Help current sophomore create list [AK resident, 4.0 GPA, top 0.5% rank, 1550 SAT, probably math major with advanced math while in HS, NPCs indicate affordability]

  • Location: Alaska

  • School Type: Large Public Non-competitive

  • Hooks: Underrepresented Area?

  • Upper Middle Class?

  • Intended Major: Undecided right now but probably in mathematics


Academics

  • GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.33 W

  • Rank: 2/436

Standardized Testing

  • SAT: 1550 (760 Reading 790 Math)

Course Rigor

Freshman Year

  • AP Calculus BC (5 on Exam)

  • Spanish II

  • Biology

  • Alaska Studies

  • English

  • Symphonic Orchestra (most advanced)

Sophomore Year

  • Dual Enrollment Calculus 3 (A, took over the summer)

  • AP Psych

  • AP World

  • English II

  • Spanish III

  • Dual Enrollment Linear Algebra

  • Symphonic Orchestra


Extracurriculars

  • All State Cellist (2 times, both years of high school)

  • Varsity Tennis (2 years, both years of high school)

  • Certified Junior Snowboard Instructor

  • State Badminton Gold Medalist

  • Representative of AK at Arctic Winter Games

  • Math tutor (only tutored like 2 kids so far lol)

    Would Obviously these stats aren’t the best but do I have some sort of a shot at a T20 given that I continue on a slightly upward trajectory? Is being from Alaska really that much of a boost in admissions?

Interesting profile but top 20 shouldn’t be your goal. The right fit for you should be. Some top math schools aren’t what you’d call top 20 - Wisconsin, UMD as an example.

You could be admitted anywhere but you missed the most important thing - budget.

Some schools aren’t $100k or close. Can your family afford that?

Figure out what they are willing to spend. That’s first and foremost. With your stats, you may be $20k or $95k a year.

By chance, are you a NMSF ?

Alaska - depends on the school. I imagine it’s a mild positive at some.

Great profile. Congrats. Tell me more (budget) and what do you seek - small, large? Urban, rural ? Warm, cold? Big time sports?

Math is a great major and most schools will be great for you.

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Budget isn’t a main concern at this time
Size of the school honestly doesn’t matter to me, east coast is preferable, and the weather honestly does not matter. Living in Alaska makes you appreciate anything to be honest
Sports doesn’t really matter to me either, just looking for a place that is nice.

if by NMSF you mean national merit, I haven’t done it yet, I believe only junior year PSAT scores count.

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It’s ALWAYS a concern. Every year kids say I want to see where I can get in and then find out, oh my parents can’t or won’t pay.

Budget is more important than your profile. It’s 1a, 1B, and 1C in importance.

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I can name 200 schools. UMass is different than a 1500 kid LAC.

If your family has financial means, it’d help to maybe go to Washington and visit schools of various sizes and environments to see what you like. East coast is better but this would give you a sense and we could translate that to the East.

Also, have your parents fill out the net price calculator for Harvard, Princeton, Tufts, and Brandeis.

See what they will cost. Can they work with that cost?

No one can truly guide you without budget. They can just provide you a list of colleges in the NE.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear earlier, but me and my parents filled out the NPC for a number of colleges before, and we found that the cost for all were in our range.

Ok - in the NE, UMD is outstanding for math. Rutgers, UCONN,UMass, Penn State, Pitt etc.

ivies are worth a try as is a JHU.

Top colleges like Brandeis, Wesleyan, Vassar etc - it runs the gamut. You can see yours on line but if you can get to Washington. - go to UW,Was State, Whitman, Gonzaga, Puget Sound - just to narrow in. You do need to narrow down somehow.

If you get NMSF and NMF, free tuition or total could be in play if you desire but not at the region or selectivity level you might seek. In other words, schools buy kids in.

You’re a sophomore, so it’s far too early to create a college list.

First of all, you could be a very different person when you start applying to colleges in the fall of your senior year. I know that my kid had a very different set of non-academic priorities when she started applying to colleges than what she had as a sophomore.

Second, you now only have grades for the first three semesters of high school, so it’s difficult to know what your GPA will look like after you have six or seven semesters, especially since the classes that you will be taking a a Junior will be more challenging than those which you have taken now.

Finally - your ECs will be different. You will have dropped some, but you could also have more achievements. By junior year you will have more chances for awards and recognition.

You are wrong - you’re doing excellent. You are a very good student. Keep on doing what you are doing, and come back in your Junior year to ask about putting together a list.

Yes, being from Alaska does provide a bit of an advantage for admissions to many private colleges.

All are public, and all will be extremely expensive for an out of state student. There are public colleges on the West that are part of the WICHE reciprocity agreements which will be far more affordable.

While that is still in the future, affordability is a discussion that a student can have with their parents even as a sophomore.

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It’s very tempting to start your search from a perspective of “How high can I reach?”

But the thing is, you can’t really know, at this stage, how high to aim. You can, on the other hand, identify some affordable and attainable safeties that would offer a good fit in terms of academics, environment, and “vibe.”

As just one example… University of Utah has a top-notch match department (which consistently sends its best students to top grad fellowship programs) and a terrific Honors College (with its own housing and great programs such as Praxis Labs, and an Honors version of the math major) There may be no better school in the country for an avid snowboarder, and the music ensembles are also top-notch. As an AK resident, you’d get the WUE discount as a baseline, and likely an additional merit discount.

That’s just one example… but safety schools you could be happy with should be the foundation of a good list, not an afterthought that’s tacked on after years of focusing on “T20’s.”

You seem as if you could have a shot at most schools that would interest you, and it definitely does help to come from an underrepresented state.

When looking at smaller schools, pay attention to what advanced coursework they offer, and how frequently those advanced classes are offered. You’re quite accelerated in math, and could run out of coursework at a smaller school if it doesn’t have grad programs. There are exceptions, though, such as Wesleyan, which has only about 3000 undergrads but has a math PhD program.

Another question to consider is whether you’re sure you want a math degree, or whether you might end up wanting the option to study engineering (industrial/systems engineering, for example, can be very math-y; check out Georgia Tech’s top-ranke ISYE program for example), or something in the math/business overlap like CMU’s Computational Finance program. (Math is excellent across the board at CMU, whether with a business component or not.) You’ll want to make sure that the school you choose doesn’t limit your options, so it would be good to explore whether you want more specialized programs like engineering and/or business to be available, or if you know that a strong math department at a more liberal arts type school would meet your needs.

There are some top-tier math departments at Canadian universities, and these are more like the UK system in that a higher percentage of your time is spent on your major vs. breadth requirements. Would that be a plus for you, or no?

Plenty of time to explore ideas, so take time to think about what you are seeking in the abstract, before getting too caught up in the brand-name prestige arms race.

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If you would like suggestions based on your interest in mathematics, this post may be worth browsing: For Students Seeking a College Strong in Mathematics - Math/Computer Science Majors - College Confidential Forums.

Some of the universities in Canada that are very good for math are also closer to Alaska than the rest of the USA is.

UBC and Toronto are obvious. However, U. of Victoria and U. of Alberta are also worth considering, as potentially might be quite a few other schools.

A few family members have attended university in Canada (at least for a bachelor’s, two have then gone on to a PhD in the USA). It is my impression that they have had more classes in their major or closely related fields and less in other subjects compared to what is typical at universities in the USA. I do not know to what extent this was expected, or was just their personal preference, but it was at least permitted.

For someone coming from Alaska, the other thing that I wonder about is WUE schools.

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