really love naval architecture/mechanical engineering. I have a driving passion to excel at this. I get up in the morning excited to go to work, I love what I do and am moving up quickly. I was originally brought on to provide some Solidworks/CAD support to one of their mechanical engineers, but now am being given my own projects to run (from design to fabrication stages) as well as major support roles refurbishing small submarines. This is an amazing job, the chance to see how the navy designs and builds ships is mind blowing. The engineer I support and my various co-workers have caught onto my enthusiasm and are excited to teach me and see me advance. I love learning everything I can about engineering, fabrication and naval/ship design.

Having said all of that I have hit a ceiling on how far I can advance without a degree. So I want to figure out my options, plus the chance to learn more about engineering in an academic environment is really exciting now.

Some questions/thoughts:

I have about 38 credits from the first school I went to. If I transfer to a community college will the 1.9 GPA follow me?

Could I transfer to the community college (assuming the GPA gets reset) complete a semester with high grades and have a better chance to transfer to a 4 year institution?

My work provides a $5000 education fund per year, but it would take 5-6 years of college to finish working full time and going to school part time. Plus I do not like the idea of having work/deadlines distracting me while I am at college. For instance, what if a navy customer needs something done no questions asked my finals week? Still this is an option.

I am married and making about 40k (combined income) a year. This is enough to barely survive on, but thats it, survival is all I can hope for.

With that income is it likely I could receive a significant amount of financial aid/grants (I want to keep the loans minimal to nonexistent) even as a transfer student? I am filling out the FAFSA as a first step here.

This is kind of the first stage of research for me. I am going to be calling my local community college and seeing what they say as well as the state schools. Any thoughts or advice I can get would be very much appreciated though.

2

You can transfer units to CC but when you apply to university you will have to send in all your transcripts and they’ll recalculate the GPA based all your units.

CC is a good idea. Your local CC will have articulate agreements and educational patterns for transferring into your local state universities.

To do mechanical engineering you will need Calc 1-3. Linear Algebra & Differential Equations, Calc-based Physics 1-3, and probably a semester or 2 of General Chemistry, possibly a CS class too depending on the school.

To graduate university you will need to complete the general education breath sequences too.

Figure out which units from your first school satisfy these requirements and work on getting the rest.
Also find out if you can repeat failed courses at CC to increase your GPA. Lastly see if your first school offers academic renewal or any programs to wipe failing grades off your transcript and GPA.

Big issue you will run into is managing work and school. If you goto a CC with summer, fall, winter, spring semesters then you’ll be able to transfer much quicker. But then again you won’t be able to work as much.

3

One option might be, if you are willing to take a bit longer, to keep working while you fill out the engineering pre-requisites and general education requirements at the Community College. Once you are done with that, you can look for a full time program that you can finish in 2 years with minimal debt. This means you have to quit your job but it is possible that they would hire you back for summer work.

4

Yea it sounds like going to Community College is probably my best bet. I can retake the failed courses and have their grades replaced according to my first college. Also I can retake the Ds as replacements too if I want, which I probably will.

Was looking over my Transcript and it looks like I have about 20 (out of 38) usable credits that will transfer to the community college. Just noticed they let me take Calc 2, which I of course failed, when I had failed Calc 1… why the heck they let me do that I have no idea. Anyways moving on, will continue to do a little more leg work and see what I come up with.

I don’t mind quitting my job when I transfer to the university, but its likely the company I work for would let me go on furlough and come back in the summers to work. I would only quit if I had the chance to get an excellent scholarship/grant/financial aid that required me moving to another state.