I am posting in this sub to get a perspective on the financing part of my situation. Sorry in advance for the wall of text.
Also, not sure if all of this is relevant but here we go:
I graduated high school in the top 20% of my class in 2010. I was accepted to my dream school out of state and parents told me they'd pay for it. College started well, I began in a STEM major, 3.3 GPA for my first year. A week after getting home for summer break, my parents told me they were getting divorced.
Next year, I went back to original school, was having slight difficulty focusing and doing well in advanced level math courses. I thought it was stress. Finished the semester with a 2.8. Spring semester sophomore year I started falling off the wagon. In hindsight, I likely had "high functioning" depression. Parents started putting me in the middle of fights (I'm the oldest). Stopped going to class because of stress and lack of doing excellent in subjects I used to breeze through. I wasn't able to work through it. I sought help from the school and got paranoid when I thought I overheard a counselor talking about me in the hallway before our meeting that I was running late for. I dropped all my courses for the semester and went home without any bad grades.
Junior year, everything collapsed. I completely stopped doing anything other than trying to cheer myself up. Things I continued doing: partying, social events. I tried getting a puppy to work on my depression (maybe not the best choice at the time but 4 years later, he's my entire life). A month later, a major storm decimated my hometown and I spent a lot of time worrying about how my family was doing instead of working on class work. I was almost kicked out of my sorority, and I decided halfway through finals week to drop out completely. I was heart broken.
I decided to transfer to a college in my home state and moved in with my grandmother. Things were going exceedingly well. I was working part time, I loved my classes and I was making friends at the school. I finished this semester with a 3.4.
This school had another "flagship" college whose program was much better than that other one. I decided to transfer there in order to put myself closer to my goals of getting the best degree I could. I got in to transfer but not for my ideal program. I had balanced working full time with school full time and finished this semester with a 3.2. I figured I was in.
Unfortunately, I was not accepted to the program I wanted. I had needed a 3.5 because I was a "transfer" student. I was devastated. A couple weeks later, I was suspended from work due to not getting the required license needed within the allotted time. I was out of work for 6 weeks. During that time, I was too depressed to get out of bed, I felt defeated and stupid.
I asked my family if they would support me taking a year off of school to treat my depression and go back to school having worked on a recovery plan. They all encouraged me to "just keep going, you're almost done" because I had been in school for 4 years. I needed about 40 more credits for my major, if I ever got into it.
I tried "beating the system" by taking summer courses while I waited to apply again to the major I wanted. This backfired. I could not shake this failure looming over me. I couldn't focus on any work, and when I did, I was so self conscious about it. I thought people would think I was stupid, I'd never graduate and everyone would laugh at me wondering where I went wrong.
I was let go from my job in September right before the semester began. I continued academic year 2014-2015 with the same results. Failure. Depression. Unable to even get out of bed. My GPA dropped down to a 1.5. The grades were either B+ or higher or Fs. I was put on academic suspension.
I had to wait a year before I went back and took courses on a probationary status over the summer of 2016. In the meantime, I worked my butt off at 2 jobs, knowing I'd need to save up money to go back. I applied to every job I could to get closer to an office job in my industry.
I went back super excited. I loved the course I signed up for, I had gotten an entry level position (although temporary) in an office and was applying daily to permanent positions in my industry. I wound up getting a C in the class because it was group focused, and I carried my group the entire course by doing most, if not all, of the work. This was the point that I decided I didn't even like this school. Why did I even care? I didn't meet the criteria for a probationary re-admission after academic probation.
I attempted researching other colleges I could attend instead that were still in the area or online. I found a college that I was very interested in that had my major, and required a 2.0 Cumulative GPA. I guess I only had a 1.8, and I was rejected. My options were to take 4 years off and do an "academic bankruptcy" in which I'd have to start over or raise my GPA. I figured it shouldn't be too hard to raise my GPA, so I enrolled in the local community college. Bonus: maybe I could get my A.S. and it would make me more competitive considering I had then completed something.
Fast forward a couple more months, I am currently in an entry level position in financial services with plenty of room to advance. I love my company. They offer $2,500 per year tuition reimbursement. I am taking 2 courses this semester towards an A.S. at a local community college. They want me to retake courses (24 credits more) that I previously took in order to get my degree (for example: English I, Public Speaking, Management, etc.).
Total credits: 83 I think my GPA is around a 1.7 Cumulative
I have some questions:
1.) Is there any way to appeal the transfer evaluation at the community college? I won't get double credit at a 4-yr school for retaking classes o did well in the first time.
2.) Does it make sense to graduate with the Associates before transferring to a Bachelors program? Or should I try to raise my GPA with the couple courses I'd need to take as prerequisites and then try to transfer again?
3.) Is it even possible to raise my GPA that much considering how many courses I have managed to fail?
4.) Should I even bother trying to get my Bachelor's Degree? I have always dreamed of getting a Bachelors and a Masters, but now I'm thinking maybe it's just not worth it/unachievable given my past mistakes.
TLDR; Fucked up in college due to depression, parents' divorce, getting fired and major storm, failed a lot of classes, should I even bother trying to finish?
Submitted March 09, 2017 at 10:52PM by Tausigmamu http://ift.tt/2mNEDFP
