I don’t think a gap year is likely to be a good option for you. Yes, you’ve received poor college selection advice from your GC, which can be remedied after a gap year, but taking a year off to study more math isn’t going to change the outcomes significantly, IMO.
First of all, my understanding is that you need an almost-free ride to attend college. That will limit your option to a dozen or so most generous (and also most rejective) elite privates (and a few publics with automatic stats-based awards, but they may not have much better course offerings in the area of advanced math that you’re interested in). UDub may be another option but I don’t know if it can fully meet your financial need with additional merit scholarships.
Secondly, AOs at most elite colleges will view the study of advanced math as just another “extracurricular” activity. They will give you some credit for your passion and consistency, but they can’t distinguish you from plenty of their other applicants who’ve studied advanced math because they can’t tell the difference between what you’ve studied and someone who studied linear algebra, for example, and fully appreciate the much greater ability and efforts you’ve shown. They may give you some special consideration if you had some highly recognizable awards or accomplishments in math. The only other scenario where it could make a difference is that if you’d taken those advanced math courses in their own college and their own professors had come out very strongly recommending you to their admission office.
With your profile, I think you should focus your energy on grad school.
Will you live on campus at WSU? If not, choose Tulsa.
It is no wonder you have been unimpressed by WSU so far since you haven’t been able to immerse yourself in what they can offer. If your time will be filled scraping together money to continue your education and/or commuting you’ll continue to miss opportunities.
A full ride is the financial freedom to pursue your intellectual interests and you will have a large cohort at Tulsa doing that. You’ll enjoy the subjects because there will be so many people like you to discuss the topics with. You’ll be financially free to take advantage of summer opportunities.
If you choose WSU, make sure you get engaged. Big campuses require students willing to reach out, not waiting to be picked.
There is prestige in winning a full ride merit scholarship. One exercise my D did was to write a resume/CV and the answer to which college to attend became very clear to her.
Completely agree with your take that AOs likely viewed OP’s unusual math background as “just another EC” at a slightly-beyond-calculus level. AOs can’t possibly know every area and in fact may give more credit to math competition winners than to high schoolers who have the making of a bona fide mathematician. There is math, the Olympiad/puzzle type, and then there is math, the abstract/proof type. Talent in the latter is so rare that it becomes heavily undervalued by AOs and society in general.
100%! So far, it sounds like OP has been taking math classes by Zoom from a satellite WSU campus in Vancouver. He has to email the teacher if he has any questions, he has no bright peers to bounce ideas off of, seriously the whole thing sounds depressing! This is so different than college should be. For bright students, it is super important to have other bright students to socialize with. Otherwise college becomes isolating and frustrating. Ideally OP would find a location with many other bright students, even if not in his exact area of interest. Cross pollination of ideas is exciting. There are whole intellectual worlds out there that OP hasn’t even been exposed to yet.
I agree 100%! I’ve held off commenting on this thread because I cannot help with the academic best fit question. However, I do feel strongly that there is much more to be learned in the college years than academic subjects. Exposure to diversity of thought and experiences, freedom to explore new interests and activities, opportunities for study abroad and experience another culture,…
I hope the OP is considering the “college experience” in addition to the math offerings. And is one university more generous than the other with providing financial support for low-income students to have experiences, e.g. study abroad? If the WSU offer does not include living on the main campus, that would be a huge negative.
OP, thank you for being so patient in this thread and for the openness of your posts. I’m rooting for you.
edit: I just saw @kidzncatz comment that OP will live on campus (main??) at WSU.
Agree with last few posts and I would fear that a gap year in the OP’s situation might bring isolation. Going to office hours, participating in research, talking to faculty and other students will bring more clarity.
Oh my goodness, this whole time I thought you had been at Pullman.
I suspect that you’ll find the experience of being at Pullman to be SO INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT in terms of peers and faculty engagement, that it will not feel like the same school at all.
This completely changes my impression of your case. Don’t look back.
OP. I can’t comment on the math curriculum issue and this may be out of the flow of the current conversation but here are my two cents on your situation. First and foremost, you sound very bright and your stats and accomplishments appear very impressive when looked at in their context. You should be very proud about what you have accomplished to this point. Economic privilege and access to superior advisement play a far greater role in the elite admissions process than is usually acknowledged on this board. The reality is if you don’t have those as a tail wind or hooks or some other hyper achievement in an approved format you are going to be at a disadvantage no matter how academically talented you are.
After hearing everything to this point, my vote would be to go to WSU as long as you are at Pullman and can live on campus. After a year, transfer out and up to UDub or another if it makes sense and works out financially. If not-stay put and as said by others “squeeze out every opportunity” at WSU. It really sounds like a very decent place. As others have pointed out, a gap year would be fraught with financial risk. Why go down that rabbit hole? It could also be stagnating both socially and psychologically to live at home for another year instead of getting out in the world on your own.
Here are some practical things for you to consider doing once on campus or in advance of your arrival. Sorry if any of this is too obvious, too simplistic or long winded. I can only go by my limited experience but many of these things worked very well for my son who did not go to a super highly ranked school either but has found great success. I realize some of this advice might be more relevant to someone who wants to work in industry vs. academia but I'd rather give it anyway in case you can benefit from it.
(1) Get a summer a job. Start now if you don’t have anything lined up yet. It can be anything. Try to get something where they will actually give you some consistent full time or near full-time hours (not a random handful )so you can actually accumulate some money over the summer. It’s nice to show up to on campus with some spending money and equally importantly - with an employment reference if you don’t have one yet.
(2) Once on campus, try to get a job as a research assistant. Not all positions are advertised. You have to reach out and ask. I know the math department would be your first choice and your long term priority should be to cultivate relationships with your math professors but bear in mind this can take time to happen. Keep an open mind to doing research in other departments -especially when you are first starting out. Not all career progression needs to be linear or strictly major related. Getting any research position your freshman year is probably a win. My son was a CS major who got his first research position in the sociology department at his school. Having above average numeracy gives you a huge leg up for these opportunities for obvious reasons.
(3) Try to become an undergraduate T/A or grader in the math department as soon as you are able. Some schools have different names for this position. My son did not get this opportunity in his department until junior year but with your advanced course work it sounds like you would have a shot much sooner. Having this on your resume or cv is a signal that you are in the top group in your major at your school and this allows you to closely interact with professors and graduate students. My son met another graduate student while they were both holding holding office hours who brought him on to a very interesting research project and paper studying ai and swarm robotics.
(4) If it something you are open to, consider loading up on some more CS courses not to become a CS major but to increase your marketable skillset and proficiency in general CS theory and programming languages. I think this is especially important if you foresee ever going into R&D with a math PHD. I know concentrating on programming can be sniffed at on this board as being overly vocational but being very proficient in certain programming language can open up incredible opportunities. After his freshman year, my son got a dream internship for a DARPA R&D company working on military exoskeleton in part because he had prior research experience and was very proficient in Python. Most of the people working there had advanced degrees. There were a lot of PHDs in math and robotics. He said the superstars were very good at both math and programing and that there were some that were shockingly bad at programming that would get hung up on basic things.
(5) Related to the above -don’t miss out on the internship train. Big tech and to a lesser extent the DARPA/ R&D and other defense contractor companies will pay good money over the summer to rent your brain. Try to fit in some of these opportunities around any research you are doing with professors. Reddit has a some helpful sub threads on tech career advice and resumes. Definitely use them. You can get good feedback by posting an anonymized resume there. IMO, it’s probably smart to gain some industry experience or obtain an internship at a well know research lab on your resume early as insurance policy against getting confined in a low paying adjunct position in the future but again to be clear this is only speculation on my part and I have no experience in academia unlike some of the other posters here. Best of luck in your decision. I know you will do great things!
Well, the plan is to go to WSU and stay on the Pullman campus. I might send out some transfer applications, but won’t take a gap year.
I must admit this whole process has definitely made me feel like there’s something fundamentally wrong with the college admissions process. The only reason I’ve had good options at WSU and Tulsa is because I’m a National Merit Finalist. And, out of all my accomplishments, that’s the one that I put the least effort into. I tried to get a 4.0. I tried to take advanced classes. I tried to do well in robotics competitions. All those took a lot of time and effort. Being a National Merit Finalist is just something that happened to me. And yet, without that, I would have a hard time affording to go anywhere. Maybe that’s just how the system is, but it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. My hard work wasn’t for nothing, it’ll help for grad school admissions, but without NM I’d probably have a hard time getting into grad school with the amount of debt I’d have.
My current situation is fine. But I can’t help but imagine if it were just ever so slightly different.
Yes–about your last sentence–that’s part of the psychological fallout from having a huge shock. You’re a strong person, though, and in time the feelings will fade and you will be flourishing again, as you obviously have been for years. We believe in you! P.S. There is definitely something fundamentally wrong with college admissions: it’s about numbers and text, not about real people.
Congrats on making your decision. I am glad to know you will be an on-campus student at the Pullman campus. I think you will thrive. Don’t forget that National Student Exchange will allow you to do up to 2 semesters at any participating school, only paying what you are already paying at your home institution. Some strong schools such as Minnesota (ranked #20 in graduate level math) participate. A good friend of mine has a son much like yourself–NMS, 4.0, graduated high school with 2 years of college math already completed–who got shut out of MIT, Princeton and UChicago, and is thriving at UMN.
You can always transfer to another college after you start. The process can be very disheartening and many times just doesn’t make sense. You didn’t do anything wrong. The schools have these weird priorities they have to meet and has nothing to do with you which of course can lead to painful results. Hang in there.
Congrats on making a decision! I completely agree that not only the admissions process itself, but economic access to higher ed in general, is a mess, especially for students like you whose financial aid eligibility doesn’t match their actual ability to pay. It’s very fortunate that you’re NMF… although, give yourself credit - Washington has one of the highest selection index cutoffs in the nation. (It’s that much more frustrating for students who don’t make the cut in one of these high-index states, knowing that they could have been NMF in many states but not their own!) You’re going to do great - I really hope you will keep updating about how everything goes for you at WSU and beyond!
As an aside… the way you write about math reminds me of a book - Mathematics For Human Flourishing, by Francis Su, who is a Harvey Mudd prof. You might enjoy it if you haven’t already read it.
Congratulations on making a decision. Go to college this fall and look for every opportunity that you can find. Use the next years to also explore other interests. Learn about computer programming, quant finance, physics, philosophy or anything that sparks an interest. Find advisors in the math department to help you get involved with research. They don’t know you right now because you haven’t been on campus, but once they see all the classes you have already taken, it will make a difference, but you have to reach out to them. They won’t come looking for you. Consider finding internships for the summer or even a semester to build your resume and broaden your skill set. You are very intelligent and I’m positive you can do anything you set your mind to. Living on a college campus is so much different than taking classes online. Best of luck. Everyone here is routing for your success.
Why is National Merit State based? I feel like it has a disproportionate impact regardless, but what’s the point of having it be on a State-by-State basis?
The arguments for this approach would be akin to the arguments for the electoral college vs. the popular vote. I understand the intent, but it’s an awfully blunt instrument for promoting geographic equity/representation, to say the least, and students from less-advantaged areas within high-performing states really get the short end of the stick. In your case, if you’re in Vancouver, your cutoff would have been four points lower (216 vs 220) across the river in Portland. (Luckily you didn’t need it to be lower!) It’s a weird system.
Just a guess but I don’t think the PSAT/SAT was always administered or accepted nationwide. The ACT was typically used by southern states. That said, it’s old news. Time to move on to WSU.
BTW you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s a tough process to navigate. Especially if you’re lower income or don’t attend a good high school with good advisors. Again, it’s not where you start but where you finish. Good luck.