Demographics: Sophomore, White Male, CT, 150k/year (will need aid), feeder prep school, DOUBLE LEGACY AT YALE (for grad school tho so doesn’t count as much)
Intended Major(s): Applied Math (or CS/Econ or CS/math)
SAT: 1560 (780M, 780R)
ACT: 35 (36M, 36R, 36E, 31S )
UW/W GPA and Rank: School doesn’t rank, 4.0/4.0 UW
Coursework:
APs:
AP Calc BC (5, AB Subscore: 5)
AP Physics 1 (5),
AP CS A (5)
AP Macro (?, self-study)
AP Micro (?, self-study)
AP Physics C (?, both)
AP Stats (self-study)
AP English Lit (?, self-study)
AP Spanish Lang (?)
took multivariable calc, linear algebra, and diffeqs. Currently doing graph theory
Awards:
National Spanish Exam (Level 2) Gold (+ 99th %ile)
National Spanish Exam (Level 3) Perfect Score Award
USACO Silver
qualified for state-level championships in club year-round swimming
Top 3 finishes in multiple laser and 420 sailing regattas + high finishes in others
Won school’s math award
Won “MVP” in my sailing race team and “junior instructor of the year”
Extracurriculars:
Competitive Swimming (since 2nd grade, not amazing at it but not bad either)
Competitive Sailing (only in summers, I am decent)
coding (for fun, I have a github account with a project that has 150-ish stars)
music production (I enjoy making song arrangements and acapella arrangements)
Started school AI club that hosts TED-style talks about the implications of AI at my school and community, as well as working on machine learning models and helping others learn about LLMs and such
Volunteered as sailing instructor at local club
Volunteered as an SAT, math, and CS tutor at schoolhouse.world (haven’t calculated the # of hours yet, but probably in the low to mid 100s)
Social media manager at schoolhouse.world
Head of Coding Club (prepares for USACO)
Head of Hedge Fund Club
Essays/LORs/Other: Too early for this
Budget: Ideally <$30k, income is around $150k/year
Schools: Yale (REA), MIT (RD), Princeton (RD), Cornell (RD), Dartmouth (RD), BU (RD), Williams (RD), Middlebury (RD), Fordham (RD), RPI (RD), NJIT (RD)
It’s too soon to worry about Yale (or any other college). Just continue to do as well as you can in school for the next two years (this year as a sophomore and next year too). I wouldn’t waste time self-studying for APs; colleges prefer to see you do the coursework, not just take a test. Your SAT is excellent but I don’t know when you took it. If it was taken prior to freshman year I don’t think colleges will consider it. Please treat HS as a way to explore things that interest you - there is no formula for success in terms of getting admitted to a school like Yale.
You seem on track to be competitive for Yale, but of course it remains a low probability outcome just because that is true for pretty much everyone outside of hooked people (and I think you are right if your parents did not attend the college that is not necessarily going to be too much help).
In terms of your college list, you have plenty of time to explore, and it currently seems very geographically focused. Which is OK but it can be limiting, and I think you will find that high numbers kids from the Northeast often have a lot of interesting possibilities if they do not insist on competing only for the colleges really popular with high numbers kids from the Northeast.
Like, people from our feederish high school who like colleges like Yale and Princeton often also like WUSTL. Great Gothic campus, excellent location in a nice neighborhood across from an amazing world-class urban park, easy access to downtown St Louis, very good all around academics, really nice dorms including a sort of residential college system for the first couple years, robust merit programs . . . .
If you are also looking at LACs like Williams, there are some great ones in the Great Lakes/Midwest as well. Carleton is actually quite good for Math, CS, and Econ, again has a very nice campus in a nice college town about 45 minutes away from Minneapolis/St. Paul. Oberlin is also very good in those fields.
Finally, you mentioned RPI but not Rochester. If you are the sort of person who would like a Yale more than an MIT I would think Rochester would be well worth considering. Again, nice campus, really good academics, and robust merit.
Obviously again you have plenty of time, but eventually you might think about visiting some different areas to get an idea of what is available.
If you are at a feeder prep school- why self-study? You should be PLENTY busy with actual course work and your EC’s! It’s not necessary if you are already taking a rigorous program!
Have you run the NPC’s for the colleges you are interested in? What is it showing for colleges like Fordham? If they aren’t in budget- take them off the list.
Your college counselor will be much more helpful than a bunch of strangers on the internet- that’s what you are paying for! We have no idea where kids with your profile from your actual HS end up getting admitted-- but your counselor does!
That’s fine for now, but I note you are still very off from actually going to college. So over the next few years you might change your mind on that subject. And I personally think it can be really useful to try out at least one college visit to another region. Even if you go in thinking it will be a bust, you might be surprised.
You’re a sophomore and already got a 5 on Calc AB? That’s impressive.
You sold me at feeder prep school.
Your counselors will have solid college counseling for you and will be able to guide you.
And no, you should not self study for AP. It will not impress Yale.
And you shouldn’t do it for any school - take the class or don’t take the test.
Yale will not give you credit. You can get two classes accelerated but you’ll already have APs for that - and frankly if you accelerate in a class you hadn’t taken, you’d struggle in that class.
Stop trying to be superman.
You’re a sophomore - be a kid - and work with your counselors on a college plan.
I will qualify for the full ride through NMS because my index is high enough for my state, so I’m hoping I will get that. If not, I will not go to fordham because of cost.
Ah, then obviously you do have a year less to explore. On the other hand, this is just the beginning of your junior year. My senior still has a couple college visits left (during Thanksgiving break).
So, have you done college visits yet, and are you planning to do them? Have you visited any outside the Northeast? You have plenty of time, and I would still strongly encourage you to give it a try with an open mind if at all possible.
cost is an issue. I get a full ride at my prep school so it definitely is an issue lol
However we can probably pay up to 30k. Fordham will only be in my interests if I don’t get in anywhere else as it offers the full ride thing for national merit semifinalists.
I note that if the NPCs of the colleges you are looking at come in under budget, that is great. But if not, another reason for high numbers kids to look outside the Northeast is that there is a considerably better chance of getting stackable merit aid that way.
Agreed that the Fordham NMSF/NMF full tuition is great if you get it, and if you are interested in a major where Fordham is strong. But I agree with you that for this student, there are better schools that give big merit for NMSF/NMF status because Fordam is not really strong in CS or math, unfortunately.
For this combination of interests, you may benefit from considering colleges with an available data science major, with which you could choose economics as your “applied domain.” In terms of LACs, look into Hamilton for this, as well as Wesleyan, which offers similar opportunities through its interdisciplinary Quantitative Analysis Center.
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