Hi, I am a Junior in High School and want to pursue a career in Astrophysics (Ph.D. Level). I currently have an estimated weighted GPA of 3.7 on the 4.0 scale. I get A’s most of the time, mainly in STEM classes. I am a dual credit student and have been since 2nd semester as a freshman. During those years each semester, certain classes would be replaced with dual credit classes. I plan on taking Calculus I over the summer and Calc. II/III and University Physics I/II (Advanced College Physics) during my senior year. I also started Algebra I before 9th Grade (8th Grade) and continued that on through my high school years until I got to take College Algebra (Dual-Credit Course) during my Sophomore 2nd Semester. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a lot of big accomplishments except for getting into my school’s National Honors Society. I’ve heard Rice, Hardvard, MIT, etc. students who invented things and I didn’t even ever invent anything. I’ve been constantly praised for my intelligence by my peers, but due to my lack of social skills I haven’t really shown myself that well. Do I have any chance of getting into one of those schools? Will my credits transfer? Any other advice? Thanks and sorry for the long post, I’ve been having a cold and haven’t felt so up to it lately. Thanks!
You should anticipate that none of your credits will transfer, but that you’ll be placed into a class appropriate for your background. Transfer credit is more likely if you attend a college that has an articulation agreement with your dual credit school.
The schools you’ve named have a low chance of admission for everyone. What characteristics (size, cost, location, etc) are important to you? People are likely to be able to suggest some more realistic schools to add to your list.
I mainly just want a college that has a good Mathematics and Astrophysics program. What colleges do you suggest then? Most colleges that have good Astrophysics programs that I’ve sen are those low-chance colleges.
I would suggest that you keep an open mind regarding majors. When you get further into university courses, you might still like astrophysics, or might like a different type of physics, or some form of engineering, or math or computer science, or something else.
Also keep an open mind regarding which university you want to attend for undergrad. There are a lot of very good universities in the US. You should also keep in mind that MIT has about 4,500 undergrad students and 6,800 graduate students. However, many of their undergrad students either don’t go on to graduate school (eg, someone with a bachelor’s in computer science is likely to get a good job straight after his or her bachelor’s), or go elsewhere for graduate school. Thus many of their graduate places are taken by students who did their undergrad elsewhere. When I was a graduate student at a different highly ranking university, there were students there who had done their undergrad all over the place, including many who had come from in-state public universities.
Also, if you are hoping to go on to graduate school, try to avoid debt for undergrad.
When you get to university you will find more students who are more like you, including more very smart students. This should over time help your social skills significantly. Some of this just takes time.
I think that you are going to do very well at university. Good luck with this!
By the way, in suggesting universities, one thing that would help us a lot is to know what state you are from, and in what part of the country you would prefer to attend university (if you have a preference). Once you get your SAT or ACT scores those can help also, although it sounds like we are a few months early for that. Knowing your budget would also help.
If you were to start with your interest in math, you could research colleges included in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors”:
Harvey Mudd
MIT
UChicago
Caltech
Haverford
Harvard
Hamilton
Bowdoin
Reed
Rice
Carleton
Grinnell
Macalester
URochester
St. Olaf
Most or all of these colleges offer some combination of physics/astronomy/astrophysics. Though all are highly selective, a few might nonetheless be accessible to you based on what you have posted.
The college search feature on this site lets you filter by major. A school that offers both astronomy and physics will give you the background you’d need for grad school in astrophysics. No need to socialize specialize at the undergrad level.