Absolutely check what percentage of Austin community college students transfered to UT total and for psychology.
If you went to cc for 2 years and STILL didn’t make it into UT because they’ve got enough Psychology majors already… wouldn’t you regret not going to a non-UT university?
Look into Austin college (not in Austin), Hendrix, Southwestern. Run the NPC.
Thinking about it further, Rhodes sounds like it may be a very good fit btw.
Your situation is actually similar to many Asian kids, including mine. And although he did get into good schools, including his #1, he was willing to go to CC if he didn’t get into his #1 or #2. At the end of the day, you need to set goals for yourself, even mini ones, and try for completion.
@MYOS1634 That is a very good point…Thank you for the recommendations!
@ProfessorPlum168 That is a good plan. Breaking up my tasks into smaller, more attainable ones is going to be a lot better for me. Thank you!
From the way you write, I get the sense that you are a very good student and will do just fine in a four year college. I think you don’t realize that most of the other kids who will be with you at college will have the same tendency to procrastinate as you do, but will manage nevertheless, just as you will.
I am biased towards an excellent student like you going to a four year college because I have a friend who told me repeatedly how much she regretted her decision to go to community college instead of the flagship state college she had been accepted to. She had made the decision because her best friend was going to stay home and go to community college. Even though she eventually attended that state college, she felt she had missed something by not being there from the start, and she talked about her deep regret even though it was many many years ago.
@BunnyBlue Thank you so much for sharing your friend’s experience. I’ll definitely go to a four year university if given the opportunity, but I am most worried about not being able to balance out my tasks and flunking out my first year. I suppose that it’s easy to forget that others my age are worried about their ability to cope as well since the struggles are all internal. Thank you for reminding me of that fact, I feel much more assured.
You are correct- there is most definetely a stigma that is associated with community college. As someone who graduated last year (C/o 2018!!!) and faced the exact same or very close to the same problem you’re facing now, it seemed like I would never hear the end of people’s opinions about community college as soon as I told them I was even considering going to a community college. I too am also Asian (half Chinese), so I’m sure you could imagine what happened when I told my cousins that went/go to Brown, Princeton, USC, etc. about my consideration of my local community college.
I could go on, but for the sake of keeping it short and sweet and saving you from boredom: come college admissions time last year, I got into the UC (University of California) I wanted to get into ever since Sophomore year. We toured and I fell in love with the school, but with the school being a 6-hour drive from home and my family being a single-income household in the Bay Area, I chose to commit to a comparable UC an hour away from home because I would be able to see my family more frequently and if need be, I could be on a train and be home in about an hour. Though despite committing to the four-year, I still heavily considered going to my local community college as I wasn’t completely in love with the school I had committed to, and on the day before the deposit was due, I backed out and chose to go to my local CC for the next two years.
Fast forward to now: I’m taking 18 credits at my local CC and to sum it up- I absolutely regret my decision and wish I would’ve just gone to the school I had wanted to go to in the first place (NOT the one I had committed to, but the one farther away from home). Though I am saving a significant amount of money, I’ve lost A LOT of the motivation to do well I had back in high-school; I think this is most likely attributed to the fact that I’m not really into the CC (the people, classes, overall feel), and to be quite honest I’m feeling just really confused and lost right now.
So, in closing- I share my whole experience with you not seeking empathy, or just to vent, but to help give you a perspective that I wish I had when I made my decision last year. I think that if you really love a school and you get into it, take a chance and go for it; because if you really are in love with it and are determined to succeed, then your time management, self-care, studying habit problems, etc. will improve themselves as a result of your determination and love for the school. I went with a school that I was not fond of- and as a result, my habits have gotten WORSE than what they were my last semester of my Senior year (it’s really bad).
But take my comment with a grain of salt- my experience is NO WAY indicative of how your experience with your local CC with be, if you so choose to go. It’s really great that you’re weighing your options out so early in the year, but don’t let it consume your last year of high-school. Make the most of your final months, and when the time comes, go with your heart. You’ll know what’s best for YOU.
GOOD LUCK THIS YEAR! I wish you the best.
(sorry for the long response :P)
From what you’ve posted @quietstudies it sounds like you may have an organizational disability.
You need to be assessed to see if this has been affecting you.
Not all “Asian students” are cast from the same mold.
It should be covered by insurance. Once you have the results, you can begin to learn strategies to organize yourself and decrease some of that anxiety…
By all means try some independent activities now, with your parents help. Good luck!
Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be able to take some CC classes during summer breaks. Your main college would have to approve classes for transfer in but doing this would give you an opportunity to take a slightly lighter load during the school year.
@ccunfaithful Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I greatly appreciate how much detail you put into your response, it’s super helpful and encouraging that there are people out there who are so kind to offer advice and share their experiences. I also apologize for the incredibly late response.
UPDATE:
Got into 3/4 universities I applied to (got CAP’d by UT Austin), will be attending Texas A&M in the fall as a psychology major 
Wow! Congrats and Gig ‘Em!!
Congratulations!
For future readers, can you explain how you came to that decision?
Thank you so much! All of the responses on this thread were greatly appreciated and really helped with my final decision.
So I applied to four universities: UT Austin (psych major), UT Dallas (neuroscience major), University of Houston (biology major), and Texas A&M (psych major). UT Austin was on the top of my list mainly for its close proximity to my home (so that my parents could visit and be more accessible), as well as because some of my closest friends were going and its status as a pretty reputable state school. Once I got CAP’d, my choices were narrowed down to Texas A&M and UT Dallas. University of Houston was moved to the bottom of my list because it was too far away for my parents’ preferences and I wasn’t incredibly excited about the university itself.
Although it was ultimately my parents’ reasoning that determined where I was going, everything they said made a lot of sense and I’m quite happy with how things turned out.
Texas A&M’s strengths were in its closer proximity to home and its fame among Texan employers (I heard that being an Aggie was super helpful in terms of employment in Texas). I also really liked the school spirit (a little cult-like I have to admit, but it’s something I appreciate since I didn’t really care much about my high school’s school spirit and wasn’t enthusiastic about any of the school’s events and didn’t participate). I do know a lot of kids from my school that are going to TAMU, which is reassuring, and overall got a lot of friendly warm vibes from the students there so far. The only downsides are the lack of scholarships (which is completely my fault, I chickened out of applying for any because I didn’t think I would get any), the large campus size (which isn’t that much of a problem anyway), and the fact that I don’t have as many friends going there (but it can be argued that I have more of an opportunity to create a fresh start and exercise my friend making skills, which is the approach that I like to take :)). I can also visit my UT Austin friends more often.
UT Dallas offered me a really good scholarship (can’t remember the same, will include once I find it) and the neuroscience program was a great way to quickly get on track for pre-med. The downsides were that it was much farther out from home, its lack of an active (?, not sure if that’s the word I’m looking for) school spirit, the fact that I wouldn’t know as many people there, and overall, I just didn’t have the same excitement when I envisioned myself going to UT Dallas.
It may seem pretty unwise of me to opt out of a very generous scholarship to go to TAMU, but it was my parents’ decision and they were willing to let me go to TAMU just to be closer to me (take it as you will, please let me know if you want me to explore this topic some more). The most important thing for me is perspective; adjusting my mindset and viewing situations from a different lens really helped ease my anxiety about going to a college that isn’t super close to home (which was something I really desired). Instead of thinking, “Oh no, I’m going to not know anyone at TAMU and I’m going to be awful at making friends”, I thought, “This is a really good opportunity to practice my people skills and become more flexible in unfamiliar situations”. Viewing unknown experiences as an opportunity for growth has transformed my fears into excitement and hope for a new beginning. I feel more capable and in stronger control of my future.
I typed this up in a rush so I am probably missing a lot of crucial information. Please let me know if there’s anything I need to clarify. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to contribute to this thread; I hope you know that your thoughts and advice have been super beneficial and I greatly appreciate everything
Wow thank you SO MUCH for taking us through your thought process. It’s really terrific guidance for current sophomores and Juniors who don’t know what criteria may matter, as well as for confused seniors.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. It will be much appreciated by many.
Most of all, congratulations! Have a great time, learn a lot, make new friends, and enjoy TAMU!
If you are premed you really need to have developed good study and organizations skills prior to college. One bad semester and it’s very hard to maintain a med school worthy gpa. You will need to be self disciplined and not so easily distracted from your academics and it will be very easy to fall behind. Premed classes are called weedout classes for this reason because many students drop out of the program due to poor grades. Expect to spent more time studying than you did in high school because the coursework will be more rigorous. Also have a plan B if being a premed student doesn’t work out for you. You will need to maintain at least a 3.7 gpa if you are thinking of med school. That means no grades below an A-.
@raclut
Thank you so much for the advice. Senioritis has definitely caused me to let my guard down in terms of maintaining self discipline so your response is a really good reminder to not let myself go too much.
Recently I have been reconsidering going into premed because I haven’t really developed the strong self discipline that is required of college students (let alone pre med students). Developing good habits and organizational skills is something that I have been actively working on just so I am prepared for university and adult life as a whole.
An alternative plan for me is to pursue graduate school and get a master’s or Ph.D (not too sure how the difficulties of graduate school compare to med school so that is definitely something for me to research). Criminal or clinical psychology are subfields that I am considering as an alternative to medicine (criminal psychology is what got me interested in psychology). If you have any other tips regarding medical school or graduate school, I would really appreciate them!
Congrats on your decision! My DS1 was in a similar position as you and is now doing very well as a sophomore at his university. For organization, he uses apps like colornote on his phone. He sets 2 alarm clocks and tries to stick to a schedule every day. So he has addressed his initial lack of executive function skills by being conscientiously methodical. Looks like that’s how you are approaching it as well.
You may also want to consider your freshmen first semester course load to be a bit lighter (but still be full time).
Re: the Asian stereotype, I hear you. That was really hard for DS1 to handle as he was constantly being held up to the “Bright Asian” stereotype - not by us - but by friends/family and even some of his peers. At his current university, he is able to be just himself and thriving.
Best of luck to you - it looks like you’re off to a great start!
Premed is not a major but just the classes that are required to apply to medical school. You will major in neuroscience or psychology or really anything that you would like and can still be a premed student. My recommendation is just to take it one semester at a time and see how you do. Adjust accordingly. Take the opportunity to volunteer in a hospital or shadow some doctors to see if this is something you want to pursue further.
My relative majored in history, which she loved but became a podiatrist, as she had taken all the “pre-med” courses and applied to med and podiatric schools. She’s very happy with her history major and podiatry practice.
@raclut
My main concern is not being able to handle the workload required for completing the necessary pre-requisites for medical school. My mother initially encouraged me to major in biology since many of the pre-requisites are already included in the coursework and I wouldn’t have to take as many extra classes. I decided on psychology anyway because I was already unsure of my ability to stay disciplined and my willpower to take so many science and math classes. That being said, if I do not already have the discipline or perseverance to complete my pre-requisites, should I just completely reconsider medical school as an option altogether?