Chances at Harvard, Stanford, and MIT for a high school dropout

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I tested out of high school at the beginning of my sophomore year last year, essentially making me a dropout. I do a lot of computer programming and have a few accomplishments in that field. Would love to know what my chances are for Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and other schools of that tier.</p>

<p>School:</p>

<ul>
<li>4.2 GPA freshman year of high school.</li>
<li>3.9 GPA first two years of college (did community college concurrently with middle school and high school. I have my first two years of computer science undergrad done, excluding general education credits).</li>
</ul>

<p>Accomplishments:</p>

<ul>
<li>First employee at a company where I worked on and released a game that reached #5 overall in the App Store and 1.6 million users.</li>
<li>Winner of numerous college and industry programming competitions. One of the college competitions was one of the largest in the world with over 1000 attendees from top tier schools.</li>
<li>Lead backend development and managed 4 million users for an app that was #1 overall in the App Store.</li>
<li>Over 6 million people use code I've written.</li>
</ul>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>So you are a transfer student?</p>

<p>I could apply as a transfer student, but I’d like to apply as an incoming freshman either this year or next. I would currently be a junior if I was back in HS.</p>

<p>Have you taken the SAT or ACT? How did you score?</p>

<p>I have not taken either.</p>

<p>Your a transfer. Not very strong for these schools. . </p>

<p>Lot of kids going Harvard or MIT could have tested out of high school in 7th or 8th grade. That is not how you can get into top colleges.</p>

<p>Are you saying you have a GED? I know some schools won’t accept that as an equivalent to a high school diploma.</p>

<p>texaspg: the intention behind testing out was not to get into top schools, it was to provide an alternative education for myself. I’ve gotten more out of working in industry and making six figures than I would have my sophomore year of high school.</p>

<p>430ktk: I took the CHSPE, which gets you high school equivalence from the state of California. It’s not the GED.</p>

<p>You have an interesting and impressive background, but why didn’t you take SATs/ACTs/SAT Subject tests? Did you just recently decide to apply to college? Taking these tests is an important step in this process for all but test-optional schools (none of which are on your list).</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Testing out of high school does not get a kid into top colleges whatever the intention is. Most kids get into top colleges by taking college classes while in high school. Colleges also don’t trust that someone interested in business will stick around and graduate, lowering their graduation rates.</p>

<p>EDIT</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.chspe.net/about/”>https://www.chspe.net/about/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>All it says one needs is to have English and Math proficiency. Most colleges have requirements for someone to show actual high school credits in different subjects. Assuming students need 24-26 credits to graduate and this cover 4 years of Math and 4 years of English, what happens to 16 other credits or 4 subjects over 4 years?</p>

<p>connect1234: I should have clarified in the OP. I haven’t decided that I’m going to apply to college yet, just seeing if the option would be there at all. If I did decide to pursue it, I’d take the SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject tests.</p>

<p>texaspg: for the CHSPE all you need is English and math proficiency, but I do have nearly all of the required high school credits required for regular graduation. I’d need one more semester of English and a semester of a history course to graduate.</p>

<p>Honestly if you’re making six figures why would you consider returning to college? Your accomplishments are very impressive (so impressive that I’m wondering if this is legit). </p>

<p>onlythebest13: My motivation for potentially wanting to go to college isn’t financial. It’s for the social life and being able to focus full-time on fields that interest me (distributed systems, graph theory, and topology, specifically).</p>

<p>@dropout512, makes sense. I think you should take your SATs/ACTs and keep your options open</p>

<p>bump</p>