<p>so once upon a time i got into caltech, on a full scholarship.</p>
<p>as it turns out, they do not like people who repeatedly try to kill themselves. so they keep putting me on medical leave and this time they might not let me back in</p>
<p>i would like to transfer to schools of similar caliber. my hs record was excellent but my record for the past three years has been bizarre. i spent the first and second year taking graduate level classes but in my second year i took very few and ended up on medical leave from my local school. i will have spent the third year working in a lab. i’ve kind of wasted these last three years, it’s not like i have any publications or awards from them.</p>
<p>i did one year at caltech before going on leave. i had a 3.8 but did not take challenging classes, and only one term was on grades.</p>
<p>If you have spent the past three years dealing with the issues that caused you to take a medical leave in the first place, you have not wasted the time. If the issues remain unresolved, you need to resolve them before you try to go back to college at CalTech or anywhere else.</p>
<p>The only people who can tell you what you need to do in order to re-enroll at CalTech (if that is your goal) are the people there. If you want to return, you need to sit down with them and find out the steps you need to take.</p>
<p>I’m a little confused. You say you took one years worth of course at Caltech and you go on to say you took grad courses for two years…and courses at your “local college”. How many college credits do you have? When you go to transfer, you are required to report ALL of the college credits you have, not just the ones from Caltech. </p>
<p>Since you have an inconsistent college record…would it be possible for you to enroll at a college as a non-matriculated student and take courses to show you can do the work? Many schools will allow a certain number of credits to be towards a degree before matriculation. You might want to explore this option.</p>
<p>In addition, you also need to sort out the credits you have that might be able to satisfy requirements towards a degree.</p>
<p>1) Talk to CalTech and see if you can go back there - might be your easiest road back into an elite college</p>
<p>2) If CalTech is not an option, figure out what your transcript looks like and how much personal info is on the records - you want to know what the OTHER colleges will see or have access to</p>
<p>3) If you have to apply to other colleges for transfer - you may want to downplay the extreme nature of your mental health issues - but still come up with a realistic explanation about your GPA and what you have been doing since the medical leave.</p>
<p>What you will need to show is that you can handle the <em>college</em> level coursework and <em>college</em> levels of stress with appropriate life skills. Thus, while your HS GPA and HS SAT scores will still point toward your mental agility - your scattered CalTech transcript does <em>not</em> sound like it shows either the ability to handle college classes or college stress.</p>
<p>So, my short answer is no, other elite colleges probably will not be interested in you until you have 2+ solid semesters under your belt. That’s just my take on it. That’s why if CalTech will let you back in it is your best bet. </p>
<p>Alternatively there is always grad school after going to a “normal” and solid state school.</p>
<p>well that’s basically what i’ve been doing. i’ve gotten A’s in all my classes there too, and most of them were graduate level</p>
<p>it’s just i haven’t taken that many (my first year i took four classes one semester and had a good excuse for not being there second semester, but my second year i took three classes one semester and did a medical withdrawal the next).</p>
<p>will it help if i get a good letter of recommendation from a lab mentor, or perhaps a publication?</p>