i'm afraid i won't be accepted!

[pepto88]

I currently live in Florida and am taking the pre-requisite courses now. (A&P I and II, Micro, Psych. . .) Anyway, I'm planning on moving back home soon, which is the Chicago area of Illinois. I'm finding out that most community colleges, and universities for that matter, accept residents first and THEN out of state or transfer students. Given the HUGE number of applicants, it seems impossible that I'll be accepted! Especially since my GPA isn't that great, 3.3. Hopefully by the time I'm done with A&P II and Micro, it'll be up to a 3.5 but I still have to deal with the whole not being a resident thing. And also, 3.5 isn't that great either even though I feel pretty good about my 3.3. Has anyone else had to deal with this? Am I making it more of a big deal than it is? What should I do? Should I wait to take the rest of my pre-reqs at the community college I ultimately want to get my nursing associate's from? That way I'm a resident, and have already taken coursework there? HELP!! I'm getting very discouraged.

I've also just found out that they look at if you've dropped and retaken any courses. I never really had an academic advisor and before I knew I wanted to be a nurse I wasn't really that great of a student. Just last semester I dropped microbiology and I'm going to retake it next semester. This is bad too! Apparently I need lots of help here! And I really want to be a nurse, even though I just figured it out, I really do! So finding another field really isn't an option. I know I've asked a lot of questions, but any input would really help me out.

RECAP:

I'm mostly concerned with:

- getting into a school as a transfer or non-resident

- how they're going to view my dropped and retaken classes

- my low 3.3 (hopefully soon to be 3.5 GPA)

Thank you so much!

Amber

[timster1984]

Actually, I think there is a trend lately for this. I keep hearing that out here in California, both the California State Universities and the University of California colleges would prefer that students start in the community colleges and then transfer in as sophomores. I haven't actually checked any of their web sites, but I heard a rumor that some of the universities were going to stop admitting freshmen! That may be a new trend, as I said, that may catch on over the country. I suspect that it has something to do with money, budgeting, and the high attrition rate among first and second year college students.

I couldn't agree with this more. I've looked at UCLA, UCSD, Irvine and Davis as well as CSU Chico, Long Beach & Fullerton. The CSUs aren't too strict on transfers so that tells me that their more accepting of freshman but the UCs are a whole different story...they don't want anything to do with you unless you have over half of your degree already done, or atleast for biology. Atleast for California residents I'd recommend going to a CCC (California Community College) first and then transferring anyways though because it's a lot cheaper and more often then not they offer a lot more online/night classes so you can get your pre-reqs/general ed done while you're still working.