Hello, I’m Katherine… a new member of the forums and I have a question I’d like to ask about college admission. I’d like to start off by giving some background of my present educational status. Point blank, I’m wondering how I can get into an Ivy League or a very well known university with a GED… High School was very very rough for me; me being someone that suffers with social anxiety, mild chronic depression, ADHD and has a history of panic attacks and being bullied. I didn’t drop out of school like some to most GED applicants and receivers have done, my family formerly withdrew me from the local public school system I was in because the school system (Buford City Schools) didn’t have the teachers or alternative educational requirements for someone with my particular case. Every time I go online I see all of my old classmates (Class of 2018) just living the “dream”… doing well in the standard ‘brick and mortar’ scenery and already getting prepped for their graduation (which I still dream of having the cap and gown ceremony with all of the medals and cords and all of that) and the rest of their lives in May of next year (2018); I’ve been in the homeschooling situation for a brief moment then tried at public school again (Lanier High School) but only made it out with an incompleted first semester of 9th grade because the same scenerio happened again as it did in the other school: panic attacks, being bullied, school not providing educational services for my case. I never dropped out of anything and am not listed as a drop out since I was withdrawn.
My grade point average by my guess would be around a 3.0 to a 3.6, I went to a leading neuropsychologist… a Bachelors Degree with Distinction in Psychology from the University of Connecticut eight majors, and he said I have an IQ of 124 - 128.9 (top 1-2%) with a verbal IQ in the top 1 percentile. He said if I found a way to apply myself I could do anything and go anywhere I wanted. I say this not to brag, but to further explain my situation. Opposing this wonderful news was my ADD test. I took it and the doctor said he’d call me back in two weeks with the results. It took two hours for him to call me back saying that if anyone had it, it was me. Thanks. To further complicate the matter, medication makes me have severe motor tics and I’m not allowed to take any amount and I’ve been on a lot of medicine in the past. I’ve also had neuro-feedback to try and help decrease the impact of my ADHD in my life.
So I need advice. At some point I wish to attend an Ivy League school, but I don’t know how to get there. Like I said previously, my plan as of now is to try and see how far my GED will take me and where in the world I want to be for the rest of my adult years. After that, I plan on getting my associates or Bachelors and would rely on constantly applying to Ivy League in order to get there. But I need more options and more advice. I will be taking my SAT’s and ACT’s relatively soon and am guessing I will receive a relatively high score. But that’s all I have as of now to dream on. I guess the ‘brick and mortar’ scenery never worked with me because of all of my social anxiety and the fact that I have ADHD and felt like I was drowning because I just didn’t fit in and nobody in the school systems bothered on helping me. I’m 18 and am just at the breaking point and looking for an absolution. My dream is to get a good paying job, fall in love and maybe go to an exceptionally renowned university (wishing Oxford could help but for my scenerio I don’t know) and get a good degree so I can prove to the world that even if I have so many faults I’m still helpful and smart and useful.
Since I’m currently classified as an unenrolled senior… how can make all of this a reality? I want to be a good leader in the world, have my future kids look up to me and know that whatever they dream of it can come true. Schools like: Yale, NYU, George Washington University, Syracuse, Columbia, University of California Los Angeles, (and maybe even Oxford if they do accept people in my type of case) are just a few universities I’m looking into… I do need Financial Aid obviously because especially in times likes these the amount of debt even with full rides and scholarships a school can only pay so much for a student… I just want my dreams to come true and maybe even after university I’ll be an actress like my late great aunt was because I’ve always loved the idea of being able to portray someone and being able to express myself through others. I just need some advice on this… any advice.
First of all I think that you need to have more realistic goals wrt universities. The top ranked universities do not have any special way to download wonderful information into the brains of their students. If there is any educational difference at the top ranked universities (such as the Ivy League schools), it is that they cover material more quickly, give more homework, give harder homework, have tougher tests, grade tests more harshly, and generally are more difficult and more stressful than other universities. Also, there is a higher percentage of the student population at these schools who are very smart, but there is probably also a significant percentage of the student population who are very competitive and possibly not particularly cooperative with their “competition” (ie, other students).
After reading your post, it seems to my that MIT, Caltech, Stanford, and Ivy League schools are almost the worse possible schools for you to attend (and frankly the worse possible schools for the vast majority of the US or world population to attend). The only students who should attend these schools are students who are very smart (you have this part), and who are very good at dealing with stress, and want to work very hard, and are very well prepared in terms of having a very strong high school academic experience.
I think that you need to continue to try to decrease the impact of my ADHD in your life, get your tests such as SAT and/or ACT done, and get your GED. Then you probably should consider either community college or small schools such as LACs. The very top ranked LACs probably for you (and most students) have many of the same problems as the top ranked larger universities, but there are a large number of LACs and you might be able to find something appropriate in your area.
You are asking advice on how to move from your dreams to reality, yes?
So the first thing is to figure out what you want from college. You don’t ‘prove to the world’ that you are a good person- or that you are smart- by going to a fancy-named college. The people who have been unkind or unhelpful to you won’t be impressed by the name of the college you go to. You need to be thinking about what you want from college academically. Dreams become reality when you focus on the real goals.
Practically speaking, with no test scores and a GPA range that is not credible, there is no way to give you any idea of what colleges are realistic options for you- especially given your need for financial aid.
I agree with @DadTwoGirls that most of the schools that you are talking about will not be happy places for you. In particular, the stress of Oxford would be very unhealthy for you- and there is no financial aid.
A detail, by the way: somebody with a Bachelor’s degree is not a ‘leading neuropsychologist’ - they would need a PhD.
If a brick and mortar school did not work for HS, its not likely that it will work for college, especially schools that will require a very high degree of self-discipline,t he ability to juggle multiple course requirements/readings/papers, etc simultaneously , in an environment that will not hold your hand. Haven’t checked the websites, but it is unlikely most of the schools ou threw out (quite a range) will consider a student with a GED. Rethink this. Your life goals are reasonable, but the current plan is not.
I already have my GED, and trust me if my own neuropsychologist worked with the CDC and has been to many many psychological summits with other top leading doctors and has loads of official and authenic degrees on his office wall, I know personally that he’s legit and my GPA score is credible and I’ve tried everything from patches to capsules to pills to neurofeedback to rewire the ADHD frequency in my head. It was late when I wrote this post last night… All I’m asking is what kind of universities would accept someone with my case? I never dropped out as I clearly stated above… With how society is nowadays you either make it in the world or you don’t and I’m terrified of not making it in the world. I want to be successful just like hopefully everyone else does, I’ve never judged my future more than I have right now; I’ve only asked about ivy league because well thats where I’ve heard that most people wanted to go to… schools like: NYU, George Washington University, Syracuse, and University of California Los Angeles are just a few I actually WANT to look into with a major in either astronomy or fine arts/theatre and a minor in photography. Apparently GWU and NYU accept students with GEDs, yes my plan for a successful future for myself is very messy and unorganised… I just want to make it in this world, is that so hard just to ask for advice? @collegemom3717@surfcity@jym626@DadTwoGirls
we are giving you advise.
1-succeeding in college is HARDER than in HS, because the courses are harder, and many students, with or without LD’s, find it difficult to finish.
2- there are over 3000 colleges in the US and many are more accommodating to kids with LD’s than the top colleges, who admit students who have shown an ability to excel in HS while taking a rigorous course load.
3- you CAN go to college, but you are going to have to accept the reality that the Ivys and the most competative, academically challenging colleges would NOT be the right places for you to apply to.
What state are you in? What is your financial situation?
My take is that given your difficulties in the past with traditional classroom settings that you would benefit from 2 years at a community college. Prove that you can consistently succeed in that environment. Work on being more resilient and focused. No highly ranked school is going to take a chance on you with your current background.
I’ll bet every school in this country has at one time or another accepted a student with a GED. But they don’t accept the students in a vacuum. Why does this student have a GED? Was there a medical reason the student needed to take the GED rather than go to high school? Prison? Child born at a young age preventing high school attendance? The universities are also going to look at what hs work was completed. Test scores. Life activities (jobs, other education).
What I doubt they will look at is IQ.
I’m not sure Ivies are the best schools to look at for astronomy and photography. " I’ve only asked about ivy league because well thats where I’ve heard that most people wanted to go to" That’s really not true. MOST people go to community colleges near where they live, many other go to the flagship universities in their states. The numbers tell the story. The Ivies, other than Cornell, are medium sized school with under 10,000 undergrads. Schools like Ohio State and Michigan are 5x as big.
Don’t worry about what ‘most’ or ‘other’ people are doing or where they want to go to college. Focus on what would be be the best school for YOU. It might be Brown or NYU, but probably isn’t. You have some special interests. You need to look into whether a big school is what you want, or a smaller college, or a school you can commute to.
you ALSO need to know whether your parents can AFFORD to send you to an expensive private college or an OOS public university, which can cost $40,000/ per year for non resident students .
So have the $$ talk with them, after running NPC’s on various college websites.
It wont do you any good to apply to a college that you cant afford to go to.
Most (though not all) colleges and universities post general information in a standardized form called the “Common Data Set”. Section C3 of the CDS will indicate if the school accepts the GED.
If you check Section C3, it will show you that “GED is accepted”. My guess is that most highly ranked schools will accept a GED – in theory.
In practice, though, there is a problem: admission to highly ranked schools is extremely competitive. If you check Section C1 of the Yale CDS, for example, you will see that a total of 31,445 people applied to enroll as freshmen for Fall 2016, and that only 1,988 were accepted. In other words, only about 6% of applicants were accepted, and 94% were rejected.
So if you applied to Yale at this point, you would be competing against literally tens of thousands of students who have stellar high school transcripts with high GPAs. A GED, by comparison, may not be very impressive. You would have to compensate with sky-high SAT scores or stunning extracurricular activities, but the competition probably has strong test scores and extracurriculars too.
The most likely way for a GED holder to get into a high-ranking school is probably as a transfer student, rather than as a freshman. All of the top schools accept transfer students, and for transfer admissions, your high school record no longer matters – it’s your college record that counts. If you go, for example, to a community college for two years, get fantastic grades, and have strong extracurricular activities, then you would become the kind of student that a high-ranking school would want as a transfer. Nobody would be concerned if you had a GED at that point.
Katherine,
Take a deep breath. You are coming in with a not-traditional portfolio and would have an uphill battle to be competitive at the elites. It might be helpful to research the schools that have your desired major rather than target the top schools and then look to see if they offer what you are considering. Try bottom up, not top down.
@Corbett@menloparkmom@collegemom3717@twoinanddone@intparent okay I’m obviously not making any sense so let me rephrase my situation and everything I just said above in a rambling mess. I’m in a situation financially that would make me eligible for financial aid… when I was in school it was rough but semi bearable, I NEVER DROPPED OUT… I only withdrew from school, I am planning on taking my SATs and ACTs which I know a majority of colleges and universities will mostly look at when deciding students. The GED (which I’ve already obtained) has a slightly higher ranking than a diploma but weighs less because of it’s history and reputation; now pushing all of my medical history aside, my main focus is on getting a degree and learning more about the subjects I want to major and minor in, I officially have nothing to do with Ivy league now because of all you’ve said and how it wouldn’t work for me. I’m in a position that I’m assuming some to most of yourselves were in yourselves where you don’t know what you want to do in life just yet and you have your whole ahead of you to decide. I myself want to go to a university and I know I’d be able to successfully accomplish the work if I try hard enough… someone in this messed up overly populated world has to have been in or is in a similar situation as mine. The universities im looking into are: New York University, George Washington University, University of Toronto, Washington University: Vancouver, University of California: Los Angeles or even Yale… I’m only looking into those universities because I have a feeling that they have a better grasp and more courses than community colleges do. Diploma Equivalencies are set up and scored at a level that only 60 percent of all high school graduates would be able to pass it.
So of course some to most universities would look down on it because it’s usually taken by dropouts, etc etc, “As anyone knows, life often has its own idea about how your plans should go. Some students leave school because they need to help with the bills, they start a family or school doesn’t seem like the right option for them at the time. Whatever the case, they can always return to high school or they can earn their GED®, which stands for General Educational Development.” Now I could’ve gone back to high school as I quoted there but I’m 18 and I have insufficient credits that would prevent me from going into the year I’m supposed to be in now (senior year) and I wouldn’t mind trying to go back but I already have a GED and that wouldn’t make sense I’m guessing to go back and having to do the full 3-4 years again? I just need advice honestly on all of this, I want to go to university and be successful or at least mean something
The term “drop out” means nothing. You didn’t finish a typical HS degree and you took the GED instead. That isn’t in your favor. By your own admission you struggled in the high school classroom environment.
There are literally thousands of colleges in this country. The schools you listed are still pretty competitive (and also mostly expensive). You need to prove your skills in a classroom with some consistency to have a shot at them. Of course CCs don’t have the same classes – they offer 2 year degrees, and are meant partly for getting general & intro classes taken care of before transferring to a 4 year school. If you don’t like CCs, you could look state schools in the state you live in that aren’t the state flagship as another possible starting point.
Washington State: Vancouver, which I think is what you meant, could be an option. Do you live in the state of Washington? Public schools in your state of residence are probably your best bet for admission and affordability.
Very few high schools will take a student who already has a GED (or a diploma from another high school). There are schools that have post-grad years, but they are usually boarding schools, and often used for an additional year of sports.
People aren’t telling you you can’t go to college with a GED, or that you can’t go to any college you want to. You can. You just have to be accepted. You’ve selected some colleges with pretty high admissions standards. I do not agree that a GED has higher ranking than a high school diploma. The schools will evaluate the GED, any course work you do have, your test scores, your essays and supplements. Home schooled students face the same review. High school graduates face the same review and the high school counselors send in information about the high school, what the rank means, what the gpa means.
The best thing you can do is score high on the standardized test. It is the common thing those with high school diplomas from all kinds of high school have, that home schooled students have too, that GED students have too. You might want to take some community college classes as those will show how you’d do in a traditional classroom, might fill in any gaps you had with the GED program, might introduce you to subjects you like but haven’t tried yet (theater, art, chemistry, world history).
In addition to all the previous posts, I do have a question:
With anxiety as severe as yours, aren’t you setting yourself up for some potential issues by targeting uber-competitive schools??
When you say this: “I guess the ‘brick and mortar’ scenery never worked with me because of all of my social anxiety and the fact that I have ADHD and felt like I was drowning …”-- why would an Ivy League College-- or really any college-- work where brick and mortar high schools have not?
Nowhere do I see any mention of any successful attempts to resolve the root issue here-- anxiety so crippling that it prevented you from attending the type of school to which you’re not planning to apply.
I would agree - you need to be in treatment for your issues.
You’ve done yourself a disservice with your previous choices - to drop out of school rather than attending with supports, and then to take the GED test which cemented your status a high school dropout. (You could have enrolled in a free high school completion program at a community college which would have allowed you to get some classes under your belt to prove that you are ready for a four year college program).
I think your best bet is to start a community college at this point, maybe one class at a time until you get through your anxiety issues, then transfer. Start with a class in something you are passionate about, maybe photography? Then work up to challenging academic classes in a pretransfer program.
@Katherinemoon, What you need to understand is that there are a lot of kids in the US who are homeschooled. They aren’t considered high school dropouts either. One of the ways they show high school equivalency is with the TASC (formerly GED) which, for many, is simply a formality. Many have high standardized test scores, high GPAs from dual enrollment courses, and amazing ECs. Those are the GED/TASC certificate holders you’ll be competing with at elite schools, not high school dropouts who could barely pass the high school equivalency tests.
The history of community colleges and the GED isn’t what you think. They’re perfectly respectable and can be very useful tools to get to where you want to be. You need to decide where that is. However, in my opinion you’ll be more successful if you’re motivated by what you want to do with your life. Trying to prove yourself to outsiders is a waste of mental energy.
Have you looked into your state schools? Do you know how much your parents can pay? I think finances are the single largest driver of school choice, so it’s really important that you get a firm budget from them.
For applicants for those top colleges, GED is only a formality if they have one. Having GED instead of diploma won’t necessary hurt but it won’t help either, even with high SAT score. You need a lot more to show. If you have nothing else as you say, then your hope is unrealistic.
My daughter used to be homeschooled. She would be one that @austinmshauri described. Mine passed that high school equivalency test at age 10 and collected 2 years of college credits before starting high school, with a nearly perfect GPA none the less. I was among many in our parents group with such children, some with way higher achievement than mine. Yet I or any one I knew thought our kids had any reasonable chance at an Ivy with such low acceptance rate, so nothing should be planned assuming otherwise. After all, not many among us went to an Ivy even though they do have somewhat higher chance than average high school kids.