6x transfer student

[AVictoria94]

Hey! So, as everyone can see from my title I am a 6x transfer student. I unfortunately attended 6 colleges/universities.

My Story is as follows ... 

   My freshmen year I attended a small college very close my house as a biology major. From then, I transferred to a SUNY college a little bit further at, which at this moment in my life I F'd up. Couldn't balance my party list with academics. As well, I was dealing with some weight and self identity issues (I gained 60lbs), I was depressed and suicidal. My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and my father with heart failure was hospitalized for months! Hard to imagine so much traumatic stuff could happen in one semester. Since then, I went to a community college close to my house for a year, got tired of being home and was pressured to transfer out. I transferred to a huge university of Queens, was crazy expensive couldn't afford it then went to a school in Connecticut. I was isolated from my sorority, had zero friends and it was absolutely terrible. Being there,  I was officially diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety and a social disorder. I've taken the semester off to get my head straight but I'm still terrified and scared because I don't know what I am going to do. 

My now .. 

   So that was my story! I have transferred colleges six times, getting ready to re-enter now. I'm going into my senior year but my biggest fear is that I've made myself look unpredictable and unstable. My ex-boyfirend who is currently in law school was telling me it doesn't matter as long as my grades have been steadily improving which they have! I started off with mainly B's and C's to mainly B's to now primarily A's and B's, the last two semesters I have been my best overall. I'm planning on taking some courses between winter and fall but I don't think that is going to really raise my GPA though. My GPA is currently a 2.67, for one graduate school that I'd prefer not to go to because its super expensive requires a 2.75. Majority of schools require a 3.0 which I am trying very hard to achieve at this point I don't even know if I can. I am planning on taking the GRE and studying my butt off to do great on it. After my freshman year my GPA was a 1.84 so it's been crazy hard to get it back up to.

My question ..

I already know I am going to be frowned upon because of my frequent transfers and plethora of schools attended but how badly is that going to do? What do I need to do to ensure I can get into any graduate school? I am also well aware that letters of recommendation can help a lot as well. I'm not reaching out for someone to do any sort of research for me. More like for someone who was in my shoes before to give advice or something of that nature. 

Edited October 29, 2015 by AVictoria94

[shadowclaw]

Hmmm, I only count five schools and four transfers. I think you forgot a school in there 

I was in a somewhat similar situation as you are now. I started off at a super prestigious school near home (that cost a fortune even with my scholarship) majoring in computer science, but after two and a half semesters, I switched my major to English with the hopes of eventually having a writing career. During the two years I was there I had some real trouble dealing with social anxiety and depression, plus I honestly wasn't mentally in the right place for college. I eventually just stopped going to class and I ended up with an academic dismissal (although this was later removed from my record and by the time I applied to grad school it just looked like I transferred). I then went to a small college in the woods to study information technology since I still liked the idea of working with computers. I did insanely well (4.0 both semesters), but decided I wanted to revisit computer science in a program with more flexibility than my original one. Since this school didn't have it, I transferred to a state school away from home where I dormed. Things went well for one semester, then I got a new roommate who drove me nuts as well as new neighbors who were so noisy. I continued to have social anxiety issues and swapped majors a few times, and got my own room for my second year in hopes that it might help... but it didn't. I got so depressed sitting alone in my room all the time. So I transferred back home to my second school, but ended up getting suspended due to my crappy academic performance. So I enrolled in an online program for a semester, which was a terrible idea because I ended up not doing any of the work. I again returned to the state school, this time commuting two days per week. I still did really crappy and I changed my major again... this time to anthropology. I ended up withdrawing and heading back to school number two.

At this point, I had been in college for seven years, changed my major 13 times (although several changes were back to previous majors), had attended four different schools, and was on the sixth transfer. My GPA was also ruined. At school one, my GPA was a 1.83, and school two it was a 2.79 I think, school three was a below a 2.5 but I don't recall exactly what it was, and school four was a 0.00. So I boldly went into a brand new major at school two (biology) and despite the 2.79 GPA, I didn't have very many credits. I did phenomenal while I was there... I didn't have a semester below 3.75 and almost all of my grades were A's (with just a handful of B+'s and A-'s). I raised my GPA up to 3.59 and graduated with honors, plus won several departmental awards. I wish I had joined a club while I was there, because a few professors wanted to nominate me for graduate of the year, but I was ineligible due to not being in any clubs. The head of the department also wanted to get me into the honors program, but I was ineligible for that, too, because I needed a GPA of 3.5 and I didn't get there until my last year. He actually tried to convince the registrar to erase my grades from that one crappy semester. I feel warm and fuzzy when I think about that. Anyway, aside from awesome grades, I did some research and and got some pretty amazing letters of recommendation, too.

While I ultimately became successful, it has been an uphill battle. I couldn't get into a PhD program straight from undergrad, but I did get into all of the masters programs that I applied to. However, I didn't get offered much funding. While I was funded my second year (plus my research was fully funded), I had to pay for that first year. Interestingly, the school I did my masters at was the third school I went to as an undergrad. Getting into a PhD program wasn't easy, either, but that has a lot to do with ecology and wildlife programs being very competitive due to limited funding. However, I did get into my top-ish choice (still not sure if I would have chosen University of Tennessee if I had received an offer).

So yes, you can go to grad school. You should be warned that when you show some potential PI's your transcripts, many of them are going to laugh and if you're lucky they'll gently tell you to apply elsewhere. Some of them will be jerks and will just stop responding to you. Others will be supportive and give you tips on how to improve your profile. Amazing letters of recommendation are really important. My graduate coordinator in my masters program told me that the adcomm really wasn't sure they wanted to let me in, but because my letter writers spoke so highly of me, they decided to take a chance. So you really need to build good relationships with professors, and it's especially helpful if you do some research with them. I also recommend that as you build these relationships, find out if your professors have connections in any programs that you're interested in. If they can introduce you and speak well on your behalf to a PI that they're friends with, that will mean a lot.

My final piece of advice: if you can score a publication as an undergrad, that would be amazing and would be a game changer in the application process.

 

[GradSchoolTruther]

Undergraduate publications don't matter for many fields.

[shadowclaw]

47 minutes ago, GradSchoolTruther said:

Undergraduate publications don't matter for many fields.

I doubt that, especially considering that people from a wide variety of fields on here have mentioned how good it looks on a grad school applications. You also can't honestly say that it wouldn't matter... publications are basically the currency of academia. Unless you're planning to do a course-based masters, research is your goal and a publication means your previous research was relevant, novel, and well executed. That's the kind of thing adcomms look for.

[bhr]

7 hours ago, GradSchoolTruther said:

Undergraduate publications don't matter for many fields.

That's completely wrong. Being able to write a publishable paper as an undergrad, even for a journal with minimal prestige, still carries a lot of weight on an application. That's particularly true if it's as a first author, or with other students rather than as a second author for a faculty member.

[dr. t]

15 hours ago, bhr said:

That's completely wrong. 

Not in my field. Publishing a bad paper in a crummy journal (which would be the most likely avenue for an undergraduate to publish) can easily haunt you on the job market.

Plus, if you have a published article, it's probably going to be your writing sample. The committee will get to read it, which is worth far more than an obscure citation to some journal they've never heard of. 

The real benefits of submitting for publication to your application will be the reviewer's comments, not the final result.

Edited November 8, 2015 by telkanuru