GPA: 2.5
SAT: 1050
School Courses:
History: Global History 1, Global History 2, U.S. History 1, U.S. History 2 (Humanities)
English: English 9, English 10 (Humanities), English 11, Creative Writing (semester), Journalism (Semester)
Science: Earth Science, Biology, Chemestry, Anatomy and Physiology (Semester)
Math: Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Statistics (Semester)
Foreign language: Spanish 1, Spanish 2
Elevtives: Musical Theatre, Chorus (full year), Chorus (Semester), Gym (2 years) Culinary (Semester)
EC’s:
Work Experience:
Barista at local Cafe (1 year)
Dishwasher at local Resturant (1 Year)
Cashier at local super market (Summer)
Volunteer at a tall ships Company
3 Years of School Plays
Auditioned for, and performed in a District Music festival (3 Years)
Gender and Sexuality Alliance Secretary and Treasurer
Feild Hockey (9th grade only)
Basket Ball (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Grade)
Lacrosse Goalie (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade)
Drama Writing and Improv Class
Member of my schools Student Council
Historian for grades Student Council
Mythology Enthusiast Award
Coach’s Award (Basket Ball)
DECCA
Graduated highschool a full year early
Parents both went to college and are now lawyers
Live in MA
I don’t want to go to a community college or anouther college in order to “improve” my grades first, its just something that I am not interested in.
Either a Engineering or pre-med Major
Diagnosed with a learning disability.
Assuming submitted with a solid application, excellent writing sample and good recommendations. No guarantees but worth looking into for you. No idea about deadlines and costs.
In state.
West Bridgewater. American International. Fitchburg State. Curry. Springfield
Reach : Western New England. Endicott, Mass Maritime
Rhode Island. RI College NE Tech (for profit). Johnson and Wales. Reach Salve Regina and Roger Williams.
NH. Keene State. Southern NH
Reach: Plymouth State
Maine. University of New England. Reach: University of Maine
Vermont. Bennington. Norwich (military) St Mikes. Caselton State. Champlain
CT. Western Southern and Eastern Connecticut State College. Reach: university of Hartford university of new haven
Starting engineering not having had precalculus or physics in high school will be more difficult, since engineering curricula generally start with calculus, and physics in college often recommends high school physics as a prerequisite (in addition to calculus).
Given that the best predictor of college academic performance is high school academic performance, a 2.5 HS GPA is not a good sign, unless there were limiting issues that have now been mitigated.
Pre-med is not a major, but a set of courses and expected extracurriculars in college (which commonly include calculus and physics as well as chemistry and biology). A college GPA of 3.7 is likely to be needed to avoid automated downgrading or rejection of your medical school application before a human reader gets to it.
Community college may be the best place to start, where you can do the remedial work in math and physics (and any other subject you struggled with in high school) at lower cost than at a four year school. If you want to go directly to a four year school, less selective schools like UMass Dartmouth may be possible admits.
Also. I did not assume engineering at this time. Just the premed or tradional offerings.
If engineering is your goal. I strongly agree with @ucbalumnus.
But if you want to press on with a 4 year school. You might really benefit from the structure of Norwich or Mass Maritime. Plus a lot of hands on stuff for you that might be a path to excel outside of the classroom. Plus plenty of technical opportunities at both schools.
@SailorSays I do not think you’d be accepted directly into an ABET engineering program with your preparation, so I would think you would need to find a school that offers options if that doesn’t happen for you. I know that you say no to community colleges but I see how they change lives every day - I work at one in MA. However, if you are set on engineering and a four year school then UMass Lowell or Dartmouth would be your best options based on your background. You would not graduate in four years as you’d need background courses like Calc and physics beforehand. These schools are also comprehensive enough that if you decide to switch majors, there will be options for you. Good luck!
You don’t have trigonometry, and you don’t have precalculus. As such you are probably a full year away from starting to take calculus. The students that I have known who had easy A’s in algebra 1, algebra 2, trigonometry, and precalculus all found calculus easy. The students that I have known who had trouble with these classes found calculus very hard. Engineering as a major depends very heavily on calculus.
Your GPA is low for getting into an engineering program.
Also, the majority of students who enter university thinking that they are premed end up changing their mind before they get their bachelor’s degree. Premed is tough. The majority of students who end up graduating premed and applying to medical school don’t get in anywhere. The premed students that I have known were all quite close to an unweighted 4.0 GPA in high school, and still found premed classes very hard.
Why did you graduate high school a year early? Why don’t you want to start at community college? Why haven’t you taken physics in high school?
Why do you want to attend university, and what are you going to do to improve your grades in university that you didn’t do in high school?
Granite State in NH,
Medaille in NY.
Rosemont PA
Georgian Court NJ
Saint Peter’s NJ
St Thomas Aquinas NY
Buffalo State College (not SUNY Buffalo university)
Curry College in MA,
Keene State NH
Dean College in MA,
Cedar Crest PA
Chestnut Hill PA,
Bloomsburg U of PA
Cabrini PA
East Stroudsburg PA
Our Lady of the Elms PA
Wheelock in MA,
Uni of Connecticut, Stamford,
Springfield in MA,
Worcester State in MA,
MA College of Liberal Arts,
Westfield State MA,
Salem State MA,
Wilson College in PA,
Gordon in MA,
Delaware Valley in PA,
Alfred State in NY,
SUNY Delhi NY,
Morrisville State in NY
Penn State Mont Alto
Wilkes PA
Penn State Lehigh Valley
Concordia NY
Holy Family PA
Suffolk MA
Alvernia PA
Bowie State, MD
LaSalle PA
St Francis, Brooklyn NY
Now, here’s the list of disclaimers:
I didn’t look at majors or what academic programs they have.
I didn’t look at finances. That HAS to be a part of the equation.
I didn’t look into services for learning disabilities.
I simply looked for schools where your SAT scores made admissions a real possibility. How real is up to you to research.
At some point, you may have evaluate just how likely you are to make it through the coursework involved in medical school, or in becoming an engineer. That will mean an evaluation of why your scores aren’t as high as you would like and how capable you are of improving them.
In another thread you said your budget is $10-40k/year. That’s too broad to be helpful. Do you know your EFC? Can your parents pay it? You’re likely going to need 5 years to finish a bachelor’s (and maybe even 6 if you’re an engineering major) because you’ll probably need a reduced course load and foundation courses. Make sure that your parents can cover extra semesters if you need them. It’s important that you check the student services each college offers. If they don’t have the resources you need then don’t bother to apply.
If your parents can only pay $10k/year then your budget (with the $5500 federal student loan) is ~$15k. If you work summers you can probably raise another $3k, so your total would be ~$18k. Are there any schools in MA whose net cost comes in under that number?
I didn’t suggest Dean College on your other thread because it probably wouldn’t land within the budget you stipulated. But if you can make it work financially, it could be a great option for you, as they specialize in supporting students with learning disabilities. They have both associate and bachelor’s programs; I have a relative to started out there and graduated from UMass Amherst… but transferring out is just an option and not a necessity.
Have you already graduated? Or are you just planning to graduate this year? I don’t understand the value of graduating early when you’ll simply end up having to pay to do high school coursework in college. Why not transition to a Middle College program, where you can take another year of classes at a community college while still officially a high school student, and then get into a four-year college as a freshman at the normal age, with more coursework and perhaps a slight GPA boost under your belt? (As I mentioned on the other thread, you are just a hair beneath the statewide minimum requirements for the MA University system - the tiniest increase in GPA, or another 20 SAT points, would put you above that line.)
It seems as if there is something compelling you to get away to college, irrespective of academic readiness. Is it just that you hate high school? (If so, the Middle College solution would make the most sense.) Or are you in a difficult situation at home in some way?
@bjkmom, to be fair, OP didn’t mention any cost restraints so how could you know.
Sailor, some of us have experience with college and students with learning disorders. I understand the desire to be like everyone else. But cc isn’t just a place to improve grades. It can be an affordable place to pick up foundation credits or even to do the Gen Ed requirements. If you need a reduced course load you can do that cost effectively at a cc. It will cost you more at a 4-year university.
I know it can feel like cc is a reflection of your ability and intelligence, but there are a lot of very smart kids whose parents can’t afford residential college. They start at their local community colleges. But there are 4-year schools that might work if your parents can afford the cost. If you tell us how much your parents are willing to pay were may be able to make suggestions.
There is nothing in the record that suggests OP can manage engineering or premed rigor. This is not just a matter of being a B/C student. It’s the whole pattern here. OP would need targets that not only accept his stats, but aren’t concerned about the holistic readiness for the possible majors. Unfortunately, many of those can be “sink or swim.” You get in and flounder and too bad.
To be fair, the OP made no mention of their motivation for not wanting to attend a community college. It’s fine to prefer a residential college and many students with similar stats go away to college. I think some of the schools listed out by @bjkmom will still be a reach due to your grades but it’s nice to have that list as a starting point. I’m not sure if they have engineering but Mercyhurst in PA might be a choice for your interests. I have heard good things.
I’ll add to the chorus saying that the OP should not go into either engineering or pre-med. While the OP’s extracurricular activities demonstrate that the OP has multiple strengths and skills, they do not demonstrate the math or bio skills required for these two majors. The OP also does not demonstrate any interest in either. No extracurricular activities that relate to biology or biomedical pursuits, no activities in robotics or math club. There is absolutely no indication that the OP has thought seriously about either of these as a future career, or even actually knows what these careers entail.
What I do see are multiple sports activities, acting, writing, and music. I think that the OP should apply to programs that play to these strengths, and not try to apply to majors where they will likely not succeed because they lack the basic skills, passion, or even basic interest.
I think that there are many fields in which the OP will excel and thrive. These do not include either engineering or any biomedical professions.
As noted above, the extent to which you need to ask for funding makes a big difference. If you are full pay, you will get into far more schools than if not. And you’d probably get into schools that those asking for aide but with much higher grades and scores are rejected from. Being wealthy enough to be full pay is a big leg up for all but the need blind schools.
Most colleges have need-blind admissions, so being full pay will not be advantageous in admissions to most colleges.
However, most colleges do not have good financial aid, so a student who can pay list price is able to attend many more possible colleges than one who is financially needy. That is the actual advantage that a full pay student has, since financially needy students commonly need to limit themselves to colleges much less selective than they are capable of getting admitted to (because that is where they can get big enough merit scholarships), or commute from home to a local community college or in-state public university.
@ucbalumnus what schools are need-blind anymore outside of schools with billions of dollars in endowment? I haven’t researched it lately but I thought it was not many.
“Most colleges have need-blind admissions, so being full pay will not be advantageous in admissions to most colleges.”
This is not the case at all. Most schools are NOT need blind. They are need aware. Only 7 schools are both need blind and promise to meet 100% need (not want) for all students including international students. There are about 50 schools that are need blind admissions for US students; some of which meet full need and others which don’t. And there is debate about how need blind these schools really are. I’d expect some are and some may not be.
Most schools are need aware. They also often provide merit money to even the wealthiest students in an effort to increase yield and average scores. Many favor full pay students to such an extent that a full pay B student with 600 scores can be accepted while a A student with 700 scores who has an even better fit to the school (and better overall application in all ways) is rejected.