How many of you pre-meds in here had a less than stellar high school career?

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Protagonistic

Protagonistic

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If so I guess I want to discuss something.

So my high school career, well, it did not meet expectations from what a lot of people tell me. In junior high I made straight A's but the final year of junior high I wasn't around a lot of good people, not by choice but by situation. My parents never really cared for who I hung around because they did not go to high school in the US. In my 8th grade year I made my first C and my parents didn't really give a care. Despite making that C I was able to get into a decent magnet school only to find out that majority of the kids there were from more educated backgrounds and accustomed to the work load.

Due to the bad influences in my life I had a C average my first two years of high school, my final two years I maintained an A average. Well college admissions came around, didn't really get in anywhere except for an out of state school family couldn't afford and the local university which most people avoid.

Well I am in the honors program (not for long the way things are going) and I finished my first semester with a *breathes hard* 2.9

I took about 16 hours, not on my own free will but parents wanted me to and if they want me to do something, lets just say it happens.

Now what happens to me at times is I talk to some of my friends on facebook. They are in places like Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Emory, Duke, and they are basically living on their own and having the time of their life, making friends who will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Of course their families are richer and more privileged than mines and they went to better high schools but I sometimes feel like 10 years from now, they will be making the big bucks, living the good life, and I will be stuck in the same town I am in right now.

Pre-meds who didn't do the best in high school. Can you tell me how to, well, get over this feeling?
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Please. For the last time. Please. Please. Please go talk to your school's mental health folks. You continually come on here and poor your heart out about how you can't meet your parents' expectations of you and that you are miserable. This forum CAN NOT DO ANYTHING TO CHANGE THAT SITUATION. You need to get past your feeling that therapy is something shameful or negative. Please. We can't make you happy with your life as it exists. Please talk to someone about that.
 
Define "less-than-stellar". For me, I had a ~3.0 GPA and 25 ACT. I took all the regular versions of classes (by that, I mean I didn't take any honors or AP classes), and I graduated 400th in my class. Didn't really give one dooky about high school. I also didn't have too many options in terms of where I could go to college, but I was lucky enough to be admitted into two of my state schools.

When I got to college my freshman year, I had aspirations of becoming a clinical psychologist, and ultimately getting my Ph.D in that area. I knew that achieving that would take a lot of hard work, so I knew I needed to change my study habits compared to what I had in high school, which is what I did. I didn't decide on the medical route until my junior year, and I was reticent to start taking the pre-reqs because I wasn't sure if I could handle them or not. I'm glad I waited, though, because I was able to better my study habits as I progressed through college.

Oh, and do not worry about where your other friends are at in terms of undergrad. I know a ton of people from my high school that are at "better" universities, and I've done much better than them thus far. Your friends won't be living the good life based on the college listed on their diploma. If anything, they will be living the good life based off of hard work, dedication, and determination. Hopefully this helps!
 
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there will always be people who are "better". learn to appreciate the opportunities that you have and make the most of them. if you are in america and also in college you are much better off than most... if these feelings of inferiority start getting to you too much, you should probably get professional help...
 
Graduated High School with a 3.86GPA and 6th in my class from a small rural high school with about 500 kids in the school. My school was so broke that they didn't offer a single AP class. If you wanted to take an AP class, you had to attempt to do it online lol.
 
Protagonistic said:
If so I guess I want to discuss something.

So my high school career, well, it did not meet expectations from what a lot of people tell me. In junior high I made straight A's but the final year of junior high I wasn't around a lot of good people, not by choice but by situation. My parents never really cared for who I hung around because they did not go to high school in the US. In my 8th grade year I made my first C and my parents didn't really give a care. Despite making that C I was able to get into a decent magnet school only to find out that majority of the kids there were from more educated backgrounds and accustomed to the work load.

Due to the bad influences in my life I had a C average my first two years of high school, my final two years I maintained an A average. Well college admissions came around, didn't really get in anywhere except for an out of state school family couldn't afford and the local university which most people avoid.

Well I am in the honors program (not for long the way things are going) and I finished my first semester with a *breathes hard* 2.9

I took about 16 hours, not on my own free will but parents wanted me to and if they want me to do something, lets just say it happens.

Now what happens to me at times is I talk to some of my friends on facebook. They are in places like Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Emory, Duke, and they are basically living on their own and having the time of their life, making friends who will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Of course their families are richer and more privileged than mines and they went to better high schools but I sometimes feel like 10 years from now, they will be making the big bucks, living the good life, and I will be stuck in the same town I am in right now.

Pre-meds who didn't do the best in high school. Can you tell me how to, well, get over this feeling?
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Hey my gpa was 2.9 in high school.., i also failed a class.

After my soph year i dual-enrolled full-time at the local college, I've been an A student ever since. High school performance doesn't mean anything.
 
I had a "C" in freshman geometry. By my sophomore year, I got wise, tested out of courses, and graduated early. High school can give you a head start, but if you didn't do stellar, it isn't the end of the world.
 
Mine wasn't stellar. It wasn't bad, either. It was just mediocre. My grades and activities were probably smack in the middle of the average of my graduating class. I go to a second tier university. The thing is, once you're in college, nobody cares how you were in high school. That stuff stops being relevant after orientation.

Stop thinking about what happened way back in junior high. Whatever got you off track more than 4 years ago probs isn't relevant now, especially since you were able to make As your last two years of magnet high school. So, without knowing you, I guess you're probably intelligent.

Protagonistic said:
Now what happens to me at times is I talk to some of my friends on facebook. They are in places like Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Emory, Duke, and they are basically living on their own and having the time of their life, making friends who will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Of course their families are richer and more privileged than mines and they went to better high schools but I sometimes feel like 10 years from now, they will be making the big bucks, living the good life, and I will be stuck in the same town I am in right now.
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Back up there. Going to a top-tier college isn't everything. It doesn't guarantee "happiness," and "lifelong friends." Really, you could get that anywhere. Think about what you're saying. You can make better friendships at Columbia et al. than at your local state school? The prestige of the college doesn't make too much of a difference when it comes to medical school admissions.

Your circumstances shouldn't influence your success... unless you keep letting these feelings of inferiority get to you. Your HS wasn't "good enough." Your college now isn't "good enough." You're not wealthy or privileged. Whatever, it's not a crutch. Whatever you're fortunate enough to have doesn't make or break your success. You have some opportunities. I think you're just focusing on your regrets and what you lack.

So you've had set-backs. However, you could still control how the rest of your college career will turn out. Also, most universities offer some free counseling through their health center. They deal with minor things like academic stress and relationship breakups to more serious things like depression. My experience with my own school's mental health center wasn't bad. Give that a shot.
 
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GREAT POSTS! THEY ARE HELPING!

*crosses fingers*

srsly mods, I haven't talked about suicide, plz don't lock D=
 
High school almost-dropout here. Re-took several classes, graduated with maybe 6-7 kids below me in terms of rank from a class of > 800 students... attended an open-enrollment state university with a direction in the name. Made a bit of an academic 180 and left there with a 3.7ish GPA to go teach other would-be dropouts for a couple of years, and now have a few medical school acceptances.

It can work out. You need to figure out what you were doing wrong, but HS and college are different ballgames, and in college there aren't many second chances or lenient instructors.

As far as what you specifically asked, you need to get over yourself, and possibly take the advice of others to seek therapy or at least empathy from other people like you if you are fixated on this stuff. Realize that your undergraduate degree will not make a huge difference-- difference, yes, but you are in the situation that you are in, and will not magically be able to graduate from Hahvahd or whatever. It's not that big of a deal. Go visit one of those schools and demystify it for yourself. They're neat places, but they're also rarified atmospheres, cost a proverbial arm + leg (and there's strong evidence to suggest it's not worth it in terms of future incomes), and medical schools don't strongly weight applications based on undergraduate institution. Enjoy where you're at, get to know people who aren't the types that end up at HYP-- they're a lot more like the rest of the people in this country, and while they might not be a Firestone/DuPont/Whatever or world-class oboeist or distance runner or future Fields Medalist, there's definitely some wicked smart kids around who are quite capable of challenging you intellectually. And in terms of the ratio of those kids:more average ones, embrace the fact that faculty appreciate kids who want to work hard at mediocre state schools, and it's easy to stand out and get great experiences working in labs or talking to professors at unattended office hours.

Long post short: it's time to grow up, and put away childish things like envy of status symbols like fancy names on degrees. Accept and make the best of your current reality and you will be able to do more or less what your friends are able to, or you can fixate on this stuff that leads nowhere and gets you nothing. Choice is yours, but you have to make it.
 
I think my GPA was in the high 2s, I think? I never bothered to check it or my class rank. SAT score was a 1580 out of 2400. I only liked a handful of classes in my entire high school 'career,' and I winged the rest.
 
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To answer you question about any poor performances in high school, I got over it by doing my best since. If I don't do well on a test, I tried harder next time. You'll notice that some people in high school don't do as well as you thought that they will do while others who you thought as stupid or lazy do amazing things. High school doesn't make it or break it. It's been ten years since I stepped foot in a high school now. What I did then does not matter now.

Do talk with someone in person. Do you have IRL friends who you can confide in?
 
I destroyed everything pre-college. Straight A's in full honors classes throughout.
 
StudyShy said:
To answer you question about any poor performances in high school, I got over it by doing my best since. If I don't do well on a test, I tried harder next time. You'll notice that some people in high school don't do as well as you thought that they will do while others who you thought as stupid or lazy do amazing things. High school doesn't make it or break it. It's been ten years since I stepped foot in a high school now. What I did then does not matter now.

Do talk with someone in person. Do you have IRL friends who you can confide in?
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I have real life friends but I try to keep my goals of going to a top university secret from them. I act that I actually like the atmosphere when in reality I don't.

As for the top school myth. I think it has to do with that but more so that I am in the same town I was in for high school, I live at home, the area I live in is literally podunk in terms of things to do, high poverty, and yea.....
 
I didn't do well in high school because I was clinically depressed and slept through half my classes (I was also a truant according to the state, lol). My GPA in college is better than in high school because I cleaned up my act and whatnot after becoming religious, so I give a lot of credit to my faith.

My two cents - If you keep telling yourself that you suck and you keep playing the same negative script in your head over and over, you're going to be stuck in the same old cycle for the rest of your life.

You need to set your sights on positive things so you can launch and propel yourself toward positive things. You say "but" this, "if only" that... all these qualifiers are useless. Everyone goes through challenges, but those that succeed are the ones that know how to rise above them. The way to overcome life is not to glorify your weaknesses and exalt your negativity - you implicitly do so whenever you choose to live in this "my life sucks" perspective.

So what if you had a hard life? Lots of us have, but it doesn't mean it has to stop you. If you've had a hard time, then all the more reason to show life who's boss and succeed. Everyone in America has the opportunity to pursue an education, work hard, and everyone has the option of succeeding - whether or not you do is a matter of the work you put in and your effort, not whether you're lucky or something - so why is this "I'm from a bad background" thing even relevant?

Maybe it would help you to take inspiration from others who have overcome difficulties in life to succeed. Bill Clinton's dad died when he was a baby and his stepfather was physically abusive... Abraham Lincoln also had clinical depression (and failed in his run for state legislature and congress and everything else a few times before he won the Presidency, and trekked famously many miles through snow to get to class)... JLo also had clinical depression (sorry for all these depression references, just people I can think of off the top of my head)... even historical characters like Apostle Paul or Jesus got kicked around a bit (thrown in jail, hung, lost at sea, insulted...), but whether or not you believe in faith, their teachings are influential today. Some people don't even think Barack Obama was even born in the US, but he still made it...

I really don't think it's valid to use your past as an excuse for lack of success, nor is it okay to continue to dampen your hopes for the future (and your own happiness) based on the past.

As long as you just keep moving in some sort of forward direction, you'll at least end up somewhere, and how far you go depends on the energy you put into creating progress (not necessarily how highly you think of yourself).

Maybe there are other issues here. Learn to appreciate yourself, value your talents and strengths, and learn to live in positivity and become motivated from positivity, not pessmism or cynicism.

I also like this guy's twitter for inspirational quotes: www.twitter.com/toppremed
 
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OP- First and foremost, PONS has it right. Get some help. Everyone needs it sometimes, even if a lot of us won't admit it.
That said, life is what you make of it. I screwed high school up. Four high schools in five years. Went to college, barely graduated. After September 11th, I enlisted in the US Army (yes, I'm an OLD pre-med). Then I realized how awful the world (and war) can really, really be. I also saw incredible people do incredible things. I also saw some truly awful things. You can do anything you want to, if you work hard enough. Where you are coming from doesn't matter. What you did yesterday doesn't matter. What you have to do is commit yourself to doing the best you can everyday. You study when other people are partying, study when other people are sleeping, find a way to relieve stress that is healthy (ie see a professional and build coping skills). At the end of four years of college, you will look back and say that you did what you could at the time and you are better for it.
There is one other thing that I feel compelled to mention. Don't live YOUR life for your parents. You're young, they're paying your way (most likely- no slight intended) so they can pressure you. In thirty years, you need to be able to look back and say that you did what you did because YOU made the choice, not them. If you don't do what YOU want to do, and you do it for them, you will resent them and be miserable. We all only go around once, and life is too damn short to not do what you want to. Live your life for you.
 
First off, I'm impressed with the number of Dawk. quotes in sigs in this thread.
Second, in high school, I made mostly As with relatively little effort in my first three years. The "Pre-AP" classes were pretty basic, and I never really studied. In my early true AP classes, I stuck to the "easier" ones: English, World History, US History.
My senior year, I had a string of amazing cross country races, garnered a bit of attention from several of the top 10 XC programs in the nation, and scored a nice scholarship. After deciding on one of the top 5 programs (a big state school) I pretty much mailed it in, making straight Cs to finish up in tougher AP classes: Bio, Chem, Calc.
I regret nothing that I did that year. If an acceptance to the Ivies had been on the line, I would have continued to do well, but once my course was set, I didn't feel any pressing need to keep playing the game, so to speak. I made 4s or 5s on all but one of my AP tests that year. I was still reading/learning and making As on tests, I just stopped doing everything else completely. It was a fulfilling 6 months of rest/ focusing on running that allowed me to run some really quick times on the track that spring. I wouldn't take it back for anything.

tl;dr- Did well first three years essentially by being well read. Got athletic scholarship, stopped caring, made Cs Senior year. Taught myself study habits early in college, avoided learning the hard way.
 
Wermz said:
I destroyed everything pre-college. Straight A's in full honors classes throughout.
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Were you one of those people that got A's because you did a lot of homework? HS is unrealistic. I knew people with 4.2 GPA and 950 SAT (after prep) :confused:.
 
Pons Asinorum said:
Please. For the last time. Please. Please. Please go talk to your school's mental health folks. You continually come on here and poor your heart out about how you can't meet your parents' expectations of you and that you are miserable. This forum CAN NOT DO ANYTHING TO CHANGE THAT SITUATION. You need to get past your feeling that therapy is something shameful or negative. Please. We can't make you happy with your life as it exists. Please talk to someone about that.
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Agree completely. It is not a weakness to seek help for something. Many people struggle from time to time, and not seeking help will prolong your difficulties.
 
yeah...high school was stupid. I got good grades, but it's not like they were hard to get. If you put in the effort, you got an A. Wasn't intellectually challenging at all.
 
I applied to college on a whim and at the request of my longtime friend. My dad was bed-ridden and I didn't care about anything at all. I worked too many hours as a waitress and spent my weekends throwing those all-night long rave parties. I had a serious attitude problem. I threatened to beat up my pre-calc teacher at one point and I failed chemistry, but dropped out before it was too late so it wasn't on my hs transcript.

Sure, I went to a "lowly" state school, but because I buckled down after general chemistry and actually learned to love the subject and ended up finishing my undergraduate career in the green by clearing out every research fellowship available to me.

And not everyone that goes to a top tier school is having their parents foot the bill. There are some people in my post-bacc program that are constantly worrying about money because they're *already* 200k in the hole. And they haven't even applied to med school yet!
 
I was at a tiny private school from elementary all the way through high school. And I guess I slacked off...3.87 GPA (on 4.0 scale) and 28 ACT. I worked more in high school than I went to school...making like 15 bucks an hour at a sub-management position at a warehouse. Good times!
 
I graduated high school in 2010 with a ~2.8 GPA / 1570 SAT (Reading,Verbal and Math). I never received a failing grade but I did get a "D" in Spanish 2 and Geometry.

I'm currently in my second semester in college and have a 3.8 cum GPA. I strongly believe students who did not have good work ethic in high school are the ones who do extremely well in college, because they know how to cope and bounce back from receiving a poor grade.

I don't know why I did poorly in high school, but honestly I guess I didn't care at the time. I didn't understand why people would work hard to get into college, and work even harder when in college.
 
Protagonistic said:
I have real life friends but I try to keep my goals of going to a top university secret from them. I act that I actually like the atmosphere when in reality I don't.
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I can understand that. Hang in there. :)
 
Gotta say, I am shocked people on this thread actually helped rather than taking the time to troll a guy. I might as well present my case and answer the questions.

I know it is easy for you guys to say not to live life for our parents but really, I am stuck in the situation I don't have that choice.

Plus I want to know this, from older people, I know they say college is supposed to be the most enjoyable part of your life. If your a pre-med, does that apply to you as well?
 
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Protagonistic said:
Gotta say, I am shocked people on this thread actually helped rather than taking the time to troll a guy. I might as well present my case and answer the questions.
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People are helping because up until this post, you haven't turned it into a pity party about you and you alone. If you ask general questions about coping, you get answers. You start dumping all of your issues out on the forum, what are people supposed to say other than "keep your chin up," or "move out, be your own person." Let's please not take this thread there, yet again, down the road to locksville.
 
Protagonistic said:
In fact if I do bad this semester and lose my scholarship, heck, they will pay double if they have to, like I even care.
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To some extent you are inflicting this on yourself by allowing them to sink money into their dream for your life, and continuing to do exactly what they tell you to do but sabotaging their plan with lousy grades.

Sounds like you would stand up to them if you weren't afraid of them cutting you off financially. You are allowing them, in a drawn-out fit of passive aggression, to throw money at a pipe dream that you've set up to fail. This will only strain your relationship more as time goes on.

You are quite obviously at the point where you need to assert yourself for the chance to start living your own life; you've been moaning about this ad nauseum to strangers on an internet forum. You can be respectful to your parents while you tell them that you'll be making your own decisions from now on. If they cut you off, how is that any worse than you fleeing to another country?

From the 9000 threads you've started about this very issue, I imagine it going something like this:

You: "Mom and dad, I'm not going to major in Biochemistry. I'm going to do what I think is best"

Your parents: "No you're not."

You: Do it anyway, and deal with the consequences as they arise.

Your other two options are 1) do exactly what they say and stop b:tching about it, or 2) continue what you've been doing, which hasn't made your situation any better.
 
Wow, another Protagonistic thread. :rolleyes:

Protagonistic said:
I know it is easy for you guys to say not to live life for our parents but really, I am stuck in the situation I don't have that choice.
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No, because I know your situation from your previous posts and you are, in fact, NOT 'stuck' in any situation. If you can't find a solution to getting out from under your parents' shadows, (like say, moving out, getting a job, or taking out loans to finance your college career), then you are either uncreative, or you are willfully, WILLFULLY refusing to strike out on your own, either because of guilt, fear, or what have you.

Protagonistic said:
Plus I want to know this, from older people, I know they say college is supposed to be the most enjoyable part of your life. If your a pre-med, does that apply to you as well?
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I had a blast at college, and I'm a successful applicant for medical school, so yes, it ABSOLUTELY applies to pre-meds.

This is only, of course, if you're a socially and mentally semi-well adjusted person. The first step to becoming one, if you aren't, is to SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP. Get off this forum and see your college counselor, or even better, take your parent's insurance and milk it for all its worth by going to see a professional mental health professional. That is the answer and it will always be the answer.
 
Professional help is available at my college, I mean they are always busy. I tried seeing them but the problem is most of them tell you to talk to your parents about it, was rather lousy..........

Here is the issue that keeps on sucking my mind:

I am in a local university, a college most students do not want to go to because many say it is actually pretty tough but not that well ranked either. I have been in the same town for the past 7 years, summers here are really bothersome, basically hell, and there isn't that much to do. My close friends are away in bigger cities or college towns for college, I am staying at home in the same town.

I feel that I have accomplished really nothing because of my unstable past. Most of my friends have facebook pictures up of them being at parties, I haven't been to a party because my commuter school doesn't have an active social life.

I see myself here, when many people including my friends and colleagues keep asking what I am doing here and keep telling me that I am a kid who should be enjoying life right now.

That is the key point right there. While kids are off at UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard exploring new areas and being in new areas, living the best 4 years of their life, here I am, miserable, living at home, being told nearly every week that I am a disappointment and that type of stuff hurts.......
 
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ISUBird100 said:
Define "less-than-stellar". For me, I had a ~3.0 GPA and 25 ACT. I took all the regular versions of classes (by that, I mean I didn't take any honors or AP classes), and I graduated 400th in my class. Didn't really give one dooky about high school.
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This was my story as well, I knew how to get good grades I was just lazy

Now in college I have ~3.9


To the OP high school means nothing, just be glad you're on the right track now, because there's plenty of people that don't figure out things and get in their groove till later in college and end up having to scramble to fix their GPA

To give you an example of how much high school DOES NOT matter, I know someone who dropped out of high school got their GED went to CC and transferred to state university and eventually went to med school and is now doing an emergency medicine residency.

Its possible for even a high school dropout to go to med school
 
Protagonistic said:
Professional help is available at my college, I mean they are always busy. I tried seeing them but the problem is most of them tell you to talk to your parents about it, was rather lousy..........


It isn't that my social life is dead. I have had a girlfriend, I have friends who are mainly busy doing their own thing, so many of my past friends are away for college and that stuff. I just believe my parents limited me significantly in that instead of putting me in a good environment, they on their own choice put me in a bad one because they thought that outside influences don't matter to me. Like I am only human and they are expecting me to make something out of nothing in that sense.

Also I really would love a job but they keep saying I shouldn't, when they conversation shifts in that focus they throw monkey-like tantrums and keep bring up the past, telling me how bad I screwed up in high school and how they are the ones paying for it.

Anyone who has Indian or Asian parents can MAYBE relate.
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I see you're good at making excuses and blaming others for your woes. Cut that out. I can see that you may have skimmed through my post, but didn't actually understand the essence of it.

They throw a tantrum when you talk about getting a job? Don't tell them next time and just get one. They threaten and guilt you with the fact that they pay for school? Respectfully tell them that they can keep their tuition check next semester and take out a loan. They make your life miserable by putting you down and pressuring you constantly? Use some of that loan money to get a place of your own.

The answers are really pretty simple, but you keep defeating yourself by imagining that all of your problems are insurmountable obstacles that you just have to endure until its over.

Take control of your own fate and make the decisions that make YOU happy, not your parents. It's your life to live, not theirs.
 
thelullaby99 said:
Talking about less than stellar, I consider my high school results 'embarrassing' but I'm proud that I come out just as well as those who worked hard. I skipped a lot of classes, broke a record for the lowest attendance ever, and I still passed high school. What matter is, what I do about it. I don't care, because medical school will not look into my high school records.

FYI. I really hated chemistry and maths back then. Laughable now that I'm majoring in chemical engineering, no joke.

So my point is, it doesn't matter anymore! Please people don't be too discouraged if you don't do too well in high school. As long as you get out of it with a diploma, that's it.

...my parents are Asians but no pressure...
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What type of Asian are you?
 
High-School was boring and disabling, so I dropped out. I never went to classes and was not a fan of the social environment, so I left. I was just bored in classes and never cared to try. I moved to the area recently, so friends and clicks were already established and I was more-or-less a social outcast for no particular definable reason. High-school was a very depressing debilitating environment for me--too much immaturity. The final straw was when I approached my high-school counselor about my future and he only sought to steer me toward technical school and literally laughed at the prospect of college without due consideration to my entire circumstances, so I dropped out of HS the next day.

I was a Junior when I dropped out and my state had a program which allowed people to obtain a GED, then take any supplementary core classes that are required by the state for HS graduating requirements at a education center. Afterwards, you can obtain your HS diploma. Essentially, I sidestepped my senior year. What was more amusing is that my GED scores were extremely high and some universities offered scholarships. Unfortunately, my disdain for the school environment prevented me from taking advantage of these scholarships.

A few year later, and with much hesitation, I returned to academics and it is much more pleasant. I learn what I want to learn and abide by my own scheduling, I really enjoy learning now due to the different environment.

I am currently in my second year as a chemical engineering student and maintain a 3.9 GPA. I do believe that I will be accepted to medical school, but only if I continue my hard work and do well on the MCAT. Even though everyone around me at one time thought I would be a derelict or homeless person, I am now surrounded by people who ask me for help and advice on a wide-variety of subjects.

It's a terrific feeling to turn yourself around and pursue your dreams.
 
my gpa after freshmen year was 3.0 and rank was 300 out of 600 in hs while taking all regular classes. I started taking bio in sophomore year and chemistry in junior year. However I took ap bio, honors physics, and other ap classes junior and senior year and I'm talking honors organic chem in one of the best universities for chemistry
 
Sparknotes for my situation

*top student in elementary school in another country
*top student in junior high
*moved to podunk, had flashes of top student potential left
*got into a good high school (barely), bad influence and lack of any support at home (parents fighting, not allowing me to go to library, hard time studying at home), C average first two years
*A average final two years
*got accepted into 3 schools, parents talked me into staying local
*done with first semester of college, 2.9, about to be finished with the second, don't know how that's gonna end up

- friends off elsewhere at college, I am at a local school, the could haves have just been haunting me at times, wonder if I will ever even get anywhere far in life with just how unstable my past has been

So you guys started off the opposite of me, hopefully I don't end up the opposite of you.
 
Me.

No idea what AP, Honors, or Post Secondary classes were. No idea there was a track team. No idea high school to med school programs existed.

Shy, awkward, would blush if anyone I didn't know (male or female, peer or teacher) so much as said hi to me.

Took all the required classes, every single one I already knew from either elementary school (US) or middle school (Hungary. Especially maths, boy maths were behind in HS). Was bored to death for 4 years. Guidance did not help.

How I survived the first and second years of uni, I'll never know.
 
if it helps you, I graduated with about a 2.4. I think somewhere toward dead last in my class of 200 students. But I got my stuff together in college. High School dont mean jack.
 
I was a thoroughly average high school student. I scored ~1200 on the SAT back when it was on a 1600 pt scale. Nothing about my applications to college were particularly noteworthy. I got accepted to a liberal arts college that cared more about my future potential than my past potential.

I destroyed college (>3.9), the MCAT (>38), got into an Ivy med school, scored ~260 on Step 1, am graduating AOA, and matched at a top-5 program in an ultra-selective surgical specialty.

Impossible is nothing. :thumbup:
 
I got like a 3.3 GPA in high school - was way more focused on sports than I was academics at the time. Made up for it by scoring a 32 on ACT and 1320 on SAT (back when it was out of 1600). That got me into my top choice college just fine. I didn't go to a top-50 school or anything like that, but I had a lot of fun and did well - and have been accepted to medical school. Rock on. :thumbup:
 
You realize that right now you are pointing fingers at everyone else. Yes plenty of us haven't done well in high school. I had parents that were more concerned about me graduating mormon seminary then high school. You can't go around saying that you haven't reached that optimal level because of the people around you. You know where that will get you? NOWHERE! Life isn't ever going to be the one to say "mercy", if you want something, work your ass off for it and stop pointing fingers!
 
2.7 gpa in high school :cool:

Who had time for homework anyways, I had things to see and people to do.
 
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