Bad Transcript from Community College

[jojomojo]

Senior year of high school, I took two psychology classes at my community college. I got an A in one class, and an F in the other during second semester senior year... It was a stupid stupid mistake, and now I have an F on my CC transcript.

What should I do? I wish this would just go away. I want to just "forget" about it, but I am terrified that this will come back to haunt me again if dental schools found out about it. I haven't taken any action, yet, and I am planning on submitting my application soon after I take the DAT (June 25th). Should I try to contact my CC and submit an appeal for academic forgiveness? I'm just afraid that it'll delay my application... What are the chances that no one will find out?

Also, and I'm being paranoid... admissions committees do background checks on social media sites (maybe they poke around SDN?). Is it possible that they could trace this post back to me? I don't think I have any real personal info on my profile.

Update: I contacted my community college and they do NOT have an academic forgiveness policy. I was told that I could submit an academic appeal, but that would involve meeting with a counselor, writing a letter, submitting it to a committee, and waiting until the next time they meet to make a decision (July 9th). I would appeal to turn the F into a Withdrawal. This is a REALLY late withdrawal, as I took this class like 5 years ago!

At this point, I don't even know if the whole process is worth it. I've already delayed submitting my application this long because I had to study and take the DAT (which I did on June 25th). I am aiming to sent my application out in the next 1.5-2 weeks.

Ahh, what should I do? Just suck it up and submit the transcript with an F? It was a Social Psychology course, so it wouldn't lower my science GPA, just my overall. I did some calculations, and it seems like it would pull my 3.47 to a 3.41... I'm not sure if I did the calculations correct, but if it is, that's a pretty significant drop. I've already tried so hard to pull up my GPA in the last 4 semesters of college.

Please help! I have to take action soon, if I am to try to alleviate this problem.

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[doc toothache]

Senior year of high school, I took two psychology classes at my community college. I got an A in one class, and an F in the other during second semester senior year... It was a stupid stupid mistake, and now I have an F on my CC transcript.

What should I do? I wish this would just go away. I want to just "forget" about it, but I am terrified that this will come back to haunt me again if dental schools found out about it. I haven't taken any action, yet, and I am planning on submitting my application soon after I take the DAT (June 25th). Should I try to contact my CC and submit an appeal for academic forgiveness? I'm just afraid that it'll delay my application... What are the chances that no one will find out?

Also, and I'm being paranoid... admissions committees do background checks on social media sites (maybe they poke around SDN?). Is it possible that they could trace this post back to me? I don't think I have any real personal info on my profile.

If???

 

[Glimmer1991]

Senior year of high school, I took two psychology classes at my community college. I got an A in one class, and an F in the other during second semester senior year... It was a stupid stupid mistake, and now I have an F on my CC transcript.

What should I do? I wish this would just go away. I want to just "forget" about it, but I am terrified that this will come back to haunt me again if dental schools found out about it. I haven't taken any action, yet, and I am planning on submitting my application soon after I take the DAT (June 25th). Should I try to contact my CC and submit an appeal for academic forgiveness? I'm just afraid that it'll delay my application... What are the chances that no one will find out?

Also, and I'm being paranoid... admissions committees do background checks on social media sites (maybe they poke around SDN?). Is it possible that they could trace this post back to me? I don't think I have any real personal info on my profile.

You're supposed to submit transcripts from every college at which you've taken courses. So, yes, you need to submit this. HOWEVER, I don't see why it would hurt to contact the CC and try to get it expunged from your record. If such a thing is possible, you wouldn't be doing anything sneaky--you'd just be taking full advantage of something that would work in your favor. However, if this can't be done, to just not send the transcript at all WOULD be dishonest and sneaky. Under no circumstances would I go there. I'm assuming these courses show on your current college transcript (I transferred schools myself, but the grades from my previous institution are on there), and AADSAS would obviously require you to submit this transcript before they would verify your GPA. So, I'm assuming there's no way you wouldn't be "found out."

Could they trace this post back to you? If they wanted to badly enough, yes, I'm sure they could. However, you're right that you aren't posting anything too revealing. Also, here's the truth: adcoms have thousands and thousands of applications to look at every year. I highly doubt they ever look at anything on Facebook. However, I DO bet that they check SDN every one in a while; some schools, like Case dental, are actually quite active. I doubt that they do much more than just perusing posts about their school, though, and I would be shocked if they ever really tried to link usernames to actual applicants. That being said, I am 100% aware that adcoms could easily trace my posts to me. Although I never say my name or where I go to college, my stats aren't exactly run-of-the-mill and could easily be linked to me. I just don't think I have anything to hide on these forums, but yes, I know they could recognize me.

Bottom line, send the transcripts in. Assuming you've done well in college since then, I don't think this will be a hindrance. You were still in high school. Lots of people have a "learning curve" where they have to get adjusted to college coursework, and hopefully, you got yours taken care of before you even actually enrolled at a university. Adcoms understand this. And, heck, it was in a psychology course. You live and you learn.

 

[Glimmer1991]

Go to this thread and look at troyvdg's post. If you can do this, by all means, go for it. I didn't know such a thing was possible. Dental schools would still see the F, but at least if it's worth 0 credit hours, it couldn't hurt your GPA.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1014709

 

[jojomojo]

Actually, when I applied for university, I did not send them my CC transcript (whoops, I didn't know any better), so it's not on my university transcript. I don't see how an adcom would even suspect that I took CC classes.

But I agree, I do not feel comfortable at all to NOT send in my CC transcript. I'll try to contact them about it... Sigh, another thing to stress about.

I just really hope this doesn't look like too big of a black mark on my application... Do you think adcoms would care that much? It was way back in high school. Also, wouldn't this grade also get calculated into my GPA?! My GPA is already on the low side as is :\

 

[mid]

Actually, when I applied for university, I did not send them my CC transcript (whoops, I didn't know any better), so it's not on my university transcript. I don't see how an adcom would even suspect that I took CC classes.

But I agree, I do not feel comfortable at all to NOT send in my CC transcript. I'll try to contact them about it... Sigh, another thing to stress about.

I just really hope this doesn't look like too big of a black mark on my application... Do you think adcoms would care that much? It was way back in high school. Also, wouldn't this grade also get calculated into my GPA?! My GPA is already on the low side as is :\

They can look up every college you've ever attended and for what semesters you attended.

 

[Troyvdg]

Go to this thread and look at troyvdg's post. If you can do this, by all means, go for it. I didn't know such a thing was possible. Dental schools would still see the F, but at least if it's worth 0 credit hours, it couldn't hurt your GPA.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1014709

If you have any questions feel free to pm me. Like my post says, I've contacted addsas multiple times asking if it will affect my GPA(just because I was so paranoid over it). Each person has told me that if it isn't worth any units there is no way to calculate the GPA, and therefore it won't affect your overall GPA.

 

[jojomojo]

Update: I contacted my community college and they do NOT have an academic forgiveness policy. I was told that I could submit an academic appeal, but that would involve meeting with a counselor, writing a letter, submitting it to a committee, and waiting until the next time they meet to make a decision (July 9th). I would appeal to turn the F into a Withdrawal. This is a REALLY late withdrawal, as I took this class like 5 years ago!

At this point, I don't even know if the whole process is worth it. I've already delayed submitting my application this long because I had to study and take the DAT (which I did on June 25th). I am aiming to sent my application out in the next 1.5-2 weeks.

Ahh, what should I do? Just suck it up and submit the transcript with an F? It was a Social Psychology course, so it wouldn't lower my science GPA, just my overall. I did some calculations, and it seems like it would pull my 3.47 to a 3.41... I'm not sure if I did the calculations correct, but if it is, that's a pretty significant drop. I've already tried so hard to pull up my GPA in the last 4 semesters of college.

Please help! I have to take action soon, if I am to try to alleviate this problem.

 

[irishmom]

I am in the same boat. 2 F's that have turned my 3.2 GPA into a 2.975. Talked with the college and they could do nothing. I had thought I had W, but aparently not. This is from 1995. Obviously different person from then (have my hygiene degree and almost completed my BS - Bio degree) I'm gonna cry.

 

[Glimmer1991]

We're talking about turning an F into a W here. A W is slightly questionable, whereas an F is a huge honkin' flag. I would absolutely go through this process--you don't have to wait that long. You wouldn't have an F on your transcript, and it also wouldn't pull down your GPA. How could you possibly think it isn't worth it?

 

[wcombs]

If it helps, I got in with multiple Fs on my transcript from being stupid early in my college career.