Upward trend: Ivy League or an equivalent?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello,
I have a low GPA(3.88 on a 5-point scale, 3.3 unweighted) and as of now, less than stellar test scores. This was because I always had ADHD(inattentive type), but was only diagnosed sometime the second semester of my sophomore year and began treatment at the beginning of junior year. Before I was diagnosed and received treatment for my disability, I struggled with timed assessments and was therefore placed in average-level classes for my first 2 years of high school and could only earn Bs for the most part since I couldn’t complete tests within the given time limits.

When I began treatment for my ADHD, I decided to take summer classes(algebra 2 and trigonometry) so that I could be placed in all honors or AP-level courses for my junior year. However, it was almost as if my high school experience ‘reset’ junior year. I received mostly Bs that year since I was just getting used to advanced-level classes(something normal honors students experience during their freshman or sophomore year) as well as having to develop strategies to combat my disability.

Now I am a senior in high school but feel more like a sophomore or junior in terms of my preparedness for attending a top university. I am currently enrolled in all AP classes and have straight-As this semester because I’m starting to “get into the groove” of taking advanced-level courses. However, the grades I receive this semester(nor next semester) won’t even be considered in college admissions

Additionally, I began preparing for standardized tests this year and scored 1430/1600 on the SAT, and took the SAT Subject Tests and scored 670 on Math level 2, 720 on Biology, and 690 on Physics. However, after practice, I know that I could do better and should get an exceptionally high SAT score(1550+) when I retake it in December. However, my SAT Subject Test scores are unimpressive since I only had 2 years to prepare for a top college, and even less to prepare for those exams. However, if I had the opportunity to retake them, I could easily score 800s on all the ones I took, in addition to the one in chemistry.

Also, I currently have no impressive AP scores relating to my major(biomedical engineering) yet, but plan to take them all(as in all the STEM-related ones besides Environmental Science Calculus AB since I’m taking BC) and score 5s on them, this spring since I’ve studied for a lot of them over the summer and I’m taking the rest in school this year. I am also planning to teach myself organic chemistry, biochemistry, multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, thermodynamics, and optics before the end of the school year.

Since I achieved such massive improvements in terms of both potential and performance in such a short amount of time, it is no surprise that I would like to attend a top-tier private university. However, since I would still need time for my hard work to pay off(in terms of straight-As on my transcript, 5s on AP exams, 800s on SAT-IIs, and a 1600 SAT-I), I have begun considering transferring to a top-tier university(a school that has access to facilities where I would have the opportunity to potentially invent nanobots that are the size of cells(which is part of my long-term goal in life)) from either a community college or a lower-tier 4-year university. I was wondering whether I should attend a community college or 4-year university beforehand and continue to improve my credentials before applying as a transfer applicant(I am aware of the low transfer rates for top-tier schools) or if I should just apply now as a freshman applicant. Additionally, if I should try to transfer to a top-tier school, should I attend a community college or 4-year university for my freshman(and possibly sophomore) year?

Sorry if this post was so long for such a simple question. I just felt like my circumstances were considerably different than those who have asked similar questions before and thought I should share them in case it affects the advice given to me.

2

It is much harder to get into the Ivies as a transfer applicant, as you noted. Last year Princeton accepted only 13 out of 1429 transfer applicants, an admit rate of less than 1%. That said, I think freshman admission to any of the Ivies is unlikely. The similarly selective universities with strong BME programs (Stanford, MIT, JHU, Duke, etc.) are also fairly unlikely. That’s not to say it’s not worth applying to a couple of reaches, but don’t focus too much on these incredibly selective universities.

There are many other great colleges out there – take a look at U Rochester, Case Western, Lehigh, RPI, WPI, Bucknell, and Union, to name just a few. The latter two (and Lafayette, another liberal arts college offering engineering) may be particularly welcoming to students with ADHD.

You’ll likely need to pursue a graduate degree given your interests and career goals. It’s doubtful you’ll do much inventing at the undergraduate level regardless of the college you attend.

3

Not sure why you would plan to transfer when there are likely many colleges that would be very good from the get go.

What is your state flagship? Start there.

As noted by @warblersrule there are many fine colleges out there.

Are finances a consideration, or can your family pay the full costs to attend?

I honestly see no reason why you would need to start at a community college. Likewise, I can’t see any good reason why you would need to transfer assuming you found a good four year college as a freshman.

4

There are Ivies and elite colleges that accept from community colleges, for sure. Penn, notably, has accepted hundreds of associate degree holders from community college in recent years. It does happen. I would look at lesser-known schools with great programs and think about an Ivy for grad school.

5

A 3.3 UW on a 5.0 scale is what- a 2.3 on a 4 point scale?

So between now and May you plan to self study for APs in Bio, Chem and all the Physics PLUS organic, biochem, multivariable, linear, etc. to what end?

Some of the best schools for what you are interested in are state schools, so as @thumper1 suggested, start with your state system. However, you may not have the marks to go straight into engineering or BME, so get started fast on what your options are. A community college might actually be a good path for you- if you are in a state with a good CC system and/or money is not an issue. New York, North Carolina, California and Virginia are examples of states with really strong CC → engineering program links. Cornell, which has superb nano facilities, takes a substantial number of transfers from CCs.

6

I don’t know that you need the CC transfer approach, but if you do be sure to check with your transfer goal university to see if they have an “articulation” agreement with the CC.

Because of your choice of major you might also want to consider WPI and Case Western. They are both very strong in biomedical engineering. WPI is tied in to a very well funded BME research park effort with the state of MA and the U Mass Med School. Check out https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-and-albany-medical-college-developing-robotic-system-treat-brain-tumors Check out the ongoing medically assisted robotics work @ https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/robotics-engineering/research Professor Carlo Pinciroli works with swarming robots.

It is not required that you matriculate at MIT, CalTech or Stanford to take part in many incredible programs.

7

Regarding my choice of schools, I didn’t exclusively mean Ivy league schools. The schools I was interested in transferring to include Harvard, Columbia, MIT, Cornell, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, and Rice.

Additionally, I have also already applied to the University of Washington(Seattle), University of Illinois(Urbanna Champaign; my state’s flagship school, but its engineering program is rather selective…) and University of Texas(Austin) for freshman admissions. I’ll also take a look at the schools @warblersrule recommended, too.

However, the fact that I have ADHD will (hopefully) no longer affect my performance in university since I plan to essentially “cure” it (make it unnoticeable) over the course of this school year and the summer through intense training/research with books on speed reading, speed math, speed writing, memory improvement, etc. So whether a school’s will or won’t provide accommodations for me is irrelevant to me when considering colleges. I was just hoping that colleges would understand my circumstances during admissions when I do apply

I obviously like to challenge myself since it motivates me to achieve so much more in the process. That’s the primary reason why I want to attempt to transfer to a top-tier university. I will make a separate thread where I’ll ask questions regarding my secondary reasons(the potentially more “understandable” reasons) later since it would seem like I’m going on too much of a tangent.

8

Regarding what @collegemom3717 said, “A 3.3 UW on a 5.0 scale is what- a 2.3 on a 4 point scale?”
(I haven’t figured out how to attach sections of people’s posts yet, I’m new to this website, so I just quoted it haha)
No, by unweighted, I meant on a 4.0 scale. so my unweighted GPA is a 3.3/4.0 right now.

9

With that GPA and your existing test scores, you have no chance of admission to those top schools. Don’t worry about transferring right now, try to find the best school you can afford, enjoy, and get into as a freshman admit. After you get all the 5s, 1600s/36s, 800s, self study, and straight As in college your freshman year, then you can think about applying to elite schools. But hopefully you won’t need to because you’ll be happy at your actual college.

10

I agree with @suzyQ7. Look for a university that you can get accepted to, that is affordable, and that is a good fit for you. Find a good school where you will be happy for four years, do well, and graduate with little or no debt.

If you do well as an undergrad, then the Ivy League and equivalent schools will still be there for graduate school. Many of the top ranked universities have more spots for graduate students than for undergrad. There are many students currently in graduate school at “top 3” universities who did their undergrad at a “top 100” university.

11

Also, regarding what @collegemom3717 said, “So between now and May you plan to self study for APs in Bio, Chem and all the Physics PLUS organic, biochem, multivariable, linear, etc. to what end?”

  1. I like to constantly push myself beyond what was thought to be my limits!
  2. I have a goal in sight, and the knowledge of the material taught in those classes will bring me closer to it.
  3. I have a genuine interest in those subjects and will have fun self-studying them.
  4. I might be able to get college credit from the AP classes.
  5. I might be able to test out of the non-AP classes.
  6. If not, those classes will at least be easy As in college haha.
  7. Also, if I don’t get college credit from them right away, I might be able to get advanced placement in some universities(such as the opportunity to take physical chemistry to fulfill a chemistry credit requirement), which brings me back to #3…
12

If it feels like you are just now finding your groove in high school and could use another year of growth before college, how about applying for an AFS year abroad (destination depending on what language you’ve studied)? That way you could do a “super-senior” year there and take some additional AP classes, and this year’s grades and test scores would be on the books when you apply to colleges. Plus you’d have a great, broadening experience under your belt. Both would strengthen your application to more competitive colleges if that is your goal, in addition to giving you a worthwhile life experience and giving you an additional year to solidify your recent progress. Could be a win-win.

13

One warning about taking more academic classes during a gap year is that some colleges have a threshold for credit that, if exceeded, will automatically consider you for transfer admission, not freshman admission.

14

Seconding the AFS year abroad wrt your goals.
Alternative, a PG year in boarding school.

15

As @retiredfarmer said, take a look at WPI and Case Western.
Case Western has ThinkBox, an innovation center where students can design and invent things, with funding from the university.
http://engineering.case.edu/sears-thinkbox
http://engineering.case.edu/news/get-your-innovation-going-sears-thinkbox-student-project-fund?subsite=1327

"The fund provides material support to students working on personal projects, entering design competitions, engaging in entrepreneurial activities and more.

Past funded projects include:

A tiny robot with an origami antenna
A concrete 3-D printer
A macro photography light stage
Theatrical set design
A propane forge
A touchless motor speed sensor
A custom-built electric guitar
Awards up to $2,500 are available for undergraduate and graduate students. Project topics can include engineering, art, science, humanities and more."

16

OK, wait a second, let’s slow down.

You can’t “cure” ADHD or “make it unnoticeable” by learning speed reading, “speed math” (whatever that is), “speed writing” (which sounds like something you would not want to learn), etc. If that were the case, we would’ve eradicated the disorder by now. I would therefore not assume that your ADHD will not be a problem in college, and will cease to affect your performance. I mention this because it is important. If you’re going to succeed - both now and in college, and beyond - you need to recognize your ADHD and take realistic steps to work with your treatment plan in order to be successful. I’m not saying that behavioral training and cognitive exercises can’t help (indeed, they do help a great deal!) but ADHD is something you’ll likely have to deal with for much of your life. You’ll want to choose a place where you can succeed, and that may include choosing a place where you can get proper accommodations for your condition.

Secondly, it’s also very, very unrealistic to expect to teach yourself “organic chemistry, biochemistry, multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, thermodynamics, AND optics” in the next six months. These are EACH one semester-long college-level course. You are, in practice, saying that you are going to attempt to self-study seven college-level courses, most of which it doesn’t appear you have the prerequisites for, in ONE semester, ON TOP of your high school courses and trying to deal with a new diagnosis. Plus, you also want to teach yourself the behavioral/cognitive skills you feel will help you cope with college.

Put bluntly, this is madness. I mean, even from a purely practical standpoint, if you haven’t even finished Calculus BC yet (which is usually the equivalent of calculus II on the college level) you don’t even have the prerequisite knowledge to self-teach multivariable calculus or differential equations. It’s also unclear to me whether you’ve taken an introductory college-level chemistry course, but if you have not, you’d find self-studying organic chemistry and biochemistry nigh impossible. At most colleges, 1-2 semesters of general chemistry is a prerequisite for organic chemistry.

You said yourself that don’t feel ready for college yet, you need more time for your hard work to pay off, and you are trying to catch up to prove yourself ready for a top-tier college. It seems like you have a lot of energy and excitement, which is great; why not focus that energy and excitement on doing the things that will actually help you get into and prepare for college? Prepare for retaking the SAT Subject Tests, or for trying to raise your score on the general SAT. Learn some of those behavioral/cognitive skills like the active reading or the memory improvement.

I say all this because while it’s good to challenge yourself and push yourself beyond your limits, it is equally important to understand what’s realistic (and what’s within the bounds of possibility). In order to appropriately challenge yourself you need to know where the boundaries are and push yourself a little past them. If you have very unrealistic expectations, you set yourself up for failure across many domains because you’re trying to do too many things at once rather than do a few things really well. And I’m not saying this because I doubt your personal, individual ability to do things - I’m saying this because doing all of these things would be virtually impossible for anyone in six months.

And if you really do want to invent cell-sized nanobots, you need to make sure that you have invested the due time necessary to really absorb and deeply study the preparatory material to do that.

To answer your original question, you seem relatively borderline for admission to the most elite universities, but there are lots of really excellent universities that would admit you and where you could excel. I think you should focus on casting a wide net - apply to some reaches for sure, but make sure to put together a good list with lots of matches. Of course, you can always try to transfer to one of the universities on your list later, but you need to pick a school where you’ll be happy at for all four years in case you end up finishing up there.