MIT, USC, CalTech, UCLA, Brown, Boston College, Boston University, Cal Lu, and 2 more later this year depending on where my MUN club wants to go for our next conference (it seems like we’re going to the Bay area next time around so most likely UCB or Stanford).
I’ve mostly visited these colleges because of either free field trips my school gives out or because of MUN but I still have visited lol.
And I think it’s pretty fair for me to decide to make my list rigid and start working at it this early mostly because I’m going to have absolute hell for my 3rd semester classes and to be honest, I don’t really feel too thrilled about writing some 10 applications all around the same time while also needing to manage finishing an extended essay and CAS hours.
Really? This is actually very surprising for me. It was pretty hard to get a handle on the political leanings of the school since all of the fliers they sent me don’t really display any of that happening. So I assumed they leaned at least somewhat liberally as the rep that came down to my state was also an enby and black.
I think you should continue to look at various schools given your budget ($20-30k unless it’s Oxford, right) and gpa. As you don’t yet have a 3.7 UW gpa and you say that you anticipate getting a couple of B grades this year, you should look at schools with your current unweighted gpa in mind. While you are a very strong student with impressive math coursework, I think your gpa will keep you from being a competitive applicant at Brown, UCLA, UCB, MIT etc. From the tenor of your comments you seem to think that a long list of unique ECs will make up for your gpa - I don’t believe that is the case. Also, don’t include a “fantasy novel” in your ECs unless it is completed and, at a minimum, self published by the time you apply. Same goes for #9 - most AO’s will roll their eyes at the idea of HS student working on a “Nobel Laureate” level research project. It just isn’t believable.
The fantasy novel relates to what I mentioned about on the live streaming so I’m not too worried about that novel since it’s pretty easy for anyone to grab a copy of the manuscripts lol.
And that “nobel laureate” thing I mentioned is of course not going to be on the application, I just brought it up to explain that there is absolutely no shot in hell I’m going to have the research fully published at the currently level I’m at. It might be published if I invite some people to come work with me on it but I at least want to know what I’m doing so I’m currently putting the research on the back burner while I read a couple of textbooks related to fields, algebras, rings, and data structures of big datas
Regardless of your EC’s I think you need to re-work your list to include more realistic schools given your gpa and class rank. I think you’d be wasting an ED application on Brown - you’d be better off finding a school that is less of a Hail Mary. You have a good profile and are doing some interesting things, but your grades just aren’t where they need to be.
But you’ve mentioned that this is the thing that will “heavily sway” an AO in your favor. It won’t. You have a lot of knowledgeable people here trying to advise you. Please listen. Expand your college list. The high reaches are very unlikely.
Did you do this research with anyone else? Or is it all just you at a desk by yourself (which is only really possible with math and a few other subjects).
I’m leaving them on because if I don’t I’m fairly confident I’m not going to be accountable and then #9 is not only not going to be complete, it’s just not going to start at all. Same with #10. I feel if I have these on my application right now it’ll only motivate me to actually get these done since if I don’t then I’m basically abandoning my ability to get approved anywhere else cause I lied on my application
Currently I’m just getting my background information. As the research I mentioned relates to how data structures and big datas can be simplified using modern algebraic techniques, this is something I can do at a desk by myself.
Will I actually do this by myself? I sure as hell hope not to. This is something that is well beyond my pay grade and I just want to get the ball rolling (identifying sub problems and making the topic of research a lot more complete and specific and maybe solving some of the sub problems) then I’m going to send out emails to a bunch of professors near by who specialize in either big datas or algebras and see if they want to help me either: 1: finish the research or 2: find someone who is capable of finishing the research for me
They are indeed unlikely but these schools are ones that I’m genuinely interested in and I feel as if I’d feel bad for not applying to these schools and at least not trying. At the end of the day the only thing wasted is time as I still have my federal free lunch thingy so most applications are free for me.
I am not an admissions professional, but these are my guesses as to what your chances might be at the schools on this list, based on your current record.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Cal Poly – Humboldt
High Point
Ole Miss
Likely (60-79%)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lehigh (if ED, otherwise move down a category)
Southern Methodist (leaning towards likely)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Boston University
Carnegie Mellon (leaning towards very low)
Harvey Mudd
U. of Southern California
Very Low Probability (less than 5%)
Brown
MIT
For the UCs and Cal States, I will yield to @gumbymom or @ucbalumnus, but I felt comfortable putting Humboldt in the Extremely Likely Category. UCLA & UCB would probably be in my Low or Very Low probability categories. I’m unsure about UCSB and how the chances for CCS at UCSB differ from the regular school. (In the future, you might want to note that you’re interested in CCS when you mention UCSB…without the prior context from the other thread, I would not have known, and the chances for CCS vs. UCSB are probably not the same.)
Has your family run the Net Price Calculator for all of these schools? Will they meet the $20-30k projected budget? I suspect that Humboldt and Ole Miss will. Any school whose NPC will not meet the budget should be eliminated. (And please don’t let your grandfather go into debt for your college expenses, particularly when you have a solid choice that will be within budget.)
Additionally, at need-aware schools (private schools that say they meet full need but don’t say they’re need-blind), the amount of aid you need can impact admissions decisions, too. A school might prefer Candidate A whose family will end up paying $50k rather than Candidate B whose family who will pay $30k, even if Candidate B is a more impressive candidate. For a candidate who might be “on the edge” of whether they would receive an acceptance or not, a high amount of need can definitely tip the scales.
You might also want to delve more into the culture of the student body and surrounding areas for your toss-up and likelier schools. Some schools have reputations, some of which they may be shedding or some of which may still be holding true, that might make an “Enby” take pause.
I don’t really feel as if I’m “wasting” an ED at brown, even if I get fully rejected I highly doubt I’m going to find another school I’m going to be interested in as much as Brown besides maybe Lehigh and even then I am definitely more interested in Brown over Lehigh.
I understand y’all want to crush my hopes and dreams (/s) but just after looking at maybe 50 different schools that are in the range of where an ED is possible none of them I’d actually feel comfortable with saying “this is where I want to go, I do not need to hear back from anyone else”
As for CCS vs UCSB regular, I don’t think I even qualify for CCS since I’ve taken too many CC courses. For mathematics their program is that you only spend the first 2 years of math majors in the CCS and then go over to the regular college. Thing is: I’ve already spend those 2 years lol.
I will double check which schools are need blind and which ones are need aware, I don’t think many of them are need aware but this is something that did totally go over my head when making this list.
And I looked at a bunch of Niche reviews for a bunch of these schools and none of them really mentioned major discrimination problems unless the review was a few years old so I’m guessing that just means there’s not really much of a problem with POCs or enbies on campus. Plus, if there is I can just hide it it’s not that big of a deal for me
Humboldt is not impacted on the campus level, and no majors besides nursing are impacted, so it should be a safety for all CSU eligible non-nursing applicants who can afford it.
For the record, I didn’t tell you to not apply to these schools. Go ahead and shoot your shots. But I am cautioning you to manage your expectations. Good luck to you!
There are many credible Brown substitutes (e.g., Wabash, Kenyon, Denison, Sewanee) out there where you would have a better chance of admission and a reasonable chance at an annual net price (COA minus grants) within your budget. But, between the two lengthy and argumentative threads that have engaged this forum, none of them have landed. As @blossom would say, “You do you.”
An Adcom is going to have his/her hands full working through your application as it is… you can take this to the bank- NOBODY is going to “grab” a copy of a manuscript. Nobody.
The ideal candidate for Brown (I interviewed for them for years- but am not interviewing right now. Too many kids in my area who I know personally…) has a coherent story to tell. Eclectic is great; out of the box is great, but incoherent is generally a turn-off. Taking advanced classes to pursue an intellectual passion- great. Reading advanced textbooks in lieu of actual mastery of a challenging HS curriculum- that screams dilletante- which contrary to popular belief, is NOT the Brown profile. Figuring out an interesting problem for original research- great. Off-loading it to a professor and some grad students to do the actual work- what does that even mean?
It’s like saying “I’ve figured out that there’s a genetic link to prostate cancer. And now I’ll email a bunch of geneticists to see if they want to do the lab work and 5 years from now publish their findings”.
My advice? Go back to being the best HS student you can be. Base your application on that. Your life story has some interesting twist and turns; prove that you can excel at college and you’ll be very happy with your admissions results. Keep pushing to prove that you have already surpassed the typical college freshman and sophomore at Lehigh or Brown? Your story starts to get very, very muddled. Do NOT try to publish “research notes”. You aren’t Albert Einstein or Galileo or Sir Isaac Newton where the scientific world is fascinated by “what exactly inspired him?”
You have so much potential- don’t let your desire for overreach dampen that!
I do know there are many Brown substitutes but not many of them I’ve been all that interested in. Idk what it is about Brown but there is something there that’s very attractive to me. I don’t think it’s the prestige or the open curriculum seeing how I’m not incredibly thrilled about MIT which is (imo) more prestigious and open (for math).
It’s more of a gut feeling than anything logical at this point lol. I really can’t tell you the reason why it has to be brown in particular it just does