<p>My first year in community college I screwed up. I was lazy and I guess had that attitude that everything would work itself out and I didn’t have to do anything. Well I lost my financial aid (obviously). But now I’ve realized that I can’t play around anymore, I have to work my butt off if I’m going to succeed. Here’s my question, is it too late? If I pay out of pocket for a few classes and get my GPA back up can I get my financial aid back? Can I still get into a university after I get my AA?</p>
<p>You can totally get an AA degree and also transfer, HOWEVER, this is an extremely tricky process. Some classes you need specifically for the AA requirement and others you need for IGETC or whatever. Since you have wasted a year and I assume don’t have such a large college fund (you say you want to pay your class fees out of your pocket?) that you can’t pay for 5 classes, you must make a gameplan to stick to, and even then, would the money be wasted if you don’t truly feel you want to succeed?
Honestly, it might take you a longer time if you just bombed all of the classes you took your first year, and if you’re looking for both an AA and a transfer, you are in for a lot of work.</p>
<p>‘Alot of work’ as in what? I am currently in the same predicament too.</p>
<p>If you can afford to pay for the necessary classes to get your grades back up out of pocket it’s entirely doable. The biggest advice I could give would be to work on your time management and study skills. I know I never learned how to actually study when I was in high school so college threw me for a bit of a loop. Once I got the hang of it classes were much easier. The other thing is to take advantage of the resources your school offers. Free tutoring? Go! Teacher has office hours? Go! And if you run into an issue in class or life that affects your studies, talk to your professor ASAP. If they know you’re trying they’ll be far more likely to work with you.</p>
<p>The good point about this is that if you are able to get your grades up, it’ll show in your transcripts and gives you something tangible you can write about in your application essays later. Steady improvement and the willingness to work for it shows much more drive than the straight B/C student who just wanted to get by.</p>