Female, rural, Michigan, fully pay, intending to apply as Math major
Sat: 1540
Gpa: 3.9 unweighted
Ap classes taken(including ones I will take senior year): AP physics 1(highest physics offered), AP Bio, AP calc ab(highest level math offered), AP Chem, AP US, AP Euro, AP French, AP Lang, AP Lit
AP scores: 5 on chem, 5 on US, 4 on lang, 5 on Physics
EC: Student body president, Editor of Newspaper, Founder and president of local tutoring initiative with local middle school, Captain of math team, Captain of cross country team
School list(have visited all schools):
University of Michigan
MSU
Williams
Amherst
Bowdoin
Dartmouth
Princeton
Yale
Caltech
Plan: EA to Caltech and apply rd to rest(will still apply to some rd if I get in and all if I don’t), EA Michigan, EA MSU
I know MSU and Michigan are at odds with best of the list but my parents said they won’t pay for anything but Michigan or MSU if I don’t get into one the reach schools on the list
Forgot to mention MSU and Michigan are the only schools where I’m applying to engineering instead of Math as that’s the only degree my parents say they’ll pay for at those schools
Are there any other parent restrictions on major, and is there a general price limit? If the latter, have net price calculators been run on each college’s website?
There are no cost restrictions(although my parents would refuse to pay for certain schools or majors(ex: non engineers at Michigan state schools). But my parents are supportive of applying for a math major except for U of Michigan and msu which I am fine with.
Any reason for the parent restrictions on major, so that potential parent limitations on other colleges that may be suggested can be inferred?
Michigan has industrial engineering, and Michigan State has data science in the engineering division, so those may be more (applied) math and statistics focused.
There of the belief that if you’re not going to an elite school you need to do engineering to get a high salary job. They are actually beginning to consider letting me apply for math at Michigan, but not budging at msu. I understand many will disagree but they are very set in their belief and no point in arguing.
Would computer science be an acceptable major to them? If so, and your math interests are in such things as CS theory, number theory, cryptography, computational geometry, etc. that could be a way to study the math of interest in a parent acceptable major at a non elite college.
Michigan is an elite school. Anyone who thinks it’s not, doesn’t really know Michigan.
Not sure why it’s marked non-elite in the title.
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While most posters here would agree, it is the OP’s parents’ opinion on the subject that matters in terms of their willingness to pay for the OP to study non-engineering there.
What was your math SAT score?
You have a strong academic profile combined with impressive ECs. How were the private schools on your list selected?
Additionally, what kind of college experience were you hoping for?
Lastly, as you note, UMich and MSU are quite different from the rest of your list. Would your family consider other schools if they did not end up costing more than MSU?
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As both an engineer and data scientist, I can tell you that engineering schools are struggling with how they will ADD analytics to the curriculum. So it’s not A or B. It will probably be A plus some B going forward.
Most of the engineers we hire end up doing analytics and the analytics people have to learn some engineering. A combo is ideal.
I suggest you tell your parents you will do engineering but take a minor in analytics or math also.
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Sadly, I need to close this thread because it is a hoax. I’m unsure what motivates this bored kid to waste everyone’s time.
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