Catching Up in College: A Math and Science Student's Dilemma

[Jimmy Dickey]

Alrighty here it goes. I have been very interested in pursuing a career in math for as long as I can remember knowing what it was, whether I WANT to be an engineer or a physicist or not is not really much of a concern for me what is a concern though is how I performed academically in my younger years.

I got very very poor grades all the way up to my senior year in high school which is when I turned things around, I will be graduating in just over a month finishing out my last year with, if all things stay constant, a 4.0. The problem is due to my lack of effort I seem to have fallen quite significantly behind in math courses finishing Algebra II this year. The actual work is and never has been a problem and I feel I am beyond proficient in math and feel I should've been taking this class as a freshman(maybe a little bit over exaggerated but the class is very easy). I was, even through my abysmal grades, selected as a "gifted" student in both math and reading and I also have a question about that though it may be better suited for my counselor. Ill ask that at the end.

Anyways rambling aside I am very interested in pursuing high levels of math and science in my college years but I am worried that I am already so far behind, having not taken any calculus or physics. Am I going to be okay catching up on these courses in college or am looking at going into medicine :D

As for the other question, I received a paper basically stating what subjects I was recognized as gifted in and had to get a parent signature blah blah blah. The thing is, the paper said I would be signed up for honors classes. I just received this my last year of high school and am not quite sure how I would then take honors courses, does this roll over into college? I don't even know how college classes work ahhhhhhhhhh

 

[Dishsoap]

Plenty of physics majors never took physics or calculus before entering college. If you just finished algebra II, you might need a semester to take pre-calculus before starting physics courses (the first one of which is generally taken at the same time as first-semester calculus), but as long as you have adequately addressed the issues that caused you to do poorly in the first place, you'll be fine.

 

[Jimmy Dickey]

Plenty of physics majors never took physics or calculus before entering college. If you just finished algebra II, you might need a semester to take pre-calculus before starting physics courses (the first one of which is generally taken at the same time as first-semester calculus), but as long as you have adequately addressed the issues that caused you to do poorly in the first place, you'll be fine.

Awesome thank you very much!

 

[Dishsoap]

Also, honors courses in high school don't "roll over". Depending on the university, there might be "honors" courses, and you might be able to apply for the honors program depending on high school GPA and such.