My parents won't let me prepare myself academically for the colleges that I want to go to.

First off, if you are reading this and thinking that I can talk to a guidance counselor at school and discuss to them about this problem, don’t bother. I know that my parents care for me, but they are too controlling of my life. I need advice. (my parents are the type of people who won’t be persuaded by outsiders because they think that they know what’s best and they will stick to their initial decision no matter what anybody else says) My parents want me to go to a for-profit medical school for undergraduates that costs a lot of money for literally no reason. My brother, who graduated valedictorian of his class in high school switched from the university he was going to in his freshman year, to this new for-profit college and whenever he talks about it, he says it sucks, the system sucks, and that they just give a bunch of busy-work and his life sounds miserable. (although he is doing his undergraduate education at a faster pace by taking a ton of credits) I wanted my college life to be balanced out after high school. Before, I was looking forward to independence & freedom, as well as getting to experience how living with others and studying felt like or just the college-experience. I talked to my parents about it several times before this and at this point it has come to making course selections for junior year, and they won’t allow me to choose the classes I want either. My mom said that I didn’t have to take as many credits as my brother and take the 4-year route to take it at a regular pace. She also says that it will make it faster as well. But then if I could do 4 years at a UC for much cheaper, then why would my mom make me go there if it is basically the same thing? I don’t understand this. I also just really want to have a break from being at home and get to experience life. My parents are really, really, really strict and over-protective as well. My brother performs extremely well under pressure and still has a hard time at this school and the thought of it kind of depresses me. I don’t have control over my life and when I talk to my parents about this, they think that I think that they don’t want the best for me and just to trust them. I did some research about this school as well, and from my research, this school is new, and is pretty controversial in the community. They won’t let me take as many AP Classes as I want even though I have all A+'s or A’s in every class that I have taken in high school so far. I know that I have potential, my teachers say it, and my friends…but my parents don’t believe in me. They tell me that I only need to take AP Bio, AP Chem, and Physics. I want to try out other AP’s as well to test what I am interested in. WHAT DO I DO? (sorry for the whole rant)

I am sorry you are in this position.

While I am still not clear why your guidance counselor can’t run an intervention, I can tell you that, at DD’s high school, my DD could walk in to her counselor’s office and change all her classes, not say a word, and I might not know it until I get her 6-week progress report. We do have a parent portal, but I don’t make a habit of checking it unless I have cause for concern. That’s not exactly the strategy you want to follow, but I suspect, with a little careful creativity, you can be more influential than you think.

Are you talking about the BA/MD program at Cal Northstate? Or are you talking about some off shore medical program?

Do you want become a physician? Or you interested in pursuing other careers?

Is that where the conflict between you and your parents lies?

@Groundwork2022
As a school counselor, I typically call parents about scheduling only when questions of rigor are involved. I am def not letting some kid jettison all their APs or take Pe 5 times. But otherwise, the student makes the choice.

OP, So have you tried that route? Maybe your counselor could help. Worse they could do is leave you just as you are.