Underperformance after applying as a junior and ending up in the exact same place [AL resident, 4.0 GPA (with 10 college courses including advanced math), 36 ACT]

[chmcnm]

Given your academic timeline i doubt you are but worth the ask. Are you National Merit Semi-Finalist?

[aquapt]

I was having trouble understanding, at first, what is going on here and why you seem to feel that your application process has come to nothing, in spite of some very nice offers.

It seems to me that you have gotten into a mindset of treating your education as a race. Your perception that you have “few choices now” is a box that you are putting yourself in.

Yes, you’ve taken advanced coursework in high school. Kudos - that’s great. But it was still high school. And there is nothing wrong with spending four years in college, building on that foundation while meeting degree requirements that, I promise, will not be “redundant.” You’re going to college to learn, and your angst conveys the impression that you think you already know a large share of what your undergrad education is meant to teach you. I think you will find that this isn’t the case at all, and that you will not, by any stretch, run out of things to learn if you take the normal four-year path through undergrad.

Colgate AMS Scholars looks like a great program. OTOH, you wanted a business major at schools that have a business school, so Emory Goizueta could be an excellent choice if you can make the costs work. If you want additional challenge in an area of particular strength for the university, consider the BBA+QSS joint major. This would position you with very strong data analytics skills in addition to the business administration knowledge base, and could be a very good use of the extra time that your head start in high school would afford you.

I understand that you didn’t get into the schools you wanted most, and that’s tough. Applying to the same schools two years in a row often leads to disappointing results, so that may be part of what happened. But you can only go to one school, and you have several elite opportunities plus good flagship honors programs. I really don’t think this is as bad an outcome as you seem to think.

It sounds as if Colgate is your most affordable option, and the Scholars program looks awesome. I would echo what ucbalumnus said:

@ucbalumnus

While Colgate’s general education requirements are voluminous (looks like 12 courses, which means that you have about 20 other courses in an eight semester schedule), it does look like each category has a fairly wide range of offerings where you may be able to find something interesting that is not a repeat of what you had before.

It’s not going to be a retread of high school. You can choose classes that will teach you something new and interesting. The important thing is to reframe your perspective on what you’re doing there, before you arrive. Right now you’re dealing with fresh disappointment, and you need to feel your feelings. But you have time between now and August/September to come to an appreciation of the opportunities ahead of you, and avoid showing up at college with a negative attitude that will become self-fulfilling prophecy. I hope you can get there, and perhaps even come back here in a year to tell us how it all worked out.

[inkyb1]

Update: other than one hilarious misdiagnosis of my situation, thank you guys for the advice. I think a lot of it was just hear of the moment stuff, and it really wasn’t that serious. I’ve lined up some potential ring theory research with a Colgate professor over the summer, and am considering a second major in a field I know a lot less in (Colgate has a lot of professors working on mathematical modeling of biological systems, maybe that?) Regardless, mostly helpful thread. I think taking a break from the forums definitely helped (and would also definitely benefit the exceptional case in this thread)