15 year old transfer applicant - would the following be looked down upon?

Transfer Students
1

<p>A little backstory. I'm a bit of an unconventional situation. I'm 15 and I've spent the past 3-4 years at UCLA doing a psychology major. Recently, I fell equally in love with physics and wanted to pursue both psychology and physics at UCLA but due to the unit maximum and the various GE's I took, this plan fell apart.</p>

<p>So I decided to transfer to another university to do the physics and finish up the psych. Unfortunately, my GPA isn't the best (barely 3.0) and my first year and a half here was awful in terms of grades due to various undiagnosed mental illnesses (depression, anxiety, PTSD, and others I won't get into) and also immaturity/laziness. I was wondering about the following things:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Would mentioning mental illness and its impacts, as well as personal shortcomings such as immaturity, on my transfer essay be looked down upon? My academic counselor encouraged me to submit a short letter from the OSD stating that much of my earlier progress was affected by my mental illness. I was wondering if including that as part of the reason why I'm transferring would be a good idea, or if I should focus on the pure academics (wanting to do physics).</p></li>
<li><p>Second, I've nearly completed my psychology major (got 3-4 classes to go) and have just started picking physics up but heard that I should apply for the less popular major. Would it be a good idea to put physics on my actual application, and double up in psych once I get there (and get my credits transferred)?</p></li>
<li><p>Third, if I put physics on my application (and not psych) would it be unwise to say in my essay that I'm passionate about both subjects, and instead focus on how I love physics? I'm genuinely unsure of which subject I want to pursue as a career as I love both, but I don't want that to come off as indecisiveness.</p></li>
<li><p>Fourth, would talking explicitly about my age in the transfer essay be wise?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Thank you so much for reading, haha. I know this was a bit long, and any answers are greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Damn, very interesting story! I think it would not hurt you as long as you word your predicament the right way; taking into account that its been actually diagnosed by a doctor. Saying that your “mental illness” prevented you from excelling in your field of study and leaving it at that will not bode well on your application. Instead, try to connect them to where this illness stemmed from: lack of inspiration, too much school work and not enough real-life experience, an existential depression, etc. Then continue on to how you overcame this obstacle: exercise, counseling others with similar illnesses, etc.</p>