I attended Bible College right out of high school and during my second semester had a very traumatic experience. This even led to severe depression and a suicide attempt. Needless to say, the second and third semesters saw a marked downturn in my academic performance. It is 13 years later and I have been taking classes when possible and have a 3.8 GPA. Having disclosed my prior schooling, I have been told that I cannot continue without applying my credits from Bible College, while I would rather be able to start with a "clean slate". If I can show a direct correlation between the school's actions and my classroom performance, can I ask for an exception to being saddled with those credits?

Just because you provide a school with a transcript doesn't automatically mean that they will give you credit for courses on that transcript or count them in your GPA.

During my term as an undergrad student I transferred from a small liberal arts college to a larger state institution and then back. My smaller more academically rigorous school took only some of my credits and allowed them to be counted toward graduation and for prerequisites. They certainly didn't allow me to transfer grades. Even the larger state school didn't take everything on my transcript when I transferred the first time.

In my experience most colleges and universities are like this; applying credits but not GPA. It is pretty standard for schools to require ALL transcripts. The provision is there so they can maintain their integrity as an academic institution and provide a high standard of education while being flexible. If we could just pick transcripts and classes to count without disclosing everything the university is unable to get an accurate view of your educational history.

Make sure you really talk to an adviser though in order to really understand the schools policy. Let them know that you are concerned about how you did poorly in the past and you don't want that to reflect badly on your success now. Communication in key. Also, most registrars offices have someone that will sit down with you, review transcripts, and help you make a plan to graduate in a timely manner. Who knows, you might get credits for some classes and not have the ugly GPA!

Best wishes!