I am 26 years old and I would like to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. I currently live in North Carolina, but will be moving to New York City at the end of the year. I have taken several community college classes over the years, but I'm pretty sure that some of them won't transfer over due to being 8 years old and there are several classes that I did not get good grades in.

I would love to get into a top 60 school, but I'm not sure what my realsitic expectations should be, or what I can do to ensure that I am as competitive as possible to come in as a transfer student. One school I'm looking at in particular is NYU.

My initial plan is to begin taking electives at community college and attempt to transfer out into a full-time student after my first year or two in community college.

I know that my GPA will need to be high. Since the classes I did poorly in at community college, is it possible for me to start "fresh" in NYC as if I never took a college class in the first place (to start over with my GPA)? Or will that be impossible?

Also, how could I possibly afford to obtain a degree without taking $100k in student loans over the course of time?