<p>As a kid, I went to a prestigious high school, soaked up a pretty good education, but cut about 300 days of school and dropped out senior year. My school had an attendance policy where you flunked a semester automatically after missing a certain amount of days, so my GPA got bombed, and I ended up last in my class.</p>
<p>Fast-forward a few years and now I'm looking to go back to college...</p>
<p>Here's the deal, though. I've taken the GED and SAT. I got a 1460 on the old SAT, including a perfect on the Verbal. I got perfects on three of the five GED tests, an average score of 780+, and was in the 99th percentile on all tests. </p>
<p>I'm gonna go to a community college for a bit, but then what? Am I competitive, non-competitive? What do I put for my GPA and rank, the GED or the school transcript? Will a good state school (with a minimum GPA) accept me?</p>
<p>I'm unorthodox, and I can't seem to find any good info on where exactly I fit.</p>
<p>Yea, so if you do well in your CC, then you can easilt transfer to a state school ,and then from there you can do whaetver you want..GL and keep trying to improve your self.</p>
<p>I have your exact story (except my school was exceptionally bad, rather than prestigious). I skipped class so I could do things I actually liked, like reading. When I eventually got myself together and came to a community college here, I benefited immensely from having speed-tracked myself beyond the classroom - as long as you can develop good study discipline for yourself, this kind of upward curve singles you out as not having been the cookie-cutter model student, yet intelligent.</p>
<p>Like Gryffon said, it's never too late. I'm heading to a really good, challenging school this fall, and I don't regret my skipping class but understand that this would never have happened had I not gone the community college route. As long as you can pwn college, nobody is going to care about highschool. College is for the kids that survived the meaningless grind of mandatory schooling.</p>
<p>if you go to community college for a year or two and maintain a high GPA, you'll easily be admitted to your state flagship. Really, if you maintain a 3.75+ GPA at community college for two years (which someone as smart as you should have no problem doing as long as you do your work and go to class) you're guaranteed a spot at your state flagship.</p>
<p>also, what state do you live in? Because I know in Virginia all the universities have a guaranteed transfer plan for community college students. For instance, if a Virginia community college student takes certain courses and maintains a 3.40+ GPA for 2 years, he's guaranteed to be admitted to the University of Virginia. I'm sure that a lot of other state schools have guaranteed transfer agreements, so look into that.</p>
<p>Yeah, most definitely Prove Yourself in community college. Selective schools don't want to see someone with an intellect they're not using - the high SAT scores/low grades combination - so work your brain and they'll really want you. Also, keep ECs in mind.</p>
<p>You are clearly super smart. Let the past be the past - lots of successful people had glitches along the way. </p>
<p>Now for the future...Wow, based on your scores you sure have a lot of potential, plus the advantage of perspective and maturity. I think I would take classes at the best college you can as a non-matriculating student. That can be anywhere, including Harvard I bet. UMASS is better than a community college. You'd be with a more competitive group of people and have a transcript from a better school which shows your ability to work well in a challenging environment. Maybe the other poster who said transferring from a community college would be easier had a point as well. That would show you completing something as a member of a school community, like an associates degree, with a good GPA.</p>
<p>Have you done good things with your time since hs? Maybe become a manager at your job, or a leader in some volunteer work? Been responsible for yourself financially? I would think about how you are going to package yourself with respect to communicating these things. If you look carefully at what you have done with your time I bet you can find some good things that show responsibility, leadership, and initiative.</p>
<p>I would also be prepared to explain what happened in hs, and why it won't happen again. How it has been resolved. Have you had a neuro psych educational evaluation? Were you diagnosed with ADHD? Depression? Family issues? You don't need to give any more information to a university than you want to, but if you will need some kind of support before starting in a new environment you'd be best to get that analysis done in advance. You just wan't to really know what happened to you and why, in clinical terms, for your own benefit so you can self-advocate and make sure you don't experience it again. Think maybe you just blew it all off? Check out the book "There Is No Such Thing As A Lazy Child" by Mel Levine. Information about where you have been and why will be your most powerful tool to negociate the future.</p>
<p>Bigwaterjar--
You are setting your sights too low. Assuming you were gainfully employed in the interim, with your SAT and GED scores, you could gain admission directly to UMass Amherst and the Commonwealth College honors college. No need to prove yourself in a community college first. You would be more at home in a university setting.</p>
<p>Yea, i was thinking about that and i am thinking that you can easily get into UMass...especially because of your SAT scores..you should apply their and i am sure you have a great chance of being accepted...</p>