Advertisement

Register for free to remove this ad

This is probably the wrong place to ask this, but I figure there has to be someone out there that can relate with this.

I'm 25 years old and I am about to receive a degree in General Studies from a university. I want to work towards a second major in psychology and hopefully get into graduate school at some point. The problem is that when I was younger I frequently worked 2 jobs to get by, and inevitably my grades suffered. For all my hard work I am broke and my grades suck. On top of that I was never the type to take school very seriously, and my GPA hovers around a 2.0. I learned the hard way to put school first and say a big shaq fu to employers that worked me like a slave.

I know one way to improve my grades is to retake various courses, but I changed my major so many times that I would be retaking a ton of crap courses that I have zero interest in. On top of that, I listened to all the wrong people and didn't start receiving FAFSA until late in my senior year, and with all my credits they won't lend me money for school.

The advantage I do have is that I can use my Bachelor's to fund myself through continued education. Is there a way I can effectively start from scratch, or do I have to retake a ton of courses? I am also open to attending school outside the country, such as Canada or France.

I am currently in a similar situtation. I graduated 4 years ago with a BS in Bio and am just now deciding to go back to school for a Pharm. D. degree. After talking with the Dean of admissions here at UCSD, I've learned a few things I wish I knew several years ago. The one that applies in your case is that there is no way to erase grades from that long ago. Even if you retake the courses, they will not "replace" your old grades. The only thing you can do is take the next higher class and get an "A." (ie- If you got a C or D in Organic Chemistry, rather than retaking Organic, take Organic II or Physical Chemistry and get an A. The reason being, they would expect you to get an A if you retook the class since you've already been through it once. However, if you can get an A in the next higher class then it shows you not only know the old stuff, but you can apply it to new stuff too). Doing this does 2 things. One is showing the people reviewing your transcripts that you've matured since taking the original class (you're not a party person or whatever anymore), and two, it improves your GPA (it doesn't take away the old class, but it adds an A).

Good Q. I'm 30 with an associates in Medical Technology. My grades from my early 20's are just total shit. It wasn't until I started in an 'offical' degree program when I was 23 that things started to pick up.

My problem is I have so many classes C's or worse that are scattered across many discplines (Psych, General Bio, Business Mgt, etc) that I really need to have a counselor look over them and help me pick out the shortest path to a bachelors.

Clep!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College...nation_Program

Yeah but CLEP is only good for 100-200 level classes. Not the upper level junior/senior stuff that I need.

If you can't replace classes OP, it'll look good enough if you just start cranking out A's and B's. Schools like to see improvement. I had lots of Fs early on in HS (long story) but I gradually picked my grades up and got into a good college. then I dropped out of that college with more shitty grades and worked for awhile. then I went to community college for a year and a half, got As and Bs with lots of volunteer work and got into UW-madison somehow.

They just like to see that kind of thing, that you can learn from mistakes and be committed. Grades + volunteer work and they'll forget your past If you finish strong with a second major, grad schools will have no problem accepting you.

If you've been out of school awhile, check and see if your school has an academic fresh start program. Won't help the OP, but could help some.

When I was first in school, my grades suffered too. Unfortunately, I've only taken a small amount of time off, and back at it again. Although now, instead of 1.67-2.0 semesters, I get 3.4-3.7 semesters.

I am working on my second Master's degree right now at age 30. All my degrees are related to the social sciences so it's not like I am chaning directions in life very much. If you really want a certain degree or even into a specific college you can get in. I encourage you to call local colleges and find one that has free career counseling. They'll give you a test that will "suggest" fields that you may not have considered before. However, if you really want to be psychology then you need to remember that it is hard to find a decent job without a licence of some kind, which you can't get without a Master's. Your college history suggests that you might not really enjoy college, so you should think if that is really what you want to do right now.

As far as you past school performance, there are two ways to make up for that. 1) a few years of full time work at one company with good performance goes a long way and 2) take one continuing education class at a community college each semester so you can point at those transcripts and say "see all A's for the past few years."

If you know where you want to go, just contact admissions and the department you want to be in and ask them what could help you. They get paid to answer your questions afterall.

I might be of more help later on as well. This month I start taking a class on career counseling. I wish you luck.

T

I'm in the same boat. I'm 21, and going to a CC. I finally picked it up and instead of getting 1.5-2.3 GPA's, I'm raking in 3.6-4.0 per semester. Luckily for me I'm allowed to retake a lot of those classes I messed up in, and I have 4 more and I'm set.

Also, apply for FAFSA. Free money is free money.