<p>you have a vaild medical reason, so I don’t think it will hurt you too badly, but back in high school I had some friends whose admissions prospects I feel were harmed by abysmally poor attendance over a long period. I had one friend who was bitter over her rejection from the top ivy league schools, but who had been absent from class almost a third of the time.</p>
<p>Assume that your stomach pains prevent you from going to classes in college (MIT & Caltech). Or even going to work may be difficult.<br>
If you think you can learn well on your own, don’t worry about admissions. Just browse through the OCW of MIT, pick the courses you want. Once you learn enough in a couple of years, you can start your own business or something.
Don’t let a college come in the way of a good education for you…</p>
<p>This person has gone to school FOUR days this year…FOUR days</p>
<p>With take home tests, no having to participate, etc. Who says they have never ever been challenged in any way academically. Who says that therapy is something they are doing against their will because there is nothing wrong with them physically, yet they feel they will be the BEST at a school like MIT without having to bother going to any classes…and you don’t think they are cocky?</p>
<p>Statistically, this poster IS a dime a dozen- her grades and scores, yes they are good, however so are thousands of other kids, who have done alot of other stuff</p>
<p>She asked about admission to very selective colleges like MIT and Caltech…I asked how could she succeed on COLLEGE without going to any classes, doing any labs, etc…she said she has always been the best and hasn’t ever been challenged, well at a school like MIT she will be challenged</p>
<p>She doesn’t like therapy, thinks it is a waste, goes under protest, knowing that her stomach aches, thus far, have been shown not to a be a medical condition. </p>
<p>I feel sorry for this OP on many levels- not knowing exactly what is wrong with you is frustrating, but to fight the therapy is stupid…to think in COLLEGE you can be the best without going to any classes and to think that maybe emailing will be good enough, and just showing up for tests, she will be fine…</p>
<p>Does this person do anything? Any other ECs, any other research besides school stuff? Does she go to school to take the tests, or is everything done at home? Can she participate in class, work with others well? I know this all came up Jr year, but if a person wants to GO TO COLLEGE, these need to be thought about. </p>
<p>If she CANNOT GO TO CLASS because her stomach is in pain, how is she able to function at home? If she doesn’t take her therapy seriouslly, she will not get better, and if she thinks she won’t need go to any classes in college, she is mistaken.</p>
<p>Yeah I was harsh, she asked the question didn’t she. And yes, I find her cocky. She has NO CLUE what a college like CalTech will be like…it will be filled with smart, dedicated, ambitious students who show up to classes…</p>
<p>Yes, many kids missed some school and did well, that is NOT THE POINT…the point is IN COLLEGE, you need to SHOW UP to classes, at least most of the time, sure some classes, yeah, but my hunch is that at MIT, you need to be in those lectures at least 50% of the time…and does this student think that people are just going all give them their notes ALL THE TIME</p>
<p>Please, this person needed a reality check…and they need to take their therapy seriouslly</p>
<p>2200 SAT and 4.22 won’t cut it for MIT/Caltech. 2300 and 4.5 might.</p>
<p>That is a terrible statement simply because it is NOT true. Perfection is not required (though it helps) to get in. Uniqueness, potential, awards, stats, etc all matter, but personal factors matter AS MUCH as the SAT and GPA. (Look how they rank interview with SAT and GPA in terms of importance.)</p>
<p>I got in with a 3.5 GPA, 2150 SAT. Oh, and stats really don’t say much about college success. I was an “Average” rice/MIT/Cornell applicant, but as a freshman I will already have half my math major and 1/4th of my physics major done by this semester with about a 3.6 GPA at Rice taking mostly honors and sophomore level courses. My GPA in college is higher than my highschool GPA was.</p>
<p>I do think getting a good recommendation is going to be a problem. Also, your school district may have a minimum attendance requirement that could keep you from graduating.</p>
<p>High school is nothing like MIT. Spending four years without needing to study is counter-indicative to college success. You haven’t developed academic survival skills - how to get help for a tough subject, how to devote yourself to studying when you are dying to do something else, how to work in groups, especially when some members are below par. Kids who don’t know how to do these things tend to underperform in college. </p>
<p>BTW, not having a diagnosis for your missed days can be a problem. Not every admissions office or professor is going to accept “stomache ache” as a reason for academic shortcomings. My oldest also had significant stomach problems, followed by lots of tests and exploratory surgery. Nothing significant showed up, but he was greatly helped by a change in medication. Have you tried Nexium?</p>
<p>
Hehe, you’ve never been to a Caltech morning class have you? I’d think you’d be in for quite the shock.</p>
<p>I have no idea how attendance affects admission, so I can’t be very useful, but do remember that at schools like MIT and Caltech, students are very…unconventional when it comes to learning, and so the most obvious answer (you must go to every class! you must take copious notes! you must start your homework days before it is due!) is not often a requirement for success. I’m not saying such good habits don’t help, but let’s not be so quick to judge how a given person can or cannot learn.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom,
you’re not repetitive at all</p>
<p>I mean not at all</p>
<p>k- so a person could shine at MIT be the best without going to any classes at all, which is what the OP said she would do</p>
<p>suuureeeeee</p>
<p>Really you are not repetitive,
I swear!</p>
<p>And by the way,
are you a therapist?</p>
<p>quick question- how do tests work, do you do them at home? just curious</p>
<p>do you walk onto your highschool at all</p>
<p>my problem is not the illnes, but the attitude that work in college is a cakewalk</p>
<p>but if that is what the OP truely believes, only time will tell</p>
<p>And MIT really isn’t about social darwinism.
The OP has a serious illness,
and instead of admiring that she has shone through in her work and overcame her medical condition,
you belittle her for her bad health.
I am sure that if she went to MIT, she wouldn’t be the first one with health problems,
and that they as an institution have ways of helping students in her situation.</p>
<p>My mother had to miss a year because of tuberculosis at Moscow State University,
with a diagnosis of probable death.
She took a year off,
and the next year she worked the equivalent of two years.</p>
<p>She got her Ph.D in biology,
and now she works at MIT.</p>
<p>People have different experiences,
and it is just morally wrong to condemn her for her health.</p>
<p>And the OP gave us no reason to doubt that she couldn’t shine at MIT.
As any MIT admissions officer would tell you,
SAT scores are not the end-all.</p>
<p>She has not been diagnosed with any ailment, she is in therapy which she thinks is a waste of her time- her stomach hurts, and the doctors think it is Psychological, yet the OP fights the therapy…</p>
<p>If you READ her posts, you will see that is what she said…</p>
<p>And if you have a Psychological ailment, fighting therapy is not the answer</p>
<p>I am not belittling her health, SHE IS!!!</p>
<p>So if she has an ailment that is seems to not want to treat, how will she get help in college?</p>
<p>I know a girl who was very sick in HS, missed a lot of time, but her attitude wasn’t well, I can go to college skip all the classes, show up for tests and ace everything</p>
<p>The OP needs to EMBRACE her therapy, figure out why she is in pain…because if she doesn’t there is no way she will succeed in life or in college</p>
<p>My best friend just died from cancer, so don’t tell me I have no sympathy</p>
<p>The OP needs a reality check and thinking you can be the best at MIT or CalTech or anywhere without doing any work, well, sorry, ain’t gonna happen</p>
<p>She has shown she won’t shine because she thinks she doesn’t have to go to class at all</p>
<p>K</p>
<p>"I don’t know how I’d go to my college classes… I’d at least go to the tests. "</p>
<p>first, I am going to a therapist, against my will,</p>
<p>In regards to the diagnosis, they’ve essentially given up on physical diseases, so I’ve got to deal with biofeedback therapy and other shrink crap."</p>
<p>
Sarcasm and straw-man arguments aren’t very convincing.</p>
<p>You say several things I agree with, citygirlsmom, but some restraint from overgeneralizations may help you actually convince people.</p>
<p>what have I said that was incorrect…</p>
<p>another poster was saying missing classes in college is no big deal, and I disagree…you need to figure out what is going on if you want to succeed</p>
<p>and think you can get throgh college by just showing up for tests is at best naive</p>
<p>Wow… I didn’t expect so many responses. I have a lot to say, lol.</p>
<p>First, I’m a guy.</p>
<p>Second, what does OP mean? Original Poster?</p>
<p>And let me preface the rest of this by saying that though other posters may think you are not sympathetic, citygirlsmom, (though I know they may not necessarily think that) I think that it is very obvious that you are extremely sympathetic, and I thank you for your sympathy.</p>
<p>I haven’t really taken any of my tests. I go in my high school around once every two weeks to get some homework.</p>
<p>I’m not necessarily <em>fighting</em> therapy, I’m simply against it. I’m doing the therapy, though perhaps not wholeheartedly–sorry for being ambiguous. Also, I think it’s a physical illness. Everyone else thinks it’s psychological–that’s why I’m going to a therapist.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ll have a hard time getting recommendations. I have a Computer Science teacher who loves me because I go to all the math tournaments and do well and I’m the only one who does well on his tests… plus my brother was his friend, and I didn’t have bad attendance while in his classes. Also, there’s a teacher who takes other kids and I to science competitions and things like that, and she <em>guarantees</em> I’ll get a 36 on the ACT–she says I should home school because public HS is holding me back. She lies all the time, so I can bank on her recommending me, lol.</p>
<p>I won’t argue with the accusation of naivete, I can’t really <em>prove</em> I can do it… instead no one can prove I <em>can’t</em> do it. I may certainly be naive.</p>
<p>But I will argue with this: you seem to be implying that I don’t care about learning. I may not necessarily care about school or grades or tests, but I do care about how much I learn, and I would <em>never</em> just sit at home, vegetating. It may be that if I had a reason to go to school, I would push through my illness and just go to school feeling like crap all day. But I learn next to nothing at school.</p>
<p>I know you may think I’m another average rich kid whose parents push them too hard, and who was never really that talented in the first place, but I’m not. I’m not pushed by the love of my parents, the love of my friends, the love of knowing I’m better than other people, the love of money, or the love of recognition. If those were my warrants for doing well in school, I would want to go to an Ivy League school. Instead, I am pushed by the love of <em>learning</em>. And I truly believe that the most elite and technologically advanced schools are where I can learn most.</p>
<p>wait. i don’t get this. how are you doing well in your classes if you’re not taking the tests???
what?
<em>confused</em></p>
<p>And, I think you should have been homeshooled. Not b/c public is “holding you back,” but because then you would be able to not have to worry about attendance, or anything. </p>
<p>and. maybe you should be taking harder courses at your school? how high of a level of courses do you take? Honors at some schools are a joke. seriously, a JOKE. If you truly feel you aren’t being challenged, take distance education courses, or courses at a community college.
Acutally, I highly reccomend a community college. I think it might be a good idea to see if you can suceed in a college environment. Of course, you’d have to keep in mind that courses at MIT or Caltech would be a LOT harder than one at a community college, but if your local college is is halfway good, you could get credit and actually learn (which you’re impying you don’t at school)</p>
<p>Alamode,</p>
<p>First, my grades for <em>this</em> trimester are all F’s for now, lol. Actually, Physics is an A.
I’ve been dropped from one class–AP German–but the teacher says I can come back next trimester, because she thinks I’m a genius (which I tend to disagree with).</p>
<p>Second, I’m taking the hardest classes I can. I have to tap out all our school classes before I can go to a University for free to take classes–I’ll be doing that next year. If I had a say when I was in preschool and no one cared I was reading my older brothers’ books, maybe I’d be in a different position, taking harder classes, but I can’t change that.</p>
<p>I do believe my AP classes are a joke, but no one else feels the same way.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about dropping out and going to a neaby Comm. College, but I’ve decided I’m going to “freeload” my education for as long as I can. My parents can’t buy my life. They can barely take care of themselves.</p>
<p>I can’t really have been homeschooled… my parents never took an advanced science class in their life (Not biology or anything), my dad didn’t go to college, my mom forgot everything. They aren’t the smartest people.</p>
<p>My class schedule is:</p>
<p>Early Bird (before school) AP US History
US Humanities (required course with no AP, honors, or advanced)
AP Chemistry
3rd year German (AP only in 4th year)–dropped
AP Calculus–I actually took two math courses freshman year, because I wanted to take Calculus soph year, but my Algebra II teacher wouldn’t let me skip Pre-Calc, apparently setting the curve on tests with students two years older than me wasn’t good enough for him. He suggested I take precalc during the smmer at the community college, but the school wouldn’t pay for it and my parents are too poor… I’ve tried everything I can in that subject I think.</p>
<p>AP Biology
AP Physics (supposed to take regular physics first, but I skipped)
I had a 4.6 GPA last trimester</p>
<p>So, you see, I do everything I can.</p>
<p>I wonder if teaching the rest of my eighth grade Algebra I class how to do the work because my teacher was self-centered and senile counts for anything…</p>