Nontraditional student trying to go to school for kinesiology

Post date: 2018-08-16 00:44:12

My boyfriend, age 29, dropped out of high school and got his GED. He has been taking courses at the local community college and is interested in transferring to the local state university's kinesiology program. Questions inside.

BF is good at school and tests well. He took a college prep course load in HS, but dropped out in his last semester due to mental health issues. Fast forward 10+ years, and he has been taking pre-reqs at the community college for a physical therapy/kinesiology track-- he has worked for 3 years as a youth climbing coach and is interested in getting the credentials to continue working in this general area with maybe more of an emphasis on one-on-one coaching and injury recovery.

He is the first in his family to take college courses and he is struggling to navigate the system of transfers and requirements. (I am also in over my head, as I just took the honors course load in high school, got a decent financial aid package and went straight to a liberal arts college-- pretty straightforward.)

I have some specific questions-- I know these may not be answerable without knowing the specifics, but any guidance is appreciated. We are in the US.

-Assessing the competitiveness of programs-- With such a nontraditional background, it's difficult to tell if he'd be a competitive candidate for the kinesiology program that he's looking at. What would be the best way to go about assessing that? Should he try to talk to someone at admissions, or at the department about their admission criteria?

-General resources to help him navigate this-- are there any? He tried to schedule an appointment with admissions at the university but didn't hear back. I've encouraged him to schedule an appointment with the transfer office at the community college. Any other places or resources that might be helpful?

-Making up requirements from high school. Looking at the local Uni requirements, the only things he thinks he doesn't have are all 4 units of English (he has 3.5 years from HS, but has taken an intro composition course at the community college-- would that work for this potentially?) and 2 units of a foreign language (he has 1.5 of Latin, and could likely also pass an exam for Spanish due to out-of-school studying-- is testing out a thing that could potentially be an option?) If he needs to take classes to make these up, is the best route to just make these up at the CC?
I also welcome any other thoughts on going to college late in the game or on PT/kinesiology education/career paths.

Thank you!

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