Getting started going back to school

[Squire of Saskatoon]

So, just to introduce myself and give a little background:

As prospective adult students are concerned, I'm definitely on the young end (turning 24 in about a month). I attended college for four years but didn't end up graduating, for a number of reasons. One of those reasons was that I had no direction, no sense of what my major would wind up being, and what I really wanted to do with my life. (Up to a point, I'm still working on that.) The second reason has had to do with my state of mind. I suffer from depression, and it caused my to leave college twice, once in 2006 in the middle of the year, and once at the end of the 2008 year when I left that school, the University of Toronto, for good. As well, my issues made it much harder for me to get my work done, and in my final year I wound up failing a few classes.

So, in the year since I left school, I've been working and trying to deal with my emotional issues. I've been in therapy, and recently I came to the conclusion that it's time for me to go back to school and get my B.A. Having made that decision, there are some issues to resolve.

First of all, as I said, I went to the University of Toronto. I am not Canadian and no longer live in Canada. I don't have the resources to pay international fees to go to school in Canada again. My only viable option for going back to school is the City University of New York. I'm worried that what credits I did earn at Toronto won't end up transferring to CUNY (especially in light of the fact that Canadian credits seem to work a little differently from U.S. credits).

Second of all, even if some credits do transfer, I'm worried about being accepted to CUNY. My grades in Toronto, as I've mentioned, were not good. With adult students I hear that there's a sort of unofficial "statute of limitations" on one's grades, if enough time has elapsed. But I'm looking to go back to school as soon as next fall. That's a period of only two years. It's not enough time to get the life experience/accomplishments that I've heard admissions officers look for in adult students. I've only just dealt with my depression to the point where I feel ready to go back.

Any insight on these concerns would be greatly appreciated.