After a 10 year break in my education, I decided to return to school for computer science. I’m 3 semesters in and I’m starting to look into schools to transfer into (a change in my major caused an extra necessary semester). The one thing that worries me is that when I originally went to school (10 years ago), I had no direction and was completely focused on my career in music at the time, causing my grades to suffer horribly. I ended up with something like a 1.5 GPA. Since going back, my GPA has been above a 3.9. This has brought my total GPA up to a 3.2, which still worries me.
My first question is whether admissions offices will take into account that all of my poor grades were from over a decade ago. As I said, since returning, I have maintained straight A’s with one B+. It should also be noted that none of these classes had any relevance to computer science.
I’m looking at SUNY schools and was hoping that someone here might have some insight as to what my chances are at some of the better ones for CS (Stony Brook / Buffalo) and if there’s anything that I can do to improve them. It should be noted that retaking these classes is not an option due to their irrelevancy to my future combined with financial and time restraints.
Thank you for any help.
Congrats on returning to education! I’m not positive about any of this, but I can’t imagine scores from 10 years ago would be held harshly against you. The fact that your GPA has risen so significantly is a great sign.
They do take account older grades but they like to see an upward trend. Anyway, when you are enrolled, the college doesn’t take those old grades into account when calculating your GPA. Stony Brook has a good CS department and I know that there are a number of returning or non-traditional students there. It is generally a commuter school anyway so you wouldn’t feel that out of place. But the cost of living on LI is really high so if you don’t already live in the area, maybe buffalo or a college closer to home would be a better choice.
Hey dude, yes they will see those staggering grades 10 years ago, but the thing is you may write to them about your situation at the time when you apply and with your excellent upward trending grades since you’ve returned to school, the admissions office will clearly understand that you are now very motivated to get back in the right track after all these years. They love seeing trending upward grades, and certainly if you explain to them your situation 10 years ago, they will understand. I have confidence you will be able to get into UBuffalo at most and it’s a very good school for computer science. Let me know back what you think and good luck.