OP- sending you good karma.
I have learned in life that just when you feel you are being backed into a corner- there is ALWAYS an obvious route out, if you look around to find it. So if you and your folks have decided that U Mass and then transfer is your only option- great. Go to U Mass (commit TODAY) as everyone else has urged, blow the cover off the ball, and perhaps then your route out is just to stay at U Mass. Or try for a transfer, but at least you’ve gotten a year of college under your belt.
Or- if your folks think a gap year is your only option- great. Call U Mass- TOMORROW-- and ask them if you can hold your spot for a year (just so in case the schools which have already rejected you reject you again you still have a seat available). Then figure out with your parents a productive year and re-apply. And take a look at an entirely different set of New England colleges. Your new matches might be U Hartford, Simmons, Wheaton. Your new safeties might be Endicott, Stonehill (work with your guidance counselor to make sure you are categorizing these appropriately- I’m just throwing out names here.) Your parents can then sit with this… if NONE of the new colleges on the list have the “oomph” of U Mass with your current offer, then the grinding on the non-offer from Northeastern might end and you can all get back to reality.
I think you and your parents have learned something from this process- and unlike other posters, I don’t believe that your disability has ANYTHING to do with the rejections, wait lists, etc. I think you’ve gotten an education that first and foremost-- the colleges you applied to are academic institutions. period. And your B in physics, and B+ or A- in bio, and what I’m sure looks like some struggles in math or being behind the curve in math in terms of rigor-- are way more important than observing live surgeries, learning from Nobel Prize Laureates in Medicine, etc.
You are very accomplished, no doubt. But your transcript (the most important part of your application- more important than Senior Class rep, congress of Future Medical Leaders, etc.-- was the key here. And with no standardized test scores (a 780 in math would have gone a long way in reassuring an adcom that your core quant skills are solid), it was easier to reject you (or waitlist you) than to try and figure out if you could hack calculus and organic chemistry, alongside your classmates.
I’m sorry if this stings. But you got bad advice upfront with your list, and I’d hate to see you waste another year with equally bad advice.
I know kids in real life who have a string of awards and have done research at prestigious places with famous people. And their parents are incredulous that they are getting rejected from their match schools, and even a few “safety” schools. And they want answers. And the answers aren’t exotic or hard to parse. A kid who opted not to take the most rigorous curriculum at their HS so they’d have time for their EC’s (it takes time to commute to a research lab, etc.) is not going to “present” as well as a kid with Calc BC, AP Physics etc.
It might not be fair, and it might be a horrible flaw in the admissions system, but the kinds of colleges you applied to do not see themselves as being in the “remedial ed” business. And for a prospective STEM major (forget the pre-med part for a minute) , covering off the basics of bio, chem, physics and math at the most rigorous level, and doing well in them-- is what it takes.
U Mass clearly understands both your passions and your strengths- your offer there is evidence of that. The private U’s? Your transcript probably confused them, so they moved on.
I am NOT telling you that won’t end up in Med school if you decide that’s what you want. There are plenty of doctors out there with wonderful careers who struggled in math in HS. But if you were my kid- I’d be encouraging you to take the obvious option- U Mass-- and not try and reinvent the wheel with a gap year.
Hugs to you. I know you are going to do great things.