How am I/would I be in comparison to current VT students?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Virginia Tech
1

<p>Currently 10th grade, white male at crappy public school. </p>

<p>SAT: PSAT earlier this year was 197, but practice SAT taken recently was 2100(700-670-730 CR-M-W)
Courseload:
9th: Earth and Space Science - H, Eng I - H, Gov - H, Geometry - H, Intro to Engineering - A, Design & Logic - A, Fit For Life - A.
10th: APUSH, Java - H, Eng II - H, Bio - H, Trig - H, Principals of Engineering - H, Spanish II - A.</p>

<p>Self-studying: AP Env Sci, AP Bio, AP US Gov't and Politics</p>

<p>11th: AP Micro/Macro, AP Comp Sci A, AP Lang, AP Physics B, Digital Electronics, Biotech, Spanish III. </p>

<p>Self-Studying: Calc AB, Physics C:E&M, Physics C:M</p>

<p>12th: Engineering Design & Development, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Chemistry, AP World, AP Stats, AP Art History</p>

<p>Self-studying: AP Euro History, AP Comp Govt and Politics, Calc BC, Human Geography.</p>

<p>I haven't received a B since freshman year & I'm told I can handle the load - assume straight A's. </p>

<p>GPA: ~4.6 weighted, 3.9 unweighted.
Class rank: 2, 1 if I can convince the county to weight EDD as a college level course.</p>

<p>ECs:
MESA Effective Communications Team - 1st in county twice now, aiming for 4 years running.
Math Team - 5th in county (joined late)
Elected VP of my class
President of my school's Key Club - one of three distinguished Presidents of southern Maryland.
76.5 service hours through key club.
Students Modeling A Research Topic (SMART) Team - graduate level Biology. We create a molecular story & present at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's annual meeting. Will be in all 4 years.
Captain of my school's Computer Bowl
Red cross babysitting, CPR, and first Aid certified.
Co-Principal Investigator of my school's SSEP team (Student Spaceflight Experiment Project. Write a proposal for an experiment that, if chosen, will go up on the last space shuttle launch. Has a good chance of us winning.)
Varsity swimming one year, received Coaches Award. Joined a summer swim team. Joined a year-round competitive swim team, will continue swimming. </p>

<p>I work in a Nursery at a church with 2 & unders every Sunday.</p>

2

<p>In what regard? You’re solid from an admissions standpoint if that is your question.</p>

3

<p>I honestly think you could make Ivy League, if you get a 2100+ on the SAT. You don’t need a perfect score to get accepted to them. You just need high scores like 700 level. I don’t think anyone in my entire school scored above a 2020. You should apply to VT and even though I am a VT student, I think VT is a bit on the low end for you. Maybe a safety if you don’t get accepted to some more prestigious colleges. If you are looking for an engineering major, definitely apply to CalTech and MIT. They constantly rank in around the Top 5 for every Engineering major they have. I don’t think you would have any trouble at all getting into VT. You could even go Honors.</p>

4

<p>I don’t know where you’re from, but I live in CA and had waaay lower stats then you and got in.</p>

5

<p>I agree with james2014; your stats make Tech an easy match assuming your stats stay the same. That said, it can be difficult to make predictions based on only a year and a half or two years of high school work. Junior year is usually the most difficult. Look at UVA and Georgetown if you’re looking at staying in the MD/DC/VA region.</p>

6

<p>A lot of National Merit finalists have decided to go free (well, you pay for the board part of the room and board fee) to the University of Alabama. I’m sure that deal will still be in effect in your senior year of high school. Many Virginia NMFs are studying at the U. of Alabama.</p>

<p>They choose to go free for undergraduate education because they have aspirations to go to grad school or law or med school, and so they are saving their money for those pursuits. </p>

<p>Just wanted to give you that head’s-up.</p>

7

<p>Downtimer is correct, look at 'Bama. They have been “buying” out-of-state talent for the past few years. Also, look VERY closely at The University of South Carolina’s Honors College. They take about 320 entering freshmen a year. The average SAT is 1404 and the average weighted GPA is 4.5. The Honors College facilities are breathtaking, including state-of-the-art dorm, cafeteria, snack bar and classrooms for the 120 Honors classes. </p>

<p>All Honors College students get merit scholarships that include in-state tuition. Total in-state tuition/room/board for 2010-11 is $16-17 thousand a year. USC allows scholarship “stacking.” Therefore, a number of the out-of-state kids are at the Honors College for very little cost. For example, they automatically give $6,000 a year for National Merit Finalists. Add another scholarship to that – say, one of the $4,000 a year scholarships a lot of Honors College kids get (I believe it’s called a Cooper) – and you’re talking about going to a great honors college for around $6,000 a year!</p>

<p>The ultimate OOS merit scholarship at USC is the McNair. Goodies include in-state tuition + $15,000 a year. 20 kids a year get that. Another 21 OOS kids are offered the McNair Semi-Finalist scholarship. That’s $11,000 a year. Plus, of course, in-state tuition!</p>

<p>We kept hearing about the Honors College, but were VERY skeptical we visited. We were blown away by what we saw. After a weekend there, our son said, “This is where I’m going!” He’s turned down quite a few schools in favor of the Honors College, including Emory, Vanderbilt and UNC-Chapel Hill (Honors Program). Here’s a link to information on the Website:</p>

<p>[About</a> | Honors College - University of South Carolina](<a href=“South Carolina Honors College - South Carolina Honors College | University of South Carolina”>South Carolina Honors College - South Carolina Honors College | University of South Carolina)</p>

8

<p>There are a lot of big state schools where the honors college is far above the rest of the university. </p>

<p>There’s going to be a very real culture shock, though, depending on where you’re from. Particularly if you’re thinking about staying in the area you go to school in, which is where you’re going to get the most advantage from an honors college.</p>

9

<p>Hi chuy,</p>

<p>I wouldn’t be so sure about culture shock :slight_smile: The Honors College of South Carolina is filled with OOS kids. I have a friend whose nephew is a Junior there. The nephew is from Ohio and has never lived in the South. His parents grew up on the West Coast and attended elite colleges in California. They figured they’d hate the place, but decided to visit because they were curious about what they had found out. The nephew had the same reaction as my son, “I’m going here!” Also:</p>

<p>1) I lived in the NY metro area until I was 30, and in fact used to work in Manhattan, so I’m not exactly a Southern boy. And, I am extremely impressed with The Honors College. </p>

<p>2) Ironically, we found out about it when we were visiting our daughter in Blacksburg, who is a Sophomore at VT. My son and I went over to Hillcrest Hall for a presentation about VT’s Honors Program and Honors Housing, and were very impressed. (Ultimately, he applied to VT.) However, we started talking to a woman and her son who were also at the presentation. She told us that her older son was enrolled in the Honors Program at USC, and that we should look into it. We were skeptical, but then she did the same thing several other people had… started going on and on about how incredible it was, and how they were all skeptical too, but once they visited her son said, “This is the place for me. I’m not going anywhere else.”</p>

<p>3) If you are still skeptical, then do the following. Type the following into Google: site:collegeconfidential.com cathymee. That will get you to the zillion posts that a Cathymee did about her son, who was a McNair Finalist who graduated from the Honors College last year. Any number of times, she describes how much her half-Jewish, liberal, non-religious New York metro- area son loved the place.</p>

10

<p>Think you’d be in the 90th or 95th percentile at VT.</p>

11

<p>plue00 “Think you’d be in the 90th or 95th percentile at VT.”</p>

<p>Really? Even for the Engineering school? I don’t think the OPs 197 on the PSAT is sufficient for NM Finalist unless I’m completely mistaken on the scoring levels required. If you are going to a completely crappy public HS the 3.9 unweighted gpa grades are probably grossly inflated. Scoring 4s or 5s on all of those AP courses will validate the high GPA. OP is certainly on the right track but, it will of course, depend on 11th grade results. </p>

<p>As to Caltech or MIT - I’ve read posts from current students that believe you need at least a 750 in Math to have a decent chance of admittance.</p>

<p>I’m not sure about the self-studying all of those AP courses (particularly Calc AB/BC). Are they not offerred at school? I think colleges like to see the classes and grades on your transcript as well as the AP test score.</p>