Adult Education

[Pilonea]

You may be thinking this post will be about Hall and Oates and their wonderful tune by the same name, but unfortunately this post isn't going to be music to your ears.

My question is this: does anyone here know anything about how an adult who has about two years under his belt at a university would go about returning to school when his GPA was between a 1.5 and a 1.9? I have already submitted my application, replete with a sob story about my life, to my old university's readmittance board (after I was dismissed for bad grades) and had the door slammed in my face with a meretriciously friendly letter.

My real question is this: how does one erase bad grades? Will other schools allow you to enroll as a freshman without having to see your old transcripts from another school? I am under the impression this is a no (I have already called and asked, but it seems to me they would never be the wiser). Or, if transcripts are a must, are most community colleges fairly lenient on prior university grades when applying for admittance? It appears continuing college will be worth my while since finding a job is next to impossible, considering my resume is wrought with a terrible and capricious work history (I never stay at a job for over 3 months). No one in my area wants to hire me anymore, and I can't really blame them.

I figure college would be my last ditch effort before I go forward with an SSI benefit attempt.

Dark days -- dark days indeed.

Regards.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I have two suggestions:

1. If you are seeing or have seen a counselor/therapist in the past for a condition such as depression or anxiety or stress, etc., you should request a letter to be written to the university outlining how this may have impacted your ability to focus on your academic work, complete assignments, study, etc. Alternatively, if you had a physical condition that might have impacted on your work or were required to take any medication that might have introduced difficult side-effects, have your family doctor provide you with a letter, Universities make money from students. If they can see a documented reason for poor performance which will allow them to anticipate an improvment in performance in the future or some sort of "disability" where special treatment (like extra time for assignements, etc.) might help, most are willing to make such accomodations.

2. How long have you been out of university at this point? If it has been a year or two, you might reapply to take one or two courses or even a full academic load (depends on the university) as a provisional or qualifying student - this provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate that you can now do the work. This may work especially well in combination with #1 above.

 

[ThatLady]

In answer to your question, Community Colleges are much more lenient about previous university grades. If nothing else works, you could do a year of Community College and use your grades there to give you a boost into a 4-year program.

 

[Pilonea]

Thanks for the info. I may try to CC route, but my first issue is getting the money. That's another problem, but one that shouldn't be insurmountable.

Regards

 

[ThatLady]

Definitely not insurmountable. If you don't have a degree already, there is usually assistance available through the financial aid department at the college. Be sure to check with them, as they can be of a great deal of help to you.