Need serious advice.

[haxtor21]

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Hello SDN'ers!.

I am fairly new here and need some advice regarding my situation. This is fairly long, so please bear with me; no I'm not showing off.

I'm a Junior in High school, and as the end of this semester is approacing, I will have 26 credits at my community college, with a steady 4.0 (Econ, Molec Bio, Chem I, II, Composition, History, some Math). Member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society. My HS gpa was originally a 3.2, but i transferred my college classes and i got a 3.5 now. 22 ACT. For some reason I feel like I can do better, but I have a extremely lazy personality, and I HATE high school. I have basically no ECs, because of the heavy course load (or at least its my excuse). I've done swim team for 2 years, and got most improved 08-09 varsity. Also got some academic awards for bio and geometry. Some medical seminars. That's it.

I have all of my required high school credits and could basically graduate, but the school wont let me b/c of their regulations (have to attend 8 semesters no matter what). I choose dual enrollment b/c AP seems to be like a waste of time, when i can finish college classes so much faster. Was thinking about dropping out and taking GED, but my mom would cut my throat [sarcasm].

Being a junior, I estimated that by the time I finish senior year i will have probably around 40-50 credits.

-My question is will colleges take these credits and transfer it to them?
-Should I apply through my high school to colleges, or just do 60 credits and transfer as a Junior to a 4 year uni? Which would increase my chances?
-Do colleges look at dual enrollment as more favorable then AP classes?

Im planning to do engineering (EE/EECS, AeroE, or some combination of the two). Do I have a chance at the top 3s (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley)?? I am from Michigan, and as I see things form here, I think I have a very good chance of getting in U of M, which is quite good. As of my limited knowledge about schools, Berkeley looks ideal, and MIT would be a dream come true. But of course these are probably way more expensive then UoM in state tuition; the quality of education is arguable, but i can't go wrong with any of them (or top 10 for that matter). After engineering I'm obviously planning on medicine.


Any advice/thoughts/criticizing would be very welcome.

Thank you for reading.

 

[loveoforganic]

It depends on the school, but generally I'd say most would take the credits. If it's possible to apply to another college as a transfer, that would be your best bet in my opinion. And I'd say basically no chance At those three schools

 

[Catalystik]

Consider checking out the High School Forum on SDN, called hSDN for answers to your questions.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=420

 

[LizzyM]

I'm no expert, but an ACT of 22 sounds a bit low. You should also consider taking the SAT.

Not sure about which schools will accept credits but you should not try to get out of college in less than 3 years (4 would be better). Slow down, take a light load and spend a significant amount of time in research, community service (at a leadership level after a year or two), get some clinical experience, shadow some physicians.

Not having any outside interests is a red flag... don't bury yourself in school work to the exclusion of everything else. Find a fun group either in school or outside of school. It could be studio arts, fine arts, martial arts, culinary arts, science (environmental issues, model rockets, astronomy), writing movie reviews for a local publication, something that is other than academic.

 

[CarlATHF]

Whether or not a school takes CC credits depends on the college itself. Most (if not all) state schools do, some private colleges do not. My private undergrad typically doesn't accept transfers from a CC (both credit-wise and in terms of allowing a student into the university).

If you want to get into a top-tier university, you're going to have to raise your GPA and your ACT (substantially). Of the three universities you've mentioned, UM and Berkeley have higher academic and EC standards than have been demonstrated so far. If you want to go to MIT, you'll have to step up your game substantially on the ACT/SAT.

I may be biased/wrong with my info so if someone else knows better, please correct me. Thanks.

Btw, for future reference this should probably go into the hSDN forum.

 

[Disinence2]

Dude.... Have some fun!

Take a light course load your senior year, and do things you like to do. Plenty of time to work hard later!

 

[d1ony5u5]

You'll probably get some outdated/inaccurate info from this forum since most people here have been out of high school for a while...

So just to give you a broad idea, I personally think it would be better in your case to continue taking CC courses and apply as a transfer. At least talking about the Universities of California, I know they have different guidelines of what is accepted from a freshman vs. a transfer in terms of credit. I believe UCs have a very small limit on courses they will grant credit for to incoming freshmen (makes sense since the idea is to get all your higher secondary education from that university). This is very different for transfer students, since they are admitted with advanced standing.

That being said, your GPA and test score are not great. You are investing too much effort into your academics and sacrificing other aspects of your life for nothing overly impressive... I would recommend easing a little on the amount of classes you take, but keeping up the performance, and diverting some of that attention to other things like sports, leadership, political activism, etc. Just something that you like. My honest opinion is that you don't seem to be using your time wisely.

Good luck.

 

[DrArete]

Read this - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=195799

 

[BBender716]

 

[DrArete]

Yeah, I got some slight blips on my troll radar for the OP too, but I just attributed it to my lack of familiarity with high school juniors (Im a non trad and more than a decade older than him).

 

[BBender716]

Yeah, I got some slight blips on my troll radar for the OP too, but I just attributed it to my lack of familiarity with high school juniors (Im a non trad and more than a decade older than him).

I just like the picture 🙂

 

[haxtor21]

You'll probably get some outdated/inaccurate info from this forum since most people here have been out of high school for a while...

So just to give you a broad idea, I personally think it would be better in your case to continue taking CC courses and apply as a transfer. At least talking about the Universities of California, I know they have different guidelines of what is accepted from a freshman vs. a transfer in terms of credit. I believe UCs have a very small limit on courses they will grant credit for to incoming freshmen (makes sense since the idea is to get all your higher secondary education from that university). This is very different for transfer students, since they are admitted with advanced standing.

That being said, your GPA and test score are not great. You are investing too much effort into your academics and sacrificing other aspects of your life for nothing overly impressive... I would recommend easing a little on the amount of classes you take, but keeping up the performance, and diverting some of that attention to other things like sports, leadership, political activism, etc. Just something that you like. My honest opinion is that you don't seem to be using your time wisely.

Good luck.

I agree with the last part. I think my issue was that, being in this country only since ~3 year ago, I still had that European gangster attitude, and I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, which obviously hurt my grades.

But my question is, how is a 4.0 not great? Granted im focusing more on college now then HS. I've started to hate HS since I started college, because I felt I was much more mature then my friends and just wanted to move to the next step at a younger age. Since I figured out how much weight is put on my High School record (not too long ago) in order to get in my desired school, it obviously backfired on me. So now I just keep re-thinking what a dumb***** I was when I started HS.

I've always had this idea in the back of my head, that If I go to college and excel in college, I will be looked upon as more favorable than a person that excels in high school.

Exatcly how much better will I have to do on ACT/ raise my GPA. My original plan was to not go to HS senior year (b/c I have enough credits), and immerse myself in college, scientific books, volunteering, research etc. But now, re-analyzing the situation, I'm thinking of going to high school, taking some harder classes, transfering college classes to further boost GPA, join Honor Society, and do a leadership program. In either plan, I will transfer college credits and it will boost my GPA.

Which plan do you guys think its better? Which one would appeal more to the admission officers ? ... of course, this is assuming everything goes to plan.

I'm also had a job since I was 16, If that increases my chances at all.(?)
PS: sorry if I came off as a troll.

 

[LizzyM]

Obviously, with a ACT of 22 you need to learn to take US entrance exams and do better than you have done. I've done a little research and found that for some of the top schools that take the ACT (many require the SAT) the median 80% of matriculants have scores of 30 to 33. The 22 makes your 4.0 look like it was achieved with easy As or cramming. Doing well in HS and on those entrance tests is required for admission to a good college.

Arrogance will kil your chances of getting into med school. Learn to play well with others, even if you think that they are your inferiors. Even the worst schools have some little group of "good kids" involved in extracurricular activities.