Chance Me at top 20 and SLAC - good stats [3.97/36], but ECs might be an issue

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics:
Female, white, south/midwest region, 2 years regular public school, 2 years competitive public boarding school for STEM, no hooks

Intended Major(s):
Math, stats, possibly minor in sociology or economics

ACT/SAT/SAT II:
ACT 36 (Reading 36, Math 36, English 35, Science 36) in one sitting

UW/W GPA and Rank:
3.97 (one B) UW/4.6 W
School doesn’t rank

Coursework:
15 DE (20 by graduation) including Microbiology and lab, comp sci and lab (2 classes), chemistry and lab, physics and lab, Russian (4 classes), English (2 classes), sociology, trigonometry, calc 1, calc 2, and another math class tbd

AP Bio (5), AP Human Geography (5); AP Stats (5); AP Chem (4); AP Seminar (4); AP World History (5)

Attending a STEM boarding school where all classes are dual enrollment and we live on a college campus and take classes with college kids/taught by professors

All AP classes taken freshmen and sophomore years before I started the STEM school

Awards:
Likely National Merit AP Scholar of Distinction
4th place in regional math competition (not heavily involved in math club)
State level wins in Humanities and ELA for academic team
Regional wins on Quick Recall
Accepted to competitive high school for junior/senior year

Extracurriculars:
Created and taught a week long coding camp for elementary students (60 plus volunteer hours) (1 summer)
Girl Scouts including fundraising over $70K for a troop trip (along with the other girls) (2 years in HS but member since 2nd grade)
Academic team --placed at state level every year since 6th grade in ELA/Humanities (4 years)
Y-Club (mock government) (4 years)
60 plus hours of volunteering teaching STEM to elementary school kids at Boys and Girls Club (2 years)
60 plus hours of volunteering at summer arts camps (1 summer)
Organized and co-led Table Top Role Playing Games club (2 years)
Yearbook section editor (2 years)
LGBT Club (ally) 2 years
Class officer until I switched schools
Study abroad between junior and senior year (I didn’t put this in my common app stuff but may I should?)
Slavic Culture Club (2 years – didn’t put on my common app though)

Essays/LORs/Other:
Essay is decent. Focuses on coming into my own after leaving my suburban high school and attending my STEM boarding school. I am a pretty good writer but reflection is difficult.

Letters of recommendation –
Counselor will be very strong
Math teacher is from sophomore year because I didn’t get to know my college professors that well (I could still try to get one though)
English teacher is college professor from study abroad experience
Going to ask teacher I worked with over the summer too for a community reference

Schools:
MIT
Cornell Arts and Sciences or Engineering, not sure which
Fordham
University of Maryland (hoping for a scholarship)
Emory
Rice
WashU
Princeton
Yale
University of Alabama Huntsville
UT Dallas
University of New Mexico (hoping for scholarship)
Swarthmore
planning to apply early decision at UChicago (dream school)

Other thoughts:
I plan to apply as a math major. I am interested in CS, but not interested in Engineering necessarily. I am also interested in women’s rights, film, social justice, so I think my ECs show that more than my classes. IDK if that will matter to the OA.

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Do you have demonstrated need do you said you want a scholarship.

UTD, UAH, UNM will come with money. Fordham I’m guessing too. UMD maybe but not likely.

In most, math will be an easier admit.

You have a chance at any but the four above are safe or in the case of UMD - which is highly thought of in math - very good.

Best of luck.

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You look like a great candidate. Being a woman in STEM will help a bit. Good luck!

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Yes, I have demonstrated financial need. UTD, UAH will give merit for being a national merit finalist and/or having a 36 on the ACT.

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oh, if you’re an NMF, then great.

How is the cost at the other, meets needs schools?

You might look at U of Alabama too and U of Tulsa - full ride.

Best of luck.

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Your stats are great, your EC’s are great, just focus on finding a few sure bet/sure to be affordable places to fall in love with…

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You have a strong profile and are a competitive candidate. But you’ll need to get different LORs, IMO.

Your recommendations usually have to be from junior or senior year teachers. So the sophomore math teacher’s recommendation may not work. For at least some of your schools, you need a second recommendation from another core subject teacher, so the professor from your study abroad and community service won’t work.

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Have your parents run the NPC calculators at some of the private elites to get an approximate idea of how much aid you might qualify for?

What is your budget? And what is your home state?

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As a general thought, you mentioned LACs, and there are other LACs which I would think of academicky, and promising for a Math person who liked Chicago and Swarthmore. Some have pretty good need aid, some also add merit aid, and with your credentials merit aid would seem like a real possibility.

There have been some recent conversations about LACs and merit here. On Math, I’ll suggest maybe checking out this list of per capita feeders to Math PhD programs (not that you have to do a Math PhD, but I think it gives you an idea of academicky LACs good for Math):

Swarthmore is way up there, so a good choice. Harvey Mudd is sort of the MIT of LACs (in a loose sense). Pomona and Williams are traditional top LACs. Reed is SUPER academicky, enough to take this per capita ranking with a grain of salt, but still worth a look. St. Johns is very small, so I would also take that one with a grain of salt too. Haverford, Carleton, and Grinnell are more top LACs with an academicky vibe so no surprise (I’m starting to skip some but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them). Scripps is a top women’s college, Cooper Union is another interesting specialty school.

And so far these are all above Stanford and Harvard!

You can continue on down, lots of interesting names all through the list.

Finally, one mention that is not an LAC, but high-numbers kids in our HS often apply here in addition to Ivy+ and top LACs and such–Rochester, which is actually right among Yale, Hamilton, and Amherst. Rochester is again very academicky and offers merit, hence why our high-numbers kids often apply.

You also mention CS but not so much Engineering, so you could consider cross-referencing the CS list:

Harvey Mudd remains a top choice. Olin I would not necessarily recommend for non-engineers. Swarthmore and Williams again, Cooper Union, Carleton, Pomona. Reed again eventually, but lower.

When it comes to like a Haverford, they have a Computer Science Department, and actually you could potentially do more CS through their consortium relationships with Swarthmore and Penn. If you were a complete CS person, I don’t know if that would be ideal, but if you are a Math person with a side helping of CS, I think that could totally be fine.

I’d also think that would be fine at Grinnell and Scripps (in a consortium with Harvey Mudd) too.

Anyway, lots to explore in the world of LACs–if you are interested, of course.

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Do you plan to apply ED1 or ED2? I think in either case, you have a decent chance of getting into UChicago. Have you run the NPC yet to make sure it is affordable?

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Thanks! The sophomore math teacher was AP Stats if that makes a difference. The study abroad teacher is an English professor at my school. I took an English class that counted as junior English while I was in England.

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Yes all the NPC have been run. I’ll apply in my home state to our flagship.

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I plan to do ED 1. The npc is manageable and my parents agreed to help me pay. Thanks!

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This is awesome! Thanks for such a detailed response!

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All of my junior and senior teachers are college professors since I’m on a college campus and attending college classes while dial enrolled in high school. I can ask my Russian professor and my Calc teacher.

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I would suggest you check out Wesleyan University since you mentioned your interest in math along with your interests in women’s rights, film and social justice. My son is a junior there now and is starting graduate math courses next week after spending most of the summer on campus doing paid math research with a professor. He is also majoring in computer science and physics and will be a paid TA for both CS Algorithms and Abstract Algebra this semester along with research projects in math & physics working directly with professors.

He loves it there from the social justice environment to the intense STEM university offering graduate level courses and degrees to advanced undergraduates. The Film major is also very well known with many famous graduates.

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Sounds good. Safe to assume all schools on your list are affordable based on NPCs? Are the OOS public schools affordable without merit scholarships?

I agree you have a very strong chance at UChicago if you apply ED1/2.

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For this combination of interests, you may want to consider a data science major.

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Congratulations on your strong profile! With an ED1 app to U. of Chicago, I do think your chances are better than the typical admission rates there.

This confused me a bit. Will your parents be able to pay whatever portion is not covered by work-study and a summer job? Or is your family expecting you to contribute additional funds beyond what you get from work?

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With respect to your primary acsdemic interest of mathematics, this CC topic may be of interest: For Students Seeking a College Strong in Mathematics.

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