Figuring Out Colleges (3.6 UW, 1510 SAT)

College Search & Selection
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Hello I am a high school senior and I am in a dilemma of figuring out colleges to apply to. I am planning in majoring in either physics or computer engineering/cs

My GPA is a 3.6 UW and I have taken 10 APs thus far (+2 in senior year). In my fresh+soph year, I had a 3.8 avg, but my GPA plummeted in junior year. This is partly due to my move to a completely new state and heightened familial tensions (my parents were thinking of a divorce + one of them developed a serious condition). I also took 5 APs and should have worked harder than I did.

I do understand that this grade drop is a bad sign to colleges, but I have been working extremely hard in school and have straight As right now.

To be honest, my hopes of going to a T30 college were gone after my junior year. However, I recently took the SAT and got a 1510 (770 M, 740 R).

I think my ECs are pretty good. I have done pretty well in physics and math olympiads and have gone and done well at nationals at a team related competition (this year president at that club). Additionally, I have leadership roles in a student non-profit and have about 300 hrs of volunteering. I have some other stuff, but for the sake of confidentiality, I don’t want to say too much. In the end, I think I am pretty dedicated and work about 10-15 hrs/week on ECs.

Due to my GPA, I want to be level-headed in my college list. What are your thoughts on these colleges? Am I being too ambitious?

Colleges I really want to go: Cornell, CMU, NYU, UCLA

Colleges where I may be competitive: UMD, UWash, Purdue, UIUC, OSU

Safeties: State colleges

Also, should I be applying EA to colleges like Purdue? I know that a lot of their class is picked through EA, so admissions would be harder in RD, but I also want to show a grade improvement.

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Congratulations on a wonderful SAT score.

The California UC’s like UCLA only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation and are test blind so a GPA drop will be more significant.

To determine if you would be competitive, calculate your 3 UC GPA’s: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

What is your home state and what is your college budget/year?

UCLA if not a resident, will cost you around $67K/year to attend and offers little to no need-based or merit aid.

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Note that UW Seattle doesn’t look at the SAT score except for rare cases.

For CS OOS, it is definitely a reach school with admit rate only 3%, see here: Freshmen by the numbers | Office of Admissions

If you are admitted to UW but not as a CS / engineering student, the physics major would be an option, but realize that it is not a direct admit and is capacity constrained. Here is what you need to apply to the physics major as a UW student: Admissions | Department of Physics | University of Washington

By OSU, do you mean Oregon State, or Ohio State?

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For Purdue and UMD absolutely apply EA. There will be virtually no chance for admission in RD.

Note that for many of the schools on your list, physics is not in the same college as CS or possibly Computer Engineering. At Purdue, physics would be the easier admit, then Comp E, and CS most competitive. Note though that it is extremely difficult to switch into engineering and nearly impossible for CS so make sure you are applying to the program you really want.

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My home state is Virginia (so by state schools, I don’t mean UVA, but places like JMU. Maybe Virginia Tech too, but that’s more of a target). I am fortunate enough to have parents who would be able to pay most of my college funds for OOS (if I save up in college, I would have little to no debt).

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Oh sorry, I mean Ohio State.

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As an in-state backup plan, you might want to look at Richard Bland College. It’s a two-year residential campus which is administratively part of William & Mary, and has guaranteed transfer agreements with all of the top in-state schools that may be out of reach in terms of freshman admissions. With a >3.5 GPA, you’d be eligible for their honors program.

If you’re having a strong senior year and want to apply after that’s on the books, you could look at gap year programs like Americorps/CityYear, an AFS “super senior” year abroad, etc. That would allow you to apply with your senior year grades on record, and also add a broadening experience that could enhance both your application and your life.

If you want to go directly to a 4-year school next year, there are plenty of fine schools that will be happy to accept you with your record as-is. They probably won’t be your tippy-top apsirational choices, though.

A lot of the schools you’re looking at have different/tougher admissions for CS than for physics. If you could get into CMU or UW-Seattle at all, it wouldn’t be for CS, and switching into CS would be near-impossible. (Same is true for UCLA, but the UC’s basically a non-starter anyway, admissions-wise, because of their test-blind process and not considering freshman grades.) So you need to consider how important it is to you, to keep the CS option open.

If you want to shoot for a reach school and are okay with paying full price if you do get in, maybe look at where an ED application might put you over the top. I don’t see Cornell or other T30’s as realistic, but there are T50’s like CWRU and Rochester that would be fantastic for your interests and wouldn’t limit your choice of major once there… and a binding ED app might give you a shot.

Since you’re STEM-focused, you could consider schools like RIT, RPI, WPI, and Stevens. OTOH, you could also consider liberal arts colleges that have strong physics and CS, but don’t have engineering. For example, Lawrence U in Wisconsin has a particularly strong physics department, and decent CS also. St. Olaf in Minnesota has strong STEM and CS. Reed, in Oregon, would be a reach, but is very holistic and could admit you if they see the right fit; they’re one of the top feeder schools for PhD’s in physics and many other fields.

Your best option, though, may be larger flagships that don’t have too many additional barriers around the CS major. OSU may be one example. Colorado-Boulder and U of Utah could both be worth a look. UA-Huntsville has particularly strong STEM and would give you almost 20K/year in automatic merit. SUNY Buffalo is a great STEM school and even has a Computational Physics major that could combine your interests nicely University at Buffalo - Acalog ACMS™ U of MN has another computational physics program that could be worth a look Physics: Computational Four-Year Plan | College | College of Science and Engineering UCF is also very well-regarded for both physics and CS, and has a computational track in their physics department. There are plenty of great options!

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As suggestions, look into RPI and Lehigh.

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Thank you for the interesting choices! It has expanded my view a lot. I haven’t heard of Richard Bland before, but it seems like a very cool program.

I think I definitely want to keep the CS option available, and as one of the other forum members pointed out, CS isn’t even necessarily in the same college as physics, so I’m going to try remaking my list. I will try looking at some bigger state flagships.

I do like the idea of liberal arts colleges. However, I may be nitpicky here, but since I’ve lived in a relatively rural place for most of my life, I would like the chance of living near a bigger city.

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I was thinking of RPI but I heard some really bad things about it on reddit, such as them disrespecting student rights and such which makes me unsure in whether to apply. Do you know if this is true?

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Always apply EA when offered.

Given your move hopefully you can secure LORs.

While you don’t need it you’d get top merit at Alabama and UAH for a smaller school. Even if parents can spend most love to save.

Given your majors, where you go isn’t critical. #30 or #80 or #180 won’t make a difference.

A school like Rose Hulman would give you huge rigor. So many fine flagships would be within reach excluding the UIUC/UVA/UNC/UT types.

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Although I don’t view Reddit, I have heard of a relatively high level of student dissatisfaction at RPI in recent years. Perhaps, however, you could view it as student privileges, rather than student rights, in which the administration has become involved, depending on the particular facts you can determine. Any controversy notwithstanding, I do believe RPI generally matches your criteria and profile very well.

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@aquapt listed a lot of great ideas. Given your list of dream schools and your interest in attending a school in an urban setting, I would also take a close look at Pitt. It has a lot to offer and is located right next to CMU :slight_smile:

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Based on what you’ve shared, I’d take a look at some of these schools:

  • George Mason: You’re in-state, it’s in a big metro area right next to D.C., and its CS program places students alongside people from much more competitive programs. This should be a safety for you, unless there are special CS requirements that I’m not aware of.
  • Illinois Institute of Technology: Private school in Chicago with about 3k undergrads
  • New Jersey Institute of Technology: Public school in very close proximity to NYC with about 9k undergrads
  • Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ): Private school across the river from New York City with about 4k undergrads
  • U. North Caroilna – Charlotte: Public school with about 24k undergrads
  • Rochester Institute of Technology (NY): Private school with about 14k undergrads

U. of Wisconsin – Madison and U. of Minnesota would be other options to consider, though possibly a bit reachier.

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Disrespecting student rights at RPI? Can you be more specific? Can you think of an instance in which this would affect you, or would so offend your sensibilities that you would not want to go there?

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You should try to figure out where your weighted gpa will be advantageous since you have a great SAT score.

Indiana University uses the highest reported gpa from the hs for admission.

Miami University (OH) recalculates gpas based on honors/ap classes to award their tiered/automatic merit aid and admission to their honors college or Prodesse scholars program. They are also excellent at providing EA students a decision in December.

Failing to meet the EA deadline at a school like Ohio State doesn’t just mean a tougher admit, it can also mean you’ve lost any chance of getting significant merit aid. Meet their EA deadline well ahead of time and apply to their large scholarships (Eminence/Morrill). It’s a holistic admission, you are better off applying now. Just because you apply EA at Ohio State, you might not have a decision until the RD round because EA application results are a university decision to admit, deny, or defer to RD.

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OP, Anywhere you are looking that has an EA option, apply EA.

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The OP dropped from a 3.8 for freshman and sophomore year to a 3.2 in junior year. Some of it matters how the 3.2 happened. Was it all B+’s or was it C’s & A’s? I also worry about the quality of LORs that the OP will be able to get. I think t try that many of the flagships that the OP has are very reachy as an OOS applicant. They may benefit from actual grades first semester of senior year.

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Keep the in-state options as a serious consideration. Just because they “can” pay for an out of state school, doesn’t mean that they “should.” As a parent, even if I could afford to pay triple the cost for a big OOS school, it’s a poor value compared to what I can pay at UVA or VTech for the same accredited bachelors degree.

Also, keep in mind that uncertainty seems to be the new normal. A layoff, business failure, etc will put an abrupt stop to the cash flow you had before. At an OOS college, you don’t have a backup option for financial aid if that happens. A private university might work with you. At UVA, for instance, you could simply finish your degree on federal student loans, and you’re done.

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If our state had the quality of public colleges that Virginia has, I would be absolutely over-the-moon thrilled. Virginia is actually one of the places we’re thinking of moving to once we retire, and there has been the occasional thought of whether we should try to move before the kid gets to college because of the quality of Virginia’s public universities. (The finances, however, are unlikely to work out, barring a winning lottery ticket.) Many of Virginia’s non-flagship/premier universities are on par with (or better than) other states’ flagship universities.

UVA & Virginia Tech are probably reaches, but they’re not out of the realm of possibilities. I mentioned George Mason above, but also take a look at Virginia Commonwealth (Richmond) if you’re wanting a city experience.

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