What colleges to look at based on my stats . . .

[Fedekz]

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Hey,

I was wondering if anyone could give me a baseline of colleges to look at based on my stats . . .

I'll start off with my transcript:

Freshman year - I wasn't serious this year, basically messed around.

First semester

Language Arts 9 B
Algebra 1 B
World Geography A
Biology A
Spanish 1 B-
General PE B (Ya . . . I have no clue why i didn't want to make up my absences, but none the less i didn't . . .)

Second semester - Transferred schools, so the classes were mixed around a bit.

English 1 C
Algebra 1 B
World Geography A
Biology B+
Spanish 1 B
Soccer A
Student Aid Pass

Sophomore year - Transferred schools again.

First semester

Language Arts 10 B
Geometry B+
20th Century US history B
Chemistry A
Spanish 2 B
Soccer A

Second semester

Language Arts A-
Geometry A
Chemistry A
Spanish 2 A-
Soccer A
Buisness Law A-

Junior Year (current year), I am doing a dual enrollment program at the community college.

First semester

(High School)
Algebra 2 A-

(College)

(4 credits) Cell Biology A
(1 credit) Cell Biology Lab A
(5 credits) General Psychology A
(5 credits) English Composition A-

After this semester i should be at about a 3.4 GPA for high school, and a 3.9 GPA for college.

As for EC's:

1. Vice President of Spanish Club (despite the B's in Spanish ! haha)
2. Shadowing experience (Internal Medicine, Urology, and Cardiology) . . Not sure if that would mean anything for college application.
3. Volunteer Ski Patroller, 280 hours/year, 1 year so far (8 hours a day, every weekend)
4. President of Curling Club

I plan to start volunteering at the hospital after ski season.

As for the SAT, and ACT, I was talking to HumidBeing, he did a dual enrollment program, transferred to a 4 - year university, and they didn't require the SAT/ACT scores due to being a transfer student.


Any advice on colleges to think about would be appreciated.

Thanks !

-Fedekz

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'd at least take the SAT or ACT. Even if you don't end up needing a score, you'll have one if you do. It looks like you're in really good shape so far. I can't say much about what selectivity range you should be looking at without seeing a standardized test score, but you can at least start narrowing down your choices. Would you like to go to large school? A small one? Close to home? Does location matter at all? What subject do you think you might want to focus in? (Yes, I know this is a health professions forum, but people major in things other than sciences.)

 

[Depakote]

You'll want to figure out the answers to a few questions or at least start looking at some schools that fall into various categories and decide which appeals to you.

Where do you want to go to school: Close to home? Far away? In between?

What type of school do you want: Big state school? Something small and liberal artsy? Medium sized private school?

 

[Fedekz]

MilkmanAL, and Depakote,

I honestly don't know much about large schools vs. small schools, but I think I would prefer a larger to medium size school opposed to a small school. Location isn't a big factor, but if it came down to location, i would pick something in the south. My intended major is Biology. I have been looking at Tulane University because I know some people on the faculty there, but I'm not sure if my stats would be enough for admission there.

 

[Depakote]

What i wound up doing was looking at a college guide (US News or something similar). I read the descriptions of the various schools and had a "yeah I might like it there" or "oh, definitely not" reaction".

Then my family and I actually road-tripped and visited a few of the schools over the summer before my senior year. (This worked b/c most were close together...)

I found this very helpful b/c some schools that looked great on paper were in areas I really couldn't seem myself living in for 4 years and some schools I really fell in love with.

If I were you, I'd try to at least take a look at whatever colleges are in the area... within a few hours drive, something you could make in a weekend trip. This could give you a better feel for the different types of schools there are if there's a different enough spread of schools in the area. It would also let you see your state school hopefully. These tend to have reasonable admissions criteria and are a good value.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Your grades are perfectly fine, but again, you'll probably need to take the SAT or ACT at some point. You also should take cost into consideration. Tulane is fairly expensive, but your state schools probably won't be. The cost differential might be worth it to you or it might not. That's something you'll have to give a lot of thought to.

 

[tennisball80]

Take more math classes while in HS if you can. The college professors won't be as nice as high school teachers and go through materials very fast.

 

[Fedekz]

Wow, you got through HS without the tough subjects I had to go through!! You also only had 6 subjects at the same time at the most! I recall times when I had like 8-9 subjects at the same time and half of them were hard sciences (Chemistry, Physics, pretty advanced Calculus Math & Biology which was always my favorite subject ever.. the awesome field trips we had were also a plus hehe). We also had Psychology at least 1 year if that counts but now as a med student I feel like the course focused too much on theory and not much on what I ended up seeing in Med School. Oh, I also recall having a Pre-Medicine subject in my 2nd year of HS. It was the TOUGHEST SUBJECT EVAR. I can take in Calculus anyday before going through that subject. It was more advanced than some of my Med School subjects, ack.

I don't understand the US grading system (in Mexico we use a 1-10 system where most schools accept a 6 as the minimum to pass), but it seems like you have pretty good grades despite not having the darling subjects I had when I was in HS quite some time ago.

Good you spiffed up your spanish, it's an insanely useful language to know (and I daresay it's a fun language to watch a lot of dubbed American tv shows in; Pinky & the Brain sounds far better in spanish than in english).

Can't say much about what you need to do for med school, I guess the toughness of my HS (which in comparison to med school was a bit of a joke in some ways) was all I needed to get into med school (doesn't mean I spent those 4 months of Pre-med dozing off in class).

However, you will need to spiff up in Biology and Chemistry courses to recover from lack of exposure to them in HS. Some med schools will request you to have 1 year of Calculus in Premed for some reason. I have a hunch you might feel the hard science pinch as early as Premed because your HS subjects don't sound all that much. I had most of the same subjects (cept in spanish instead of english) you had + all of the hard sciences at the same time. And still I had so much free time in HS, sigh; things were so easy back then. 🙄

Wow your high school sounds pretty intense, mine is pretty laid back, and the majority of the people just take the "normal" route i suppose, one science a year, along with one math a year. The maximum classes we can take is 7 at one time, and the "normal" is 6; the extra class is before regular school starts (0 hour), and the class selection is very limited. As for spiffing up the biology and chemistry courses, by the time i graduate high school i should have (Bio160) Cell Biology, (Bio 221) Core Biology - The cell, (Bio212)Core Biology-The Plant, (Bio241) Anatomy/Physiology I, (Bio242) Anatomy/Physiology II. As for Chemistry, just (Chem 161) General Chemistry I. These courses are tentative, and can be changed, but that's what i have down on my 6 quarter plan, 1 science class per quarter along with various things such as macroeconomics etc. Hopefully that will be enough biology during high school at least, and i doubt all those credits will transfer from the community college to the 4- year university, so I'll probably end up having to take them again.

Thanks for the responses so far !

-Fedekz