<p>As a child, I was considered to be "gifted," prompting my mother to put me in classes with older children. I had an unquenchable thirst for learning.</p>
<p>By all accounts I should have gone somewhere in life -- I mean, that was what I was told by teachers and relatives.</p>
<p>Sounds nice, right?</p>
<p>Long story short, I am a 23yr old high school dropout with a GED.</p>
<p>What are my chances of becoming a chemist?</p>
<p>I have been teaching myself mathematics. (Amazon has an awesome collection of textbooks for literally pennies on the dollar.) I took the Calculus CLEP and passed.</p>
<p>If I were to do an Associate in Science at a community college, maintain a high GPA, and then transfer to a University to complete a BS in chemistry, what would be my chances of getting into a graduate school?</p>
<p>(My local CC has a transfer agreement with this school: Wilkes</a> Chemistry) </p>
<p>Would my age/somewhat unorthodox background be a hindrance?</p>
<p>You go ahead. You’re doing good things. Just do what you love and it’ll be alright…or don’t follow me hippy advice. But don’t be worried that you can’t get places because of what you’ve done in the past… just keep moving forward :)</p>
<p>23 years old? You’re still a young lad. Go get awesome grades at a CC and transfer to a school with an excellent chemistry program. Then excel in that chemistry program and do something positive for our society! Good luck, comrade.</p>
<p>I work with academic chemists quite often and also help evaluate graduate school candidates in a STEM field. A graduate school admission committee will only care about what you did in college (and perhaps in chemistry-related employment). There will be absolutely no notice paid to the GED. That you would be in your mid to late 20s will not matter one bit either.</p>
<p>My situation is very similar. I was a very gifted student that always got straight A`s, but I dropped out of high school my sophomore year due to lack of interest, and got a ged. I’m now holding down a 4.0 in a community college and majoring in physics and math at age 26, with plans to transfer to a university, and go on to grad school for astrophysics or particle physics. There is absolutely no reason that you can’t accomplish your dreams, so get out there and follow them!</p>
<p>To be honest, I have also been considering doing a BS in general science. I am an amateur science fiction writer, and as a result have spent many hours pouring over various science magazines and books. In time I came to love reading about science.</p>
<p>I am not so sure that I’d like <em>doing</em> science, though!</p>
<p>A career involving writing about science seems very attractive right now. Would I be able to become a science write with a BS in general science?</p>
<p>After having done a bit of research into what the daily life of a scientist is like (politics, fighting for money, doing a post-doc for years and years, etc.), the romantic illusion that I held about science has been a bit shattered. I would much rather write all day!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you try to become a science writer, sustaining yourself (financially) could prove quite challenging in this economy. Don’t let me discourage you, but debt is a real thing that is not forgiven, and writing jobs these days are few and far between.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a difference between research science and application science. You can get a degree in physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and the like, and go work directly for a company.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>ASSUMING you are actually gifted, like you have said, my recommendation would be to get a degree in Computer Science and move out to California (Silicon Valley), securing yourself a 100k+ job in a very nice living environment.</p>
<p>I don’t care about making a lot of money, to be honest. I live in a cheap apartment, use public transportation, work a minimum wage job, and am content. The way I see it, anything more is icing on the cake.</p>
<p>If I had to work a mindless job to pay the bills and write on the side for the rest of my life (either fiction or non-fiction), I would be 100% content.</p>
<p>It’s pretty much what I do now! I work at a store during the day, and write the rest of the time, selling the occasional short story (like three a year, lol) for a couple hundred bucks each.</p>
<p>Now that I think about, I probably have no need for college.</p>