<p>I am an non-traditional student. I’ve been to college on and off for the last 10 years. I’m currently 30. It seems that I had an epiphany two years ago. My freshman, junior and senior years of High School were done in The Bronx in probably the worst school in the city. I did my sophmore year in the Dominican Republic, in Spanish. My class rank was about 119 out of 34x students. If I remember correctly, my GPA was a 74. Every year I had night school and summer school. A lot of failures, usually not in Math classes where I did well. My freshmen year in high school when comparing it to every other student’s, I notice that I was placed in Sequential Math I (I think that’s comparable to intermediate algebra) While everyone else was placed in classes like fundamental math which is two years behind SM I. The requirements to graduate HS when I was in NYC at the time were three years of Math and SM I and II are required. Which was the common courses of seniors and juniors. When I told a counselor he changed it no questions asked. I was a jit so I didn’t know better. My parents don’t know English, and my step dad finished the 3rd grade. Recently I learned the magnitude of this mistake. I was placed in Algebra because I had 99 percentile in the citywide math tests when I was in middle school. </p>
<p>Like I said before my college career wasn’t too hot either. When I moved to Miami and started working here, my bosses noticed how analytical I am. One even told me “I swear, I don’t know what you are doing here. You can be somewhere else making more money with your knowledge.” I sold TVs, but was technically adept since my hobby was reading engadget and similar sites. Nevertheless, I noticed what they saw in me when I took programming classes. So I worked in this place for two years, and then it kicked in. I could excel in Engineering or some type of analytical career. I then started learning how to do well in school, changed my study habits and my major. I went to tutoring labs, I studied in the library and did things I’ve never done before. I went from taking Trigonometry last summer to CalcIII which I’m currently enrolled on and dropped no classes, and failed no classes since. In my most important classes my grades are / will be Calc I, III, DiffEq, Phy I & II, and ChemI A’s Linear algebra and Calc II B, those two B’s where about 86-89ish. The only reason they are B is because an Illness in my immediate family, so I started the semester bad. In my current classes I have the highest scores. In phyics another student and myself have around 96~98 avg. The third highest avg is about 79. </p>
<p>I wrote all this for a reason. I graduated community college with a 3.4x GPA. I wish they only count the best 60 credits :), but I can’t change my past. The point is “I believe” I have the ability to excel. I had to learn how to since I was never taught. </p>
<p>I would like to go to the best school I possibly can go to. I know a lot of them are X’d out because my scores are too low. Because my college doesn’t have ± grades my Math Sci GPA after Calc I is 3.77. </p>
<p>I want to major in computer engineering. For graduate studies I would like to take computational finance, financial math, financial engineering if I can get into a good school for that. Otherwise I’ll finish the masters in computer/electrical eng. </p>
<p>The point of all this, again is that I think I can handle it. I didn’t know how to, but I’ve learned. So which are the “best” schools that I might have a chance of being accepted to, considering past grades, age, etc. What would be my chances? Applications fees are kind of expensive.</p>