Readmission to Grad School

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Originally posted by akpangik

Hello,

My husband is six credits shy of earning his M.A. in English and has been out of school for nearly five years. He is attempting to re-enroll to complete his degree, however, about four years ago he was enrolled at another university in an M.F.A. program which he subsequently was unable to complete when his mother grew ill and he was forced to move away before the close of the semester. As a result, he was not able to follow the appropriate withdrawal procedure which resulted in F grades in all but one class which his professor allowed him to complete via distance learning. On his new application for readmission, he is asked to include any new college experience. Is he required to list these other classes taken in another degree and, if so, will these prohibit him from being allowed to complete the degree he has already begun? Thank you in advance for your assistance and time.

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Actually this is one of the things an Admissions Advisor looks at are the colleges he’s attended to get an idea if he’s ready for graduate studies at their college, especially if he is looking for transfer credit from the prior college to finish his degree.
Talk to your Admissions Advisor, be upfront and honest. It’s not uncommon for a student to have had time off for a family circumstance and we know that you cannot complete a class and tend to family at the same time if there is not an option for distance learning.
The colleges I’ve worked for only take the higher grades and if you have one lower than this then the class has to be repeated. This is an excellent thing because this gives you a fresh start.

They may request a letter like the moderator mentioned detailing what happened and how you plan to work around other family concerns should they come up. They like to see proactivity for future concerns, and validity for the prior concern. Please be sure that the letter is professionally written, no grammar or spelling mistakes.

I’ve seen some requests for admission refused due to bad grammar, and this is typically a letter they’ll be reading very carefully.

I hope you found this helpful.

Sophie