No - my point was - a school in the South or perhaps in the Dakotas, etc. won’t necessarily be overly diverse. They’ll have diversity. Bama is 73% white.
For engineering physics, it appears Reno and NMSU are diverse. But if you were to choose a major where it could work otherwise - a Colorado State is 70%, Idaho 75%, Wyoming 78%, SD School of Mines - 70%.
Schools like Arizona and NMSU will be very diverse.
I am not you so I don’t know what’s important to you in regards to diversity - but again, these may be tradeoffs depending on price and its importance to you. It may be size or weather, etc.
You can find racial makeup in the common data set section B2.
I do! Most of my books I wrote before Junior year. They’re unpublished because the hard drive my manuscripts were on broke and I didn’t back them up.
10th grade me was heartbroken but I think if I were to mention that during the move across the country that “Oh I definitely did have 3 other books I wrote but I never published them because the computer broke : (” isn’t really going to be that believable even if it’s true lol. I’ll just say I wrote other books in the past, and I’m writing one right now and its work is publicized thanks to how webnovel and tapas publishing works even if the book isn’t complete.
But ye, I’ve been writing books since 6th grade at about a rate of 1 book per year. Sophomore year didn’t write anything but it is what it is
That’s fine, as I’ve mentioned I’m very lose on what I’m looking for right now. Racial demographics isn’t that much of a factor just as long as I don’t become the token black kid I’m fine and that’s probably not going to happen in most unis unless they’re REALLY small
OP would admitted to most CSUs. Only 7 of the 23 CSUs are impacted at the campus level, and math is typically not an impacted major at campuses which are not campus-impacted. Applicants applying to non-impacted majors at non-impacted campuses should be admitted with at least a 2.5 weighted-capped GPA with all a-g subject requirements completed.
I rarely see myself quoted! But my advice still stands. Becoming the best HS student you can be is typically the best way to become the best college student you can be. I know it’s boring (who wants to ace HS Chem when you could be taking some exotic DE course and telling people you are already getting college credits?) and it’s mundane (why volunteer for an existing organization when you can start your own?) and it’s “vanilla” (why submit short stories to a magazine or blog for publication when you could be writing a series of novels which never get published?).
But circumventing the basics of an education rarely works. Reading, writing, 'rithmetic. You skip a step here, and you find yourself explaining to a professor in college that no, you don’t know how to calculate the standard deviation for a chem lab result that looks wonky because you took Calc III instead of Intro to Statistics.
They’re still there and I’m close with them, I don’t really bother bringing it up because the chances of them specifically singling me out is low but they were a really useful tool for helping me find professors I could talk to
This thread’s explanation of the freshman year GPA differs.:
It’s difficult for posters to help you if we don’t have the facts. Although the above explanations may both be true, it does seem OP may be looking for a compelling narrative to game the system?
Bottom line, I don’t think either story would prompt a GC to address extenuating circumstances… which is ideal if there are valid life challenges affecting GPA.
Since you don’t know a budget, I think it’s best to assume a budget under $10k. Which means CC to UC/CSU or a school that meets full financial need (difficult admittance with current stats but absolutely worth trying) or schools that offer merit for your stats (stay focused on getting your GPA up and prep for SAT/ACT).
You have many schools to research. I hope you’ll continue to update so we can follow your interesting journey.
Most of my DE classes I’m taking because courses are transfering really weirdly in my school. Really the only exotic classes I’m taking are the ones that relate to Physics, Comp Sci, and Maths. Other than that most of the courses I’m taking are introductory level or are just things I’m interested in.
My school’s IB Diploma is really restrictive so that’s why.
If you’re curious these are the DE courses I’m taking in particular:
Summer 10th-11th:
Intro to Chem I
2 Kin courses (I was missing some phys ed credit)
Fall 11th:
Intro to Comp Sci (my school requires a comp sci credit to be taken but since these credits are usually taken Freshman year and my old school didn’t have this requirement I need to make up for it)
Intro to Psychology (this one I’m taking mostly for fun)
Survey of World Music Honors (My new school doesn’t recognize my old school’s theatre arts credit so I needed to take another course)
Spring 11th:
General Chem I (this completes my chem requirement)
Intro to C++ (Completes my comp sci requirement)
Intro to Micro-Economics honors (apparently this completes my US history credit requirement…)
Summer 11th-12th:
General Biology 1 (basic requirement for ASSIST)
Fall 12th:
Calc III
Linear Algebra
Intro to Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion honors (this is entirely for fun, I think this also completes the art credit but I’ll need to double check if it does. If it doesn’t then I’m dropping this for electronic music production)
Spring 2025:
Optics
Applied Differential Equation
One last course I’m leaving open in case I’m missing some other random credit.
1: Both are true, I was extremely lazy Freshman year and I also had to worry about the drug problem. By the time I was making that post let’s just say that I was coping by not acknowledging what happened Freshman year. I also strongly believed at that time that AOs would probably not care all that much about some kid having friends that were involved with drugs because I genuinely believed that what happened to me Freshman year was pretty normal as it was happening to a lot of kids in my school. Now a year later I can just say that my old school was extremely weird for having a drug problem as severe as it did. I didn’t know that at the time but now I do
2: Compelling narrative or not these are extenuating circumstances behind my grades. They are not the only reason but at least in my eyes you do definitely have to play around with the facts to make things more favorable to you. Is it morally wrong? Yes it is. But at the end of the day most people do this. I just so happen to have weirder ammunition to play around with lol
If a student wants a dip in grades addressed in college applications, ideally the GC would provide an explanation rather than the student as that is more credible.
If you don’t intend to explain away the lower GPA this obviously won’t matter.
I don’t really know if AOs will particularly care about my trauma and I’m somewhat confident that there’s no major benefit to having some kind of extenuating circumstance for Freshman year. I think I’ll just tell my counselor what happened Sophomore year because that’s a much more pressing issue than Freshman year
I am truly sorry you experienced those challenges. I hope you can use your writings to positively address your own healing and perhaps even help others.
Very cool that you are making the most of that relationship.
Did you take the advice to do test prep? You asked in Feb for concrete advice and that was offered a few times. UCs don’t care but it’s an important piece of data to many other schools. I’d suggest taking the PSAT but it’s probably too late as they are being administered now. The cutoff for National Merit is also high for California. But for reference, my son made our state’s cutoff, and pending some paperwork, will be offered a free 5 year education (grad school classes allowed) at a flagship state university one state over.
High scores are worth money at some schools even without National Merit designation. He already has the 4 years free tuition plus first year free housing offer at the same school. That’s how we “gamed” the system - starting with a high scorer and sending him to test prep. His first ACT practice test was a 34. His first real test was a 35. His second test was 36. That’s worth free tuition at multiple schools. I learned all that here. With National Merit there are a good number of schools that want the privilege of educating you for free. Someone here maintains a spreadsheet of who offers what.
No, these are not T50 schools. Actually USC offers half tuition for National Merit Finalists! But the full ride or full tuition places are not. Plus a score all by itself isn’t enough, you need a decent GPA - though the GPA requirements are not insane (3.7 gets you pretty far and many take your weighted). But not having to worry about how to pay for college releases you from having to decipher what your family will pay. Maintain your GPA in college to not lose the scholarship and you will be bound to no one. You sound like you want independence so hunting for merit scholarships could be your way toward that.
You understand that the moment your mom start to work while you are in college, you may loose some aid. Her income will go to FAFSA and depending on the amount she makes aid will be adjusted. So technically she is better not to make much while you are in college…
