I recieved an e-mail back from MIT

[DaJe]

Last night I sent an e-mail to the admissions office, telling them where I am, what I plan on doing, and then where I plan to go and what I plan to do with MIT. I asked them what kinds of classes I should take to prepare me for MIT and all of that, and what kind of person they're looking for. So now I basically have 2 years to work towards making myself all of that. Actually, I already am everything they're looking for, I now have 2 years to prove it. And I also now know what I should work towards when I start classes at a local college in January. I was already thinking of looking into a study abroad program that they offer, and the e-mail said 2 years of a foreign language is a good thing to have. So I'm thinking I'll take a language course during my first year at this college, and get some credits in, and then the next year I'll apply for the study abroad program. So not only will I have the language, but I can impress the MIT people but travelling to another country to immerse myself in the culture and language.

I just need to look at the end of everything, where I want to be, and then start working backwards from there, to find out what I need to do.

[Luke122]

If you get the chance to work overseas, DO IT. I spent 6 months @ Moscow State University on a work exchange program, and it was the best time of my life. Just make sure that surround yourself with people who speak the language, otherwise you wont learn much.

[Dilphat]

dude i am so jealous of you! but good job dude! good luck with everything, and with your spirit and goal chiseled within you then you are set to make it! *This is gonna sound so cliché(i think that's how you spell it)* But remember to, keep your chin up and keep moving forward!

[jdbnsn]

Sounds like hard work ahead of you, but fantastic goals! I agree with the above, travelling abroad is a life enhancing experience and you'll find that many people in foreign countries (even some that aren't so USA friendly) are quite fond of meeting Americans. You'll make plenty of very interesting life-long friends and learn about other culture first hand. As for a foreign language, I HIGHLY recommend Rosetta Stone as a learning tool even if it's used in conjunction with class. It is the best self study program I have ever seen and it makes learning the language much easier, I think even easier than class. Though nothing compares to being emersed in a community of the native speakers, that is the fastest and best way to learn. Good luck bro!

[DaJe]

What I need to do next is call up the college I plan to start off yet, and set up an appointment to meet with someone there to help me choose the right classes and guide me in the right direction. I'll also get myself setup for a placement test, so they can see where I'm at and put me in the right levels.

I've had a lot of issues with the public school district here. I'm not going to get into big details about it right now, but a good phrase to use would be they were sabotaging my education. One thing was they kept me in Algebra I for 3 years straight, and not because I failed the class or anything. Certain things kept me from doing the entire class two times in a row, but two different problems. Rather than testing out what I knew or helping me learn whatever I had left to know, they just made me do everything all over again. I've had a lot of social issues, and at one point for two months I tried homeschooling for a little bit. When I came back I was tested and I scored in the ****ing genius levels. It was a real test, just me and a doctor in a room, and he says I'm a damn genius and they should do whatever they must to accomidate me. So they put me in the damn lowest levels there are, the ones that have like 10 people in the class. They did it to help me deal with stress and pressure, and said that I would be able to move back up. I always just went along with everything, and never really had any say in anything involving my education.

Then one day I just had a moment of clarity. I realised "what am I doing here? All of the other people I was in class with before are somewhere else. Why am I not with them?", and I tried to change it. After a month filled with empty promises from two different guidance offices there, I went right to the vice principal who is a nice guy and knows me by name. He went down with me to the guidance office and talked with the guy about what can we do to move me up. This guidance counselor by the way is the track coach, and they just give him this job so they can keep him there. He managed to move me up to a higher level english class. I walk in there the first day and the teacher goes right down to the administration to have me removed from the class because he doesn't want a new student in there.


After all of that, I just said **** it. In September of 2005, I withdrew myself from the school to go on in my own pursuit of education in the way I wanted to. Ever since then, I've started making my own choices in everything, and my parents have truely treated me as an adult, capable of making his own decisions. The counselor that I'm seeing now, that my psychiatrist advised a see, is one I've seen before. My mother likes him because he was te first adult to support me leaving the school and going with my own plan.


And now here I am. It's two years later, and I'll soon be re-starting my educational pursuit. The first year I withdrew, I focused on other things like just relaxing for a little bit, and also getting a job and things like that. Then after that, I went and got my GED, and had above avergae scores and an absolute perfect 100% every single question right on the science part of it. I was too late for the registration for classes for the beginning of this school year, but right now I'm working on getting myself setup for classes for the next semester, which will start in January.



I said I wasn't going to get into big details, but once I started typing it all just came back to me.

[jdbnsn]

Good for you. You'll find throughout your education that there is a syllabus laid out which you will be confined to follow. But don't let that discourage you, because you will see over time that the structure of the syllabus is very purposeful and usually very effective. But then again, just becasue you are forced to take certain classes and such does not mean you are forced to think like the herd. Learn the things you are interested in, and just get the other stuff done to keep moving but don't let it bogg you down. When I started med school, we had no say what so ever in our course selection. There is only one syllabus and it's universal, and heavy as hell (something like 40 credit hours). I was absolutely devastated because it was nearly all memorization of mostly boring info, no real hands on stuff. It was tough, but I got through to the clinicals where I am much more at home. So as said before, just keep your eyes on the endpoint but don't forget to look at the big picture.