Hi everyone,
I am a community college student and I am currently in my last semester and looking to transfer and majoring in Astronomy or Physics.
In the beginning of the year, I had somewhat of a plan of where I wanted to apply, which was SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY New Paltz, Smith College and Mt. Holyoke. I finished applying to both SUNY schools and recently got a rejection letter from Stony Brook, which left me crushed and discouraged to even finish applying to Smith and Mt.Holyoke.
I feel that their application just asks for basic information (Name, address, schools you’ve attended and transcripts, gpa) and thats it. So, I didnt get a chance to include the activities I’ve done outside of school or anything of that nature and feel that the decision was just based purely on my GPA (2.8), which I’ll admit is not that great but I don’t think its horrible either.
I feel that the same decision will be reached with SUNY New Paltz, so thats that.
Now I feel in a limbo state and don’t know if its even worth applying to those other two schools or what schools would be willing to take me, with that being said I’ll share a bit of my school background:
Before enrolling in college, I was in high school but was a really bad student who didnt give a hoot and ended up “dropping out” but in less than a month I enrolled in a GED program and got my GED Diploma in about 6 months. That same year I enrolled in my community college and have been here for about 2 1/2 years (almost 3). Almost a year later, I applied to an intense 5-week summer program at Barnard College, where you take 2 science classes and get to dorm there and got accepted. The following summer, I was given the opportunity to do a summer research internship for 10-weeks with a professor at Barnard College and by the end I had to do a presentation based on what I did throughout the summer. (fun)
In the beginning of that year’s Fall, I contacted a professor teaching astronomy at my school and told her I was interested in assisting her with her research work, which is based on astrophysics (eek!) and she said yes. She then encouraged me to apply for an internship (a fellowship at the same time) called the NASA NY Space
Grant Community College Partnership Program, which would fund me while working with her this upcoming summer.
I was accepted and now basically for the past 4 months, I’ve been taking classes at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City with other students to prep us for the upcoming summer.
Apart from this, I’m assisting another professor creating organic chemistry reaction animations to better visualize and understand organic reactions.
And thats it.
What do you guys think of this? What schools are worth applying to and willing to take me for my intended major?
I was planning on taking a semester off and taking the ACT or SAT because I’ve never taken them before and thought it would help my application.
Should I reapply for the SUNY schools? And if I used the common app, how can I list all of my “extracurricular activities”?
I’d appreciate any and all feedback, Im a little desperate.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.