And how would I do it. I'm about to enter my senior year in high school, and while I didn't exactly blow it (I'm in the top 10% and my GPA is 3.8 unweighted), my SAT and ACT are not that great (25 or 1670), I know there is no way I could get into MIT as an undergraduate. My question is that if I tried hard in college and got outstanding grades, would they look more at that than my high school life, or ignore that?
I am planning on either transferring to a Boston university location during undergraduate. Depending on scholarships it would either be immediately, or after two years.
With an ACT score that low, why would you want to surround yourself with classmates that scored between a 33 and 36 on the exam? You realize you couldn't compete with those people, right?
Not trying to mean, but the test scores are usually an indicator of academic horsepower. If you don't have it, you'll be frustrated when you receive poor grades while giving maximum effort.
Thanks for calling me stupid as nicely as you could, but realize I did not try at all in high school. That 25 was with me simply walking into the test with minimum amounts of sleep. Most of the people that score 30< studied a lot to get that score and I respect that. If I had studied throughout school and given half an effort, my scores would probably look a lot more impressive.
One of the things you have to remember us that for the four years you are going to another college, you will have multiple chances to bring up your test scores. I'm not sure that they would look at your pre-undergraduate test scores because it is not going to be up to date with a more recent mental capability.
You really have to motivate yourself on self-studying for those standardized tests as that's, usually, the main thing that colleges look at.
Dude I totally understand having the bad case of senioritis, but you'll get over it and be more motivated. Post high school, opens your eyes to the harsh reality of human competition.
I've never seen a grad school application that asked about high school. Also, I've never seen a grad school application that asked about SAT/ACT scores.
Colleges tend to look past high school after two years in a college. But they may occasionally look briefly at it but not necessarily base academics on it.
They will look at how well you take college. So being a transfer is good in that sense, but it does not necessarily mean a better transfer rate.
Graduate school applications do not ask in any way about your high school record. Only things you do in college will matter for grad school applications.
That said, being successful in your grad school applications is not, by any means, just about getting good grades in college. You will want to have outstanding grades and test scores, excellent recommendations from your college professors, and experience relevant to the field you want to study in depth. For an MBA from Sloan, you will almost certainly need post-college work experience in a competitive job.
I heard so many "I screwed up in HS, but I'll do a lot better in college."
I call BS. 99% of the time I'm right. If you're that 1%, then you'll have every shot at getting into MIT as any other college student (which still isn't very high, but that's beside the point...).
Simply because college is so much different from HS, starting from the academics. Professors are different from high school teachers and some people just do MUCH better with the former than the latter. I'm one, as I loathed the academics in high school but got interested and did much better in college.
To the OP: if you think you're much smarter than what your HS performances indicate, then you will have every chance to prove it in college. Just don't drag the laziness along.
Test scores that low are rarely a result of just being lazy. The tests are designed to be taken without study. I know plenty of kids who have walked in dead tired, sick, or even hungover the morning of a test, without studying, and still pulled a 30+/2000+. I'm not saying you don't have a chance; college is mostly about hard work and determination, not intelligence, but I'm really sick of hearing people say "Oh, well I'm just as smart as that kid who got a 34, I just didn't study." Again, that doesn't mean you won't be successful, but you will have to work at it harder than some others.
I graduated with high honors in the top 10% of my class during undergraduate and had numbers academic honors. I also had a 3.2 gpa in high school and a very low SAT. My university experience was very different than high school. I do realize however that I am a VERY rare case. Most people with my high school stats dropped out. My work ethic has always been very high and I went to a top ranked high school. During high school I lettered in 2 sports, performed in choirs, volunteered, worked in a fast food restaurant on the weekends, took AP courses and still had time to get drunk and party a lot.
So yes you could get into MIT as a graduate but it is highly unlikely
