The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I attended a community college for 1 semester in high school then 2 afterwards. To say i did horribly would be putting it mildly. Anyways after 5 years working and living I decided to re-enroll in the summer of 2012. Between summer 2012 and getting my AA in 2014 i had a 4.0, straight A's in all of my courses. Unfortunately my academic record summary basically reads "in school 2006-2014, GPA 3.25" I've transferred to UMD now to pursue my bachelor's in Chemical engineering. I'm wondering what the odds are that someone even takes an actual look at my academic record?

First of all, super congrats on your hard work and straight A's recently. That is awesome.

You may want to have one of your references address your improvement and hard work directly - they seem to put a lot of stock into that. Maybe a supervisor or professor who is really supportive of you can comment on your strong improvement and potential, and indicate that they have full confidence that you've overcome the challenges. Focus on framing yourself as overcoming obstacles. Good luck!