<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I will be an 07/08 senior at a top notch prep school, but I do not think that I am ready for college. This is not because of maturity, but because I am limited by my current transcript. Since my school is highly competitive, and because I used to get easy A's at a public middle school, I really messed up my freshman and softmore year in highschool. (I had about a B/B- average with plenty of C's thrown in) My junior year I started to do much better, recieving mostly A's and a single B+ doing a schedule with all AP and honors courses. I am very far in sciences (have taken an AP in all three) and math (finished calculus). My first SAT got me 2250, and that was mostly because I did not study at all. As you can see, I am not a bad student, but I feel like my fina lowl B+/B average will exclude me from a lot of good colleges. My grades also sharply fell junior year because I had a diciplinary issue with my school, and this will also hurt my chandes at a good college. I want to know what you guys think I should do. I was considering applying as a 5th year senior at another prep school, to add more good grades to my transcript. I was also considering going to a college that would set me up to transfer to another better college after 1-2 years. Any advice you guys could give would be great.</p>
<p>(Colleges I am interested in but think i will be automatically denied: MIT, JHU, WUSL, Yale)</p>
<p>I think you should start spending your time finding a set of colleges that are likely to accept you AND that you'd like to attend (even if this means revising your expectations of where you're going to college). Lets face it, you're not really a competitive candidate at the schools you listed. Accept it, and move on. It doesn't mean your a bad person, or that you couldn't go to some "wow" school for grad school. You can spend the next few valuable months scheming of ways to get elite colleges to overlook your record, likely to no avail. Or you can redirect your attention to finding good schools that will accept you, even if they're not the ones on the tip of everyone's tongue. Come next spring, which will make you happier?</p>
<p>It does seem you are limited by transcript, or should we say your past behavior? It's great that you see that now, unfortunate you didn't see it as a frosh, soph, or junior. But you know what? We've all made various mistakes, and those that learned from it became better people. You appear to have learned some good life lessons early.<br>
I heartily agree go to a realistic school now, do well, and if you choose, a grad school can be an upgrade.</p>
<p>Go to a school that you think you will be happy at (you can still get into some very good schools). Do extremely well. If you want to transfer after a year or two, then by all means go for it. You obviously have the potential to do very well at the college level. Use that to your advantage, and transfer into your dream school.</p>
<p>What state do you live in? There are a lot of really great state schools that are incredibly good in the sciences and engineering. They also attract very good professors and have a lot of money for science. Also, they are not quite so hard to get in to.</p>
<p>I don't think all hope is lost. Think about some good engineering schools like UIUC which has laxer admission standards than the colleges you listed yet a top notch education. Also, JHU and WUSTL, especially if you apply ED, could be in range. (Of course this is speculation, I don't know how bad your transcript really is) I strongly discourage you to take a 5th year in high school. It won't help.</p>
<p>I live in Mass, but I dont mind going out of state. Does anyone know any specific school (besides UIUC) that might be good for me to apply to. (btw i want to go to an engineering college that will set me up for a good med school)</p>
<p>If you are a Mass student, depending on what you study, you can get reduced out-of-state tuition at the other New England colleges. See <a href="http://www.nebhe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=57%5B/url%5D">http://www.nebhe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=57</a>
From what I hear, UMaine has very strong engineering programs.</p>