Type of high school: Very small charter school; ~100 people per grade, not a lot of AP classes and no programming classes
Gender/Race/Ethnicity: White Male
Other special factors: Russian? I also stutter from birth
Intended Major(s)
Computer Science
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.9667
Weighted HS GPA: 4.5167
College GPA: I took 2 CS summer classes at my local Community College; 4.0GPA
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank
ACT/SAT Scores: I didn’t study for either, but 1340 on SAT (700R and 640M) 31 on ACT. Will actually study and get everything up, especially math, just don’t even remember the topics but that will be easy to get up.
Coursework Freshman(Course - Grade):
Honors Biology - A
Honors English - A
Honors World History - A
Honors Math 3 - A
Programming - A
Spanish 1 - A
Sophomore:
AP Biology - A - 3 on the AP Exam
College Level C&E (Literally AP Gov without the name and the AP GPA metric) - A - 4 on the AP Exam
Honors Chem - A
Honors English - A
Honors Pre Calc - A
Spanish 2 - A
Junior:
AP Calc AB - A
AP Physics 1 - A
AP Lang & Lit - A
AP US History - A
AP Environmental Science - A
Spanish 3 - B - Yeah… a B in Spanish, I am trying to get it back to an A, but chances are, I’m getting a B in Spanish… is it going to hurt my application too much?
Future - Senior:
AP Physics C
AP Literature
AP Stats
AP Calc BC
AP Psychology
Health
Awards
I don’t really go to many competitions, so no real awards, but might put my wins for my invention or something like that. Lastly, I won one or two hackathons but they are really small.
Extracurriculars
Biggest one - Invention in the Engineering Field; I first presented it at my regional fair and won that, didn’t win the state fair though (still mad about that), won another competition and that prompted me to attend AJAS (American Junior Academy of Science) conference (I got to present and also my abstract will be published). I was also invited to a conference/poster session at my local college and a professor might set me up with the dean of engineering at a small college in my state, he hasn’t reached out yet but I’m hopeful. I am also trying to patent the device.
At that AJAS conference, I got to be the emcee and an encourager
Founder/President - Computer Science Club - we teach student programming (about 10 people)
Student Government - have been a class representative for 3 years,planned things like the prom, and essentially every school event
Play Water Polo since 8 years old, no competitions because it is not popular in my state
Organized a Water Polo Camp for children last summer, had 15 people sign up, it was paid for me so I was an actual coach too.
I also worked 2 jobs - Pool Attendant as well as an in-water lifeguard
Took 2 CS classes at my local Community College (School doesn’t allow dual enrollment) - 4.0 GPA
Got “employed” by my school to make a sorting program for them so I am programming that.
Got nominated to go to Boys State by my school
Participating in Model UN - no awards, but did go to a conference for the last 2 years
Key Club - not a lot of volunteering but still
Founder/President - Russian Club - we teach Russian to my 2 friends that actually signed up for this club - not going to talk about that, looking at the current situation
I got accepted into a Summer Program that is fully sponsored by the state to go to a college and conduct research
Planning on improving invention and trying to get to ISEF next year
Essays/LORs/Other
Letters of recommendations are alright, not the best there are as I do not talk to teachers too much because I generally know everything, but the teachers like me.
In my essays, I will talk
Cost Constraints / Budget
The max would be $40,000-50,000. I know I am not getting pretty much any aid.
If you don’t qualify for need based aid, schools that provide only need based aid and not merit aid (like MIT and Stanford) won’t be affordable. Run the Net Price Calculators (NPCs) on each school’s website to get an estimated COA.
If you would be happy to attend UNC Charlotte, then you won’t need another affordable safety.
You are fortunate to live in NC with a number of terrific in-state schools. UNC Charlotte, and NCSU (if you get in) will be tough to beat and the price will be right. Would you consider any others, say Appalachian State or UNC Asheville?
I think your categorization of colleges is correct, although there might be some reach schools that aren’t ultra reaches that you might consider. Maybe Richmond or Emory (although affordability will depend on getting merit). Good luck.
Stanford and MIT are out-of-reach because they only give need-based financial aid which you said that you will not get, and their list prices are far higher than $50,000. You can check their net price calculators to see whether you will get enough or any need-based financial aid.
Also aside from cost, to be totally honest based on your stated profile and stats, MIT is likely beyond reach and Stanford and CMU are also very high reaches for CS.
I like the UNC option.
UMD is also a likely admit and you may get enough merit to get the cost under $50k.
I’ll second that I think your stats and ECs are unlikely to get you into Stanford, MIT, and CMU. If you can maintain your GPA and get you SAT up 100 points or more, you’d be a good candidate for merit aid at RIT. I think you’re a good candidate for WPI and RPI but you won’t stand out as much and therefore may not get much merit aid.
Is your max $40k-$50k per year or for all four years combined?
The 640 Math SAT score is a huge red flag for MIT. I would be inclined to just forget about it. I was a student at MIT back when there was no SAT preparation. Probably about half of the students had 800 on the math SAT anyway, most were not very far from this, and we still found MIT to be quite challenging.
MIT also has no merit based aid. You would need quite a bit of need based aid to get the cost down to $50,000 per year.
I think that this also applies to Stanford (both points) but I was a graduate student there and did not ever ask anyone about SAT scores. I did however have a good friend when I was there who had done their undergrad at UNC CH, which I think is worth looking at seriously.
UNC Chapel Hill is your financial and academic high match - you’ll probably get in. If you can get a standardized score up, it would help. Otherwise you can apply test-optional.
Unless you get high scores, I don’t think that the 2nd tier engineering schools are gonna give you merit. I really don’t think that schools like MIT and Stanford are worth applying to in your case. And even if you were to get into Carnegie Mellon, they won’t give you money, so honestly, in your situation, I’d be looking to maximize your chances at UNC Chapel Hill, and also apply to UNC Charlotte and NC State.
If you were to get the standardized score up very high, RPI might offer you some money, but not enough to match UNC.
Yeah I looked into that, and I saw it as a good school, but I talked to people and they said that looking at NCSU vs UNCCH, UNCCH teaches more theory, so looking at the two of them, I would pick NCSU and it seems to be easier to get in. But honestly, I might apply to both. Thank you for the suggestion!
Yeah I put those colleges up there only as a dream that I know I will 99.99% not attain. If I do get to slip by, my family might reconsider but I am not worried about that. I ran the numbers on all of the schools and yeah, those ones came out to ~$70,000.
Yeah, thought so about the reaches. I honestly don’t even know how to improve but at this point it doesn’t necessarily matter and I know that for CS colleges don’t matter anyway. But yeah, I will improve my SAT score a lot, hopefully 1500+.
And the max is for just one year, not all 4 years.
Yeah thank you so much. I know that I can get my SAT math score up to 750-800 because I know all the concepts, just need to work on timing but yeah for sure. As for UNC CH, I will most likely apply there, I would just choose NCSU over UNC because of its reputation in CS being just as good as UNC and but also teaching less theory in CS and more of things that are used in the job.
If you want some advice on improving your SAT score, I would recommend spending ~20minutes a night on Khan Academy’s free SAT practice (which gives you personalized practice after you input results from a past test, which you have from your 1340). Also, every weekend be sure to take one of the 10 free online available SAT practice tests that CollegeBoard releases.
This strategy took me from a 1420 PSAT to a 1570 SAT, fwiw.
I mean, I literally haven’t studied at all for the SAT/ACT, and my biggest downfall was math, and that was just because I forgot how to do the problems because the last time I did them was 8th grade, so brushing up on those, doing Khan Academy, etc.
You’re a junior and early applications will open in just over 6 months. You need to use your limited time efficiently, and trying to raise your SAT scores by 200 points is no easy feat especially when you say…
You will likely be better off taking MIT, Stanford and CMU off your list and identifying other colleges where you have a more realistic chance of admission and merit.
I agree - you’re not close to MIT, Stanford or CMU. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. No pain, no gain. I mean, Chicago reported accepting a 20 ACT. But you’re likely not getting in.
When you say you won’t get money though - that’s not true.
U of Arizona, a fine school, will give you $30K off if the merit table holds - so tuition would be $7-8K. U of Alabama will give you $24K off making tuition about $7K or you’d get $28K off if you move up one point. They don’t superscore. Students with a 30 ACT in the college of engineering get another $2.5k.
There are other schools even less - UAH for example. There are private schools - not the first or even second tier - but LACs or mid size schools - U of Denver, Florida Tech, etc. will give you big merit.
I’m not sure you get into UNC - maybe TO. NC State likely but UNCC for sure.
But you have other options - from a cost POV if you only picked those because of cost…
What kind of college are you interested in? Your original list had small, medium, and large colleges. What’s your preferred size?
You had colleges from the east coast to the west. Are there particular states, regions, or climates that interest you?
Do you want a tech focused school, or are you open to more all-rounder colleges? How do you feel about college sports or Greek life? Are there any extracurriculars or special opportunities you would like to have in college?
Do you care if the campus is urban, suburban, or rural? Do you have a preference for how you like to learn (larger classes with more anonymity or smaller classes where people know who you are)?
Giving more info besides your stats, major, and budget would be helpful to provide suggestions of other colleges you may be interested in.
Thank you so much for the reply! Sorry for not providing enough information.
As for my preffered size, I woukd say medium-big would be preffered, but its definitely not a requirement.
I dont have a preference in terms of states or climates, I’m fine with any.
A tech-focused school would be preffered, but honesly just having a good engineering/CS department is alright as well.
I do not necessrily care for college sports and I will not be joining any fraternities so having a college without greek life would be fine for me as well.
As for the campus, a suburban or urban campus would be much better than rural. I definitely do not want a college in the middle of nowhere.
I dont have a preference for class size, I am alright with either.
Thank you so much again, and let me know if there is anything else I need to provide!
Look at UAH …skewed engineering /tech. Arizona. UTK. Arkansas - these would be safeties and meet your desires on cost and city type. Florida Tech but it’s small. But well connected.
Colorado School of Mines maybe a match but budget may be a stretch but may make $50k.