I am a Junior/Senior in high-school (3rd year), and I am wondering what would be the ideal plan later on. I have three main plans in regard to the schools that I will attend and three plans for my mathematical focus during this time. My main goal is to obtain a full ride to UCLA under the Math Undergrad Merit Scholarship (MUMS) (http://math.ucla.edu/ugrad/mums) or a scholarship of a similar degree, but that is a very lofty goal. I took AP Calculus BC last year and am currently taking Multi variable Calculus this semester at the Community college. There are only Linear Algebra and Differential Equations available to me at the community college after this semester, but they are both only offered exclusively in the spring semester at the same time, although I may be able to petition for different times. I should note here that I do not want to attend a community college full time due to the lack of scholarships for transfer students, although I may be possessing an incorrect judgement about transfer scholarships.
School Choice:
(1) Stay at my current school and take community college classes for the next year and a half- My current school does not offer any of the general education classes that I am looking to take other than US History, Civics, Econ, Spanish 3/4, and Concert Band. My other classes this semester are simply fringe classes that are at a lower level than what I am currently studying. In this plan, I will take 2-4 classes per semester at the community college in place of these fringe classes (likely 2 though). This plan works well for transportation and finances, but I will not be taking any math classes at any institution due to a lack of upper-division math classes at my community college. There is a minute possibility of avoiding this issue by attending a University of California Davis, but is a 50 minute one-way drive and it would not be financially affordable to go there if I could not convince the administration to put my enrollment under the part-time community college + high school student form.
(2) Transfer to a four-year college full-time starting fall semester 2017- Under this option I would likely attend UCLA with a possibility of UC Berkeley among others. I am not currently in favor of this option over (1) due to a lack of potential scholarships and having to graduate a year early (for social reasons). Under this option I would take the SAT IIs this semester (I took the SAT this month), and I would follow (1) up until the end of the next semester. I would likely follow [2] if I went this route, as the due to If I would be able to obtain half-off tuition or greater up to PHD under this option, then I may be more willing to go straight to college, although I doubt that I would gain enough under scholarships to fulfill this wish.
(3) Perform an inter-district transfer to the nearest high school that administers the classes I am looking to take- I would have a 45 minute one-way drive, a great social shift, and a lack of higher-end classes for me to take during the third semester. It would be unlikely for the transfer to work, so I am not too inclined to try this option. The other schools in the area lack the general education classes I am looking to take.
Mathematical Focus:
[1] Study for the IMO for the next year and a half- All of the other winners of the MUMS have IMO medals, so this option gives the most likely shot for the scholarship. However, I will likely not get into the IMO as I do not have a background in contest mathematics. I only have gone through the first Art of Problem Solving book for contest math and this proof book (https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Proofs-Transition-Advanced-Mathematics/dp/0321797094). I do not care too much about this option as I would not
[2] Study upper division mathematics for the next year and a half- I personally would enjoy continuing my education in mathematics, but I would likely have to self-study these concepts and would have a very difficult time for accreditation. I would likely have a low chance of obtaining the MUMS through this option, but I may be able to gain other scholarships through proof of my studies. This option appears more enjoyable to me than [1], as I would have time to invest myself into the theories of mathematics (something that I have had trouble finding time for).
[3] Focus on mathematical research- I am interested in researching mathematics, but I do not think that I have the knowledge to perform original research at this time. I may start focusing my time into research after a semester to a year of [2]. I do not know a great deal more about research in mathematics while in high school. Achieving the MUMS through research would likely require very original work.
Thank you for reading my post, and be sure to give any advise or assessments of my plans below. Let me know if there are any other options that may be worth pursuing and if there are any other scholarships that I should work towards.