Need serious advice

Applying to College
1

<p>I am fairly new here and need some advice regarding my situation. This is fairly long, so please bear with me.</p>

<p>I'm a Junior in High school, and as the end of this semester is approacing, I will have 26 credits at my community college, with a steady 4.0 (Econ, Molec Bio, Chem I, II, Composition, History, some Math). Member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society. My HS gpa was originally a 3.2, but i transferred my college classes and i got a 3.5 now. 22 ACT. For some reason I feel like I can do better, but I have a extremely lazy personality, and I HATE high school. I have basically no ECs, because of the heavy course load (or at least its my excuse). I've done swim team for 2 years, and got most improved 08-09 varsity. Also got some academic awards for bio and geometry. Some medical seminars. That's it.</p>

<p>I have all of my required high school credits and could basically graduate, but the school wont let me b/c of their regulations (have to attend 8 semesters no matter what). I choose dual enrollment b/c AP seems to be like a waste of time, when i can finish college classes so much faster. Was thinking about dropping out and taking GED, but my mom would cut my throat [sarcasm].</p>

<p>Being a junior, I estimated that by the time I finish senior year i will have probably around 40-50 credits.</p>

<p>-My question is will colleges take these credits and transfer it to them?
-Should I apply through my high school to colleges, or just do 60 credits and transfer as a Junior to a 4 year uni? Which would increase my chances?
-Do colleges look at dual enrollment as more favorable then AP classes?</p>

<p>Im planning to do engineering (EE/EECS, AeroE, or some combination of the two). Do I have a chance at the top 3s (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley)?? I am from Michigan, and as I see things form here, I think I have a very good chance of getting in U of M, which is quite good. As of my limited knowledge about schools, Berkeley looks ideal, and MIT would be a dream come true. But of course these are probably way more expensive then UoM in state tuition; the quality of education is arguable, but i can't go wrong with any of them (or top 10 for that matter).</p>

<p>Any advice/thoughts/criticizing would be very welcome.</p>

<p>Thank you for reading.</p>

<p>PS. i dont mean to come off as a troll, just ranting somewhat.</p>

2

<p>With an ACT 22, you don’t really have a chance at MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley.</p>

<p>Frankly, with an ACT 22 (62 percentile), you may have trouble getting into many good engineering schools. Some engineering programs have minimum ACT scores, and I think they are around the ACT 28 or so range (others can correct me). </p>

<p>Do not apply to OOS publics unless your parents can pay the full freight. Schools like UCBerkeley cost $50k per year for out of state students.</p>

<p>How much can your parents pay each year?</p>

3

<p>Yes, I know I Have to and will improve the ACT. My mom makes 30 k net, no father (read:hes in Eruope, does not give a *****) , and a single child… so… yea.</p>

4

<p>from another forum</p>

<pre><code> Quote: "You’ll probably get some outdated/inaccurate info from this forum since most people here have been out of high school for a while…
</code></pre>

<p>So just to give you a broad idea, I personally think it would be better in your case to continue taking CC courses and apply as a transfer. At least talking about the Universities of California, I know they have different guidelines of what is accepted from a freshman vs. a transfer in terms of credit. I believe UCs have a very small limit on courses they will grant credit for to incoming freshmen (makes sense since the idea is to get all your higher secondary education from that university). This is very different for transfer students, since they are admitted with advanced standing. </p>

<p>That being said, your GPA and test score are not great. You are investing too much effort into your academics and sacrificing other aspects of your life for nothing overly impressive… I would recommend easing a little on the amount of classes you take, but keeping up the performance, and diverting some of that attention to other things like sports, leadership, political activism, etc. Just something that you like. My honest opinion is that you don’t seem to be using your time wisely.</p>

<p>Good luck."</p>

<p>I agree with the last part. I think my issue was that, being in this country only since ~3 year ago, I still had that European gangster attitude, and I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, which obviously hurt my grades.</p>

<p>But my question is, how is a 4.0 not great? Granted im focusing more on college now then HS. I’ve started to hate HS since I started college, because I felt I was much more mature then my friends and just wanted to move to the next step at a younger age. Since I figured out how much weight is put on my High School record (not too long ago) in order to get in my desired school, it obviously backfired on me. So now I just keep re-thinking what a dumb***** I was when I started HS.</p>

<p>I’ve always had this idea in the back of my head, that If I go to college and excel in college, I will be looked upon as more favorable than a person that excels in high school.</p>

<p>Exatcly how much better will I have to do on ACT/ raise my GPA. My original plan was to not go to HS senior year (b/c I have enough credits), and immerse myself in college, scientific books, volunteering, research etc. But now, re-analyzing the situation, I’m thinking of going to high school, taking some harder classes, transfering college classes to further boost GPA, join Honor Society, and do a leadership program. In either plan, I will transfer college credits and it will boost my GPA. </p>

<p>Which plan do you guys think its better? Which one would appeal more to the admission officers ? … of course, this is assuming everything goes to plan.</p>

<p>I’m also had a job since I was 16, If that increases my chances at all.(?)</p>

5

<p>You have a couple of problems…</p>

<p>1) Unless you get your ACT/SAT high enough (like over 29 or over 2000), you won’t likely get into the schools that can meet need without big loans.</p>

<p>2) Don’t apply to any OOS publics because they won’t meet your need and your scores aren’t high enough for scholarships.</p>

<p>Your best chances for aid with your stats is likely an instate public. So, after graduation, you may need to complete your AA and then transfer to UMich…or go to local state university and then transfer to UMich.</p>

<p>Right now, you can’t get into UMich. </p>

<p>Take the ACT (and SAT) in June. Practice for it. When you get your new scores, we can come up with a plan for you.</p>

6

<p>With a 22 ACT, you have no shot at MIT/Stanford/Berkeley and I doubt you could get in UMich.</p>

7

<p>My suggestion is to finish your AA degree at your community college which shouldnt be too hard considering the number of credits you have and then transfer to UMich.</p>

8

<p>Michigan is probably your best bet. Even if you improve to the point of being a contender for Stanford, MIT and other top colleges that meet need, they would not take most or any of your CC credits whereas your state schools likely will. Aim at the others for grad school. Good luck!</p>