Hi, I'm a young adult (just turned 21), identified as gifted between ages 9-10 and also dx'd with Asperger's, who as a young kid, always said I wanted to be a theoretical physicist, which at age 14 transformed into my announcement to the science class that I wanted to study theoretical particle physics. I also had undx'd migraines that started getting treated at age 18, as well as asthma that went unrecognized for some time (that one I suspected since I was seven, when a classmate had it and I thought I should get checked out - I'm not sure the extent to which I got evaluated, but I do know a nurse at college measured my peak flow at rest and said she thought it unlikely). I never had any kind of acceleration, but I did attend a GATE class from grades 4 through 8 (in the subjects of drama, visual arts, chess, book club, and marine science). For high school, I transferred to an arts charter school where I could specialize in studying the art of creative writing (I also dabbled in film towards the end of my senior year).

Unfortunately, while the school was excellent when it came to arts instruction, the dramatic reduction of bullying, and the fact that I met more intellectual thinkers, the academics were very unchallenging (though it's a good school academically in general, just that until you get to AP classes, there were few options for acceleration), and so after my freshman year of school, it was hard mainly due to missing so much time due to prolonged sinus infections, breathing problems, chest pains, and headaches, which were long assumed to be either exaggerations or my way to get out of doing boring schoolwork I didn't want to bother to do like I did in elementary school or in junior high when physical safety was at risk due to bullying, but medical tests finally showed that I do in fact have GERD, asthma, and migraines, which are all on the road to being controlled.

I had grown up getting 100%'s on nearly everything, then 99%'s, when I put effort into it, so the idea of getting much less than that when the grades matter for college struck me as massive failure and a reason to punish myself. I knew it was a wild exaggeration of the proportions of the situation, but that is how I reacted, on a nervous level, initially.

But I started to focus more on socialization and taking care of my health (I've always missed weeks or months at a time since elementary school, attributed to either psychological issues such as school avoidance or the prolonged sinus infections and breathing troubles and headaches, which there had been more of during elementary school) instead of concentrating on school, which, much like my first grade days, I viewed increasingly as a total joke.

I don't know, the high school went to reasonable measures to accelerate me, but by then, the damage had mostly already been done, I mean, AP Calculus AB is hardly going to hold my attention when I had already studied calculus four to six years earlier and by then I was already onto undergrad number theory and abstract algebra.


...Tl;dr I had poor attendance and little motivation to do well in school throughout my young life (I figured I wouldn't get into a good college anyway, because of all the absences and our lack of money, and I just gave up prematurely on the idea of college, even though I still fantasized about it - I really wanted to go to math camp; I forget why I never sent out an application - I think it's because I kept getting those four-month long sinus infections really bad, and I ended up forgetting to give the problems to my mom to send in time), becoming especially noticeable at the crucial moment, because I was disillusioned and young. Now I am slightly older, and willing to go back into the system for a rewarding, if stressful, career.

Although, one thing to keep in mind is that even though I put in little effort to keeping up my grades or activities during high school, I did go to school from 8-5 and then straight to CC classes from 6-10 four days out of the week for about a year, managing like a 3.5 GPA that year or something (I don't have the transcript on hand. It wasn't that demanding, though, and I put most of my effort into my personal math, film, foreing languages, writing, music, literary projects, etc. - I've always been something of a multi-tasker).

The original issue that prompted this post is that when senior year rolled around, I applied to a school (or possibly two) I did not particularly see myself attending, and ended up dropping out due to health issues, roommate noise adversely affecting my health, and a change in career and academic plans (this school did not offer a music program where I could pursue composition and theory at even a basic level).

So the only track I have left to higher-education is a community college, but there are a few things I'd like to know that perhaps some people here have the ability to clarify:

When a college adcom evaluates an applicant, I mean, I know they know there are intelligent people who attend community colleges. However, I do know that community college courses are generally very easy (how much easier than: average state school versus average private school versus average Ivy League school, I have no idea, and I've only listened in on a state school course, unless you count MIT OpenCourseWare.

But since my intended careers (since I would rather apply my skills, even though my primary ability and passion is in math, rather do something directly applicable to the world than purely theoretical for personal satisfaction in addition to academic satisfaction as opposed to strictly academic satisfaction, as I'd like to do aerospace engineering or become a medical doctor (mathematics professor is a top choice but fewer direct applications). Frankly, if job opportunities and such weren't a concern, I could major in almost anything from chemistry to classics, thoroughly enjoying the experience, and if there were enough time in my mortal lifespan I would probably major in most subjects the average university offers, and get a master's or Ph.D in a greatly reduced yet still sizeable subset of that.

At the local community college, within a year I could take about two courses from local universities in addition to the community colleve. Ideally, I would transfer after a year or a year and a half (I might need a little bit of time just to establish that I can keep doing the work consistently, since I dropped out of the four-year school, and the medical withdrawal is only noted for the first year).

The thing is something of a catch-22, unless I'm missing something about the process - I want to take very rigorous courses to demonstrate my ability to handle difficult college coursework (consistently), but I've heard that medical schools don't like seeing the pre-med courses from community colleges. I would not mind re-taking it at the transfer institution if that were an issue. It can be very different at this level, and even if I had self-taught at the rigor of the re-taken courses and thus everything was a re-hash, oh well, that's life. I'm used to worse things now than re-taking courses. There should be better ways, but right now any way out (of poverty, mold, and cyclic cynicism) is a good one.

Also, any transfer recommendations? What schools are good for gifted, inquisitive, derailed young people who aspire to professional goals? The kind of school I am interested in is the kind where the emphasis is on solving difficult, complex problems, less of a "busywork" mentality - that doesn't mean I'm not open to doing long papers, by the way, and obviously I'll still encounter "busywork" whatever school I go to - I just want to minimize the amount, and find a school where I am, preferably, around students of a similar mind. My writing is, as you've probably already noted, of a logorrheic nature (I was the fourth-grader suggesting a 50-page thesis - my reassurance of "Don't worry, I only want it for me, not for everyone! just bewildered them - they thought I was suggesting it as a punishment for everyone, a punishment few could handle? Typing helps, I said, but that didn't go over well either, sure enough!)

I don't know what to ask in terms of advice getting to this dream school (as well as to safeties and that middle, comfort zone school (I forget the usual term applied here, darn med can't wait until the neuro switches me), though if anyone did have anything besides the obvious (get excellent grades, participate in a meaningful way, engage professors, have something tangible to show for outside pursuits, etc.) then I would welcome that as well.

I wish that it was a little more open and forgiving for people who are bright and (newly) motivated, as the real world can quickly motivate people even in less than ideal circumstances, or perhaps it is and it is just difficult to tell because so many people apply to transfer? It isn't like my HS grades were terrible for the norm, just compared to what I could do (GPA is deceiving though - I had about a B average GPA from a good school, but it was very uneven, all averaging to a pretty good GPA but with some bumps that would make someone question just how consistently I could achieve that.

My test scores are pretty uneven too, primarily since I viewed multiple-choice tests like that as fun breaks like the state testing that didn't really matter, but also because of the uncontrolled migraines (I did well on some SATS and poorly on others - great on my history AP even though history is my worst subject and terrible on my math and science APs, despite doing well in those classes before I had to quit to make up my D in non-AP U.S. History - which didn't work; I wasn't motivated before quitting my favorite APs and I wasn't motivated after) - Oh and my SAT was 750 CR 680 M 620 WR. I took it at the usual age. I took it twice, buying a test prep book after the first test results came in - after all, I didn't want to look like the jerk who isn't worried at all about the SAT while everyone else is studying, even if my reasons were a little different than having a good score.

Once these health problems are better controlled though, and I will have disciplined myself through self-study and then the community college courses, I don't see it as too great an impediment to my goals, just need some time to get used to living in colder weather and things like that, so everyday life runs smoothly first before tackling more things.

So any ideas on these issues are apppreciated. Thanks!

::I've spared you some of the details. Not all, but some. Usually I don't write such wordy posts, except when it's late and I'm very tired, writing in a meandering, droning sort of speech.

Last edited by Shift; 01/16/11 08:03 PM.