Admission with "bad" transcripts - Political Science

DaveT73
Sat, 19 Jan 2013 07:48:50 +0000

Hello everyone. I am currently a senior at Northern Illinois University (as well as a non-traditional student, over 35 years old) finishing up my last semester. At this institution, I will complete 42 credit hours, more than likely finishing with a 4.0. I transferred in 48 credit hours with a 3.78 GPA from a PAC 12 institution (where I attended 2002-2005) as well as 51 credits from a community college when I lived in Florida. With these three institutions combined, I will have a 3.66 GPA. My community college work (which was done in the 90s), brings my GPA down a little, but the work I have done at universities combine for a 3.88 GPA.

That is just some background to the real problem I have. When I applied to go to NIU, I didn’t submit ALL of my transcripts. The reason for this is because I had attended four institutions where I left halfway through the semester without withdrawing (which was my stupid fault). At three of the institutions I thought I had withdrawn (mostly because of work and family stress), whereas one institution stiffed me with a bill so I was forced to take financial aid, even though I was not intending on attending that school (yes, an odd situation).

Anyway, if these institutions are factored into my GPA (where I had 9 “Fs”), I only have a GPA of 3.04. Granted, I personally think it is pretty darn impressive to have a 3.0 with that many “Fs” factored into the equation, but graduate programs won’t think so. All of this together brings me to my dilemma.

I was planning on going to my PAC 12 school to finish my BA degree originally, but they requested that I submit all my transcripts. While my GPA was fine for readmission, I still owed some of these institutions money, which I didn’t expect. I didn’t put these institutions on my application, but the PAC 12 school used something called the National Student Clearinghouse to determine what past institutions I attended. Yet, on the other hand, when I applied to NIU using the same transcripts that I used for readmission to the PAC 12 school, they did not pick up on the other institutions and I easily was admitted.

As far as everything else, I haven’t taken the GRE yet, so you don’t have to ask. I want to wait until I am completely finished with my degree so I can study it. I know how to write and have strong writing and research samples. I have a somewhat strong political science resume. Overall, I know that I have the ability to go to a top school, even though right now I am just looking at some schools that might not be “top notch”, like Purdue, Alabama, Arizona State, Utah or University of Illinois-Chicago. Still, I would like to aim higher if I could.

So, what do I do? I know this is a unique situation. Do I risk sending all of my transcripts which will factor into being a low GPA, but will be a total assessment of my collegiate work, and write an addendum to the application explaining the situation. Or, do I risk not sending any of these transcripts and try getting into an university with the 3.66 GPA that I have with the transferred institutions where I received my degree? None of the “bad” transcripts appear on my PAC 12, NIU or Florida CC transcripts, so the only way an university would know I attended these other schools is by specifically going through the National Student Clearninghouse.

I truly know that I can handle graduate-level work, which is why I feel that the 3.06 GPA isn’t a true indicator of my intellectual capacity regarding the subject of political science. But, will that even matter if I send all the transcripts? Will they just blow off my explanation?

Sorry this is so long, but I am really stuck and trying to figure this out! Thanks for any possible answers!