1480 SAT Early Grad Last Minute Help needed [GA resident, 4.0 GPA, -1500 SAI]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US citizen
  • Georgia Resident
  • Public High School
  • First Generation, low income, early grad(By one year)

Cost Constraints / Budget

No budget or cost constraints

Intended Major(s)

Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or Electrical Engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0 (No grades lower than a 95)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.05*(on a system where regular/honors=4, while AP/Dual Enrollment =5 )
  • Class Rank: Technically Unranked(due to early grad), but roughly Top 10% out of ~250
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1480(730 reading, 750 math)-my only decent stat T_T

HS coursework

  • English: 9th/10th/11th grade english(all honors); taking english 101(DE)
  • Math: Algebra I(honors), Geometry(reg), Algebra II(reg); taking Precalc(AP), College Algebra(DE)
  • Science: Physical Science, Biology, Physics(All reg); taking Human Anatomy(reg), Environmental Science(DE)
  • History and social studies: World History(AP), Amer gov(reg); taking World Civ(DE), U.S. History(honors), econ(DE), Amer gov(DE)
  • Language other than English: Spanish I/II(regular)
  • Other academic courses: 4 Aerospace pathway courses(reg), SAT prep(reg), Dramatic Writing (reg); taking pschy(DE), Public speaking(DE)

Awards:

None (Brutal, I know)

Extracurriculars

  • Family Responsibilities(won’t go into details for personal reasons),all years, 20 h/w for 52w/y
  • Chess Club co-founder, all years, 2h/w for 30w/y
  • Student research participant at Georgia Tech, 12th grade year, 5 h/w for 24w/y

Essays/LORs/Other
My personal essay is around 80/100, LORs are likely typical, my school offers very little APs/honors, I graduate a year early(it is not at all possible for me to stay another year)

Schools (All Regular Decisions)

  • Assured: GSU
  • Extremely Likely: Mercer
  • Likely: UGA, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Upitt
  • Toss-up: Georgia Tech(Dream School)
  • Lower Probability: Emory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • Low Probability: Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Princeton, UPenn, Vanderbilt University, Yale, Stanford

What are my chances? Also I would appreciate suggestions on what colleges I should add or remove. Most of the schools are reaches my counselor put on there because my SAT score was decent( my school average is ~900)

Deadlines

This January and I have not done any supplemental essays(Yikes, I know)

2

How can you be low income and have an unlimited budget? Did you run the net price calculators? Are you sure all are affordable?

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I’ll take any amount of student debt, so cost is not an issue.

4

Interesting thread - like @worriedmomucb I’m wondering - is there some kind of Hope or other type scholarship you are accessing? Mercer, as an example, costs $59,000+ in direct costs - so how would you pay?

Curious why Emory when they don’t have engineering.

I’ll admit - the early grad thing is not something I understand but just a few thoughts:

English - looks like you have four years

Math - you don’t have calc - so that’s going to crush you even as a four year student. Similar to science. And you only have two years of foreign language where you likely need 3 and in many places four.

So that would be my first concern - academically, you are not there.

As for awards - that I don’t worry about. I think what you do to get an award matters. For example, you are helping your family however that is. If you are working, for example, let’s say at a grocery store to raise money for them - well you don’t get an award for that. If you are transporting morm or dad for medical treatments - it’s noble but you don’t get an award for that.

So let’s look at your list. I don’t understand Georgia State at all. They don’t have engineering. But Kennesaw (to stay local) has ABET accreditation in both CE and EE.

Mercer has neither CE or EE so not sure why it’s on your list.

The others are too hard to know but if you were a four year student with these #s and rigor (or lack of), I’d say:

Yes to Pitt, unlikely to Va Tech and no to Purdue and UGA. Even if you got in, how would you pay $45K and up for this trio? And that’s per year.

Ga Tech - no

Emory, like Mercer, you won’t get in but that you have it on your list given your desires worries me. UIUC - nope. Low Probability - no.

So - I have no doubt you’re a wonderful student who has a lot of stress and a lot of responsibility and that you’re trying to get ahead.

I’m concerned with your school selection (Emory, Mercer, Ga State). but tell me I’m wrong. I’m also concerned with how will you pay - for example $66K in direct costs at UIUC? Tell me that path - maybe I’m wrong.

I’m concerned with your overall lack of rigor - it’s not even close to what top schools want.

So I’m hopeful you go back to high school for another year.

Best of luck.

5

This is why you need to go back to school. This is not a legitimate statement.

First off, you can only borrow $5500 the first year and $27K for four years. Why? So that you can be saved from yourself. If you went to UIUC and had $250K in debt, you’d have 10 years of payments at probably $3300 a month. Whos’s going to pay that? And then to live, etc.

Fortunately, your statement is not possible. Now, your parents, if they can find someone to lend to them, can borrow more - but it’s foolish and the government has put in a protection for that - they can now borrow up to $20K a year but $65K for four years.

So I’m guessing you want badly out of high school - but unfortunately your plan is not grounded in reality. For that, you should breathe a deep sign of relief - because debt is strangling - it would make it so you’d have no choices in the future. You’d work and work and all your money would go to your debt - with hopefully a little left over for you to live.

I’m sorry to say it like this. But I don’t see the maturity to take the next step as I don’t believe your plan is well thought out from school selection to budget.

Good luck.

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

No. You cannot take “any amount of student debt”. No one will lend you an unlimited amount of money. If your family is low income, they will not be able to borrow an unlimited amount of money either. The maximum amount that you can borrow will be way, way less than the total cost of university. You will need very good financial aid or some source of money to pay for university.

These are all very employable majors, and very good majors for someone who is interested in the subject and who is good at math. However, these are also majors where the “prestige” of the university that you attend really does not matter. This means that you can and should be looking for affordable universities.

Georgia tech is very good for your intended majors. You are a very strong student and in-state. “Toss-up” sounds about right to me but if you get in then it is a very good choice (assuming that it is affordable).

Be aware that if you get in, then any of GT, Caltech, or any of your “low probability” schools would be a lot of work. You would need to work very hard at any of them. You should plan to show up on campus planning to work hard from day 1 and planning to keep way ahead in your course work. Saturdays for example are for catching up on homework. I am hoping that you will be able to drop your family responsibilities when you get to university because university classes will be demanding, and of course the distance would also get in the way for most of the schools that you are applying to.

I think that it is a good thing that you have gotten to take public speaking. At some point there is a very good chance that you will get to give public talks, and some preparation early on is valuable. Both daughters similarly got to have experience with public speaking when in high school and I think that this has been helpful.

To me your extracurriculars look very good. You do not need awards. Showing responsible behavior and the ability to work with other people and get along with other people is very valuable. Family responsibilities is a valid EC. Starting the chess club is a valuable EC, and hopefully the chess club will continue after you are gone (which seems likely as long as you have chess sets and students who know how to play and like to play). Having some research experience at GT is valuable. If you get a strong reference from a researcher at GT that is likely to help your applications quite a bit.

In terms of deadlines and essays, you just need to get this done. Be genuine. Be authentic. Be yourself. They do not expect you to sound like a seasoned marketing professional. They expect you to be an honest and hardworking high school student. Some imperfection is okay. Missing application deadlines is not. Also make sure that you get the financial aid applications in on time (which presumably means that you will need help from parents).

By the way I might be less concerned about your lack of calculus compared to others. I attended a high school that did not offer calculus, and took it as a freshman in university. I still graduated as a math major from a highly ranked university. However, I arrived on campus at university very much ready to take calculus, and having done very well in all of the prerequisites. If you have not had a grade lower than 95 it sounds like this might be true for you also. Admittedly it has been a long time since I was in university and I can’t be completely sure how things have changed over the years.

I think that you will need to wait and see what affordable acceptances come in. You definitely need to pay attention to the cost of every university where you get accepted, and you need to have a realistic plan to pay for all four years before you start university.

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The thought process behind Georgia State and Emory is that they have transfer pathways with Georgia Tech that would allow me to get an engineering degree from GT. As for Mercer I was under the impression they had an engineering school, though I suppose I will swap it if that is not the case.

Regarding how I plan to pay for college, I have already applied for fasfa (-1500 SAI, with ~7000 pell grant), will have zeller mill scholarship if I go instate(covers full tuition), and plan to apply for financial aid(rough estimates put the excess at only be ~6k a year for most schools) So I did not literally mean I would take a whole bunch of student debt.

As for course rigor there is almost nothing I can do to improve it even with another year, my school does not offer calculus, Spanish III/IIII, or any more dual enrollment/APs that I have not already/am taking, and making a commute to a nearby college as a DE student is not an option because my family does not have a car. T_T

8

Thanks for the response.

I’d suggest you remove the out of state publics.

I would personally go to Kennesaw. I don’t understand going to a pathway school or doing the Emory dual (a 5th year) when you can get an accredited degree up front.

Cal Tech, CMU, Cornell, Princeton, U Penn, Vandy, Yale and Stanford all meet need so they are ok to apply.

I suspect you will be at GSU but I’d sub in Kennesaw or another ABET accredited school. I don’t see any admittances beyond.

Give you are first gen, I’d likely submit the excellent SAT to all even though for some, it’s not in range.

Best of luck to you.

9

I see. I kinda brushed off costs because I thought my fasfa results (-1500 SAI, ~7000 pell grant) and zeller mill(cover full tuition instate) would cover most of the costs of attendance, but perhaps that was too naive. I will definitely look into more affordable options.

I do hope my lack of calculus is not a problem and thank you for the advice!

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Yeah I replace the out of state publics with more affordable in state ones like Kennesaw.

A bit off topic, but I very much appreciate the honesty. My counselor talked about Georgia Tech and UGA as if they were very likey’s for me because no one at my school has gotten a 1400 SAT in the past decade. I appreciate the realism so I do not get my hopes up.

Thank you for your time and advice!

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For your sake, I hope I’m wrong.

The issue with a UGA - if you have to live there - it’s a long way - how do you pay? I mentioned Kennesaw because they are accredited in the majors - so the sure bet to me is better than a pathway. I work with Atlanta based people - we have everything from Ga Tech to UGA to Kennesaw to Ogelthorpe to W Georgia to N Georgia - even Valdosta. You’d be hard pressed by looking at the schools who is highest ranked in the office.

Good luck.

1 Like