[SennFan]

Chill out and concentrate on you and being content. Don't buy into everything you read in US News (for example) and base the next 4 years of your life and $$$$$ on the opinions of others. Listen to myself and other wise head-fiers in this post when they say that your destiny is your own and most importantly...truly understand that where you went to school isn't your tombstone.

 

[yellafella321]

Med School doesn't take AP credit. You'll have to take all the classes over again. No college is going to deny you just because you chose calc AB over calc BC. Just keep your GPA up, because first semester senior year still counts, and you'll enjoy your senior year more

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2bwire I would only recommend taking the harder courses, like Calc BC and Physics C. There's no point in taking the AB course. If you go into any science, engineering, or math discipline you will need to take the equivalent of the BC anyway. The only reason I would think of taking the AB is if you're a LAS major, but even then there are more appropriate AP exams like literature and history.

 

[xbkingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellafella321 Med School doesn't take AP credit. You'll have to take all the classes over again. No college is going to deny you just because you chose calc AB over calc BC. Just keep your GPA up, because first semester senior year still counts, and you'll enjoy your senior year more

Med schools come after college (with some exceptions where you can get an BS and MD in 6 years total). Colleges DO take AP credit, and the more you have, the better (not for getting out of classes, but as a way of proving yourself). I would go Calc BC. If I remember correctly (been 7 years), the difference wasn't that big.

Oh, and I don't care what engineering you're into, CMU is the most DEPRESSING place on earth. I interviewed there last year for grad school, and after 2 days sent them MY refusal, saying that they can offer my spot, should I have gotten it, to another student. The grad students were boring, always tired, smelly as Hell (my lord it was bad), and lacked all social graces. And you could tell they were all seriously depressed. That is by far a better measure of "will I be happy here" than anything else. Let's see... will I be happy here... no one else is, so I'm thinking...

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh I'm mostly concerned about getting in COLLEGe right now, not med school (read the original post) theres no one from harvard or MIT undergrad here?

*raises hand*

http://matt.mitblogs.com/
http://www.mitblogs.com/

Start there...

Admissions officers are not so much deciding whether you're "good enough" for a school, but whether you'd do well and have fun there.

 

[cwuzer]

for all seniors...

college decision time is only like a month away.

 

[fante7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xbkingx Oh, and I don't care what engineering you're into, CMU is the most DEPRESSING place on earth. I interviewed there last year for grad school, and after 2 days sent them MY refusal, saying that they can offer my spot, should I have gotten it, to another student. The grad students were boring, always tired, smelly as Hell (my lord it was bad), and lacked all social graces. And you could tell they were all seriously depressed. That is by far a better measure of "will I be happy here" than anything else. Let's see... will I be happy here... no one else is, so I'm thinking...

I don't know what kind of bad experience you had with the engineering department, but I'll put in my 2 cents. I've made several friends who are graduate students (in mathematics) who are plenty social and far from boring. I also know a lot of engineering undergrads who are quite the opposite of what you describe. I can't speak for the engineering grad students though. I have seen people like those who you describe, but I simply stay away from them.

Edit: Just to clarify, this is CMU I'm talking about.

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

The real question is:

Do the Ivy League colleges provide the best undergrad education compared to similar, non-Ivy institutions?

For the lower-ivies (read: Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell University), the answer is a definitive "no."

These schools consistently rank behind their peers in important categories, like student to faculty ratio, average class size, and student to endowment ratio.

Referring to a good school as an "Ivy" is an exercise in aggrandizing the Ivy League's exclusiveness in providing a quality education.

-Matt

 

[XxATOLxX]

Do the schools count all of the high schools weighted GPA? I really ******* up freshman year.

 

[yellafella321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XxATOLxX Do the schools count all of the high schools weighted GPA? I really ******* up freshman year.

every year counts

 

[Kiwiclx]

Too many people are worried about getting into a "good school" off the bat. What's wrong with transferring? I know a lot of great people who did poorly in high school or didn't quite get into their college of choice, went to community college or some other school and transferred.

I think the best example is a friend of my older brother. He got mostly Cs and failed a few classes his first three years in high school and everyone was pretty sure he was going to end up not going to college or sticking with an Associates Dregree after 3 or 4 years of community college. I supposed he woke up his senior year, getting straight As his senior year although he knew he would be going to community college anyhow. We attended our local CC where he got As for two years and transferred to UCI and is going to be graduating this year with a double major is Math and Physics. Interested in graduate school and being involved in a research project with one of his professors, he applied to schools that offered a specifc physics program, many just happening to be Ivy league. So far he has been accepted into every school he's applied to, the most recent being Yale. He's being given a full ride in addition to an all expenses paid trip to visit the campus.

It's crazy how one can come back from nothing. Even if you're not trying to get out of a hole, you still have plenty of oppotunity for the future. I know in my situation I will be transferring after next year and I'll see who's interested in lassoing me. :X Don't let it tear you up - just do your best and be grateful of the given opportunity to attend whatever school you end up choosing.

 

[cantsleep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XxATOLxX Do the schools count all of the high schools weighted GPA? I really ******* up freshman year.

they look at it but doesnt count. at least when i was in high/college...

 

[Jahn]

i remember that colleges liked the fact that seniors managed to salvage their GPA from crap frosh scores - it showed determination and improvement over time, and hey, the final avg GPA was still within their threshold.

far better than someone with avg grades, then tanking in the second half of the junior year and getting crap SATs too. that shows a loss of momentum right as colleges are looking at you, which doesn't go over that well.

even folks with senioritis should be careful. my sister was mailing it in her senior year after getting in her early decision school, when she got a letter from them saying "we noticed your math is slipping. we know you hate it and that's not the subject that we took you for, but we're watching you - if your GPA tanks too much this year we're cutting you loose." that put a scare into her until she got to college - they she promptly never took another math course again for the rest of her life.

 

[Oistrakh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazyfrenchman27 The real question is: Do the Ivy League colleges provide the best undergrad education compared to similar, non-Ivy institutions? For the lower-ivies (read: Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell University), the answer is a definitive "no." These schools consistently rank behind their peers in important categories, like student to faculty ratio, average class size, and student to endowment ratio. Referring to a good school as an "Ivy" is an exercise in aggrandizing the Ivy League's exclusiveness in providing a quality education. -Matt

Brown is a lower end ivy-league?

Even though you might not get the "Best" undegrad education at lower-ivies, at least one won't be ashamed when you tell people which college you went to!

 

[Jahn]

there's no shame in getting in any of the ivys - they all have good reps. and honestly, i think if you go to ANY higher education, you can hold your head up high. not everyone has the luxury to go get higher education, so an advanced degree is never anything to be ashamed of.

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh Brown is a lower end ivy-league? Even though you might not get the "Best" undegrad education at lower-ivies, at least one won't be ashamed when you tell people which college you went to!

Well, when the top 4 Ivies take the top 4 rankings -- Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UPenn -- the other 4 are "forced" to be at the lower end.

However that doesn't matter much, as all Ivies are good schools.