Hello, I’m a rising junior who has tried to have the ‘college talk’ with their parents. After some talking, my parents told me that they would only pay for me to go to college if I did two years at the local community college, and than transferred to a 4 year school. This worries me as all of my teachers have advised (who have brought the subject up) really have advised against that plan, because getting into a 4 year college after doing two years at a CC is quite difficult. This also worries me as I want to go to medical school, and from what I have heard, you must be competitive from freshman year to stand a chance at getting admitted.
So my question is, does being a transfer student lower my chances of getting into medical school? Also, is their anyway I can pay for college by myself (parents won’t co-sign loans) Ihave looked into full tuition scholarships but I feel that a 3.64 GPA (unweighted) is no where near high enough.
3.64 GPA with what test scores? If the test scores are high enough, some colleges will give you big scholarships:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ (but verify on college web sites, since some may have changed)
Community college transfer to a four year school is common in some states like California, but may be less common in other states; it depends on how well the community colleges are set up to provide transfer pathways to four year schools (typically state universities).
For pre-meds, it is generally not advised to take all of the pre-med science courses at community colleges. For science majors, this may not be a big issue, since science majors will take many upper level science courses after transfer at a four year school. Non-science majors would have to have use some out-of-major electives after transfer at a four year school to take some of the pre-med science courses or upper level science courses. Maintaining a very high GPA overall and in science courses is essential to have any chance of admission to a medical school.
You need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay for those last 2 years.
Do they realize that transfer students get lousy aid and lousy scholarships?
Do they realize that your overall cost could be LOWER if you went ALL four years at a Univ with great aid or scholarships?
Your GPA can be high enough for merit IF you also have high test scores. What are your test scores?
So far, I have none other than my PSAT from last school year, which was a 1010. My school district pays for every student to take the SAT and PSAT, so I will take the PSAT again in October along with the SAT in March/April. As for the fact that it could be cheaper if I did all four years at a university with great aid, I am fully aware the of it, but my parents are not. My mom did what she wants me do to (granted 20+ years ago) and she thinks it’s the best possible way to do college, no matter what I say.
(I hope I used the term ‘rising junior’ right, I am currently set to graduate in 2018)