Chance a Mature Student to Go to College At All [NY resident, GED, 2.3? GPA, 1480 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Mature student with a GED - my official graduation year wasn’t even offered in the demographics here. My education was extremely weird (although maybe people here can confirm what my mother believes, that any upper-class private school student would see it as perfectly normal and reasonable).

If the standards for returning adults are anything like the standards for teens, I’m not sure if I even can go back and study anything valuable.

Demographics:

White female, no “hooks”; Upstate NY; lower-middle class (raised upper-middle); mostly private HS, but also a year of homeschooling and a “pre-college program” as a final year. GED; double legacy at Clarkson University but failed out a decade ago

  • Intended Major(s) - unknown. I’d honestly love to do something in the sciences but my past makes me worry I objectively can’t. I’m not sure what else is worth studying regarding ROI and just…not being boring.

  • UW GPA, Rank, and Test Scores (also weighted GPA for systems like UC/CSU): - I think I had a 2.3 at some point. No school rank ever mentioned but I KNOW I was near the bottom of my last year, I was literally failing. 1480 combined SAT

  • Coursework (college coursework for transfer applicants): APUSH in 11th grade. 1 year of beginning college gen-eds, can’t dig out my transcript ATM. I was trying to do something in STEM but I failed Chemistry I 4 times (I had a 17% at one point) and Calculus I 3 times.

  • Awards: None

  • Extracurriculars (incl. summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience): Job-hopping for the past 10y or so, rarely staying at one job for more than a year (max was 3y) - fast food, retail, low-level office work.

When I was in school I took violin lessons, and swim classes which resulted in a lifeguarding certification. I played a couple years of JV sports when the school required it (so different sports each season. I’d have to go back and see if I can find any record of it)

  • Essays/LORs/Other: None atm. I haven’t even started any applications.

  • Cost Constraints / Budget: I have no money at all. My family tells me I can just get a Pell Grant or need-based aid but I don’t believe it.

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What about starting at community college? It will likely be your lowest cost option, it will help you ease back into an academic environment, and it will give you a chance to take classes and figure out what your interests are. If it all goes well, then you can your Associates degree and transfer to a four year college to get your Bachelors degree. You can even start slow, with just a class or two to see how things go. If you’re doing well and enjoying it, then you can take a full course load the following semester.

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Great suggestion.

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You absolutely can return to college.
You’re also lucky to be living in a State with lots of excellent, affordable public universities..
Have you completed/passed College Composition?
Did you take the SAT recently?

Your first step IMHO is to take the final skills test in Khan Academy for precalculus. If you get a 90% equivalent, register for a calculus course at a Community College.
If you don’t, register for precalculus at the community college.
You should be able to pay out of pocket if the CC is “in district” - here it’d be roughly $621 if you take College Algebra and $828 if you take Precalculus with Analytic Geometry, Calculus, or College Algebra with Workshop (for math support). Or use TAP.

For instance:

If you live in NYC there’s a special program that would cover everything but I’d need to look it up.

Just that one class to dip your toes in the water. This would establish a new college grade for you (and any future college), boost your self confidence, show you whether a STEM heavy field is possible or not.
Then the following semester you take a full time courseload covering a variety of subjects so that you can tell what would be of interest to you.

After a year in a SUNY or CUNY CC you’d have a new GPA and that would help you transfer to 4-year colleges.

Several paths are worth learning and majoring in
Education (much in-demand and relatively well-paid in NYS)
Specific fields within business
Data Science
Informatics/Information Science

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Family member here was similar. Did not do very well in college the first time around. Took about 7 or 8 years away from college. Then enrolled at a community college that had an articulation agreement with some four year universities in our state. This guaranteed that, if he did well enough, he would be accepted to the four year university and his courses would be honored as well. He had exactly two courses that transferred from his first round of college.

He did this, and was way more committed to doing well as a student. Did extremely well at the community college and matriculated into an engineering program that was well regarded in this state…and had a great career in the field.

You can do this. Start off at the community college and go from there. Once enrolled in the community college, please see the transfer advisor quickly, and they will advise you on options.

Good luck to you! Really, you can do this!

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By “mature student”, are you old enough to qualify as an independent (versus dependent) student for FAFSA (federal financial aid, and financial aid at colleges that follow FAFSA dependency rules)? See Federal Student Aid .

If so, then financial aid for college may be more accessible that you apparently believe, without needing to consider your parental finances (i.e. only based on your own finances).

With a 2.3 or so HS GPA, your most likely pathway from an admission standpoint is starting at a community college, doing well there, and then transferring to a university.

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You absolutely can go to college! Students much older than you (and with worse high school records) start at community colleges every semester.

NY has excellent, affordable community colleges, many of which (I think) are open enrollment and some have agreements with 4-year SUNY schools so coursework transfers smoothly.

Try to schedule a meeting with an admissions representative at one or two community colleges near you. They can sit/Zoom with you and go through your questions about the admissions process, requirements, placement, where to get financial questions answered on campus, etc. They also might know of special programs or courses for returning students that would help ease you back into academics.

Some of this information will also be on college websites, but nothing beats a live conversation if you can swing it.

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You can absolutely go to college. FWIW, I teach at a university that creates opportunities for students just like you – late bloomers, second-chance students, mid-career pivoting students – and they do a fantastic job, given the opportunity. College at eighteen years old is not the right choice for everyone! I agree with other posters that starting at a community college would probably be the best idea. You can get back into the swing of academics, explore different areas of of study while taking your gen ed requirements, and you can get more academic support and advising. If you go that route, I believe your high school records will not be part of your application when you apply to four-year colleges. Good luck!

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You say you have been job hopping for 10 years? Does this mean you have been out of high school for 10 years? That would make you 27 or 28 years old, so if that is the case, you would be independent for financial aid purposes. Your need based financial aid would be based on your income and assets only.

We don’t know your income for 2024 (if you wanted to start college in 2026, that is the tax year that would be used for financial aid calculation purposes). But if it’s low enough, you might actually qualify for a Pell grant or at least part of one. And by completing the FAFSA, you would also be eligible for federally funded Direct Loans…which for first year is $5500.

You WILL have to provide your previous college transcripts. Will you have any credits that might transfer to a degree program at your community college?

If there is a community college near you, perhaps you can make an appointment to speak to someone there…and they can at least advise you about the costs/finances.

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I’m genuinely shocked by all the positive comments and especially suggestions!

I unironically made this thread to be publicly humiliated for being a complete loser who should maybe go get a trade or be a fast food lifer. Or warned that if I do manage to get in somewhere, my “degree” will be little more than toilet paper since it isn’t from a T20, and I’ll be trash at my field anyway since I wasn’t prepping for it since middle school.

Reading about college admissions today shocks me because I didn’t know half these classes and opportunities existed. It’s possible they’ve only come about since I was out of school. Or they did back then, but weren’t available to me (partly because of my school hopping. Maybe School #3 has a full AP load available, but I don’t have any prerequisites because School #2 only offered like, 5, and not until you’re a junior. Yes I really did go to one school that only allowed a certain number of APs by year). Internships are for college students, no such thing as high schoolers doing research unless you’re an actual one-in-a-billion genius at an elite school for the ultra-gifted. I remember sitting at a school award ceremony and wondering how you even find out these prizes exist, much less get nominated - do you just get them for getting perfect grades or something? Idk to this day.

@MYOS1634: If College Composition is that intro writing/“succeeding in college” course, I’ve probably had at least 2. I tried to go to college like 3 times and fell apart mentally and failed most my classes; withdrew, came home, and got shipped off to another school because not having a degree wasn’t an option.

No, I haven’t taken an SAT recently, I didn’t think adults were even allowed to, and I’m terrified of how I would do. Considering it took multiple prep classes and loads of studying to get the score I did, I’m not sure if it would even be worth it.

Also, education, really? I always thought teachers were poorly respected and the pay is terrible, barely more than I make now (and I’ve never made more than 40k. I was thrilled the year I made that much) but for 10x more work.

thumper1: I’m 31. I just didn’t get my first job until I was 21. I was convinced I was unemployable for a while.

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Don’t worry about the SAT.

I strongly suggest you start at a community college…maybe take one or two courses to see how it goes. Don’t overdo…you want to build up your studying skills, and be successful. You can do this while you continue to work. Most community colleges have classes in the evenings and on weekends. You probably can work and take a class at the same time.

I would suggest you look at some of the two year courses of study at the CC. You could get a two year degree, and then work…while pursuing your bachelors part time.

This isn’t a race…view it as a journey.

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The SAT is meant to be taken by high school aged individuals. When you go to your CC, and take the prescribed coursework, the SAT won’t matter.

What the colleges want to see is your record of performing well in a classroom. environment.

Start with an elective course that is fun. My eldest took a course at SUNY Buffalo in English focused on the Beatles lyrics.

My middle daughter took a humanities course at UC Davis in “Fairy tales throughout the world” with a huge focus on Grimm’s.
She later took a course on Wine (Viticulture and Enology).
Start slow and go to the on campus tutors so that you can get organized to know how to study.
Good luck! We all have to start somewhere!

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The SAT doesn’t matter, I was just curious if your score was from HS or if you’d taken it recently and decided to return to college because of it.
(BTW: It’s a VERY GOOD score, like top 1% score. You can’t “fake” that score.)
For admission to a 4-year college, they’ll use your record at CC. :+1:

Education is just ONE field. It may not be for you and yes it doesn’t pay as well as Informatics or Data Science but if your nightmarish experience with Calculus turns out to be a trauma you can’t overcome, Education is a job with steady pay.
(BTw teacher pay varies on the State and some states, like Arkansas, OK, NC, and Florida, just pay awful wages indeed). In NYS it doesn’t make you wealthy but median salaries are around 55-75k in rural/urban areas, 85-100k suburban, and 110+ in high cost of living areas. NYC has its own scale (68k starting salary with a Bachelor’s degree - not much but much better than fast food workers).

My suggestion was to take the online Khan academy (free) final test and see whether you should enroll in precalc. Or you could enroll in precalc right away to see whether you can have a major that requires it or not. Summer session is about to start at many community colleges, you can just..register. FAFSA&TAP would require some time to complete&disburse if you’d rather not pay that out of pocket.
But @aunt_bea’s suggestion to take whatever class “looks interesting” to you is great too: it’ll help you rebuild your study muscles! And it’ll be fun to boot because it’ll be dissociated from earning a degree, it’ll be purely for the process of finding your study skills and confidence back. So really, if it looks interesting, Fairy Tales, Graphic Novels, Italian cinema, Impressionists, Cultural Anthropology, History of NYS, Egyptian Mythology… go ahead. It’ll show you that you can read and understand serious books, that you can read and remember textbook information, that you know how to outline key points, that you know how to take notes, that you know how to do flashcards, that you can help classmates and lead a study group…AND whatever you don’t remember or can’t do you’ll learn how to do alongside your classmates :flexed_biceps:

Btw it means you’ll need to have a study space, either at your house or at the library (public library or college library), with a dedicated desk, a space for the books, good lighting, and quiet (or noise cancelling headphones). No one touches that space! :wink: Or you can read on the couch when no one’s around.
You can watch Crash Course Study Skills videos if need be, they’re fun and very clear. (There’s a Crash course video series for every subject BTW. US history, World History, and European History are hosted by John Green).

Don’t pay attention to the voices from the past that tear you down: you’re an adult now. You aren’t trying to please them. You’re doing this FOR YOU. :heart::hugs:

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"If College Composition is that intro writing/“succeeding in college” ..
Freshman composition, college writing, intro to academic writing, etc= yes that first college course all colleges require
At SUNYs, “succeeding in college” is usually a separate 1- credit course.

I found something for you: you’re eligible for FREE TUITION AND BOOKS
https://www.suny.edu/communitycollege/free-cc/faq/

(It’s for priority fields only but these encompass the ones I’d listed upthread :joy:)

There’s also this
https://www.suny.edu/attend/academics/eop2/

And

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You have already received some wonderful practical advice here, so I’ll just add a few words of encouragement. I’m a college professor, and I’ve had a couple of non-traditional students (in their late 20s/early 30s) in my classes, and they were some of the best students I’ve ever taught. Also, a friend’s son just graduated from our very strong state flagship with a double major, and he’s in his late 30s (maybe even 40 already). He is very bright but had some personal issues earlier in life and had dropped out of a community college a couple of times. Just to say (and echo others) that life’s trajectory doesn’t have to be a straight line, everyone has different circumstances. You should absolutely pursue a college education since you seem very eager. Starting with the community college sounds like a great piece of advice to me.

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@MYOS1634 I had no idea some of that stuff existed. I know about FAFSA, TAP, all that, but not opportunities like that.

I also didn’t realize there’s a “Crash Course Study Skills”. I never learned to study, at all, and it ended with me here.

Nor did I think 1480 was “good” anymore, when every college admissions group online is full of people with near-perfect (or perfect) scores.

“Take a fun elective to start learning again” is something that’s been recommended to me too - I questioned it mainly because of money. Why throw away $1-3k on something I might not pass or even finish? Then again, if all this applies it might not be the hardship I worried it would be.

Sorry to rant but it feels…relevant. My current job required an aptitude test; everyone gets one and they’re picky. Apparently I did well enough that HR confided that they “wanted to hire me on the spot” because of my score, apparently the second highest of any current employee - I only got an 81%, 86% on practical. I was literally hired to file papers and clear a room full of clutter. It’s been almost 3mo and I’ve at least made visible progress.

More recently, I was tasked with shredding boxes of old files, including old personnel/interview files. It’s not the best, but I got curious - some files had old paper aptitude tests, and I started checking them, looking for anyone who scored higher than me. Call it compulsive envy.

I found maybe 30 or so (of just the ones I checked), and I noticed other things when skimming their profiles before shredding - maybe 3/4 of the people who scored at or above my level had degrees. Something about that process was making me think my family is right about me going back to college, if I’m scoring similarly to college graduates on basically a mini-IQ test maybe there’s hope for me yet.

Also I would just like a career path where drudgery is an incidental and not inherent to the nature of the job.

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The course you’d choose wouldn’t be wasted because it’d count as a Gen-Ed.
First semester full time would be English, Math, 1 course that looks interesting, and 1-2 courses related to the major you’re interested in. If you change your mind wrt the major you’re interested in, that course becomes Gen Ed credits for another major.

What classes did you pass at Clarkson? SUNYs must now “take” the classes you passed to make it easier for 25+ adults to finish the degree they started (any degree). You could of course decide your skills need a brush up and take a similar class again. But if you passed some classes at Clarkson, you “have” them “in the bag” already and you’re not starting from scratch.

Some subjects are sequential, so that success in level 3 requires proficiency/mastery of level 2 which itself supposes proficiency/mastery of level 1. If Level 1 or 2 is shaky, things are likely to get wobbly in level 3, and will come crashing down in level 4.
Sequential subjects are Math and Foreign language.
So, it’s very possible your problems in calculus stem from wobbly precalculus. But encountering problems it can’t solve or failing again and again also causes a sort of “trauma” to your brain. So, your experience with Calculus could just be a combination of wobbly precalculus and trauma - not at all an indication you can’t do it. Not that you necessarily need calculus. Lots of jobs don’t, or will only require a “light” or “applied” form of it.

Good resources:

  • Khan Academy (free online resources to review/learn, each concept comes with a bitesize explanation and a problem to solve)
  • Crash course videos (Crash course history crash course study skills, crash course business, crash course biology, etc.)
  • NPCs : net price calculators will tell you exactly how much college will cost, books and transportation included in the estimate – though in your case SUNYs for free sound like the best deal!
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