Good at Math, Terrible at English: What schools shall I apply to?

Hello. I am currently an 11th grader in High School and plan to study a physical science or actuarial mathematics major in college.

I am good a Math (I would go as far as saying Ivy League level), but I am horrible at English.

English is my opponent. In 10th grade Honors, I studied like 3 hours a day to end with a B+ in that class. All other classes were A or A+. This year, I have a similar situation but I am barely pulling off an A-. I have had A’s in all my other subjects always. However, English this year is my only non-AP class and my lowest grade this year, and I spend the most time of all my subjects to pull that off.

However, Math is my friend. I am taking AB Calculus this year and self studying BC at the same time. I have also won many Math competitions.

This difference in aptitude can be seen in my tests as well.

10th grade PSAT: 2060 (540R, 800M, 720W)
11th grade PSAT: 2130 (620R, 800M, 710W)
11th grade December SAT: 2250 (690R, 800M, 760W, 12 Essay)

And this is with probably 1 hour of studying SAT reading every day for the last 2 years.

The problem with me is that I am probably Ivy League level in Math (and science for that matter) but State School level at English. I have good ECs with leadership and state science fair category awards, etc.

Do you know what college is the best fit for a student good at Math but bad at English?

BTW I am working insanely (1-2 hours a day) to increase my SAT reading come May.

I also got 780 Math 2 back in June, along with 780 US history. I am only bad at English, nothing else.

Your English is not bad if you are getting an A- in a decent high school English course and 690 CR and 760 W on the SAT.

What state are you a resident of? What have your parents told you that your cost constraints are? Many state universities have large and good math and physics departments.

You’re improving, which is a good thing. Continue to improve. Take a stroll over to the SAT prep board and you’ll see some of the resources people use to improve CR and Writing (Erica Meltzer’s book is a popular choice). As you study for this aspect of the test, you are improving your English abilities. Since you plan to be in science, you’ll be fine with your math skills. English is important because schools want you to have a generally well-rounded education and the ability to articulate and write lab reports etc. clearly. As long as you work to improve (maybe possibly get a tutor from school or speak with your teacher about getting extra help), you’ll be fine.

You’re NOT terrible at English. You’re just a lot better at Math. With those scores and grades, I don’t think getting into a top research university is going to be a problem. Liberal Arts colleges might look down on that CR score, but only like the top 10 most selective ones or so (Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, etc.) and since you don’t seem to enjoy English that much, I doubt LACs would be a good fit anyway.
What I think you really want is a college that doesn’t have many English requirements, not because you can’t deal with college level English, but because you don’t want to. That’s fine. I’m guessing that at most schools you will have to take some basic English courses. Just look up the curriculum of each program you’re interested in and you’ll figure it out by yourself.

There are many colleges where English composition requirements do not have to be satisfied with courses based on literary analysis (like high school English courses or courses in the English or literature departments of colleges). You will need to learn good writing skills in any case, but you may find it better suited for you if you can get writing practice in the context of subjects you like better, if literary analysis is not your thing.

Check college catalogs to see what kind of writing requirements they have and what courses fulfill them.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1749525-chances-at-texas-a-m-university-of-central-florida-maryland-rutgers-ohio-state.html?new=1

You are not terrible at English if you got a B+ in honors English.

690 CR is great for anyone, it’s 94th percentile. I do not think that should keep you out of an Ivy, if you are strong otherwise.

Just make sure to start your essays early and reach out to your English teachers to help you review and revise your college essays.

You do realize that even Ivies take a lot of kids with B averages in honors English? I know kids who are in honors English and already admitted to Ivy schools ED or EA for this graduating class.

Relax, you are fine. Don’t “give up” and think that you are doomed because you aren’t as strong in English as you are in math and science.

Let alone that you had a 12 essay!

I agree, I don’t think you are in as dire straits as you think you are. A 690 isn’t the end all be all (or, at least I hope it’s not, I have a 690 in math and applied to Ivies lol).

Schools that are going to have less of an emphasis on English though would probably be the usual suspects. CWRU, Olin if you’re thinking engineering, Caltech and MIT as reaches etc.

@rhandco‌ Thank you for your support. Unfortunately you need to realise that I am struggling in hrs English, not AP. Consider this: I got proficient on my state literature standardised test, out of up to advanced.

I also missed the NMSF cutoff this year by 1-3 points. From my school every Ivy admit was a NMSF, and I am not, due to my bad English score. I am going to be a Commended Scholar (It may be good for state school), which will look bad for ivy league when you are competing with thousands of finalists. In fact about 12 a year of of about 800 in my school get NMSF.

Finally my Math and Science classes are completely different from my English classes. In Physics as 11th grader, I have higher grades than seniors accepted to CMU and UPENN (who were both NMSF). However in my English class the instructor says to some students “Do you want to go to college?” I spend about 75% of my school work time in that class, and the other 25% on other classes which includes 4 AP courses.

In my school if you are good at Math you are good at everything. I am the lone exception to that rule. I can easily get into a state school (Penn State, GA Tech, maybe UC if I am luckey), and do fine in English/Exceptionally well for them in Math. Or, I can try Ivy League where (If I somehow get in) I will do fine in Math but will get dessimated in English. That’s the problem. My Math abilities far transcend my English capabilities, and the difference between the two is staggering.

It seems that no one is like me, and I mean this in both a good and bad way, depending on what point of view is taken.

BTW I am a good college essay writer. I applied to several scholarship residential summer programmes and my English teacher said they were “wonderful”. However, you need to keep in mind that that is an Hrs English teacher, not an AP teacher.

You sound like one of my kids. Strong in science and writing, weaker in reading. The key is to find a school that does not have a strong core curriculum, which would require a lot of humanities classes that are similar to English classes. Thus, I would tell you to stay away from UChicago or Columbia (unless you are doing SEAS) and go for schools such as Brown, WashU, Rochester, which have flexible curriculums.

Harvey Mudd…

HarveyMudd would be a poor choice due to their well-roundedness (ie., lots of Humanities/Social Sciences classes). Even Caltech requires a lot of those.

Your best bet is a college of engineering that is ABET accredited and very strong: Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, the problem is that, if you’re OOS, these colleges will be very expensive. Olin is private but they have scholarships, so perhaps Olin (specialized engineering near Boston, in a consortium), as well as RPI, RIT, Stevens. UCincinnati has an excellent co-op program and you may qualify for the Cincinnatus scholarship. UWaterloo (sort of Canada’s MIT) couldn’t care less about your English grades if you have top math/science results.
UAlabama will want a 3.5 and 1400 CR+M in one sitting for admission to honors college + full tuition scholarship.

Are your struggles in English in writing or literature?

@ucbalumnus Mostly in literature. I am actually a decent writer. It is just reading and “analysing” the text that annoys me and takes for ever.

I am looking at colleges and UCLA Mathematics may be a good option for me. I do not think they are liberal heavy.

It seems that one gets into M.I.T. these days. Some one from my school with 2360 SAT and VEX Robotics International Finalist got deferred early this year.

@MYOS1634 I hate that the SAT is 2/3 reading, which puts students like me with a lone weakness in reading and are strong everywhere else.

Everybody in my school was shocked with my 2130 PSAT score when they asked me. In my school the NMSF are recognized in an Academic assembly and the school newspaper on the front page, and my reputation may be hurt next year when I am not in it. :frowning:

My GPA is fine, and with an A- in English, so I am currently ranked 6/754 in the class. However, there are on average 12 NMSF every year, and the 5 people above me all received qualifying scores. I did not.

And I actually studied for the PSAT all summer. From what I have heard, if you are smart and study, you will qualify for NMSF. That did not hold true with me. My Math score and Writing score was stellar (for PSAT, anything above 700 is very rare), but my reading was horrible. Horrible enough to make me exempt from any qualification.

I guess I shall make the most of what I have, and accept that there are many students more capable than I am.

Final Question: Does anybody know if a good SAT score (2250+) can make up for lack of NMSF, at least in the college admission?

Colleges don’t care if you’re NMSF but it’s nice. 2250+ is phenomenal.

@TheDidactic True, I do know that it does not matter that much to colleges, but there is a lot of psychology involved in the PSAT. One question can determine whether or not one recieves thousands of dollars of scholarships, press attention, and academic recognition.

And there are things that are really more descriptive of the applicant, like major awards, GPA, etc.

I think you are really blowing this out of proportion. No offense - I’m saying it to make you feel better.

First of all, your CR and W scores are in the 94th and 99th percentile, respectively, and put you in the middle 50% of accepted applicants at Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Princeton, and UPenn. They’re also only slightly outside of the middle 50% at Harvard and Yale.

Second of all, “Ivy League vs. state school” is a false dichotomy. There are a HUGE number of universities - many of them very selective and providing excellent educations - between the Ivy League and your local regional public. FOr example, your CR and W scores are also in the middle 50% of accepted students at places like Boston College, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, University of Southern California, Tufts, and Wake Forest. These are in the top 30 universities in the country. That’s not even considering top liberal arts colleges like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona, Haverford, Harvey Mudd, and Wesleyan - all of which you are in the range for, too.

Thirdly…if you are interested in actuarial science as a major, a public university might actually be a good choice, as they are usually the ones who offer actuarial science as a major. (Note, though, that you can take the coursework needed to prepare you for the actuarial exams at a variety of schools, and you can major in something like applied mathematics instead.)

You are not bad at English. You are exceptional at math and you are very good at English. You have an A- in honors English. That is very good; that means that you are doing better than most of the class. Having to put in a lot of effort to achieve top grades in something doesn’t mean you are “bad” at it. “Bad” means that you are incapable of achieving top grades even if you spent all possible time on it. Consider also that if there are 12 National Merit Finalists in your high school of just 800 students (or is that 800 seniors? doesn’t matter actually) that you probably go to a very good school. College students don’t get into top colleges because they are NMSF or NMFs; they get in because they have high SAT scores. You have very high SAT scores, so don’t worry about that. But the corollary is that your honors English class is probably difficult and rigorous, and that means that it might be equivalent to an AP class at a less rigorous school. So you can go to a technical or science-focused school if you want to, but I don’t think you have to choose a place like that - you are quite capable (based upon grades and test scores) of achieving in writing/English at a top school.

Don’t let the college admissions pressure cooker get to you. You are an excellent student with excellent prospects at the nation’s top colleges. Even if you don’t get into places like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (who admit less than 10% of their applicants - so basically their applicant pool is filled with young people like you, and a rejection is no reflection on your qualifications), you have excellent prospects at a variety of other very, very, very good schools that attract the best students in the country (world!).

On a completely unrelated note, your post made me really curious - I had no idea what NM Commended Status meant in high school, even though I got this award as a senior (and was a National Achievement Scholarship recipient). I just looked it up and realized that I, too, missed NMSF status by about 1 or 2 points in high school, lol.

Thank you for your information. Maybe I was just overreacting.

BTW, for me Ivy League includes all selective private schools, like the ones you mentioned.

And my original goal was never Harvard, Yale, CIT, Stanford, etc. I am applying for such reach colleges like Schreyer, CMU, Cornell, UPenn, GA Tech, UT Austin, John Hopkins, etc.