10 years out of highschool but I was pursuing an engineering school program.
I’d prefer a traditional college experience.
I’m planning to be a full time student in a traditional on-campus program. I just want to find some programs I could stand a chance by applying for based on my profile.
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I’m confused. So are you saying you graduated from high school in 2012, and completed “preparatory classes” in the 6 years before you withdrew in 2018?
What are “preparatory classes”. If these are college classes, you will be required to provide the transcripts for them when you apply for college here.
So…you are saying your family has $250,000 or maybe more to fund four years if college in the United States?
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So…you are about 28 years old. Most undergrads at residential colleges in this country are between the ages of 18-23.
I think you really need to think about how “traditional” your experience needs to be.
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It does sound like you may be a transfer student at most schools, assuming what you are talking about here are post high school preparatory classes.
If you are a full pay student, there are many colleges who will be happy to have you attend. AustenNut gave you some good suggestions, do any of those schools appeal to you?
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Preparatory classes are classes that prepare you to pass the entrance examinations to the engineering schools. I got in the engineering school in 2016.
Regarding the financial aspect, I can rely on my parents savings or apply for some loans in my home country so that won’t be a major issue.
Can you answer these questions:
- what “mention” did you get on your bac; “notes de bac” in math, physique-chimie, NSI or any other relevant STEM subject
- what prépa did you get into?
- US colleges don’t understand “prépa” - but McGill does so definitely apply there; also, McGill considers “prépa” students as freshman applicants
- how old are you?
- are you a man or a woman?
- what’s the amount of your parents’ savings? (Budget matters to ALL applicants, US or international)
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Ok…I’m going to be honest. You really aren’t filling in the blanks very well here, which makes it very difficult to give you decent advice.
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Will funding college deplete your parent’s savings?
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What did you do between 2012 and 2018?
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Were the courses you took college courses the ones since 2012
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You say you had some medical issue in 2018. I hope that is resolved. So…what have you been doing from 2018 to now?
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Again…the SAT is a test that is supposed to be taken by high school students, not students who have done a lot of post high school coursework.
And thank you @MYOS1634 for joining the discussion.
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I actually think it is fine to start off as a traditional residential student, then move off campus, either on your own or with grad students or working roommates.
Adult learner and degree completion programs often grant degrees like “Bachelor of Liberal Arts.” Some don’t have majors at all. If you want to do math or engineering, then a traditional undergrad program would fit best, academically and in terms of career, if not socially.
I am unclear about your status as freshman or transfer.
If you can pay (avoid any substantial loans!) then there are more options. Many schools are need aware for internationals.
Any science classes’ credit expires after a certain number of years. I don’t know about math. In any case, I agree it is a good idea to start at the beginning.
If this doesn’t work out, you could do undergrad where you are and come to the US for grad school.
You do not need to reveal anything about what you have been doing. Privacy is respected here. It is true that if you have been doing something interesting that could help with admissions, but that is not necessary for all schools by any means. People are asking only to be able to suggest schools, as you have requested.
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@Wisy20 Agree about NYU, too, especially since it has BS / MS Financial Engineering
https://engineering.nyu.edu/academics/departments/finance-and-risk-engineering/bsms-program-financial-engineering
• “Mention Très bien”, 17.75/20 in “Mathématiques”, 19.5/20 in “Physique chimie” and 17.75/20 in “Sciences de l’ingénieur”.
• I was admitted to “Lycée Montaigne”.
• I’m a 27 years old man. Since 2020, I’ve tried to attend a local computer science program but I couldn’t keep going as I’ve nearly lost all computer science basics I’ve learned.
• Regarding the amount of savings, It’s 200k$. I consider I could also apply for some loans to help finance my studies.
I know that my background is quite atypical but I hope I could obtain any useful advice I could use.
For American readers: the “prépa” are highly selective special post-high school classes located in public prep schools (or in comprehensives where the authorities hoped to encourage high academic aims - the presence of a “prépa” in a HS connotes high academic status and, often, high social status, to the secondary school and by inference to its students, even at the pre-prepa level).
Kind of if there were a partial college located at TJ or Stuy, where HS graduates could take classes that are more intense/intensive than typical college classes (in the way MIT or Mudd classes are more intense than a typical state U class).
However in the US, because there’s no national curriculum, advanced HS students routinely take what would be “post HS” courses (ie., MVC or AP Physics C) or attend post HS classes as HS students through dual enrollment, which is impossible in France.
The “prépa” system is based on the idea studying is an ascetism, transforming young people into pure brains, so they’re expected to spend 8 (very intense) hours a day in class and 4+ hours at night studying, though 2 hours for ‘physical activity’ is a weekly recommendation to remain healthy and not flag while in class 
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Thank you for your reply.
I want to start as a freshman because I feel like I’ve lost nearly all my post-secondary education. I’d prefer to do my bachelor’s abroad as I’ve found no viable options where I live.
To provide a little bit more context on the grades, these grades should not be transferred to percentages and then viewed that way in an American mindset. Do not think 89%, 98%, 89%. At least in French universities (which I suspect is similar for students going for their bac), there’s an expression: 20 is for God, 19 for the professor, and 18 is the best that the best student in the class might expect. Frankly, I’ve never heard of a student getting a 19.5…it’s a stunning accomplishment, in my experience. In the foreign exhange program I participated in in college, a French grade of 14/20 was transferred as an A. (We enrolled directly in the French universities…and privacy about grades was not a thing…the class’s final grades were posted on a wall for anyone to see.)
@Wisy20, do you prefer to be in a big city, or suburban, or rural area? Are there areas of the country where you would prefer to be? Types of weather? Size of the school? Political climate of the area? Also, what do you view as a typical college experience that you’re hoping to have? A “typical” experience at a French college is very different from a “typical” U.S. experience, and there is lots of variation between “typical” programs in the U.S. as well. Knowing what you’re looking for can help narrow down suggestions.
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Thanks, that’s very useful.
So
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you’re qualified to apply to McGill. They’ll understand your application so do apply.
Those seem like the Honours Subjects or Majors most likely to match what you want (note that “Arts” is the general faculty - the others are “Engineering”, “Business”, “Fine Arts”) you can add a CS minor if you wish.
Probability and Statistics (Faculty of Arts) | Undergraduate Admissions - McGill University
Applied Mathematics (Faculty of Arts) | Undergraduate Admissions - McGill University
Environmetrics (Faculty of Science) | Undergraduate Admissions - McGill University -
Thanks for the info on Montaigne (for College Confidential readers: it’s got sth like a 15% acceptance rate).
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200K = 50K/year, so that should keep most public universities in play with minimal merit scholarships (or minimal loans).
Since you’re 27, you wouldn’t really belong in a dorm with teenagers, but a residential university with grad students, where most students (undergrad&grad) live around the university in off-campus student residences would work well.
You could also apply to the Honors Colleges or Honors programs in order to have more interactive or more in-depth classes - most have Nov 1 deadlines so you’ll need to hurry.
You cannot apply as a freshman but you will be given tests so you’re placed in the right level of classes for most subjects.
I would recommend you apply for Applied Math: it’s a very flexible subject and your background will play in your favor.
You should also email each US college you are considering, explaining this:
Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
After high school, I attended a special high school based program called “classes préparatoires” for 2(/3?) years in Lycée Montaigne. I did not get university credit but this program did allow me to take more advanced classes than what you would find in a high school program, such as calculus or calculus-based physics. It may be a little like Dual Enrollment in the US since it’s both HS and college, but students cannot be selected for this special program if they don’t have a bac first.
Should I apply as a freshman or a transfer?
Thank you.
(1st name/last name)
Assuming you apply for Math or Applied Math
Safeties, to be done first:
- UMN Twin Cities (+ Honors College*)
- Penn State (+ Schreyer Honors College*)
- SUNY Binghamton
Possible matches:
- UMD College Park (+Honors)
- Cal Poly SLO
- Purdue (+Honors)
- Honors College = reach ; applying to another subject than Math/Applied Math (such as CS or Engineering) would make admission harder and move each university up safety-> match, etc.
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I’d probably add Stony Brook (NY) as another safety, along with its honors college. According to IPEDS data, there were 306 applied math grads and 66 math grads in the most recent year submitted. That size of department provides tons of depth.
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I thought of Stony Brook but I’d decided to limit myself to “residential” universities where students live nearby -
@wisy20: SUNY Stony Brook is an excellent university for anything scientific located near NYC; as a result, many students live nearby during the week but go home on weekends, and many others simply go home every day.
Depending on what you mean by “traditional” experience, this may be fine - it’d be similar to what is “traditional” in Europe but wouldn’t be for the US.
In the US, “traditional college experience” sort of implies “residential”= students live on campus on near campus during the full semester and only go home for the longer breaks, if at all; there are also “suitcase” campuses: students live near campus and go home on weekends; and also “commuter” campuses: students live at home, go to class, then go back home.
The difference is in the number of free/low fee activities offered on campus and how many people you can socialize with after class or during the weekend.
The 6 universities I listed would all have many offerings each night + trips, sports, films… offered to students on weekends; a commuter university would typically have clubs during the day but fewer offerings at night and almost none on weekends. A suitcase campus would be in-between.
Depending on what you want, it may not matter at all 
and SUNY Stony Brook may be a great university for you. Do look into its Honors College and University Scholars programs and complete the extra steps to be considered for admission. Honors/Scholars programs tend to provide a ready-made community which can be useful for a student coming from abroad and living off-campus (in addition, you’re guaranteed to be with academically-focused students - even though they’d be teenagers, they would be a bit more mature than average).
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For me a 100% GPA is a 4/4 GPA. I’m not used to the colleges world in the U.S. For now, I just want to find any good mathematics related bachelor’s that could well prepare me for a Financial engineering graduate program afterwards considering I’ve nearly lost all my computer science background. I guess I could retrieve some by following some online courses.
in the US, you don’t just take classes in your main subject (“major”).
So, it’s perfectly fine if you don’t remember much from your CS classes, you’d just take Level 1 and Level 2 classes as part of your degree.
(I’m using Penn State here as an example because I know their system well but this would apply to all other universities, except with different numbers or course titles).
Roughly 1/3 classes will be Distribution or General Education requirements - equivalent to “cours de culture générale” - some will be fulfilled by the bac or by the prépa classes if they give you credit for it but you’ll likely have to take 2 courses in English composition, courses in history or other humanities, one art course, one course such as economics or sociology… I would strongly recommend you take one course in American Studies since you’d be arriving in the US and understanding the country and its cultures would be important.
(Each course lasts 1 semester. There are 2 full-length semesters during the year and summer sessions when you can take 2 courses over 6 weeks instead of 5 courses over 14 weeks).
Another 1/3 will be related to your major (=main subject), with some classes required for all students, some to be chosen among 2 or 3 choices, and some you must choose among lots of advanced options.
Another 1/3 can be anything: courses you’re interested in and choose, or a minor (a set of prescribed courses articulated around 1 subject, which can be complementary to your major or totally different. For someone in Applied Math, a minor could be Information Science, CS, or… French, Music, Anthropology, Biology…)
Here’s an example based on Penn State’s regular Math options - you’ll see there are some classes that all math majors have in common and some which are different. You choose when you’ve completed your early classes. If admitted to Schreyer you can choose to take some of the 1st and 2nd year classes as “Honors” (for instance, the calculus classes are “proof based”)
I picked the “tracks” most likely to prepare you for Financial Engineering. (Click, even if “sign in to your account” appears, the proper link should lead you to 3 program descriptions)
You would likely test out of Math 140 (Calculus with 1 variable, level 1) and depending on how much you remember, may test out of Math 141 (Calculus with 1 variable, level 2) or depending on your placement test, either out of or into Math 250 (Differential Equations).
All these courses have an Honors version that’s more in-depth and is proof-based, which if you’re aiming for a top-level Financial engineering program is what you should take if admitted to Schreyer (Honors College).
Regardless of what math course you get placed into, you’d be expected to take English Composition (if Schreyer scholar, you’d take the Honors version which includes a project and a trip), Introduction to CS or Introduction to Programming, Economics (if Schreyer scholar, the Honors version), and if you wanted to make your life easier, a 400-level French course which would be added to your gen ed credits, then the second level of the math, CS, and economics class, Intro to statistics (unless you tested out, then the next level in Statistics), and one more class in Art, History, etc (depending on gen ed credits you already got).
Your 2nd year, out of your 10 classes (5 in the Fall, 5 in the Spring), you’d take 4 math classes, 2 econometrics classes, 0 to 2 CS classes depending on your option, and the rest in Gen Eds or minor-related classes.
You can take classes during the first summers to accelerate or diversify your curriculum but after your 2nd or 3rd year you’re likely to have a summer internship if you’re good at applied math.
After you’re admitted and have chosen where to enroll, you’ll need to find the syllabus, or “programme”, for each math and physics class taken, as well as Philosophy, because the Physics and Philosophy classes will give you credit, ie., you meet a general education requirement with them and don’t have to retake them.
Grading in the US is completely different from France and the prépa system has its own “value” points that if translated directly/numerically means all students are failing by US standards whereas they’re all the best students in France in reality. In the US, 80% would be okay but not that good, for instance.
(if you can get a grade of -72, then a 2 is not that bad, and a 7 is good, with top of the class getting, perhaps, 12… This insane system makes no sense to US colleges so whoever would be your guidance counselor would have to indicate that, say, a 3 is passing, a 6 is a B, and a 10 is an A, or whatever would be 80% of the class has that or higher, 50% of the class has that or higher, 20% of the class has that or higher… If they use the prepa assessments, college admissions will want you to be ranked at the level of at least 50% of the class or higher with many grades indicating you were in the top 20% or higher. McGill discounts grades from prépa entirely because they correlate to what the teachers think will be the rank for an exam 2 years down the line that McGill or other colleges don’t have access to.)
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No.
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I did preparatory classes which allowed me to get in an engineering school afterwards.
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They were college courses.
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It was a “serious” medical issue that left some sequels. I was only able to take a computer science program at a local university but wasn’t able to pursue it as it wasn’t sufficiently related to mathematics.
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I’ve only taken the SAT because I needed something recent that I could rely on to judge my level. I also thought that a good score would help me know which programs I should apply for.