<p>After I heard about some girl who got accepted in Duke, I began to question my life. I got a 2.7 and 3.1 GPA last year, and my grades this semester, although better, are not even close to a 4.0. As for extracurricular activities, I'm in 2 clubs at school. I'm barely a sophomore, and I feel so miserable and hopeless about my chances at going to a good college and becoming a doctor. Why can't we teenagers just enjoy our adolescence? Instead we have to put ourselves through hell and mental breakdowns, and lose our minds, just so we can be in the running to go to a college that maybe will get us somewhere in life. I feel hopeless</p>
<p>You know you don’t have to go to a good college to get somewhere in life. It also depends on what you plan on studying and how good you are at it. I had two high school teachers who went to Cornell, an IV league school. Guess what, they’re teaching high school with people who went to whatever school they could afford. My brother went to the closest university to home, where he met his wife, and they make over 200k a year when people talk down about the school they went to. It honestly doesn’t matter what school you go to, some schools are better than others in terms of program of study, and some programs are better than others. Say you went to Harvard and got a degree in English, someone who went to, say, the University of Wisconsin and got a degree in aerospace engineering will most likely do better.</p>
<p>One good thing is you’re early in your HS career. You’re facing the reality that true accomplishment doesn’t come easy. You have a choice to face that reality or turn away and continue down your path. Neither make you a bad person. The first path leads you to a more likely path of rewards and hard work. The latter to less rewards and initially, less hard work. But your options will be curtailed and you may need to get some laborious job just to manage.</p>
<p>Becoming a physician is not some fantasy. You gotta love to learn and grow. You’re not there yet but it’s not too late. My father in law was a solid 2.0 GPA HS student. Working in a steel mill was his alternative to doing well in college. He did and went on to med school and afterwards. But “easy” was no where in the description.</p>
<p>Sorry but there are few options to growing up. No one’s gonna care about your “hopeless” feelings. You measure what you’re willing to do and live with those consequences.</p>
<p>T26 is right. Society rewards those who can accomplish the most, however way they do it. Those who work harder in HS and/or are more intelligent are awarded with admission to better schools. If every average Joe could become a doctor, investment banker or lawyer, those professions would no longer be lucrative and attract the best talent that those jobs need. </p>
<p>Similarly, if every applicant could get into Harvard, the H brand would be ruined.</p>
<p>It might surprise you to learn that there are many HS kids that do not think they go through hell and nervous breakdowns and order to get a strong GPA. They actually have a love of learning and a willingness to work hard. And I don’t know if you have ever read any books by doctors describing their time in medical school and residency. Trust me, it makes HS seem like a walk in the park! Given your outlook on the difficulty of 10th grade, you might want to give some serious thought as to whether you are making the best career choice for yourself.</p>
<p>There was a post about the relative difficulty of getting into a top institution. I dont remember who wrote it, but</p>
<p>-getting into a top undergrad is like jumping over a 6 foot fence
-getting into a top MBA is like sneaking into a medium security prison surrounded by 10 foot walls and guard towers.
-getting into a top med school is like sneaking into a maximum security prison with 18 foot walls, guard towers, and armed guards.
-getting into a top management consultant company or investment bank is like breaking into the maximum security prison except the guards have been notified of a break-in attempt.</p>
<p>liddodchris -</p>
<p>There are many paths to becoming a physician. You can study just about any major at almost any college in the US, and provided you have good grades there, complete the pre-med coursework, and do well on the MCAT you will have a fighting chance at Med School admissions. You don’t have to graduate from a place like Duke. Even if you don’t do all that well in college, and don’t complete the pre-med coursework, you can go back to school after graduation and do the pre-med work. Some colleges and universities even offer a special one or two year “Post-baccalaureate Pre-Med Program”. I know a whole bunch of people who did that.</p>
<p>But your immediate question is about getting through high school. So start with your guidance counselor. Make certain that you are enrolled in classes that will help you prepare for college. As soon as you start having difficulties in your classes, get help from the teacher or whatever tutoring services your high school offers. If there is a pattern to your difficulties that you can’t conquer with a bit of tutoring, get yourself tested for learning disabilities - lots of students don’t find out they have them until they start getting bad grades in high school.</p>
<p>Since you are thinking about college, talk with your parents about how they plan for you to pay for your further education. Sit down with them and run the Net Price Calculators at the websites for Duke (because your friend goes there), the public university in your home state that is the “hardest” to get into, the public university in your home state that is the “easiest” to get into, and a couple of other random places that you have heard about. The sooner you know what your budget looks like, the better. While you are looking at those websites, check to see whether the admissions offices care about your ECs. Many don’t. That means that you can concentrate on the activities that you care about and not worry about whether your ECs are “good enough”.</p>
<p>You don’t have to go to Harvard to have a great, fulfilling career and you should never, ever feel like someone else is “better than you” because of whatever name is on their diploma. My undergraduate degree is from the University of Idaho and I’m proud to be a Vandal. Have I ever cared that it’s not “OMG USNWR OMG” or a name that’s going to “impress” people? Not a bit.</p>
<p>The name of the college doesn’t matter if what you do in college is impressive.</p>
<p>The good news is that medical schools only care about your college grades: once you enter college you have a brand new slate. You don’t need to go to a prestigious or great college to get into medical school- plenty of students come from state schools. </p>
<p>Anyway, do the best you can now; upward trends look great and do the best you can on the SAT/ACT when you take it.</p>
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<p>It is spelled Ivy.</p>