Chance me for T20 schools, UChicago, UIC, Northwestern. 3.1 UW GPA, 36 ACT [WI resident, Math/Physics/Engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Wisconsin
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.): Youngest in my class, skipped a grade.

Cost Constraints / Budget
Parents make 110k<

Intended Major(s):

OP1 Dual major: Math, physics

OP2 Dual major: MENG, Math

OP3 Dual major: Quantum ENG, Math

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it)
  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities)
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • Class Rank: 289/432
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 36 ACT cumulative no SAT

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: Honors eng, IB MYP LIT, IB LIT 1, IB LIT 2
  • Math: Algebra 1, Geometery, IB MYP Algebra 2, IB HL pre calc, Discrete math(UC summer), IB Calc
  • Science: Biology, IB chem, Physics, IB physics
  • History and social studies: AP Human geo, IB world History, AFR american his, US GOV, ECON, Personal financ, Latin american his,
  • Language other than English: IB Spanish 1, IB Spanish 3, Chinese 1, Chinese 2
  • Visual or performing arts: Sculpture, ceramics, Art studio,
  • Other academic courses:

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work: Personal Finance, sociology,
  • Major preparation course work: Discrete math UC

Awards

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

CS ambassador, Skills Pres, Stem group founder (built nuclear fusor and electric car), work apprentice ship, work family buisness, government group

Essays/LORs/Other
Don’t have one yet

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)

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; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):

  • Extremely Likely: UIC

  • Likely: UIC

  • Toss-up: ED NU, ED UC

  • Lower Probability: RD NU

  • Low Probability:RD UC

    Aditional INFO:

    My goal as of now is to go to UIC to fix my GPA, then attend UC or NU to transfer. Or use my UC ED0 option but my gpa is not getting that much higher.

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Why UIC? (UIC is University of Illinois Chicago) As a Wisconsin resident, I doubt UIC will be affordable. They are unlikely to give you any institutional need based aid.

I would first look in Wisconsin for an affordable highly likely admit. What school(s) fit that for you? Are there any four year Wisconsin publics or community colleges that you can commute to while living at home?

How many C’s or lower do you have on your transcript?

With your GPA, I don’t think U Chicago and NU make sense for applications coming out of HS. For any school you will be applying to, run the net price calculators along with your parents to get a cost estimate.

What can your parents contribute toward college costs per year?

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And they’re certainly not toss-ups!

@Slimethi4, why aren’t any Wisconsin schools on your list?

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I’m just going to echo others, it seems to me you should be considering some Wisconsin publics.

Like, Wisconsin-Milwaukee seems like it could be a solid choice for you, and then if things go well, you could look to transfer to Wisconsin-Madison (assuming the latter does not admit you directly). Wisconsin-Madison would be a GREAT place to study Math and Physics, I would suggest arguably better than many of the colleges US News has in its generic top 20.

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You mentioned that you may be a recruited athlete. Have you looked into the process? http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Student_Resources/CBSA.pdf

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i genuinley despise of wisconsin

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I am not a recruited athlete

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Oh, I thought you said you were in the initial description. Unfortunately, your GPA/rank is not going to be overcome by your standardized test scores. As others have said, especially with need for FA, you are going to need to broaden your search

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Well, that’s not helpful.

But here then is another idea. Have you looked at Iowa State? They have formulaic admissions, and as it happens their formula often works out well for people with lower GPAs relative to high test scores. They also have auto merit, on top of a low OOS COA to begin with.

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To answer your questions .

  1. UIC: Since a young age chicago has appeared to me as some type of sanctuary even the awful neighborhoods. I also have family there.
  2. I am not gonna look right now but I assume I have 12± Cs but i did have a rough freshman year with 2 F’s and a D. Again i really am suggesting going to UIC or some university in illinois so that I can reset my GPA and possibly transfer to a T20 school or UIC honors.
  3. I would say though that I am completely uninterested in schools in wisconsin. I have signed up for direct opt in at my school but i really don’t plan on enrolling in UW Milwaukee or any type of community college. More than likely if push comes to shove I might end up going somewhere down in south east wisconsin like carthage.
  4. Yes there are but as previously stated I don’t like wisconsin (really stubborn on that).
  5. I am more than likely paying for my college by myself but they would be able to assist in paying for college.
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My comment definitley looks negative, and thats not what I was trying to accomplish. To broaden my statement, I don’t hate wisconsin but I would prefer attending university in illinois or Mass as a personal prefrence.

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I think the basic issue we are trying to point out is the public research universities in states like that tend to be rather expensive OOS with limited or no aid available. Frankly, they are usually looking to OOS students for a financial benefit to the institution.

So have you looked into private options like DePaul, Loyola Chicago, or Lake Forest? You can see what their Net Price Calculators say, and there is also a chance they would offer not just admissions but maybe some merit to someone with your profile, although that is not at all guaranteed.

ETA: By the way, although it is obviously farther from Chicago, Kalamazoo College is another that could conceivably decide to take a chance on your profile, and it is a strong choice for Math and Physics, in addition to being a nice school in a cool town.

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If you have not remediated these grades, I would encourage you to do so.

I hear you that you don’t want to go to college in Wisconsin. But, because it sounds like your parents aren’t contributing much to your college costs that will severely constrain your choices. It would be impossible for you to afford UIC OOS COA on your own. It doesn’t sound like you will qualify for a Pell grant, so your budget would be the $5.5K student loan you can take out first year, plus any savings or work earnings you will have. You need to understand exactly how much your parents can contribute so we can best help you. If you haven’t lined up a summer job yet, I would get on that.

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No definitley. My initial goal for college is hopefully I apply ED UIC, and reset my gpa there. Then during midterms sometime in 2028 I will submit my application for TED UC, TRD NU, RD UIC Honors. I have high ambition and thats why I am so motivated to apply to these colleges plus I attended the UC summer session and I have got to know a few proffesors and staff.

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UIC does not have ED.

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Early Action I meant*

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Yes I have looked into Loyola, a little bit on depaul, and nothing on Lake forest. But I will most definitley look into it though.

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If I were to look into wisconsin universities and hypothetically obtain a decent GPA above 3.7 or even a 4.0 . Would you think that I could possibly TED to UC or RD NU with a solid chance?

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I understand why you are attracted to the schools on your list, but you are not going to get into the reaches, and unless there is a pot of money you haven’t told us about, you won’t be able to afford your likely.

So my advice is to be more flexible. Here are some ideas:

  1. Reconsider Wisconsin community colleges and/or branch campuses. For example you can live in Madison while attending Madison College (aka Madison Area Technical College) for cheap, and it has an articulation agreement with UW-Madison, so transfer would be easy if you do well.
  2. Consider Minnesota schools. UMN-Twin Cities has outstanding physics, engineering and math, and they historically have been friendly to students with talent but less than stellar grades. You still might have to do a year at a community college or a branch campus (either in MN or WI) but if you do well, the transfer should be easy, and the tuition will have reciprocity pricing.
  3. You might look into National Student Exchange. It is a consortium of ~200 schools that allows up to 1 year of study at any participating school, paying no more in tuition than what the student is paying at home. Some schools you might be interested in belong for example St. Olaf (very strong math in a liberal arts setting) and UMass-Amherst. Campuses
  4. If you are dead set on being in Chicago, look into the City Colleges of Chicago. These are community colleges which are very inexpensive even for out of state students and which have very minimal requirements to obtain residency pricing. They all have articulation agreements with other Illinois schools. https://www.ccc.edu/
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I would focus on putting yourself in a situation that will set you up for success.

Attend a school that you can afford without loans beyond the $27k total undergrad federal student loans. Get strong grades for three semesters and then apply for a junior transfer during spring of your soph year. Then, your HS record will be mostly behind you and the schools on your college list determined by how you did academically and how you impacted the community at your school (activities.) Working a paid job counts as an activity.

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