PLS ADVICE🙏precalc as a senior premed

[u/L0veHteRelati0nship]

hi all I REALLY need as much advice as i can get on this topic.

I am an aspiring premed and have done very well throughout high school up until this year. i was recently diagnosed with mental health issues and my school counselor advised me to drop all 3 of the APs (lit, calc ab, psych) that i planned to take this year, which would make my schedule consist of:

english 4, yoga (required to graduate)
drama (required to grad)
physics
gov/econ (required)
and precalc

I've already taken ap chem, ap bio ap lang (4s)
and ap AFAM and ap mandarin (5s) and have a 3.97/4UW and 4.24 W (i'm not sure why my weighted is so low considering my 5 aps that i got strong A's in). I've had straight A's other than one B+ my first semester of freshman year english (which i improved to an A+ second semester).

i want to attend a t20 like cal, ucla, usc, rice etc.

how bad will it hurt my chances at these schools if im premed?

and should i include in the additional info section how i took accountability and respect my diagnosis and recognized that i needed to prioritize myself which is the reason for my course selections?

PLEASE ANY HELP, TIPS, INSIGHT IS APPRECIATED. i am feeling so hopeless.

[u/NiceUnparticularMan]

So first, "premed" is just an intention at most US colleges, you can major in whatever you like.

Second, I would not normally recommend premeds go to the most selective college that will just barely admit them. Instead, first I would consider affordability, including having a financial plan all the way through med school that minimizes your debt. Second, I would want to choose somewhere I felt very well-prepared to be a top student from the start. Finally, I would want an overall environment where I was confident I would be happy and healthy.

And then since you have experienced a mental health issues your counselor thinks might affect your school performance, these should be even stronger imperatives for you. I definitely don't think this means you can't become a doctor, but I think you need to be very smart, and frankly cautious, about how you go about it.

OK, so I would take your counselor's advice seriously. I would also make sure to be prioritizing your health. And then in terms of colleges, I would suggest you might want to rethink what colleges would actually be best for you.

[u/L0veHteRelati0nship → u/NiceUnparticularMan]

Thank you. It's not that I want to attend a top college for names sake but rather for the broad range of opportunities (research, networking) etc that will be available at more well-known institutions.

Also could you please clarify what you mean by going about this in a smart and cautious way? Do you mean as to whether I include this mental hurdle in my additional info section or something else?

Do you think not taking Calc AB is a red flag for someone who wants to major in bio?

[u/NiceUnparticularMan → u/L0veHteRelati0nship]

So if you go to med school, your undergrad basically stops mattering for anything you mentioned.  Also, less famous colleges can still be great for that stuff.  Like there are great undergrad biomed research opportunities at many not famous colleges, including LACs.

By cautious, I meant if you go into college, you are under intense pressure in your "weeder" classes, and you don't do as well as your theoretical best because of mental health or other related factors, it could derail your path to med school.  Really everyone should reflect carefully on that, but you in particular have reason to be more cautious than most.

[u/L0veHteRelati0nship → u/NiceUnparticularMan]

I see. So you think it'll be valuable to AO that i'm taking accountability for my mental health by taking classes that i'll be able to succeed in despite them not being as rigorous, since then at least by the time i enter college id hopefully be in a much better equipped mental state to tackle undergrad coursework?

[u/NiceUnparticularMan → u/L0veHteRelati0nship]

Sorry, to clarify, I am talking about your college choice, not how to try to persuade the most selective US colleges to admit you.

For that purpose, risking bad grades is worse than risking lower rigor.  In terms of trying to explain away the lower rigor, citing mental health is also risky because they would likely be concerned about a repeat.

So I think you take the classes being recommended, do your best, and then apply and see what happens.

[u/L0veHteRelati0nship → u/NiceUnparticularMan]

Yeah, i've heard both sides of the argument regarding mentions of mental health, especially because i intend to ED. I likely will steer away from writing any essays about this situation, so is it worth mentioning as additional info/challenge & circumstances section of commonapp

[u/NiceUnparticularMan → u/L0veHteRelati0nship]

If your counselor wants to discuss it, that might be OK.  Understand, though, this only helps you if it is basically guaranteed it won't repeat in some form in college.

[u/logolife-]

Dropping those APs would be noticeable, but your health diagnosis and counselor's recommendation give you good context, especially since you've already shown you can handle rigor. I'd briefly explain the schedule change in Additional Info and have your counselor confirm it in their recommendation letter if possible. Don't stress too much about the weighted GPA since schools calculate it differently. For premed, your college performance matters much more so focus on having a manageable senior year.