My school district offers a select program at a STEM magnet-like school for the 3 high schools in the district. One applies in 8th grade and there is no entering the program after that.
At the time (8th grade), I was not mature enough to make such a decision and was never exposed to technology and/or engineering (my school district, other than this magnet school, is ironically deficient in these subjects for K-8 schools) and therefore took no serious interest in enrolling.
I’d always wanted to be a doctor one day, but as I studied science in high school (will be a senior in fall), I was never satisfied with just learning the material (which is a lot of what science is). I suddenly developed an incredible interest for learning the mathematical underpinnings of science and have completely changed my curriculum to be based on biomedical engineering concentration. I now (or rather will, soon when senior year begins) take STEM courses at a local university and at a local tech university (though not MIT, or Caltech) and these are all sophomore-senior undergrad courses.
Today, I have sincere regret for not attending this STEM program. My regular old high school did not give me opportunities that I may have had at the STEM magnet school. I quickly exhausted the math and science AP courses and began taking at a local comm. college and local university.
My question is, will top tech schools like MIT and Caltech “penalize” me for not attending this STEM-magnet school program? Will they understand that this was a decision I made as a completely immature (as far as making decisions) 8th grader?