The research about my invention got its’ abstract published in a national journal.
Special Award at Boys State. Only given some years for excellent work. I impacted the program a lot.
1st place at regional and state competitions for research (think of it as ISEF but on state level)
2nd place at a Water Polo tournament that I participated in, in NC.
Successful submission to the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
Extracurriculars
Invented a device that can potentially help a good amount of people. Can’t talk too much more about it, but it can potentially be patented, but I won’t do it because I want it to be in the public domain plus I made a paper about it so I don’t think I can patent it. After I presented my invention, I continued and still continue to improve it.
Presented the research about the first version of my invention. Got to present my research at a national conference (online because of covid) and at a university in my state.
Founded Computer Science club and made almost 100 presentations, 2 curriculums, etc.
Went to Boys’ State. Got positions on all levels, including the state level, and got interviewed for Boys Nation. Didn’t get in though.
Water Polo since 5 years old. Went to smaller national tournaments in the country I used to live in. (so about at the age of 9)
Created a program for my school - personally asked to. Solved a problem many people before couldn’t and saved many people a lot of time.
Got into a state-sponsored research program where I wrote a full research paper.
Worked and organized a water polo camp for little kids. Had to search for a pool and then they also sponsored all the equipment.
Part of my school’s Student Government. Organized prom and homecoming, and much more.
Coaching my middle school science and engineering team. Helping them make a project.
Essays/LORs/Other
Essays — Not bad, but not great. The RD Essays will be good though. I hope. I will def work on them much more. Already stated. My main essay is not bad I don’t think. Its somewhat about me being lazy and how I turned that into something (let me know if that’s cliche). Not very great at using many cool big description words though.
Math Teacher: Had him for 3 years for programming and math. Also a person that was mentoring me for the school project that I was asked to make. Heard he writes bad recs, but my counselor said he doesn’t. Don’t know who to believe. I would say 8/10??? I guess?
Physics Teacher: Having him for the second year now. Nothing Special, know about my invention though. 7/10?
The person that was supervising the school event that I was making the program for. I read the recommendation actually. Don’t know what a good or bad recommendation is, but I think it was pretty good. 9/10
Cost Constraints / Budget
I would honestly just like to see my chances and maybe some other school recommendations, but 60k is probably the max.
Schools (List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)
Safety (certain admission and affordability)
UNC Charlotte EA
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable) NC State EA
Congratulations on your accomplishments. This sounds like something that might be of interest to Brown’s Nelson Center of Entrepreneurship and/or The school of Public Health. I would consider reaching out to either program and incorporating in detail your thought process for developing this device and how Browns resources and the OC could support this effort in your essays.
Look up the Brown venture prize and prior winners as a template of why you and Brown may be a good fit for one another.
Good luck and please DM if you want more specific advice about this approach.
You could potentially get into any school in the country -but if you have a $60K max, you’d want to run the net price calculators for Brown, Cal Tech, CMU, Northeastern, and UVA.
Now short of a special prize that was previously mentioned, you’ll see quickly whether or not you can afford these schools. If you can’t, you might pivot to others that you can afford - that will still also be semi elite. There’s no reason to apply to a school that’s $80K if you can only pay $60K - unless it comes with need based aid (hence the NPC).
Congrats on a great background - here’s wishing you well. I agree with your assessments - unsure on Iliniois (a lot tougher than Purdue) but I think Purdue is a safe bet. You might add a UMD as well.
It’s not firm, I am kind of flexible. The direct loan can definitely be added. I’m honestly just seeing what college I get into and going on from there. My parents are okay with it as well.
As for need-based aid, my expected family contribution for the first year is $24,500 and it will increase the second year, but for the first year it’s that.
Be aware that direct admission to CS at Purdue, UIUC, and UT Austin is substantially more competitive than the school overall.
Also be aware that NCSU does not admit directly to CS. Students need to enter as enginering-first-year, and then compete based on college grades for entry into majors. The NCSU engineering web pages have some limited information on how competitive each major is. For example, 14CSCBS - Google Sheets linked from Computer Science CODA Statistics | College of Engineering says that most recent year CS admits from engineering-first-year had middle 50% college GPAs of 3.35-3.98 technical and 3.39-4.03 overall (grades may be more than 4.0 because NCSU calculates A+ = 4.333).
Definitely understand the price issue in those top schools. The first year, ill have need based aid where it applies so that buffers some of it out. I’ll check it out with my parents again.
Thank you so much for the recommendation! I didn’t know whether to put UIUC in target or reach, so I agree. UMD has been added though! Thank you!
One question: by the affordable but semi-elite schools, which ones are you talking about? Which schools would those be? Just for my reference.
Thank you so much for this information! I definitely did not know this. I will look into this further and DM you if I have some questions (which I probably will).
Thank you so much for this information, I again, really appreciate it.
If your EFC is $24,500 - and assuming no merit at the OOS publics, how will you pay?
I assume if you can pay $60K a year over the four years, you have the money saved - but just know - schools costs increase each year or if you’re lucky, some lock in tuition for four years - but you have to pay year by year.
Good luck to you - and you may decide to pursue some schools where you can go for $20K a year or less - and if you decide that, the list will be less prestigious, but the outcomes may or may not be as good, but your family stress will be less.
NC State is certainly a win - if that’s where you end up. But given your EFC (which doesn’t mean you’ll get Brown to pay all but $24K) - but run those net price calculators to see what they show you’ll pay. Do the work now so you avoid surprises later.
It is possible to patent something, and then make the patent publicly available for use free of charge. Once you have made the information describing the idea public, then you have exactly one year to file in the US, but cannot file anywhere else. No one else should be able to file a patent on your idea from the day that you have made it public (unless they had the same idea earlier).
However, filing patents is expensive. I do not know if I would bother if you do not want to charge anyone to use the idea.
Also, I am not a patent lawyer (nor a lawyer at all).
Regarding your actual university applications: I think that affordability might be as much of an issue as acceptance. Have you run the NPCs? Do you have $60k per year, or $60k in total (I was thinking the latter, but am not sure)? You might want to think about applying to universities that are very selective but offer full need based aid, assuming that the NPC agrees with your family’s sense of what you can afford.
You have done very well up to now. Congratulations!
That’s what I read as well. My first introduction of the device to the public has been more than a year ago, but I talked to some people, and getting a patent is in the $15,000 range, which is just not for me. I would much rather just work on it and release the device to the public to buy at some point. Thank you!
I definitely understand the point about financial aid. I ran the NPCs, and most of the colleges do come out under 60k (per year). I’ll definitely sit down with my parents again and see what can be done about the finances.
I really appreciate everything!
If you’re applying RD to UMD, it will be a reach. You have strong stats so you are competitive, but they fill 94% of their class EA. You’re also unlikely to get merit $$ during RD, and they’re not good with need based aid for OOS applicants. The COA is $58k, which won’t be affordable if your EFC is $24.5k.
The poster said their annual budget is $60,000 a year…so UMD would be within that price point. So would several of the other OOS publics. And he responded to me that this is flexible.
@MrMrag one thing you do need to know. Many of the schools on your list do NOT guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. Your “EFC” of $24,000 or so should be viewed as the minimum you will be asked to pay.
You’ve gotten some good advice here. My only comment would be to have someone like an English teacher read your essay. Your description of the topic about being lazy kind of concerns me, because I would think that’s the opposite of what a college wants to see. Best to use your essay in a way to show the colleges something about you that’s not necessarily reflected on your application that’s a positive. Maybe you turn it into something but starting out with that premise, It needs to be done well and it may be negative at some schools. Similar to talking about a disability. It can be effective if done right, but some schools still won’t like it.
That makes sense. I will definitely talk about my essay with a teacher. I didn’t really say that I am lazy, just talked about how being lazy has driven me to do things. Kind of ironic, but I definitely understand and will also talk to someone who isn’t my college advisor because she has given me no constructive criticism other than that it looks good.
For a lot of the top PRIVATE schools, budget should not be a a big concern but the odd thing is that you say your EFC is $24K, which means your family’s AGI should be in the $140-160K ballpark. That also means they probably net around $100-120K. So, unless I am missing something here, taking out loans to make up $60k per year is not something I would advise.
You will be competitive for NCSU, which has a solid CS program. Are you a National Merit scholar because that can open up many more schools like Texas A&M?
If what you say is true then CalTech, Georgia Tech and CMU should all be in play. Question will be affordability.
I don’t think the UVA COA you quoted is accurate… our full pay OOS COA two years ago was over $70k (not engineering). However, UVA meets need so potentially could be affordable with aid. The OP needs to run NPCs.