Should I stick with honors diploma?

[Cheisu]

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I have all the requirements for my Core 40 with Academic Honors diploma (I'm a Junior in high school right now), and many of you know that I want to be a surgeon. I am taking the "Medical Assisting" vocational class my senior year, to get a bit more experience while I'm still in high school.

However, to get my honors diploma, I must get 6 credits of ONE foreign language. I am taking French 2 right now (I already have 2 credits from French 1. It's a 2 trimester class), and It's not too early to transfer out, but that would mean forfeiting my honors diploma.

The thing is, I'm not that good with French. The teacher makes us do ridiculous things (she assigned 28 cross words over the weekend, wtf?) and I'm afraid I will get a low grade. I also have French 3 ahead of me...

However, I was just thinking that it would be better to get a normal Core 40 with a higher GPA, than a Core 40 with Academic Honors, with a lower GPA, right?

So should I stick with academic honors, even though it's MUCH more work, and work that really doesn't matter to me... (I hate French, I have no passion in it whatsoever, and the teacher doesn't even teach good. She makes everything way to dramatic and outrageous), or should I just get a normal Core 40?

Will an acadmic honors diploma make me have a higher change of getting into a good college, thus a good medical school?

EDIT: Also, is it true that you need straight A's all through high school to get into a good college/medical school? I know college grades are VERY important, but are high school grades something to be concerned about? I would say my average grade is a B+, and I also have a 3.5 GPA. Am I just worrying about nothing?

 

[-Goose-]

Nobody gives a flying rats ***** what you did in high school when you apply to med school.

But, obviously, doing well in high school helps you get into a better undergrad, which can help in the med school admissions process.

Talk with seniors at your high school that are applying to schools that you would like to attend about whether or not having your honors diploma will help you when you apply. Also, talk with your guidance counselor.

 

[smq123]

(I hate French, I have no passion in it whatsoever, and the teacher doesn't even teach good. She makes everything way to dramatic and outrageous

a) Your teacher may not teach "good," but there are probably still people in your class who are doing very well. It's a good habit to learn early - you can pin some of the blame on someone being a poor teacher, but that doesn't explain away your bad grade. (Clinical evals being a different story.)

b) Your teacher doesn't teach well. Sorry, pet peeve.

I think that this thread would do better in the Aspire section. Any mod able to move it?

 

[Skylizard]

get your honors diploma and put an excellent cap on your high school.
do not worry too much about medical experience in high school.
you can get plugged into some exciting medical exposures in college.
the better the college, often the better opportunities, often leading to better med-school opportunities.
get your honors, do the hard work, get into an excellent college, and figure out where you want to go from there.

 

[Skylizard]

EDIT: Also, is it true that you need straight A's all through high school to get into a good college/medical school? I know college grades are VERY important, but are high school grades something to be concerned about? I would say my average grade is a B+, and I also have a 3.5 GPA. Am I just worrying about nothing?

NO.
Every step of the way I have been told you need "straight A's" for the next step. I don't think I ever got "straight A's". But, I've done pretty good for myself. Shoot for the A's, but don't let a lack of straight A's discourage you.

 

[Lance]

NO.
Every step of the way I have been told you need "straight A's" for the next step. I don't think I ever got "straight A's". But, I've done pretty good for myself. Shoot for the A's, but don't let a lack of straight A's discourage you.

I've done pretty well for myself.

 

[Skylizard]

I've done pretty well for myself.

it's 2008, and I am happy with my own sentence and choice of expression. i surely do not require you to grammar check. i am certain everyone understood that sentence. it is after all an online forum in the world of instant messages, LOL, etc.....
obviously it's USA, free world, and you can do what you like....

 

[sestamibi]

I would say my average grade is a B+, and I also have a 3.5 GPA. Am I just worrying about nothing?

Oh wow you are finished.

I had a 3.998 GPA in high school and I just barely made it into medical school.

Starbucks is hiring though.

 

[eclcell]

You really should be asking yourself are there attractive girls in French class or not? If so, stay in the class. It's that simple.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Moving to Aspire....

 

[DrYoda]

You really should be asking yourself are there attractive girls in French class or not? If so, stay in the class. It's that simple.

There is wisdom in this post.

 

[Cheisu]

If I transfer out of French, I will finish high school with a higher GPA.

If I stay in, I will have a lower GPA.

I would think that (Regular Core 40+ higher GPA) > (Honors diploma+lower GPA), right?

I have already made the decision to switch out of French, and just get a regular core 40, but will I still be able to be a surgeon if I take this action? I highly doubt that 4 credits of French in high school will ruin my future.

 

[Depakote]

High school has a very minimal impact on what your ability to get into medical school. When you fill out your medical school applications you will be asked for the name of your HS and that's it (maybe when you graduated, it's been a while since I filled mine out)... they don't care about your HS GPA or any Honors, etc.

If you're trying to get into some of the more competitive (Ivy) colleges , you might want to demonstrate that you've been taking the most rigorous courseload possible, but for your standard undergrad you should be fine with a high GPA and your standard diploma, High GPA + Honors Diploma being the ideal situation obviously.

Your high school academic record will not stop you from becoming a surgeon, radiologist, dermatologist, etc.

 

[deleted74029]

Will an academic honors diploma make me have a higher change of getting into a good college, thus a good medical school?

Going to a "prestigious" college won't help you as much as you think in med school admissions. Maybe a little, but if you put the same amount of work in at a state school you will get into the same schools.

 

[Marge1]

You might want to be sure to check the requirements of the college you are planning to attend.

I, too, am in French at my school and was considering dropping it this year because I didn't want to add more work to my already jam packed schedule, but some colleges actually require you to have taken between two and four years of foreign language.

If it is comes down to you or someone else who has met the pre requisite of taking a foreign language they will choose the other person. You don't want to short yourself in the future!

My guidance counselor says that your gpa isn't as important as the initiative you show to challenge yourself...(but that could just be because of the $1200 check they recieve for each graduating student with an honors diploma)

 

[DrYoda]

You might want to be sure to check the requirements of the college you are planning to attend.

This is a good idea. My current university requires 3 semesters of a language. If you learn it in HS you can either 1. Pass out or 2. Use the classes as GPA padding. Either of which is good, because languages seem slaughter alot of people's GPAs around here.

 

[sestamibi]

If I transfer out of French, I will finish high school with a higher GPA.

If I stay in, I will have a lower GPA.

I would think that (Regular Core 40+ higher GPA) > (Honors diploma+lower GPA), right?

I have already made the decision to switch out of French, and just get a regular core 40, but will I still be able to be a surgeon if I take this action? I highly doubt that 4 credits of French in high school will ruin my future.

Surgeons aren't quitters. Transferring out of French will seal your fate.

My high school actually retained records of anyone who transferred out of a course for academic reasons. Guess who looks at these records?

That's right, surgical residency program directors.

Don't mess this up.

 

[pagemmapants]

Going to a "prestigious" college won't help you as much as you think in med school admissions. Maybe a little, but if you put the same amount of work in at a state school you will get into the same schools.

This is unequivocally false. Certain prestigious medical schools have a tendency to take many more grads from their own undergraduate campuses and from other "well known, prestigious" undergraduate campuses. There is also a certain amount of mistrust of the curricula of state schools and the difficulty of their "comparable" prerequisite classes.

Yes, if you have a 4.0 in Physiological Science from a state school, that says something and you probably won't have too much of an issue. I myself am from a state school (technically).

However, the kid with a 3.5 in Chemistry from Harvard with a 32 MCAT is going to have a much better chance than a kid with a 3.5 in Chemistry and a 32 MCAT from Cal State Long Beach; all other variables being equal.

Not only that, but many college courses are graded on a curve. Getting in the top 5% of the class in Orgo at Harvard for your A is way more impressive than getting in the top 5% of the class at Unknown State.

It boils down to the curricula of the "prestigious" colleges being "tried and true" - someone who passes the premed curriculum at, say, Princeton is *sure* to have the necessary and appropriate foundation for medical school. Who's to say that the professors and course designers at State are as sure to have covered what is necessary?

Caveat: this is all based on "State" being "unknown". UMich, most UTs, FSU, UWash, and the entire UC system are definite exceptions to this. And cheap, too! Californians have it great.

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HOWEVER; high school matters not a whit in medical school admissions. Chiesu, if you'll get out of a college foreign language by sticking with french, then do that. Better to have the "bad grade" in high school than in college, where it will matter to medical schools. Apart from that, do what satisfies yourself.

Also, as others have mentioned, get out of the habit of blaming poor performance on poor tutelage; you won't have that luxury in college or in medical school where self-instruction is the rule. Good luck.

 

[Tachymeter]

You really should be asking yourself are there attractive girls in French class or not? If so, stay in the class. It's that simple.

Thank you for saying that. That is exactly why I took french in highschool and college. Was I any good at it, not really. Did I want to go to class every day, ABSOLUTELY.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Cheisu, like everyone said, don't stress about this at all.

Where you go to college is important, absolutely. It doesn't have to be Harvard by any means-- but you better make sure it's Purdue or Indiana University and not Ball State or Vincennes or any other random state college-- go to the flagship school and do well there. It's a known entity and will give you a rigorous education. Don't go to a private college that no one has ever heard of just because it's private-- you'll end up $80,000 more in debt with a degree no one trusts. You want a college that preferably has a medical school attached, that has millions of dollars in research, that lets you get involved in serious lab work and premedical opportunities.

 

[Na1a]

This is unequivocally false. Certain prestigious medical schools have a tendency to take many more grads from their own undergraduate campuses and from other "well known, prestigious" undergraduate campuses. There is also a certain amount of mistrust of the curricula of state schools and the difficulty of their "comparable" prerequisite classes.

Yes, if you have a 4.0 in Physiological Science from a state school, that says something and you probably won't have too much of an issue. I myself am from a state school (technically).

However, the kid with a 3.5 in Chemistry from Harvard with a 32 MCAT is going to have a much better chance than a kid with a 3.5 in Chemistry and a 32 MCAT from Cal State Long Beach; all other variables being equal.

Not only that, but many college courses are graded on a curve. Getting in the top 5% of the class in Orgo at Harvard for your A is way more impressive than getting in the top 5% of the class at Unknown State.

It boils down to the curricula of the "prestigious" colleges being "tried and true" - someone who passes the premed curriculum at, say, Princeton is *sure* to have the necessary and appropriate foundation for medical school. Who's to say that the professors and course designers at State are as sure to have covered what is necessary?

Caveat: this is all based on "State" being "unknown". UMich, most UTs, FSU, UWash, and the entire UC system are definite exceptions to this. And cheap, too! Californians have it great.

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HOWEVER; high school matters not a whit in medical school admissions. Chiesu, if you'll get out of a college foreign language by sticking with french, then do that. Better to have the "bad grade" in high school than in college, where it will matter to medical schools. Apart from that, do what satisfies yourself.

Also, as others have mentioned, get out of the habit of blaming poor performance on poor tutelage; you won't have that luxury in college or in medical school where self-instruction is the rule. Good luck.

You assumption that this is unequivocally false is unequivocally false. The prestige of your university has a very minimal impact. Worry more about getting good grades and killing the MCAT. I'm at a top 20 medical school and have classmates from every range of college, from small private colleges no one has heard about to small and large state schools, to Ivy Leaguers. No one really gives a damn where you went, only about what you did at whatever school you went to.

Sure, if "all other circumstances being equal" happened often, we could assume the Ivy League student MIGHT have a better chance. However, all other circumstances are rarely, if ever, equal. There are too many variables and factors involved in the admission process.

I'd delve further into the myth that high school grades matter (they don't) or that prestige of the university matters (it may, but VERY MINIMALLY), but this is a high school forum and I don't even think high school kids should be worrying about such things just yet. However that's a whole other topic.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Going to a "prestigious" college won't help you as much as you think in med school admissions. Maybe a little, but if you put the same amount of work in at a state school you will get into the same schools.

This is definitely true. For all of you high school students who're already busting your butts to get into Harvard so that you'll have a better chance of getting into med school, stop. You're wasting your effort if prestige is the only thing drawing you to a big-name school. College is mostly what you make of it, and the name of your school matters very little in the med school application process.

What you do in high school means f*ck all in med school admissions. Have fun, do well enough to not relegate yourself to some podunk community college, and to hell with all the rest. High school should be about growing up and enjoying yourself, not power studying to get into some overblown school.

 

[elresidante]

Cheisu,

Good questions. First of all, don't sweat high school having any impact on medical school - it has none. What will be important is what you do in college. Get mostly A's (3.6 or higher), volunteer (early), do research (early), do good on your MCAT (30+), and try to get some kind of medical experience as an undergrad. Don't feel like you need to do an honors program in college either. Also, you should consider osteopathic as well as allopathic med schools - they are equivalent. Good luck!

 

[steady hands]

Dude, chill and have fun. 😀 Worry about your grades once you're in university.

 

[Pigeon]

Dude, chill and have fun. 😀 Worry about your grades once you're in university.

The problem with not caring about grades or anything is that it makes the fun a lot more boring. You only really have fun when you know what its like to not have fun.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Where high school is concerned, I disagree completely. You can be plenty serious enough to get into a great college without sacrificing your fun. I went out with friends almost every single night and still had lots of excellent acceptances.

 

[Pigeon]

Where high school is concerned, I disagree completely. You can be plenty serious enough to get into a great college without sacrificing your fun. I went out with friends almost every single night and still had lots of excellent acceptances.

You disagree with what?

I never said anything against that. I just said that fun things are not as fun when you haven't done any work. Summer is often boring. Having so much free time for fun just numbs the feeling of fun.

I don't think I said anywhere you have to be serious to get good grades and get into a good college. I'm sarcastic a lot. Its just most people who get good grades joke about stupid things IMO (at least around here.). The people I usually hang out with are metalheads. I love their humor, though after a while it just becomes mind numbing to be with them. For me its a choice of my sanity to not hang out with people a lot. I either have the most boring time of my life, or die on the inside because everyone around me is a total idiot and you can only act that way for so long.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I guess I missed your meaning. I thought you were trying to say that you need to balance fun and work. That's true, of course, but "balanced" in high school lets you really load on the fun side with not all that much on the work side. The balance shifts dramatically as you progress, unfortunately.