My daughter is a junior at the top IB high school in Michigan (7th in the country). She has a 3.98 GPA and a fully packed resume (with a lot of community activity and volunteering). Her goal is to go to University of Michigan for pre Med. I think her chances are pretty good with this route.
However, she is thinking of going back to her home school for her senior year with dual enrollment which includes a community college.
My concern is that when she applies to U of M she will be considered a transfer student and less likely to get accepted. I assume she will keep her grade at the level they are or maybe a bit higher
It depends on how the cc courses are considered. My dd’s courses were DE courses, taught at her HS, and grades listed on her high school transcript. As such, she was not considered a transfer.
IMO, the bigger issue is that CC/DE grades will count towards her GPA for med school acceptance. It may also force her to take higher level courses at UMich than she might be ready for.
Why not just finished out HS at her current school?
Michigan may not be very generous with transfer credit. It does have a transfer credit list on it’s web site to check the particular community college.
College courses taken before high school graduation do not generally force the student to be a transfer rather than frosh. Check the specific target schools like University of Michigan to be sure.
Yes, all college courses and grades count for pre-med GPA.
I’m also a Michigan resident who is considering attending Umich this fall and one thing that I’ve heard from some friends who have attended after taking dual-enrolled classes in HS is that their credits didn’t transfer and that taking cc courses didn’t have an affect on the classes they needed for freshman requirements (they couldn’t forego certain general ed requirements even if they had taken similar classes at the cc level). That is something to seriously consider when thinking of changing schools. Cc courses won’t hurt, but they won’t be transferrable (as opposed to certain IB or AP credits).
Your daughter will not be considered a transfer applicant, she will be following the traditional admissions route if she applies as a senior with her peers.
@LGresh. As suggested call admissions. If you go the cc route they can work with you to make sure classes transfer. Michigan is extremely hard to transfer credit to unless it’s a cc that works with them already. As advised. Call admissions and get the answers directly.
It is unlikely she’ll be considered a transfer student for admissions. Usually any courses taken before you graduate from hs are not considered to advance your entrance level (still enter as a freshman, may be a sophomore with credits earned). Whether the dual enrollment classes transfer is up to the university.
Michigan charges more for upper level students so some student do not claim credit for all AP and DE credits earned.
@Lgresh - Go to this web page. http://www.ugadmiss.umich.edu/TCE/Public/CT_TCESearch.aspx Select your local community college and then look at the particular courses to see if they will transfer. For example, a student taking Chem 151/152 (Lectures) and Chem 161/162 (Labs) at Lansing Community College can earn Michigan transfer credit for Chem 125, 126, and 130.
Be sure to look at historical acceptance rates to U of M from your daughter’s school (how many are usually accepted each year?). For students who attend top high schools, their biggest competition tends to be their classmates, not necessarily other students across the state.
One other issue I wanted to point out that we were just told at a Campus Day event for admitted students: Once you reach 55 credits your tuition increases. So students who enter with a lot of credit sometimes find themselves reaching that point quickly. Sometimes they choose not to apply some AP credits to avoid having that happen.
My son goes to STEM Governor’s School in VA where all of his math and science classes are dual enrolled at the local college. He will have +32 college credits when he graduates. We even sent in his college transcripts with his application and he is still being considered as a Freshman entry and not a transfer student.
Michigan will give credit for both AP and IB. Your daughter should stick with the IB curriculum if possible. My son had enough AP credit to enter as a sophomore, it will allow him to graduate in a 128 credit engineering program in 7 semesters without going completely crazy. He would have had more if he wasn’t in engineering, which has a lot more requirements and fewer electives.
Many of his friends are graduating in 3 years and starting grad or professional school in the 4th.
Pre-med can be any major than includes the requisite classes (organic, bio, etc.)
As always, avoid any major with ‘studies’ in the title if she wants to be gainfully employed. Many kids who intend to go to medical school don’t, and Michigan is great place for her to explore other options