Intended Major
*Definitely math as primary major (I love math lol)
*I may dual major or minor is chemistry, physics, or comp sci but idk exactly what.
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.92 (I got a B in 8th grade when taking a HS class bc I didn’t care, and was planning for straight As after that. However I may have just messed up my speech class this year bc weird grading policies so that’s like on the edge of being a B. My GPA on graduation will be like 3.9ish if I get a B there and 3.96ish if I get an A)
Weighted HS GPA: 4.75/5.0, hoping to increase (my school does not allow APs freshman year so that hurt my weighted GPA but I am taking pretty much all APs now so hopefully it’ll increase by graduation)
Class Rank: 80/400 unweighted (my school has insane grade inflation ngl), 8/400 weighted (I’m like the only person taking all APs lol)
ACT/SAT Scores: I haven’t taken any yet (), but I got a 1510 on practice SAT before studying and I plan to study a lot this summer
Coursework (planned courses by time of graduation)
All honors (except two which didn’t have honors options )
11 APs (AP stats, APUSH, AP Lit, AP Physics 1, AP Comp Sci, AP human geo, AP Macro eco, AP Chem, AP Gov, AP Psych, AP Physics C [calculus-based])
12 credits of math at University of Minnesota (Calc 1, Calc 2, Linear Algebra/Vector analysis, diff eq, multivariate calc)
my school offers like 13 APs I think, but I could be wrong
Awards
top 16 national finalist, N2K
37th place nationally, math-kangeroo
My math league team went to state
My MATHCOUNTS team went to state
Extracurriculars
MATHCOUNTS coaching
Unpaid math tutoring
Started math-education Youtube channel
Math league
Debate
Speech
Dungeons and Dragons
Math League Summer Camp (knot theory) (at Augsburg University)
Math-CEP IMA Math Modelling summer camp (at University of Minnesota)
Essays/LORs/Other
LORs: I’m not sure but my teachers generally like my and I know my calc professor highly regards me from his end-of-year grade-report comments.
Essays: I also don’t know for sure, but I think I have good experiences to talk about, such as falling in love with math as a result of 3b1b and then (years later) starting a yt channel bc I was so inspired by his.
Cost Constraints / Budget
Preferably under 25k, although worst-case scenario I could take debt
The amount I can actually afford is like 5k-10k less than my EFC, so I will probably need merit aid
Schools
Safteis: Iowa State, UMN
Matches: UW Maddison, Colorado Mines, Purdue (unless I decide to dual major in CS), WPI, Virginia Tech
Reaches: BU, GaTech, Purdue (if I decide to dual major in CS)
Super Reaches: MIT, Caltech (CMU should be hear but I cant afford it )
General Notes
On the match me side of things, I really want a NERDY and collaborative environment. I’ll take lower rankings/reputation for a student culture where it is normal to be a nerd.
I can’t chance you, but since you are in the Midwest, take a look at Rose-Hulman in Indiana. IMO, it’s pretty nerdy. I mean that in the best possible way, of course.
But you have UMN or other state or reciprocal schools written all over you.
Why ?
Cost.
So out of state publics short of any sort of reciprocal won’t happen short of UVA or UNC which meet need. So no reason to apply. So Mines, Va Tech etc - no reason. Now you can find a generous school like an Alabama, UAH, Miss State, Iowa State, Arizona (will be a tad over $20k), Truman State and more and get great auto merit. Nebraska and the two Kansas schools may be worth a look and maybe Miami Ohio too although it likely will cost too much.
For the privates - run their net price calculator. Federal EFC is not used by them. They use CSS and friending on your families finances including home ownership, they may be less generous.
You are early but have a bright future.
If you are good with UMN, then any other high level school is ok. But do check the NPC first. If not affordable, remove from consideration.
Finally you might try a full ride like SMU Presidential or W&L Johnson.
Thanks. Do you know what their merit aid is like? The sticker price as Rose-Hulman is quite large, and I don’t believe I will recive much need-based aid (my family income is between 150k and 200k per year).
You probably know your chances at UMN and UW Madison and what they are likely to cost much better than I do. These are very good universities.
Years ago I was involved with a computer science research project at UW Madison. I was very impressed with the quality of their work and with the students and professors involved in the project. I continued to work with one of the students for years after he graduated and did well in industry. The team there impressed me a great deal. Also, UW Madison is very well ranked for mathematics.
Have you run the NPCs for MIT and Caltech and other private and out of state schools? 25k is not a lot relative to the “no aid” cost of some of these schools.
Thanks for replying. Yeah, according to their NPCs MIT would be 35k and Caltech 38k. Which means I’d be looking at 40k-50k debt after graduation. Now at MIT we’re looking at an average alumni starting salary of about 116k, where as a UMN it’s closer to 80K. That I’d be making about 36k/year more than at UMN, which would pay off the debt after under two years. Now I know that this depends more on the alumni themself than the institution, so the difference in reality may be less. But I think it’s worth at least applying. I could be wrong though?
Some of my kids have very similar stats (and one is a math lover too), they chased merit but the only schools that came close to $25,000 were Saint joes in Philadelphia and suny Binghamton., but most schools were in the northeast (similar income so no financial aid). One is at BU now for grad school, not cheap although they actually gave her some merit. My 20 year old applied to 20 colleges and many were off of the table due to $. You might want to look at automatic merit schools.
If you would like an estimate of expenses for a lot of colleges quickly, this site can be helpful:
Note that the listed schools are partner colleges and endorse the use of this site. For further substantiation, you can compare results to those of individual Net Price Calculators.
Thanks for the advise. According to net price calculators, UMN and ISU are probably below 25k for me. UW-Madison may be as well, depending on exact merit aid. So already those three are great schools I just wanted to expand my list. 25k is also no debt, which would be ideal but some debt, depending on the university and amount, may be acceptable to me which would raise the amount I can afford.
Keep doing what you are doing by taking rigorous courses. Also keep participating in the ECs that genuinely interest you. Have lots of fun and enjoy your high school years! Resist any urge to try to “be perfect.”
Right now is a little too early to be making a list because you don’t know yet whether you will be a National Merit Finalist. National Merit status would qualify you for full-tuition scholarships at some really fun nerdy schools that would be safeties for admission for you (example: UT-Dallas.) National Merit designation is based on the PSAT test, so make sure you are signed up to take it (it occurs fall of Junior year.) The PSAT and SAT are very similar, so if you do PSAT prep, you will be automatically prepping for the SAT and vice versa. Here is my #1 PSAT prepping tip: spend most of your efforts on the verbal portions, because on the PSAT, the verbal section is weighted double compared to math for National Merit purposes (and if you have been doing UMTYMP, that takes care of the math portion anyway.)
I agree with posters above who say that cost is going to be a big factor. The good news is that MIT, Cal Tech and Princeton all are really generous in giving out need-based aid even to families like yours that make ~150K. But most schools are not like this! I know a UMTYMP kid in your same financial position whose final list just consisted of those 3 schools plus UMN. He knew his chances of getting into MIT, Cal Tech and Princeton were low (because they accept such a tiny % of students), and that other schools (like CMU in his case) were too expensive. But he wasn’t bummed because UMN is such an awesome school for math (great in all STEM actually.)
Part of this reflects the cost of living in the area around each university. MIT graduates are more likely (compared to UMN graduates) to end up working somewhere around Cambridge or Boston, which are relatively high cost of living areas. This in turn tends to result in higher salaries. The high relative starting salaries for MIT graduates overall is also related to the large percentage of MIT graduates who have marketable majors. These factors also apply to Caltech.
If you get into MIT or Caltech, whether you should take on this much debt is not easy to say. I am not a big fan of debt. However, you are considering a marketable major and these are top schools.
Just FYI, straight merit aid without bringing something unique to campus is really unusual at UW Madison. My kid just graduated w/reciprocity and I do a litttle college related consulting in the midwest. He did get a generous music scholarship (and did have a STEM double major).
You can dig around their scholarship hub to see if there is anything that might apply to you. https://wisc.academicworks.com/
That said, if you continue on this path, you may be lined up well for decent merit at the U of MN. CSE is more competitive than CLA. I do agree not to get too wound up for another year yet when you’ll have more information. I really think U of MN is a great safe option for you, not to mention any PSEO credits will certainly count. You may be able to finish your ba or bs in less than 4 years. Which isn’t horrible if you are on a budget and are considering grad school. I’d run your net price calculators on your reachy schools and reserach how likely is merit is at some of them.
Note that you can borrow 5500 freshman year, approaching 30K over 4 years as a student. I wouldn’t borrow more than that, it would require a cosigner anyway.
Because you are advanced enough in math that you have completed the frosh/soph level college math courses, be sure to check each college to see if its upper level and graduate level math courses are sufficient to keep you interested. Also consider which subareas of math are likely to be of your main interests, and how well those subareas are represented in the math department.
Note that some math departments include statistics, while other schools have a separate statistics department.
), but I got a 1510 on practice SAT before studying and I plan to study a lot this summer
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