Hey y’all,
Reading through this forum has been really helpful for me in a lot of ways, but I’m a little bit lost (read as: “trapped in a kafkaesque nightmare”) in terms of how to even begin the process of trying to apply to college.
To make a long story somewhat brief, I was a student in the gifted program, received Johns Hopkins CTY awards, was a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist, and my SAT scores were 800 in Critical Reading, 600 in Math*, and 750 in Writing.
That’s all well and good, but my issue is that my high school career was tumultuous. I suffered from a serious medical issue, and it ruined my education. I was failing most of my classes, so my counselors suggested that I take community college courses as dual credit instead of going to high school. For two years I did exactly that, taking courses every available semester, including summers.
When my medical issues flared up again, I didn’t have an academic support system. Instead of withdrawing, as I should have, I stopped attending classes. I didn’t know any better. My GPA went from high 3’s to just about 2. My high school made me drop out in my senior year. I took my GED the next week, and I scored 99th percentile in every category. I entered the work force and sorted my life out.
Three years later, I am capable of going to college, but I don’t know how.
Do my community college credits still count as college credits, even though they were dual credits, and I dropped out? If that’s the case, am I simply out of luck? That GPA is truly terrible, and I would be much better off starting from scratch.
What am I applying as? Where am I applying to? I know everyone says go to community college and then a “real” college, but is that even a viable option for me?
I apologize for this wall of text. I just feel lost, and I want to be proactive in finding my way back.
*I hadn’t taken math in a year at that point. And I wasn’t aware I was taking the SATs until the night before. If I retook them, this would be improved.