Hello, TLDR- GPA of 1.91 in 4 semesters from 11 years ago is hurting my transfer college application by downgrading my recent GPA for an Associates of Science degree with 3.7 from a community college. I applied with a robust ECA, leadership roles, and undergraduate research experiences. What should I do? Please help.
I am 31. I went to a state college as international student from 2008-2010. I did poorly then due to various reasons including illness of the then sole-bread-earner of our family. In the middle of my 4th semester I went to back home to face citizenship interview and failed to drop out of two classes out of 4 (international student needs to be enrolled at 12 credits at least); I withdrew from other 2 classes that semester. In a nutshell gpa hit 1.91 there.
My family emigrated to states and my father got hospitalized. I stopped college in early 2010.
I moved to a different state(NY), and been working full time in hospitality industry ever since to support my family.
I put through my younger sister in college and last year she found a job as an engineer. In the meantime, I had gone to a community college in 2013 and graduated in 2015 but decided not to pursue college to let my sister finish college first.
Now I am applying to colleges for transfer, and got a rejection from a top 10 engineering college for my dream major(Aerospace with Space focus) day before yesterday. I was an OOS and it was a public flagship for the respective state, yet i thought I had a decent shot. I am feeling that maturity and long-planned hard-work is tumbling down and thought to ask advise from you all.
Thank you for any advice.
so, first the positive: congratulations on all you have achieved in the last 10 years. Genuinely.
But…reacting to being rejected as an OOS applicant for a top-10 engineering as all your hard work being for nothing is misplaced.
Starting with the basics: have you fulfilled all of the pre-reqs, with top marks? If not, you weren’t even at the races.
Even if you have fulfilled them, it has been 5 years since you were in a classroom: how sharp are your calc skills? going into a top-tier program as a 3rd year you will be going flat out: the Admission Committee will want to be sure that you are up for it. I know that you have been working full time, but have you done anything to show that you are ready to jump back in?
And, even if you have the pre-reqs AND you demonstrated that you are ready to go…the admit rates are low. GaTech and UMi, for all transfers, accept about about 30% of applicants- and it is lower for engineering.
In other words, getting into a top-10 public flagship as an OOS was always a long shot. So, it doesn’t say anything about whether your plan is all falling apart- just that you - like every transfer student- need more than just high reaches.
I also am not completely convinced that a low 2010 GPA will kill a super-high 2015 GPA in terms of admissions, especially given that you apparently completed the AA.
Also not sure how you were going to afford the OOS public- none of the top public engineering programs that I can think of meet full need.
tl;dr: your work and dreams aren’t falling apart- you just need to be more realistic in the level of competition.
Don’t give up: just look more broadly. You have two good in-state options (SUNY Binghamton & Stony Brook), and one strong reach instate (Cornell).
If you graduated from a NYS community college you have the guaranteed transfer option to a 4-year SUNY. How are you planning to pay for school? Could you commute to any of the SUNY campuses?
Congratulations on all you have accomplished. But WHY WHY WHY would you pin all of your hopes and dreams on one top ten OOS college? Even if your prior record and the fact that you have been out of college since 2015 was ignored (which is unlikely), it would be a long-shot to transfer into a top ranked (ex. highly competitive) OOS engineering program from a CC.
Your hard work, accomplishments, and maturity can get you to that 4 year engineering degree. See if you can talk to a transfer advisor at your old CC. Discuss if you should take a few classes to freshen up your academics before applying to a 4 year program. And then apply to a wide range of ABET accredited schools that includes match and safety options. Pay attention to affordability. Look carefully at the very fine options in the SUNY system (ex. Stony Brook, Buffalo, to name but a couple).
I was disappointed at that admission rejection. I have applied to bunch of other colleges in the meantime, and trying to see where my options land.
Thank you @happy1, for the idea of exploring the options with my old CC’s transfer adviser.
@austinmshauri @collegemom3717 thank you for your responses.
I did apply to SUNY Buffalo and StonyBrook along with RIT, RPI in NYS back in 2015. I got admitted to all of them, yet, my sister was in midway college and I decided to wait till she was done.
However, from the rejection that I received recently- after a followup email, I was told that my GPA when calculated as cumulative-GPA was not above 3.0. Therefore, seeing a few semesters of bad GPA from 12 years ago, vanquishing my recent GPA of 3.69~3.7 and extra-curricular contribution felt harsh to me, but feelings are feelings and I consider myself quite a rational individual.
Meanwhile, I am talking with them to know my academic credentials’ disposition in this issue and how can I present myself in a position to attain a degree sooner than later, meaning broadening my range of target schools.
@collegemom3717, I am planning on taking loans. In 2011 I begun bartending with sole purpose of moving anywhere for colleges when time comes. Therefore, if I can swing a couple nights of work for my personal expenses and manage summer-internships for annual rents for off-campus housing, I do not mind using loans as an option for tuition fees.
Thank You.
You’ve done a great thing by supporting your family. I agree with others that you can’t let the rejections get to you. Especially as an older student, you need to be realistic about costs. Binghamton has a big hospital across the street from campus. If you are a hospital worker, it might make sense for you to try to get in to Bing’s engineering school. Maybe you could live on campus and work at the hospital. Good luck.