OP, you described yourself as East African American. Do you speak any other languages besides English?
Not being bilingual and admiring people who are, I have sometimes wondered if college admissions see being fluent or conversant in additional languages as helping meet the goal of taking FL in the first place. Isn’t the point of studying FL to learn about another language and culture?
As a polyglot, I can answer this. No. They don’t. Excellence through mastering the course material in HS is not replaced by learning a language at home or at Saturday School or by Duolingo, etc. They can work toward fulfilling the college graduation requirement, but you need to get admitted to the college first.
I understand that, but post after post about his lack of foreign language isn’t helpful at this point. He’s going into senior year. And I’m not sure dropping advanced math classes to add a foreign language is a good move at this point. It might be, idk. Would that really add value?
What about looking for schools that might value his math and music skills without zeroing in on the foreign language? I bet there are a lot of schools who would love a URM male with his academic chops. Not sure what his EC’s are, but his profile is way more impressive than my ds, who is also URM. And getting into UT McCombs with partial scholarship is not easy.
This kid needs a budget, a list schools who will look at him holistically (which means more than box checking foreign language), and some true safeties.
I agree 100% but those are not likely to be the schools the OP mentioned in their original post.
And this student is still a junior and does have time to pivot their senior schedule.
ECs:
PVYO - Tubist
Pep Band
Math Honors Society
Science Honors Society
Engineering Honors Society
Programming (Java) - I created a website with my friend to administer virtual hallpasses for schoolwide use
Tutor - Math & Science (I tutored Seniors in Multivariable Calculus)
Quizbowl
Tri - M
Teacher Assistant for Multivariable Calculus
I am also currently working on a research paper of Chaos Theory and it’s applications with my peer.
OP, what I would suggest is play to your strengths and look for schools that will value your strengths.
You need to spend a lot of time researching schools and cultivating your list. Do not make a list of T20 and solely focus on those.
Do apply to some reaches, but also look for some really strong safeties where you will be sure thing for admission and likely also get some scholarship $$$.
See if you can fall in love with a few schools like UTD and Bama where you’ll have an automatic full ride. (You are national merit, right?)
Then make a good, well researched list of match/reaches and see what happens.
Do you know where i should start looking first?
Start with your state flagship-UMD, correct?
There are a lot of helpful people here, but it would be good to know some of your preferences to suggest some schools. Things like size of school, location, weather, religious affiliation, social scene, etc. All you have shared so far is the desire for a strong STEM school. Please let us know what you are looking for.
I am looking for a college in a big city, any size works for me, strong engineering/computer science program.
In general I agree, although Georgia Tech was mentioned in the original post and looks like it may be okay. According to this document Staying_on_Course.pdf (linked from GT’s academic preparation page Academic Preparation | Undergraduate Admission), middle school FL can count toward the required 2 years (if you submit a middle school transcript), and computer science can also substitute for FL (!!).
oh wow nice, I took AP Computer Science Principles, AP Computer Science A, Programming 3.
Perhaps more accurately, UC and CSU say that level N validates all levels from 1 to N-1. But few other colleges are explicit and detailed about how various foreign language situations (starting in middle or elementary school, heritage speaker, etc.) are handled, so it is not always obvious how each college would handle a given situation. Also, at many private colleges, high school course work is given as recommendations, not requirements, and without any detail for various situations, so the college can have more discretion in its admission decision. But that leaves lots of students like the OP (and school counselors) guessing about what is actually the case, sometimes resulting in potentially poor choices made in 9th/10th grade that can limit college admissions.
UC and CSU basically say yes if the level of proficiency can be proven (for some such students, English is their foreign language), but that is not necessarily true for other colleges. Again, many private colleges like to leave themselves some discretion. For example, a student who speaks Spanish at home and reads/writes at AP level or higher may not have any useful foreign language options if the high school only offers Spanish as a foreign language.
Actually Maryland provides Seal of Bileteracy that works perfectly well for college applications.
I think the most important thing to be learned from the whole conversation is that if you have a non-standard HS curriculum, you will need to do a deeper dive into each school’s requirements and recommendations.
I am sure that this student will be able to find a range of schools that will consider the HS preparation to be adequate. I would just caution that the student carefully review the recommendations listed on each school’s web site, and possibly double check with admissions at each school, before spending time and money on an application that might be wasted if the student doesn’t meet the school’s expectations.
Do you have any school suggestions for this student?
I agree the OP is very competitive for GTech.
It meets the preference for an urban campus, stem focus and only requires 2 years FL. GTech also considers diversity in admissions.
If OP is from Maryland, UMD should be on the short list. He’s likely to get scholarship money on top of instate tuition, and it has a very good CS program and engineering school. It’s right outside the DC area, and has access to great internships and co-ops.
One of my colleague’s son only applied to 4 schools - UMD, Virginia Tech, MIT and Johns Hopkins. He got into all but MIT (waitlisted), with similar stats to OP. UMD gave him full tuition, and that’s where he’s going (much to the chagrin of his Hokie parents and grandparents). He isn’t a URM, and would have been full pay anywhere.
You did excellent with Math but you did too much of Math. It actually can backfire(Сomplex analysis maybe level 4 class.) You may consider more science and Engineering classes. For EC maybe some robotics team?
Also you need to understand that despite of being URM you are against of well rounded 2 MCPS big magnet programs (for CC reades, these 2 magnets are competive in MD and all apply to top STEM schools)… Almost the whole magnets apply to GaTech, UMIch. That is why you need to diversify your list. As people mentioned above I would definitely apply to not only top 20 but top 50 Engineering schools unless you are happy with UMD as your backup plan. I would include VaTech, CWRU, UIUC, Purdue, UT Austin, Ohio State. If you have all your top plus the above plus UMD, I am sure you will have some good choices.
here are my science classes that I will take/taken through senior year:
Honors Biology
Honors Chemistry
AP Physics 1
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism
AP Chemistry
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Computer Science A
Programming 3 Advanced Topics
Engineering Design