Intended major: bio (pre-med track)
Chinese male
Why I dropped out: Terrible terrible attendance that made my parents scared that I would go to juvy for being a delinquent so they made me leave. High school does not send attendance records to colleges; will downplay the severity of my bad attendance in my essays but still tell this story
SAT: 800M 770EBRW
SAT II: 760 bio, 800 math 2
5s on quite a few APs
HS freshman year: 4.0W 3.9UW; HS soph year: 4.65W ~3.95UW. Moderately competitive 75% Asian HS in southern CA
Am currently attending community college. Have 4.0 but only 3 summer classes on transcript so far. Current courseload is moderately heavy.
Red flag: No grades, no activities junior year (left in the middle of first semester junior year)
ECs: hospital volunteer (playing piano for patients in the trauma center), church volunteer (playing piano), Science Olympiad (was top student had leadership position)
LoRs: One from Science Olympiad coach who said I was one of the best students she’s ever had; will most likely be moderately strong to strong. One from community college professor who taught me over the summer; will be very generic but can vouch for good attendance.
Essays will be mediocre
Please tell me which tier you think is my target (ex: T50s on USNews)
Any advice will be greatly appreciated, especially about the dropping out of HS story
Did you obtain a GED?
No b/c many colleges won’t accept AP scores for credit if the GED is obtained prior to taking the AP exams
It sounds like your best course is to complete CCC, then apply. Not having grades in your 11th and presumably 12th grade probably won’t fly with really good schools, which is what it sounds like you would be targeting.
My definition of “really good” is T25s, which is definitely beyond what I’m targeting. I’m focusing on T40s and below, sound about right?
The Common App will ask if you will have a hs degree. That’s a big stumbling point. (Your GC won’t be able to answer this, either.) The colleges will expect certain courses to have been completed, have you looked at that? The chance a T50 (does that really mean you want a T25?) would accept you with only grades through 2nd year, then 3 summer courses, no activities since, no degree, is slim to none. (Playing piano almost doesn’t count for highly or most-competitive colleges. As a possible bio major, you need math-sci ECs.) Many won’t take a GED. Some states won’t let you test for the GED until some time or some age is reached.
They want what they want. The more competitive, the more they get to cherry pick. If you understood what they want, you’d see that. You would have been able to plan.
Did you need to enroll in the cc? In a “degree granting program?” That would make you a transfer.
What did you do after you dropped out? Is there some back story we need to understand?
I understand that continuing to go to CC is my best option right now, but I hate it here and desperately want to get out.
- I enrolled as a K-12 student, not to receive an associate’s, so am I right in thinking that I’m still a freshman applicant?
- No back story. The situation with terrible attendance I mentioned in my original post is all there is to it.
- Didn’t do much after I dropped out. Stayed home and did nothing for 6 months, then CC summer classes.
- Do you think colleges with rankings in the triple digits would still be willing to offer me scholarships, considering that they have a minimum GPA requirement and I have an “empty” year?
Any chance you would want to go to school in Asia? My nephew had a slightly similar situation. Really smart guy, but he was sent here by himself and had really poor attendance, so he dropped out at 16, took a bunch of classes in CCC and did get his GED. Got his 4-year degree and is now in medical school, in China.
You may not be able to avoid the attendance issue. It may come up, one way or another. Most kids are able to conform to the need to attend and I wonder why you couldn’t. Doing nothing isn’t a sign of particular drives, etc.
The point is: colleges vet you to see if you match. That includes the sort of attitude that allows you to conform to expectations. I don’t see how 3 summer classes will convince a T50 of any turnaround.
The essays are not where you explain issues that will concern a college. That’s not their point. LoRs from soph year or a team coach aren’t what most competitive colleges ask for. Many will state they want teacher who know you in class, sometimes a core, junior year and later.
When are you applying to college?
If you’re serious, first, pick a few T40-50 colleges and read everything they say and show about what they want. Then, work on reconstructing your record. Get the courses that reflect the college prep recomendations. Find the right ECs that show drives, collaboration, and some impact. You may find you need to look at schools rnaked lower than the T50 point, which still leaves many good colleges. And, look at your state publics. Get a Fiske Guide to colleges.
You may find enrolling in the CC allows you a better shot, through a Guaranteed Transfer program to a 4-year. (I can’t say.) Look at what your state offers.
But you need to do this due diligence, get started, before anyone here can offer more advice. You can.
Your nephew’s story is actually very interesting to me. Do you think he’d be willing to answer some questions from an internet stranger?
Just saying. Before you decide on a foreign med school, look into how that out of country degree can affect your licensing in the US.
Can you figure out a way to be considered dual enrolled at the CC and get an AA degree and a hs diploma at the same time?
Sounds like OP could consider Columbia’s School of General Studies.
I don’t think you are being realistic. You have an unusual situation and it might be wise to hire a very experienced independent college advisor. For now, go see the academic advisor at your college. If they have a high school program, they will know how to handle your transcript.
Any four year university is going to want to make sure you have completed their minimum requirements. Look at your colleges of interest and see what those requirements are. You will have to demonstrate that you have turned the corner with whatever your delinquency issues were. You should stop focusing on top 50 colleges. I agree with others that it isn’t going to happen.
You have high test scores, but ask yourself this question: Why would they take you over another kid with high test scores who didn’t drop out? Top 50 colleges will have a LOT of applicants with high test scores who completed all four years of high school.
You are going to have to explain what happened. There is no getting around that. You can explain it in the additional information session. Why was your attendance so poor, and why did you leave high school? If there is a guidance counselor at your former high school who can provide supporting information as to what happened, that would be useful. You need to work with what you have at this point: good grades and regular attendance. It’s too bad that you hate CC, but view it as a necessary stepping stone to get you to the place you need to be. CC will be over soon enough. You have your life ahead of you to get to a place you don’t hate. You just have to get through it. Good luck.
P.S. Consider colleges below 100. That’s my best guess at the moment.
It helps a lot if you have a GED. You probably won’t be able to get into T50, maybe T100. However, that doesn’t matter that much for med school. They look at GPA, which is easier to get somewhere ordinary. The main thing is you need a high MCAT score. Getting into med school Asian from CA isn’t easy, but this isn’t going to hurt all that much.
Schools will consider high school scores for transfers when you have a messed up high school record. I went to a hippy public high school back in the day, and I didn’t learn much. You didn’t have to go to classes and so on. Then I couldn’t take it and went back to the regular high school senior year. My mother signed me up for all the hardest classes, which I wasn’t ready for and I failed two first semester senior year. I transferred to Johns Hopkins after a year, based mainly on SAT subject tests scores similar to yours.I probably couldn’t have gotten into somewhere that good these days as messed up with such a messed up education as competitive as it is now. I would definitely not recommend Hopkins for premed and don’t think you will get into that level, but you should be able to get into somewhere decent.
It’s not 20+ years ago.
OP will have challenges with 2 years of hs, no degree, and 3 summer courses in the interim. The implication is no courses now. It’s not the picture they want or the risk. He hates cc. What makes a college think he’s ready for the next leap?
That’s why you stay local. To rehab the record. See if you have the maturity without shelling out tens of thousands. We dont always get what we want just because we dont like our present situation. OP can look at what colleges require.
OP, if any if this is about distractibility, work on that.
Although OP has said the reason for HS dropout was poor attendance, poor attendance is not the reason unless some external factor was preventing him from attending school or taking online classes for some reason that hasn’t been stated. Even then, the reason for dropout would be the external factor. Poor attendance is just how the dropout process manifests itself. And what ever the reason was for the poor attendance, top schools would be worried about a recurrence.
@lookingforward , OP says he’s currently in CC with a moderately heavy courseload, so if he has good grades in those classes, that will help.
Yeh, you are probably better off showing a good record from the CC. You can apply to schools now and see what happens. Long term, it shouldn’t matter as far as med school, as long as you show grades and MCAT.
OP- You may want to consider taking the CHSPE (https://www.chspe.net)
The California High School Proficiency Examination (CHSPE) is a testing program established by California law (Education Code Section 48412). If eligible to take the test, you can earn the legal equivalent of a high school diploma by passing the CHSPE. The CHSPE consists of two sections: an English Language Arts section and a Mathematics section. If you pass both sections of the CHSPE, the California State Board of Education will award you a Certificate of Proficiency, which by state law is equivalent to a high school diploma (although not equivalent to completing all coursework required for regular graduation from high school). Although federal agencies are not bound by state laws, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has ruled that the Certificate of Proficiency shall be accepted in applications for federal civilian employment. The U.S. Department of Education, including the Federal Student Aid Office, recognizes the CHSPE as the equivalent of a high school diploma in applications for federal financial aid. All persons and institutions subject to California law that require a high school diploma for any purpose must accept the certificate as satisfying the requirement.
You would still need to complete a-g requirements at a CC if you wanted to apply to say, a UC or CSU. Note that colleges outside of California may not recognize it as a HS diploma.
Good luck