Chance me/match me for my college list! [CA Resident, 4.0UW, 1580 SAT, Applied Math]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: CA
  • Public & high ranking/competitive hs

Cost Constraints / Budget
Not a concern

Intended Major(s)

Applied math or math with applied track

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: UC System - 4.59
  • Class Rank: my school doesn’t rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 SAT (780 reading, 800 math)

HS coursework

My school is on a 4x4 schedule, at the time of post I’m in the fall semester of my jr year

  • English: 9 honors, 10 honors, taking AP Lang in the spring and planning on taking AP Lit senior year (all As so far)
  • Math: Int. Math 2H and 3H, AP Calc AB and BC, taking Calc 3 and Linear Algebra through dual enrollment in the spring, planning to take AP Stats senior year (all As so far)
  • Science: Freshman bio, Honors Chemistry, AP Chemistry, AP Physics 1, taking AP Physics 2 in the spring, planning on taking at least AP Bio senior year (all As so far)
  • History and social studies: AP World, AP US (online through UC Scout), planning on taking AP Gov and AP Econ senior year (all As so far)
  • Language other than English: ASL 1, 2, 3, debating whether to take 4 senior year (all As so far)
  • Visual or performing arts: Dance I, Rock band class at least 1 semester, Choir 1 semester, Advanced Choir for 2 semesters so far, planning to take 3 more semesters between the rest of junior and senior year. I also am part of a rigorous afterschool program 6 hours a week for vocal music that goes on my transcript as a year long class for 10-12th grade.

Awards

Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award in 2023 (for 100 volunteer hours)

Working on Girl Scouts Gold Award project currently.

Extracurriculars
- volunteer at local community theater (~50 hours concentrated in 9th grade)

-part of an advocacy organization through the local children’s hospital since 8th grade, leadership roles in 10th, 11th and likely 12th

-Girl Scout with bronze and silver awards done, as of jr year working on passion project for gold award

-in my afterschool vocal program I was elected for leadership roles in both 10th and 11th grade, and hopefully will be senior year as well

-I’m part of and have had a leadership role in the music industry club at my school (which produces a vinyl with original student songs I’m set to be featured on)

-I’m part of the gamelan ensemble (technically a club) at my school (2 hours of rehearsal per week)

-summer of 2024 I did a hands on biotech program through a 3rd party at my local UC

- summer of 2025 I did a 2 week college prep program at northwestern where i took a bioethics course

Essays/LORs/Other

Hard to say as I’m only a junior.

Schools
Currently on my (very rough) list:

All the UCs

Umich

Udub

Uwisc

Upitt

Ucolorodo

Uvermont

Northwestern

Pomona

Wesleyan

Vassar

Chapman

SCU

Brown (ik its a super reach though)

I’m mainly looking for a college with a good math department but opportunities to take classes outside of just my major, motivated students who are more collaborative than cutthroat, and a bit of an arts scene/way to get involved with music without majoring.

Would love any more suggestions for schools that fit this criteria!

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For enhanced opportunities in applied math, consider colleges with an available major in data science, or colleges that offer similar opportunities. Wesleyan from your list, for example, offers a multidisciplinary Quantitative Analysis Center, along with a strong music program.

As a suggested addition, look into Hamilton, which offers a notably flexible curriculum, an arts neighborhood near the center of campus and an excellent reputation for classroom experience.

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Since you are a Junior you have another year of grades to be added your 3 UC GPA’s so at the end of Junior year, recalculate out those 3 UC GPA’s using the Rogerhub GPA calculator.

Since the UC’s are test blind currently and I have not heard of any changes to bring back the SAT yet, your SAT scores will only be used for course placement and not for admissions or scholarship consideration.

Overall you are doing extremely well so keep up the good work. Come back after Junior year and then ask for another chancing. Best of luck.

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Look into St Olaf, excellent math and music even for non majors (music scholarship competition open to all, deadline would be Nov-Dec sr year). If you show interest starting now it’d be a likely/safety - join the mailing list, open the emails and click on the links that look interesting. 1/3 students are high level musicians so you’re surrounded by all sorts of music and music opportunities.
Do run the NPC (they offer merit as well as need based aid)

U Vermont and Chapman would be academic safeties.
Wouldn’t Cal Polys be better than Chapman for math though?

Most of your list are reaches due to selectivity - you’re within range but they’re too unpredictable.
UC Davis, Santa Cruz.. should be okay as targets or likelies for Math as long as your grades remain that high.

Since you’re considering Pitt, I’ll throw a word in for Penn State for Math+Schreyer :grin: (top Honors college, greater depth in all sorts of maths).

https://www.shc.psu.edu/

BTW don’t forget Honors Colleges at your various universities. UMich LSA is another top Honors College. Offerings and perks vary so worth investigating.

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I’m glad you have UColorado on there. Their applied math hits way above their general ranking. My niece had similar stats and got in with a high amount of merit. She originally applied as aero engineering, then switched to applied math and theoretical physics. She’s a recent graduate and stayed for her PhD. It’s a great department.

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So if a school is $100K, you are good?

As you know, the UCs and UW (most likely) won’t see your test score.

I’d say:

U Mich - target. People will always say reach but you have a strong record. You still have to plan for a no.

U Wash - likely

U Wisconsin -safety

U PItt - safety

U Colorado - safety

UVM - safety

Pomona - reach but reasonable

Wes - reach but reasonable

Vassar - reach but reasonable

Chapman - safety

SCU - safety

Brown - reach but why not you

I think you have too long a list and if you visit some, hopefully you can cull. You might also figure out - if you like a Wisconsin, you might not like a Vassar (too small) or Chapman, given the religion. In other words, you might figure out after visiting, one type of campus appeals to you vs. another. Maybe you love Vassar and the hustle and bustle of a Wisconsin is too much.

You certainly don’t need more schools but Maryland is outstanding in math - and if you want the Brown open curriculum and you have smaller Wes and Vassar and that’s fine - but you might consider U Rochester too for a school more the size of Brown.

Have you considered all female schools like Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr?

You’ll have lots of success with the list- your biggest issue will be the where and you’ll have to choose one amongst many opportunities.

I’ll assume based on your comment that you can pay for anything but they way you wrote it makes it sound like others who say - I’ll worry about it later or we find out, they have $30K and assume they’ll get enough aid at a Colorado (they won’t) - so please just validate what you mean by your statement.

Thanks - and best of luck - but I don’t think you’re going to need it.

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Any particular areas of application of interest?

Math major programs are usually not too voluminous, allowing plenty of space for other courses (within the constraints of general education requirements). Math does not usually have a cutthroat reputation compared to other majors, such as those populated by premeds or which have competitive secondary admission to major.

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Usually I am telling high school students to add a safety or two to their list. I think that I go the other way in your case.

I see several schools on your list that should be solid safeties. U.Vermont (often abbreviated UVM, which comes from the Latin for University of the Green Mountains) is a long way from California, but should be a safety and a good merit scholarship should also be likely. Colorado is a good choice. Again merit aid should be possible (or at least one daughter was offered merit aid there with stats that were lower than yours – admittedly this was a while ago). Wisconsin seems likely (probably not a safety) and is ranked in the top 10 in the US for mathematics. I am guessing that “Udub” is Washington (probably not a safety) mostly because Wisconsin is already on the list and Waterloo seems less likely. I would expect that at least some of the UCs would be safeties (not the highest ranked ones but that is okay). UC Berkeley is of course not a safety at all but is excellent for applied math if you get accepted, and should be a relative bargain for an in-state student who does not qualify for need based aid at top private schools.

Brown is a reach, but I think a reasonable reach.

I am going to recommend that you add an application to Stanford. It is of course very good for mathematics, and you are a very strong applicant. Stanford would be a reach, but does not seem completely impossible given your excellent results from high school.

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Test blind schools like the UCs and UW Seattle are too unpredictable to be safeties unless their acceptance rate is super high.

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Explore the UCSB college of creative studies. You could major in math while being part of a small college within UCSB that has art and music majors. The college is extremely flexible to allow exploring all your interests.

Good luck.

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Good point - I predicted a safety because UWs acceptance rate is 40% for OOS and OP is outstanding so to me, clears that bar and this is an Arts & Sciences major…but then you look up the major list (they have multiple math majors) and all say Capacity Constrained!!

So you are correct when digging deeper!!

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Sometimes, if you want to have a good music experience as a non-music major, it can be better to go to a school without a highly prestigious music program, as they largely end up serving and sometimes segregating their own students, leading to a bit of a “second class citizen” situation for the non majors. Aside from that, the larger the school, the larger the student talent pool and the more student musicians available to form orchestras, acapella groups, etc.

As a large Catholic school, Notre Dame should have no shortage of Choir opportunities. Not a bad place for academics, either.

As a future applied math major, is there any reason you’re just taking AP stats next year instead of differential equations and/or discrete math and/or calc-based statistics?

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Good list. None of these schools are too ambitious for you and you have plenty of safe ones. It almost doesn’t matter the categories given your accomplishments IMO. I do not see any schools beyond the low end of a reach - Brown, Northwestern might be the only 2. I would place the strong liberal arts colleges and Mich on the high end of targets. Obviously, I am assuming your activites translate into very strong applications.

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I agree your list already seems to have plenty of balance and if anything it could probably be cut a bit. I also note that if you apply to a rolling college like Pitt early enough, you could get an early admission and then use that to cut out all the other applications you don’t need at that point. Of course this assumes the rolling college is not rock bottom on your list.

Which leads me to my first suggestion for an additional school to consider, even though you don’t really need them generally, which is Minnesota. Minnesota is an excellent research university in general, and I think it is fair to say Applied Math is actually one of their strongest areas, although not the only one by any means. Technically the Math BS is competitive admissions, but to my knowledge it has not excluded any students for space reasons for at least a long time. They have some cool tracks they call subplans, one of which is the Mathematics of Data Science:

Not sure if that is where your interests will lead you, but this really leans into Minnesota’s strengths in IT stuff as well.

The Twin Cities are also great–fun, friendly, diverse, globally connected, and so on.

Finally, Minnesota also has rolling admissions, which is great for your purposes for the reason above.

The other school I always tend to mention to Applied Math kids is Stony Brook, which truly has a legendary Applied Math program, and I believe in fact they have more Applied Math undergrads than basically anywhere else in the US (including Cal, which I believe is typically second).

They have both an Applied Math and Statistics major and a Data Science major, also make it relatively easy to double major, also have an accelerated BS-MS . . . just a really robust program:

Anyway, like I said you don’t really need more schools, but I think in some ways these two are both special for Applied Math.

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