To keep this simple, I am 16 and have been given the opportunity to graduate early. My first two years of HS were rough and I did poorly but I was able to buckle myself down at the end of my Sophomore year and I’m on my way to getting a 4.0 this year. My financial situation is pretty bad and my only options are community college (Montgomery College) or possibly my state school (UMD). I have aspirations of going on to medical school. I plan to major in Public Health.
Projected SAT Score: ~1400/1600
GPA: ( I didn’t exactly decide to get it together until end of Sophomore year) Unweighted: 3.3 Weighted: 3.65
Current Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP World, AP Psych, AP Lang, Precalc, Foundations of Tech
My questions are:
Is it possible to go to community college for two years and then transfer to my state school under a pre-med track and still have a good chance of getting into medical school?
Is graduating early in this case my best choice, why or why not?
It’s very possible for you to transfer to UMD if you do well CC. While you’re not officially going to be pre-med, as CCs don’t usually have pre-med, you can absolutely review the medical school requirements and try to fulfill those. I am interested in medical school and I am currently taking Chem, Biology, and English, which are all reqs for med school.
While I admire your efforts to move forward, perhaps you’re not really looking at every option available to you. You should consider programs such as Questbridge and the Northeastern Torch Scholars Program. I was a finalist for the latter and ultimately rejected, but I was in a situation very similar to yours. They look for mostly low-income students who have prospered under difficult circumstances. It’s a full ride. This means they provide full tuition, room, board, and books. You will be going to Northeastern for free. Questbridge connects low income, high achievers to top universities such as Yale, Princeton, etc. You have an upward trend, that is appreciated in admissions. But don’t slack off. Don’t make excuses and KILL IT this year. You can do it!
@YesPolyglotGal Thank you so much! I have heard of QuestBridge before but unfortunately don’t qualify for it, although I’m still putting in an application. This is my first time hearing about Northeastern and I’m so glad you told me about it because I qualify and will apply for it.
Will Northeastern still let me apply even though I might be graduating early?
Thoughts on dual enrollment my senior year if I do decide to stay?
Also, can you tell me more about Northeastern? What was your experience like and why did you reject it?
@lycoris Torch probably won’t consider an early graduate. You should phone them though just to clarify. Dual enrollment would look fantastic if you were a senior and applied for the scholarship. You would show much more initiative than many of the applicants and you would probably look committed to your studies to other unis.
Just a clarification, I didn’t rejected Northeastern. It was the other way around. I was in love with the program, did hours upon hours of research on it, being a finalist helped keep me going and sort of gave me a sense of purpose, it was easier to wake up every morning. It’s a cool experience. They pay for your travel and hotel room in Boston. I love Boston, it’s really cool and I’d love to live there at some point in my life. Had I not been a finalist, I would never have had the experience. It was really heartbreaking when I read my rejection letter, but the past is in the past. I think you should really consider it and talk to someone about nominating you.
@YesPolyglotGal Thank you for the information it’s very helpful. I’m thinking that I might just go with dual enrollment because I feel like graduating this year will feel rushed and that it will mess up how I’ve planned things out. I’ll probably take two classes at CC and make sure they transfer over to UMD. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you think the winners had that you didn’t? Sometimes I wonder if my situation is even bad enough to consider applying. I applied to Beat The Odds and lost despite knowing for a fact that I had outstanding essays and recommendations. I felt like my GPA most likely held me back or that they picked the winners only on the amount of dependents they had and their family’s gross income. Same for HOBY, I honestly believe that the winner was only picked because they had the highest GPA.
With a 1400 you can get lots of merit scholarships at state universities - scholarships that you can’t have if you apply from a community college.
Dual Enrollment at Montgomery while a HS senior would be excellent, because you’d apply as a freshman (would still be able to apply to all the scholarships) and once admitted would get a lot of credits (called “advanced standing”). You’d only have to make sure you take one each of English, Math, Science, Social Science, Foreign language - and that’d leave a lot of space to explore other subjects not offered at your HS.
Continue to work hard to bring that GPA up.
I second looking into Questbridge, first the summer progam over the summer, then the application program for seniors. Look into LEDA, too.
At worst it’ll give you a leg up in preparing college applications.
Take the PSAT very seriously - prep for that. It’s a giant scholarship competition, not just a pre-SAT.
@MYOS1634 Thank you for your advice, I think I will stick with dual enrollment senior year. I have one question though, if I do dual enrollment does that mean that I’ll have to take one english, one math, one science, one social studies, and one foreign language at the community college? I was confused by what you said. I didn’t know a 1400 would get me scholarships! I thought that I would have to score near perfect or at least above a 1500 to even be considered for those.
@ucbalumnus Thank you for letting me know, I looked into some other threads and people had mixed answers, but for the sake of my education I’m going to assume they’re counted.
You could retake the test once for even more scholarships :).
If you’re lower income you’re eligible for a test fee waiver - ask for it.
Regarding the five core courses: You’re supposed to take one of each of these, each year of high school. In community college it means one semester if each.
I wouldn’t advise rushing ahead. Take your time and get the best college scholarships you can find. Do some medical related ECs to get experience and verify your interest. Medical schools are not impressed by youthful applicants. They value maturity. Many admits are not even straight out of college. It’s hard enough to be a competitive applicant without putting yourself at a disadvantage with a weaker hs preparation and being younger.
@lycoris I would highly encourage you to apply. I know it’s very easy to believe that you should give up because your situation wasn’t deemed bad enough by one group of people. However, you can’t deny that your situation was no doubt difficult and not very ideal to begin with. You are the type of applicant that these programs are looking for. You should not give up because it didn’t work out. It was their mistake and their loss to be honest. Don’t sell yourself short. These are opportunities that you legitimately have a chance of succeeding with and your GPA is better. Your commitment to dual enrollment seems absolutely amazing. You seem to care a great deal about your academics. I would absolutely apply because you have evidently grown from your mistakes. You can’t give up due to one failure. Someone out there will recognize your hard work.
The link above is to AMCAS, the official med school app site. If you download instructions, take a look at p 35. It states, in part (I bolded)
When entering coursework, you must include information and corresponding grades for every course in which you have ever enrolled at any U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian post-secondary institution, regardless of whether credit was earned.
This includes, but is not limited to:
• College-level courses you took while in middle or high school even if they were not counted toward a degree by any college.
So yes, it’s a good assumption on your part.
Also there’s a saying that pops up with regards to applying to med school “it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” You really want to do it right on your first attempt. @mathyone makes a great point. Good luck