<p>I’m coming from a low-caliber high school but I’ve been accepted to a top university.</p>
<p>Should I base my college decision on the quality of my education or my drive? I got a rather bad high school with no APs or Honors classes. The core curriculum is extremely easy. In fact, I find it hard to believe that it’s adequate. Despite my school I still managed to do decent (by CC standards, and good by everyone else?s) on my standardized tests and I was accepted to a top university, UMich; and a top LAC, Macalester. Those schools aren’t known for their easy workloads. In fact, UMich is particularly worrying because it’s large, impersonal, and it supposedly has a thing for grade deflation.</p>
<p>I’m willing to work hard and catch up. I just don’t know if that’s enough. Is drive enough?</p>
<p>There’s always MSU.</p>
<p>I have a very, very strong drive. Some CCers may laugh at my chances at some schools because of my dismal* scores, but they know very little about my background or my will to be successful.</p>
<p>I think you should base your college decision on your drive. Because I know that I’m no natural talent, but I’ve pulled this far simply because that’s how much I’ve wanted it.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it! ;-)</p>
<p>I think u will be okay, if u try hard your first yr to catch up to the rest. And if you SAT is good, then you must be in par with the rest of the students that you will attend class with. My friend went from a very bad nyc public school to columbia and she just fine.</p>
<p>Then again, murky, your school isn’t quite easy, so you’ll be prepared. =)</p>
<p>I think you’ll be fine, Alchemy. You’ll just have to work hard, but it really depends on who you are. I’m assuming that UMich accepted you because they thought you were UMich material. Consider their assessment and then assess yourself. Do you have the self-discipline, the motivation, the enthusiasm?</p>
<p>I have motivation and self-discipline. Especially for UMich-I’ve wanted to go there since I was 12.</p>
<p>It may be humbling at first, and a tougher workload will take some adjustment, but I think you’ll get by. </p>
<p>I didn’t go to a top university, but like you, I entered college with a much less fancy education than most of my peers. I came from a midwestern small town, with one highschool which had no APs, no real honors classes, and few people going out of state to college. I went to an east-coast liberal arts school where a lot of my classmates came from private high schools. They’d had calculus, and latin, and knew what a lacrosse stick looked like. I felt like a rube and it was kind of intimidating. But not for long. If you have ability, that counts for a lot. Even my classmates who had studied more “advanced” topics hadn’t remembered everything, so we weren’t as far apart in preparation as you’d think.</p>
<p>I went from a not-super high school to a challenging college, and I felt really behind for the first term. After that, everybody’s taking course material that’s new for them, so the playing field is leveled quite a bit. </p>
<p>So I felt like kids from great schools had an advantage for the first term or maybe the first two terms, but after that, high school background wasn’t nearly as important.</p>
<p>You’ll probably have much more trouble than someone who went to a prep school, but if you can put the effort in to catch up and then some more, you should be above average by sophomore year</p>
<p>You should read “A Hope in the Unseen” by Ron Suskind.</p>
<p>Remember it’s not too smart for you if you got accepted.</p>
<p>I went from a terrible high school to the University of Virginia. I was not as well prepared as most of the other people there. I learned, though. It’s certainly doable. Just concentrate, work hard, and LEARN how to get As. It may take a bit of time. It did with me. But it will come.</p>
<p>Just_Browsing, I can definitely identify with Cedric Jennings-we’re from similar environments. I’ll read that book.</p>
<p>And as a postscript, Cedric Jennings came to U-M for one of his graduate degrees!</p>
<p>People have said good things here. I would add a couple:</p>
<p>1) Read a few books on how to succeed in college. They can give really good tips on studying habits, etc. Just in case you didn’t get a chance to hone them in your college.</p>
<p>2) Have you decided to go to UMich instead of Mac. instead? 'Cause Mac. is first-rate, IMO, and it might give you a better learning environment. I went to a large school like Michigan and did well, but I attribute a lot of that to having gone to one of the better public high schools in the nation, a school I turned down my Dad’s prep school to go to. I think you should strongly consider going there.</p>
<p>My kids came from a barely adequate high school background to attend challenging schools (a top LAC and an Ivy.) My D did the duck routine–paddling like mad under the surface to keep up, and ended up graduating in the top ten percent of the school.</p>
<p>My brilliant but somewhat less motivated S has excelled when he has had the background (esp in any writing based classes) but faltered some when sheer hard work was necessary to overcome underpreparation. He should finish with a good GPA, but he has felt the effects of being less prepared.</p>
<p>From their experiences, I’d say it’s a matter of your approach. If you’re willing to do some extra to make up the slack, you should be fine.</p>