Poor academics before Military

cider1
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 05:54:10 +0000

I signed up for this website just to reply to you.

I’m living this life right now and I’ve talked to several, probably more than 12, admissions offices and here’s where I am and what I understand about this (our) situation…

Before I joined I had absolute garbage HS grades. Bottom of the class type rank in a large High School. SAT in 2004 was 1060. I was a piece of garbage teen who acted like a punk idiot. My grades reflected this.
Left HS and went to a state university. F’s and W’s all over the place. It was just a means to not live at home anymore and I rode it as long as I could. I left college with a 1.17 GPA in 2006.
I’m 31, joined military at 24, left at 30, honorable.
I’m in my second year of community college holding a 4.0.

My cGPA will never reach the “cutoff” GPA of many colleges so I’m in a really bad spot if I ever want to attend a respectable university. Like most things in life, challenges can be overcome.

My research from talking to admissions of top state schools and private colleges is this: They love a good story. Some transfer rules may be hard-lined, such as I cannot transfer as a junior to Penn State (Smeal Business School) because of the rules. But this is not the norm and if a student can show and explain what has happened between my awful HS and old college transcripts, the military and my current 4.0, it will be strongly considered. It’s never time to just pack it up and give up. Frankly, I’m extremely impressed with my experience at Community College. For example, this semester my math teacher has a PhD in Mathematics from a top math school and just loves teaching. If I had any advice, get into a community college and just KILL IT. Show these colleges that there was an old you, an armed service member, and the person you are now. I was ready to give up but I have VERY high expectations of what my transfer schools are going to be for Fall 18. Hang in there and get back to school, they want to know that you can handle the coursework, so show them you can.

Best of luck.