Can my friend transfer after being put on academically dismissed 15 years ago?

My friend attended a university 15 years ago and was academically suspended for being on probation for a year. She transferred there and had done well in community college. She had to drop out and didn’t do well academically due to an illness. She has no way of going back and graduating due to how many classes she failed. She didn’t drop out for two semesters because she needed to live on the campus or be homeless. Instead of being homeless while sick she used the financial aid to survive and took a lot of F grades. Can she transfer to another college since this happened 15 years ago?

She has a lot of good grades from community college and a few from the university, about 2 years worth. Most colleges these days say they want transcripts from every prior university. Does this mean she’s permanently barred from college because of being academically dismissed and unable to go back and get off academic probation?

You asked this question 2 years ago for you. It’s okay to ask for input again, especially if your situation has changed. Have you tried speaking to anyone at your local community college?

My understanding is that this student (whether you or someone else) will indeed have to provide transcripts for every college or university that they attended. However, anything that they took 15 years ago is not going to matter much, if at all. Schools will be much more concerned about what you have done much more recently, even if that has nothing to do with academics.

I would however check with admissions at a few schools to see if they even want to see transcripts from 15 years ago.

If this student has any recent good grades from community college, or any other college or university, that will matter a great deal more.

Yes, she will need to send all of those old transcripts. I’ve had to send transcripts that were more than 30 years old!

If she has new good grades, those will count for more than the old bad ones. If she hasn’t studied at all since flunking out 15 years ago, she should start with a visit to her local community college to get her records evaluated and start building a pathway to a better future.

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Posting on behalf of a friend is not allowed. Your friend can create her own account. Closing.