It looks as if OP has some flexibility re: major, considering that some of the schools on his list don’t have engineering.
I agree that it opens up more options. Berea could be one to consider, which offers CS. (Berea serves low-income students exclusively and is tuition-free, with all other expenses funded via their campus work program. Terrific alumni network and internship/job placement. Getting in this year wouldn’t be out of the question.)
However, I’m conflicted about encouraging OP to flex on major. The job market in CS has gotten pretty rough. If an ABET engineering program is what he prefers, it may really make sense to prioritize this, as it may also set him up better for future employability. If he preferred straight-CS, then casting a wider net college-wise would make sense; but if he genuinely wants engineering, it’s possible that he could regret compromising on that, down the road.
Either way, I think the 4th year of high school looks like a very worthwhile investment. Conventional wisdom on CC holds that reapplying after a rejection has poorer results than waiting to be a stronger first-time applicant. (I cannot produce data to support this and am open to counter-arguments, but I’ve seen this asserted time and time again.) I don’t know whether this is true for GT in particular - perhaps worth inquiring with an AO… because getting a guaranteed transfer offer this year could set him up well, if GA in-state financial aid continues to be as generous as it’s been in the past.
That is likely because a rejected applicant still has mostly the same record that they have applying one year later, so their second application is already mostly a record that was insufficient for admission on the first application. However, this is usually based on 12th grade frosh rejects reapplying after a gap year, or applying as a sophomore transfer during first year of college, rather than 11th grade early-high-school-graduation frosh rejects deciding to stay in high school to apply as 12th grade frosh applicants. The latter case, which more resembles the OP, could result in significantly different outcomes if not skipping 12th grade allows for completing normally expected high school preparation (e.g. 4th year of English, additional advanced courses in other subjects) that may be missing when applying from 11th grade.
The OP’s situation appears to be that they are running out of advanced courses at their high school (the reason for wanting to leave high school), but may be missing the 4th year of English (which means that graduating high school early would limit the number of colleges that they would be admissible to).
Yes, this is what I’m wondering - does a prior rejection put an applicant at an inherent disadvantage, biasing the admissions committee against them as a re-applicant, or do the results of a second application correlate with the prior results just because the profile hasn’t changed enough to yield a different result? I have heard the former asserted, but I don’t know how we’d prove it.
It does sound as if the lack of appropriate coursework was based on what’s offered on-site at the high school campus, whereas there are off-campus DE options that could make the 4th year highly productive, in addition to logging that 4th year of English which would remove an unnecessary disadvantage. So hopefully playing the long game by delaying graduation to the normal timeline will work out.
In addition to the potential benefits in terms of course rigor and GPA, the combination of the coaching/ problem-solving this community could provide over the next 12 months, and the prospect of becoming a Questbridge Scholar in next year’s application cycle, could all make the investment of another year pay off in notably better outcomes. And I see little downside, in that the “worst case scenario” outcome next year would be ending up at a less-competitive in-state public U, in which case all DE credits would transfer seamlessly and no time would have been wasted. But the likelihood of an acceptance at GT/UGA or a full-need-met private will be greatly enhanced.
Given the limitations in the high school, you may want to investigate whether you can do the following for 12th grade, using local colleges or distance college or high school courses:
English: AP English literature or college/DE English to make the “4 years of English” that colleges want to see
Math: calculus
Science: if you have not had all of biology, chemistry, and physics, try to complete the set (for most engineering majors, importance is physics > chemistry > biology); if you have, consider college/DE general chemistry or AP chemistry if available (college physics for engineering is best taken after calculus)
Spanish: based on whatever placement your knowledge from high school Spanish 2 gets (some colleges prefer to see level 3 or 4)
Arts: you may want to add one, if any college of interest wants to see it
Working 30 hours per week while also a full time student is a HUGE amount of time spent working and not studying. A job is however an EC, and generally a good one. Even working 10 hours a week is a good EC. 30 or more hours per week seems to me to be likely to reduce a student’s academic performance to some extent. At a minimum I would suggest that with your father starting a new job, if you can afford to cut back your work hours to a lot less than 30 that would be a good idea.
Generally speaking I think that students who apply to the same universities one year later are likely to get the same result, except maybe for two exceptions. One would be if you do something extraordinary during a year off. I do not think that this applies here. However the other exception is that I think that applying to a university a year early, after completing only through 11th grade, presents a significant disadvantage. If you decide to complete 12th grade and reapply, then you are likely to be a stronger applicant. This means you will be more mature and have had a chance to take more advanced classes. Also, when you are a year older but still a high school student you are likely to do better on standardized tests, such as SAT or ACT tests.
First of all remember that there are very good universities that you can get into with few or no ECs. It is possible that your in-state public schools might or might not be included depending upon where you are (unfortunately I am not all that familiar with Georgia public schools). Also working a job is a very good EC. Otherwise I would recommend that you do what is right for you, and whatever you do, do it well. If you get into a leadership position then listen to others and try to make the activity better for everyone who participates. Be responsible. Be genuine. With this, almost anything that you do outside of your class work that interacts with other people in a constructive way is a good EC. Certainly your ECs do not need to be through your high school (although they can optionally be through your high school).
If you stay for a 12th grade, can you take calculus somewhere? Perhaps at a nearby community college? Can you do this as a high school student so that you are not considered a “transfer” student when applying to universities?
There might be a question here for your high school guidance counselor, but I am also wondering if it is worth asking admissions at a few universities about how they would see it if you continue another year in high school but take calculus at a nearby community college.
This is a very good EC. I have worked in research some, and one daughter has also (and she is probably in lab right now). One thing about research is that the day to day details are not always as exciting as it sounds like from outside. That is okay. Research involves trying to do something that no one has done before. Some slips and failures along the way are normal and to be expected. Continuing this research would be a good EC if you can and if you stay in high school for 12th grade.
Continuing with chess club is a good EC. Again, the point here is to make the chess club more successful overall.
Many decades ago I was president of my chess club in high school but fell into the position basically by mistake because no one else wanted to do it. Since I had no idea what to do in this position I asked other students for advice, and then helped them put into place whatever idea they came up with. This included a chess ladder (you could challenge the person above you on the ladder and if you beat them you switched positions), a chess tournament at the end of the year (we got a chess book to give to whomever won the championship, I still have it because the best player in the school made one bad move when we played each other, oops), a couple of mini-tournaments against a nearby high school (our best 5 players played against their best five players), and going into the nearest big city one day to play many simultaneous games against a very strong player (the Canadian speed chess champion beat all of us from 3 or 4 high schools at the same time). None of these were actually my idea. However, it turns out that listening to others and helping them get their ideas into place can be a very good form of “leadership”. I got lucky in this regard.