Tennessee Community College Spring Transfer Chance Me/Match Me - Physics/Math Major

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics

  • US student.
  • State/Location of residency: Tennessee.
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Small local Community College.
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): White, bi femboy.
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): First generation college student. I graduated high school as a Junior. HF autism. My parents are divorced. I don’t know if that matters, but it may affect financial aid?

Intended Major(s) Interested in a double major of physics and math. If I can’t double major, I’d just go for physics. I’m interested in getting a PhD eventually.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.71
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 3.73 (1 Honors credit for getting a high grade in class. I was barred from taking AP/Dual Enrollment because I moved High Schools.)
  • College GPA (for transfers): 4.00
  • Class Rank: Unsure for both College and HS.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 33 in science and reading, 32 in English, 27 in math. My math score isn’t very good because I got too stressed out. I got an 18 in science once, too, because of the stress of taking the ACT and probably my autism.

Coursework
My current majors are math, physics, and general engineering. I’ve taken 33 credits so far. By the time I’m applying, I’ll have 50 credits, and I don’t think my GPA will change. I’ve taken Honor’s courses when applicable, but there are no Honor’s courses for STEM courses where I go. I have taken/am taking Chemistry; Calculus 1,2,3; Linear Algebra; Physics 1,2; English 1,2; and some humanities courses that everyone has to take (history, etc.)

Awards
I had an ornament I made in High School put on the national Christmas Tree in 2019. I have also received a scholarship/grant for having a 3.5 or above.

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Cashier at local grocery store over the Summer (in between graduating HS and beginning college)
Schoolhouse.world tutor -I have over 50 hours and counting.
Phi Theta Kappa Honor’s society VP.
President of the Engineering club.
SCUBA certified. No clue if this counts, but I’ve been told to put on the app.
Member of Toastmasters.
Debate Club member.
I traveled alone to Costa Rica using the money I made as a cashier. My parents keep telling me to put this as an EC but I’m not sure it’s good.

Essays/LORs/Other
I don’t really know how to “rate” my essays, but I’m very proud of them. I wrote about struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts during High School. I don’t really want to make it a sob story, but I’m just proud of myself becoming more productive; I never did homework in High School or really cared about anything.
I’m planning on getting a LOR from my math professors, maybe my English professor. I think all would be good because I’ve gotten the highest scores in each class and I’ve tried to be very active in answering questions and whatnot.
Most importantly, I was suspended OOS for 5 days in my freshman year of high school because I wrote “I hope everyone dies” on a google doc in middle school, along with creating a Twitter account where I said I was a math teacher at the HS I attended under the name “Hugh JasBals” (very mature, I know). Both of these happened because I was planning on committing suicide, was severely bullied for having autism, and was frustrated with the area I lived in for a variety of reasons. I don’t think I will be accepted anywhere because of this, but I’ve tried to turn my life around either way. I don’t know what to do if I don’t get in. I think about this suspension on my record every day and it makes me cry. I used to be considered a “gifted” student before I was moved to ‘rural’ TN, where I was stripped of this status and put in Special Education in 7th grade for having autism. This may have also been a factor in not getting to take AP/Dual Enrollment courses.

Cost Constraints / Budget
I can’t afford anything. My parents are in severe debt. College is the only chance I have to escape my family’s debt and I so I have to take a chance somewhere. Either way I would be financially ruined lol.

Schools
Interested in applying to: MIT, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Boston University, Case Western Reserve University, Tulane. These are pretty much all reaches since I still have another semester at CC if I don’t get in.

I’m sorry if I left anything out or if any of this is stupid. I’ve just been really stressed out because I keep thinking about my choices in high school and it always makes me really upset. I live in a “large” town of ~50,000 people, but every business is failing and activities seem nonexistent (each club meeting I have attended has had >5 people), so ECs are difficult to do. I apologize that a lot of this is venting. I don’t know what else to do to turn my life around and I’ve been kind of depressed because of it.
Thank you.

2

Many of the private colleges on your list require both of their financial information. Are they both willing to provide it? When using the net price calculator on each college’s web site, include both of their financial information if the college requires it.

Will your in-state public universities be affordable (based on their net price calculators)? They only require the financials of your custodial parent.

3

Both would be able to provide information, yes. No, many in-state public universities would not be affordable. Most price calculators showed that many private universities would give more financial aid and be more affordable for me.

4

I just noticed this typo. I meant to write <5 people. Sorry!

5

Okay, listen to this, and ingest it: What you did in HS no longer matters for college. The colleges don’t expect teenagers to make sound judgments when they are still exploring life as teens.
Next steps, try to build a bridge and get over it. Quit looking over your shoulder because you really DON’T need to do this to yourself.

You have done extremely well, so this should be your focus.
Now that you have been at a community college, the universities only care about how you’ve done in college. You need to forgive yourself and move onto your next goal which is transferring.

You can develop your own mantra: “I am proud of what I have achieved! I am really proud of myself! I can do this because I have proved that I am very capable!”

Please make sure to run the NPC’s on each of the colleges websites where you hope to gain admission.

Also, you’ve picked some really tough colleges for admission. If you are rejected, you cannot take it personally because there are just too many good applicants from everywhere and they wont just reject you, they may reject most applicants if they don’t have a space.

Remember that a number of the schools, that you’ve listed, have to have space for you. This means that a current student there needs to drop out to make room for you.

So, just in case, start looking at some safeties, in-state, and how you can fund those schools.

Look at the financial aid pages. Look at local job prospects and start putting some funds together. You need to be able to pay for your health insurance and your personal expenses.

6

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.