Chance Me/Match Me: Rising senior in the Mid-Atlantic, 4.0 GPA/1580 SAT but lacks focus/spike [PA resident, also 36 ACT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Pennsylvania
  • Type of high school: Medium size? Public high school (1000-1500 enrolled)
  • Other special factors: n/a

Cost Constraints / Budget
My parents tell me not to worry about the cost and just apply, but I tend to worry. I plan to apply to some schools regardless of cost, but I’d like options with generous merit aid too

Intended Major(s)
Honestly the part I’m most worried about- I have a lot of interests which I feel like makes me a bad applicant to most majors. A couple I have in mind so far (in no particular order):

  • Computer Science - related to a lot of my ECs but I’m not very good (I’m being serious, it’s not a humblebrag which ik it sounds like) and I don’t feel competitive
  • Electrical/Computer Engineering - super interesting & fun but I got into hardware late & don’t have a lot of ECs/projects to support it
  • Statistics - my statistics teacher suggested it to me bc I loved the class but unfortunately I don’t have a lot of experience with related ECs
  • I also love the humanities and would love to take classes in/minor/double major in English, Comp Lit, Linguistics, Asian-American Studies, Music, etc.
  • Some that have crossed my mind but I don’t know enough about: Data Science, Economics, Applied Math, Cybersecurity

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0 (I think? My school uses “unweighted cumulative alpha GPA” which is a 4.27 but it’s confusing)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.32 weighted alpha cumulative (A+s for APs are worth 4.5, As are worth 4.25, A+s for honors classes are worth 4.33, As are worth 4.0)
  • Class Rank: n/a
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 SAT, 36 ACT (all 36 subscores except 35 math)

List your HS coursework
In chronological order:

  • English: Honors English 9, Honors English 10, AP Lang, AP Lit (upcoming), Creative Nonfiction (upcoming)
  • Math: AP Calculus BC, Advanced Calculus (high school’s “calc 3”), AP Statistics, Calc III (upcoming), Discrete Math/Differential EQs/Linear Algebra (I choose one [or none, depending how badly I get hit with SAD] spring sem)
  • Science: Honors Bio, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C (mech and e&m), AP Biology (upcoming)
  • History and social studies: Honors Civics, Honors World History, APUSH, AP World (upcoming)
  • Language other than English: Spanish, will be taking AP in the fall
  • Visual or performing arts: Band + concert orchestra + marching band
  • Other academic courses: AP CSA, AP Psychology

Awards
11x Science Olympiad Medalist (only counting official comps, regional and state combined)
Winner of a hackathon (hosted by a school in our robotics district)
FIRST Dean’s List Semifinalist
2x qualifier for District Band
Class Achievement Award in Physics, Statistics, and Chemistry
National Silver Medal, 4x Gold Key, 1x Silver Key, & 1 Honorable Mention from Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
A couple of Academic Decathlon medals
As a part of my robotics team: Winner of many district events, qualified for Worlds every year, won a couple of a awards at Worlds
National Merit (1520 PSAT)

Extracurriculars

  • FIRST Robotics (8th-12th): Senior programmer (teaches new students & builds and runs workshops), lots of community outreach work (contributed to our award at Worlds), some strategy work, some business work when I was younger (writing letters to sponsors)
  • Science Olympiad (6th-12th): Will be the 2nd year as team lead, expanded participation by 2x last year, currently building a website for the team to consolidate resources + make all processes more transparent/less confusing
  • Marching Band (9th-12th): Section leader- our band is pretty intense so it’s a big commitment. I spend a lot of time hashing things out with the band staff/preparing & leading sectionals. Currently drafting props (cs/ee project) that I’d like to build for our show this year, but I’m on the fence bc my director hasn’t confirmed yet
  • Other band stuff: Social media manager (9th-10th) → Social media lead (11th) → Director of Communications (12th) (yes our band has a corporate hierarchy), Leadership Council for 4 years, working with the director, making posts, disseminating information
  • Academic Decathlon (11th-12th): Not as “serious” as my other ones, but I love it, it’s incredibly fun, I get to discuss cool stuff we’re learning w/ the advisor & my teammates. In the process of making Anki decks & review games for my team (not official leadership but I like doing it)
  • Women in STEM Club (10th-12th): Current VP but we hold elections in the fall- we did some outreach work with robotics & the Spanish Honor Society but I’m in the process of expanding our programming with new activities & content with the other leadership
  • I just recently got hired but I’ll be working a lot starting Wednesday
  • Honor Societies: Tri-M, National, Spanish, & Math, but they’re pretty flat. I’m only very serious about Tri-M bc we do a lot of community performance & volunteering at our local nursing homes/symphony orchestra. Most of my volunteering is through Tri-M & robotics outreach as well.
  • Tennis (10-12): Unserious, I just like to stay active. JV both years so far but I might move into Varsity this year and might be in the running for team captain. (unlikely though)
  • Classroom Assistant (11-12): Setting up/organizing the chem lab + chem coursework for my (guess) AP Chem teacher. I’m super familiar with the lab because I spent nearly every day in there sophomore year for a Science Olympiad project lol
  • Pretty sure these don’t count, but on my own time I read & write (poetry & fiction & blog posts, ever since I was like 7), study languages (Mandarin & Korean), do programming projects (Hack Club YSWS & static webpages lol), arrange music, play piano, and obsessively keep & refine a bullet journal + Notion

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Essay: 7-8/10. I feel like an interesting person who’s been brainrotted into having boring thoughts. I do have an essay counselor who I really like & pushes me a lot, but it’s going to take at least that much if not more to break me out of my current writing habits (which is not really built for the Common App essay)
  • English Teacher LOR: 9/10, amazing teacher, amazing person, I think we connected well over this year + he knows my writing (poetry & AP Lang essays). Also my Acadec advisor & will be my English elective teacher next year
  • Science Teacher LOR: 5-7/10, honestly no clue. Still between 2 teachers, one is my WiSTEM advisor/Classroom Assistant mentor and one is my SciOly advisor. Worried bc I struggled a lot in both their classes (still got good grades, just very clearly not super engaged & procrastinated a lot. Also did not good on the AP tests for one of them :frowning: )

Schools
Struggling the most here- there are so many colleges out there and combing through all their admissions sites in an attempt to narrow down my list is kind of hell. Also confused as to if I should apply early anywhere or not.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
  • Extremely Likely: Drexel, Temple, PSU (in general)
  • Likely: UMass Amherst, WPI, Stony Brook
  • Toss-up: PSU Schreyers,
  • Lower Probability: Georgia Tech (legacy, I think?), UToronto, UWaterloo, UNC Chapel Hill, UMich
  • Low Probability: PSU Millennium, Harvey Mudd, CMU, Purdue, UC Berkeley, BU, UIUC, Caltech, Brown, Cornell, MIT, Yale, UPenn (ok you get it, the rest of the ivies. However I’m prioritizing the listed ones + gatech/psu so I might not get to, say, Stanford. Unless someone points out that I’d be better off prioritizing a different ivy that suits me better)
  • Others I dumped on my spreadsheet but don’t know much about yet: UCLA, UCSD, Georgetown, Rice, UVA, NYU, RIT, UConn, Northwestern,

I’m a bit of a mess haha but I appreciate any and all advice!
ETA tennis + classroom asst. and also please let me know if I’m missing anything, I will do my best to supplement more info!

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Do you have an idea of what you are looking for? Such as, qualities like large, small, urban, suburban, big sports or not, music for non-majors, marching band, robotics clubs, strength in the languages you have studied, etc? Have you visited some colleges, and what did you like or dislike about the ones you visited?

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For me the biggest thing is program + professor quality as well as job and grad school prospects, so I can pretty much tolerate anything. The biggest thing is probably campus safety (at least, feeling safe & enclosed on campus). I do prefer more northern and/or coastal schools bc I’m not a huge fan of the heat. EC/music/language wise, I’d like to do robotics in college (but hopefully in a different format than FRC), probably won’t do marching band but would like to do some sort of formal ensemble. I’d also love to study abroad in China but I’m not super hung up about language-specific coursework.

I’ve visited a couple places so far (Brown, Caltech, UCLA) but none of them were particularly off-putting just because of their looks/vibe. Purely based on vibes, I think I’d be okay anywhere. I don’t plan on visiting any more places unless it’s the admitted students visit, in which case I’ll be more picky about atmosphere/toxicity.

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Talk to your parents and clarify whether this means they are completely comfortable paying $90-100k per year for a full pay private school, or if it means they are thinking that they will figure it out when you get admitted? If they expect to be paying a lower number than that, work out a specific budget with them.

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I’ve pushed them for a clear answer a couple times, and atp I’m pretty sure they mean the former. I have a college savings account that has a decent chunk of my undergrad tuition in there and they have no more kids to save tuition for. I’ve also run the NPC for Brown and while I thought it was a lot they said it would be fine.

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Let’s see - you’re a straight A student, have a 36 ACT, and your parents are telling you money is no issue (but you should make sure they are prepared to pay $100K a year.

I’d say you have few issues - certainly having many interests is not an issue. You are young. You should have interests - explore and learn and no need to decide your life today.

If you think an engineering or CS are of interest, might be a better place to start.

If you had “monetary” concerns - given your NMSF, Tulsa is a full ride. If NMF, Alabama is 5 years tuition (think Masters), 4 years housing and $4K a years - so those are the mega scholarships. Other schools like UTD, U Houston, some of the Florida publics are aggressive too.

As for your list - I agree - except I think it’s way too big. That’s a lot of apps…and UNC for example, doesn’t have Electrical Engineering (or any but bio) so to me it’s an easy cut.

You have to discuss with your parents cost - just to make sure they can afford $100K a year (or are willing). You can go for free - or you can go in between. Free can save you hundreds of thousands - so that’s something to think about.

Or perhaps they qualify for aid? Have them fill out a net price calculator.

I’d say - learn more about the schools on your list and what you want - large, small, urban, not, etc.

Eliminate UNC.

Maybe add an RPI (instead of a Drexel).

Decide large or small.

And ultimately shrink the list. You’re only going to one - and you’ll have plenty of opportunity at your safe and targets and likely some reaches.

Best of luck.

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I see you’ve got WPI on your list - I’d encourage you to keep that. You should get in, and you should get good merit aid. They have a very strong robotics program if you want to stick with that, and, if not, ECE and CS are also very strong. If you want to do more casual music than marching band, they have a number of strong music groups (including what seems to be a pretty chill marching band, but also just lots of other groups) and if international travel/study abroad is interesting to you they have a junior year quarter long project, most of which are international. My son (current rising senior there) knew he couldn’t go to the Asian countries as his ADHD meds are not legal there, but I know there are a number of Asian country choices so they may have some that are in line with your language interests as well. I agree that it’s a likely for you, so if you like it, it would make a really good safety school for you.

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In engineering, jobs are “equalized” short of a few schools - companies pay by location and want ABET certification - Michigan kids will work with W Michgian. CS and your other majors - may be a bit different.

UMD would be a wonderful school for all your majors as would UMN - that are safe.

But…you shouldn’t tolerate anything.

You should find the right fit up front.

If you want small, then you should go small. If you want uber lage, then that’s what you should get.

Professor quality will always vary and outcomes will too to some extent - but not necessarily greatly (at least in engineering).

The purpose of developing a list is to fit your needs.

You will be somewhere day after day for four years - spending $100K a year to “tolerate” something seems awfully silly and wasteful.

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I sincerely appreciate the advice, thank you. Will definitely cut UNC and consider the schools you listed. And I’ll ask my parents one more time if they’re actually 100% for sure willing to pay 100k a year (honestly even if they are, that kind of money on undergrad makes me uncomfortable, but it’s up to them :sob: )

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Appreciate the info about engineering jobs, I didn’t know that. And I agree on the money/fit front- my main thing right now is I don’t like making short trips, especially during the summer with band/robotics (I dislike vacation) so I’m trying to avoid college visits right now. I will definitely be pickier when it comes to actually committing but it does make it hard to narrow down my initial list.

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Since you are undecided on major, pay attention to how majors are declared at each school. Check each school and all majors which you may be interested in at each school.

Some schools admit directly to each major, but some majors (particularly CS and engineering majors) tend to be “full”, which means that they tend to be more selective for frosh admission and difficult or competitive to change into if you enroll in a different major or undeclared.

Some schools admit to undeclared status (or undeclared engineering status) where student declare major later. However, sometimes popular majors (often including CS and engineering majors) require a high college GPA or a secondary admission process to declare.

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How do you do in math classes?

If you are very good in math then I think that the rest of what you need to do well in computer science can be learned. If you find math to be difficult and not all that interesting, then you might want to think about other options.

This is another area where being good at math will help.

You do not need to have ECs that match your likely major. Just as one example, it is not all that unusual to find students who have music as their main EC, but who end up as math or CS majors, or as engineers. I have worked in high tech my entire career, and have on multiple occasions been at a music event and seen people I knew from work get up on stage and play – and in most cases play very well. Other unexpected combinations of ECs and majors are entirely normal.

In terms of admissions I think that you have a good list.

Regarding the schools in Canada (Toronto and Waterloo) admissions in Canada tends to be stats based, and your stats are very good. Toronto is large and is known for grade deflation. If you happen to have Canadian citizenship this would reduce the cost of attendance by quite a bit.

You have a long list of reaches. You might want to find out more about these schools, and cut the list based on what schools you feel would be the best fit for you.

Regarding MIT and Caltech, these schools are a lot of work. You need to work very hard to do well there, and the desire to work that hard should come from inside yourself. I think that the same could be said for quite a few of the other reach schools on your list.

MIT does not admit by major. Whatever major you put on the application form is only used to match you to a freshman year advisor if you are admitted and choose to go there. Then at the end of your freshman year you pick whatever major you want. I think that several other of the schools on your list are probably similar.

I was an applied math major. There are a lot of different careers that are possible after getting a bachelor’s degree in applied math. Some of them might motivate you to get a master’s degree, so you might want to budget for 5 or 6 years in university. It is relatively common for students to get some work experience after getting a bachelor’s before applying for a master’s degree (and this is what I did), but this is in most cases not strictly necessary.

In terms of finding a major, this is something that you can figure out after you get to university. I didn’t actually decide what I wanted to do with my career until quite a bit after I had gotten my bachelor’s degree. Fortunately a degree in applied math is quite flexible in this regard.

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You are an extremely strong candidate – IMO better than average excellent. You have a decent shot at all your reaches. You need to narrow your list. Maybe a place to start is to anchor your applications with EA to PSU Engineering/Millennium/Schreyers. I think PSU Engineering is a safety, so only choose programs you would prefer over that, factoring in academics, atmosphere and cost.

I do think you need to give consideration to where you want to spend 4 years. Urban, suburban, rural, NE, West, SE (hot/cold/wet/dry). How you feel about where you are is going to make a big difference in your college experience.

I’d narrow the list to no more than 12. Honestly, if I were you, I’d be tempted to just apply to your 6 favorite colleges with PSU as the anchor (7 total).

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I can definitely handle math, but I don’t love math (or find it particularly fascinating). But I haven’t taken “real math” since sophomore year, so I’ll see how I like Calc III this fall.

Thanks, it makes me feel better to hear I don’t have to have perfectly aligned ECs. That was one of my big worries over the past couple years because I didn’t want to trap myself in high school but I feared not having a direction would lower my chances.

Applying to MIT and Caltech will definitely be lower priority (or something I scratch entirely) compared to places like PSU. I don’t mind working hard but I do worry I won’t be passionate enough or fall in love enough to avoid burning out/hating it.

Thank you for all the advice!!

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Then engineering is likely not for you.

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Hmm, I liked the idea of engineering because I like working with systems & hardware in robotics (despite being a programmer). I don’t hate math as much as I don’t love it- I’d be happy to work through math courses if in the end I get to code/design/build things. Do you think I’d end up hating it, though?

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I don’t know. I’m not you. I was just commenting on your comment.

My son was a MecHE major, not EE. When I ask him about his education and usefulness in life - he says he doesn’t use - but every class - no matter the content, was math, math, and more math - regardless of what they called it, etc.

So seems to me - if you don’t love something - sure you can study it and likely have a fine outcome - but if it’s not for you, then it’s not for you.

But to me, better to start in engineering and CS and transfer out then start in something else and try to transfer in, which at most places is harder.

btw - you can do both STEM and humanities. My son’s GF at Alabama studied Metallurgical Engineering with an English double major. So I’m sure wherever you end up will have opportunities for a double like that.

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Kudos to you on your outstanding academic record.

No advice on specific schools, but here are some general thoughts about how to approach the application process:

  1. Apply to the most competitive/selective program in which you are interested. An engineering student can easily change majors to a science or the humanities, but at most schools it is very difficult to go from, say, English Lit to CompSci. Research how easy it is to change majors at the schools on your list.
  2. Consider double majors or minors. Research how easy it is to have a double major or minor at the schools on your list.
  3. Visit as many schools on your list as possible, both to demonstrate interest and see if you really like them. You might be surprised at how visiting schools changes your opinions. Go read the CC “schools that moved up or down on list after visiting” forum.
  4. Make sure you have a couple “likely admits” (is there such a thing as a safety?) in case one rejects you due to yield protection. Consider “likely admits” that have honors programs; these carry more prestige, give you more research opportunities, give you first dibs on classes, and in some cases come with financial awards.
  5. Because schools are trying to build classes with geographic diversity, you might have a higher chance of admission at a school in another region than one close to home. For example, a student from Wisconsin is more likely to be accepted by CMU than a student with an identical academic record from western PA.
  6. Don’t worry about not knowing exactly what you want to do. I only know a couple people from undergrad who came to school knowing what they wanted to do, got a job in that field after graduating, liked it, and are still doing it decades later.

Good luck.

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Engineering is a very prescribed, sequential path that doesn’t leave much room for electives let alone a minor. At PSU, your first year you’d have one Gen Ed (Econ, unless you got credit for AP Macro or Micro), and one sophomore year, everything else would be prescribed.

Applied math or Data Science (in Eberly or IST) are a bit more flexible; you could relatively easily add the Engineering Design certificate and some or all from a liberal arts minor.
SODA, complemented with an Applied Math minor, would be another possibility; flexibility is built-in and you could add a Statistics or other quantitative minor. However it might fit what you want less than Applied Math+Liberal Arts Minor+ Engineering Design certificate.

If you’re uncertain, and expecting 4-5 on the APs you listed, you could start in DUS or Eberly with Math 230, Engineering Design 101, (possibly Stats 184, 200, or 300,) English 30H or 137H, and a humanities/social science class - you could pivot to EECS, Applied Math, or something else from that schedule.

All in all PSU would be a safety for admission (Schreyer is unknowable since it will heavily depend on your essays.)

Why Temple rather than Pitt?

If you like Drexel, look into WPI and Northeastern.
You could also look into Olin (it’s a niche college so you need to know whether what they offer is your jam or not)

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Not a fan of double majors, probably because of my liberal arts bent. In my industries, law and IB, double majors were not a “plus”. Relevance, rigor in terms of quantitative and qualitative classes and grades were all that mattered – a Philosophy major with classes in Math, CS, Econ, Physics was great, they did not need a separate major or minor. Double majors prevent a student from exploring a wide range of classes because the required major courses limited other electives.