I just received my associates in mathematics last fall, and I am currently applying to universities for electrical and computer engineering. As you’ll notice, I’ve taken a lot of classes. I was a poor high school student, so I started at the bottom in college. That combined with working full time nearly the entire duration, along with being unsure what I wanted to do are the reasons why it took me so long to my get associates.
Im really just curious what people think when looking at my transcripts because I’m self conscious about my gpa, and am afraid that I won’t get into any programs, and I am thinking of writing about my experiences of being a full time student and worker, and how its shaped me. But my fear is that if I go that route, it will just sound like I’m making excuses or cliches (which I am partly trying to make excuses for my grades). My other option is to write about a summer internship I had at the university that is my number one choice.
Title Grade
Fall 2011
Computer Literacy B
Basic Composition II A*
Care & Prevent of Ath Injury C+
Introductory College Math P*
Intro to College Reading III A*
Spring 2012
English Composition I C+
Elementary Algebra A*
Ethics B+
Oral Communication A-
Summer 2012
Intermediate Algebra A
Algebra & Trigonometry C+
Fall 2012
General Chemistry I B-
English Compostion II B-
PreCalculus & Math Analysis B-
Principles of Sociology C+
Spring 2013 (president’s list awarded)
General Chemistry II A
Introduction to Programming B+
Calculus I A
Fall 2013
Calculus II B+
Linear Algebra B
Physics I (calculus-based) B-
General Psychology A
Spring 2014(President’s list awarded)
Differential Equations A
very weak… I’m sorry but the level of classes and time it took you to complete them will not reflect in psostive manor ; i wish i could give you an idea on your chances for schools but you haven’t listed any…
You know what, you worked full time while doing this and you have an upward trend. Your situation is really not comparable to most of the types that frequent college confidential. I’m not sure where you want to go but there are a lot of schools that will be happy to have you transfer in and continue your education. Focus on match schools!
Thank you for the kind words. I realize my situation isn’t that of the typical student. Sadly I don’t believe colleges take your work history into account.
I am a math college prof and definitely impressed by how you went from precollege math to an A in Calculus!! That itself is a big deal! Your transcript shows persistence, and reasonable grades. I do not know where you live, but I think if you focus on in state universities that are match schools, you will be a good candidate. What 4 year schools do students from your CC transfer to? What universities are you thinking of applying to? I second redpoodles’ comment to focus on match schools.
My college has a bunch of deals set up that essentially get you in if you graduate with your associates and a decent GPA to schools like Rutgers, Drexel, Rowan. Is this what you mean by match schools?
I would like to transfer to Rowan University, its a state school, and I graduated with my associates from Rowan College at Gloucester County. I did an engineering internship at Rowan University this past summer, and really liked it there. Rowan University is also very close to where I live, so its an easy commute.
Rowan engineering is very small though, class room sizes of about 30, which makes them selective. Their transfer rate is very low and I don’t even meet their transfer requirements because of my GPA.
Rowan engineering is selective, but I think their Computer science department is not as selective and may be more open to transfers . CS at Rowan is not in the engrg. College. Have you looked at NJIT? Not commuting distance , though. Rutgers camden? Perhaps you should consider broadening your scope of major to Comp sci, IT, business etc and other employable , quantitative majors.
Lots of community college grads take more than two years to finish up their AS degrees. Stop worrying about that. And yes, when you do know where to apply, if there is space to include your work experience, go ahead and do that.
But for the best advice for your specific situation, you shouldn’t be asking us. You should be sitting down with the Transfer Counselor at your own CC. That person knows which pre-engineering students have been admitted to different 4-year institutions from your CC, and can help you with the whole process.
@mathprof63: There is Computer Science at Rowan, and Computer Engineering (part of the Electrical Engineering curriculum) at Rowan.
Biggest problem that I see for Huckleberry is that Electrical/Computer Engineering curriculum is sort of prepackaged from Day 1, and that general ed requirements are built into the engineering coursework. Odds on a transfer student getting into Rowan Engineering are getting longer each year.
I agree that Huckleberry might be better off applying for the Computer Science school.
I’m not sure if it’s still part of the application, but if it is, I strongly encourage Huckleberry to complete the “optional” essay. Could put him/her over the top.
Good upward trend
Tends to goof off in easy classes (Care & prevention of athletic injury)
Has good potential (A in diffy q)
But is somewhat unpredictable (C in Discrete Mathematics)
I agree with other posters. Try to focus on in-state schools with low tuition. Get the engineering degree then move on to the job market where you might see more success.
@Sgopal2 The C in discrete was a big goof on my part, I missed a whole test due to a mistake in reading the syllabus, I thought it was on a later date.
@SpacemanEd I actually tried to build my genEds around the requirements for Rowan’s ECE degree using the course equivalents Rowan listed here
in fact I took extra genEds I did not need for my associates. The only genEd requirement I do not meet is the Writing Intensive(WI) but that is satisfied by the Senior year II Clinic
I just thought of this also, but in regards to the genEds. I emailed one of the professors a while ago, regarding the public speaking and college composition II courses that are tied into the sophomore clinics. Apparently if I took the equivalents to public speaking and college comp II, I also get out of the portion of those in the clinics.
I also get out of the Math for Engineering I, if I took linear algebra and ordinary differential equations (which I did)
I really did try to build my associates around transferring into Rowans ECE program. As of right now, if I do get accepted, I will only have to take engineering classes except for 1 programming class because I couldn’t afford to take a java based programming class at county this spring.