GA resident, public HS
Upper middle class
Intended majors: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, data science
Stats
Top 5% class rank (~400 in class? and no specific class ranks)
101.7W GPA
1510 SAT (760R, 750M), plan to retake in October
Coursework
5 - Lang, World, Biology, Calc BC (self study), US History, Comp Sci A, Comp Sci Prin
4 - Physics 1
Taking right now - Macroeconomics/microeconomics, statistics, physics C
Also taking linear algebra, multivariable calculus, computer science at Georgia Tech right now
ECs
Used to run business with peak 10k sales/week
2-year program which helped with leadership/networking
Volunteered to help elementary school students in STEM days for a semester
Cashier for a summer
Model UN leadership
Principal clarinetist for youth orchestra
Awards
Principal’s honor roll
All-State Clarinetist
2nd place at school science fair
NHS
Several awards at Model UN
Band leadership
Essays / LORs
Strong LORs from AP Calc and AP Bio teacher
Moderately strong essays
Currently applying to Georgia Tech EA1
I would like to apply to a T20 just to take a shot but I do not know which one(s) would be best for me. Currently applying to most colleges in Georgia for safeties and targets (UGA, Kennesaw State)
What is your unweighted GPA? Can you put into a 4 point #?
An A = 4, B= 3, C=2.
Add up the points. Divide by the # of classes.
Use core classes only?
What happened with the business you used to run?
Why safeties in GA - and not elsewhere were your stats will get you big money?
Top 20 in and of iteself isn’t good - Harvard and Dartmouth are very different.
What do you want in a school? City, suburb, rural? Weather? Sports? Greek? Size?
You have to be somewhere four years - day after day - so you want it to be the right somehwere.
And what’s your budget - if you don’t qualify for need - some “top 20” schools will be $90K a year plus…is that ok? Whereas others will buy you in - like a Bama - for under $20K all in?
So knowing your budget is important.
You’ll get into a lot of fine schools - but it will help to know your budget.
I agree it is hard to recommend schools without knowing what your budget is, and whether you would qualify for need aid.
If you like, you can try out the NPC at a college like Princeton. You don’t have to actually want to apply to Princeton, it will just give you a sort of best case scenario for need aid.
If you tell us your budget and what you would pay at Princeton, that will then help guide recommendations.
The other thing we would need to know is what you are looking for in a college experience besides just good engineering/CS. Large school? Small school? Urban, suburban, college town? Non-academic activities, including sports? Any regional preferences? Greek life, yes/no/indifferent? And so on.
The basic situation is there are many, many good undergraduate engineering/CS programs in the US. So subject to your budget, you can be choosey about other things too.
Nice work on a very strong preparation for any college. Clearly you have leaned heavily into Math / Comp-Sci. Using the statistics available from the College Board, about 100,000 students take the Calculus BC exam every year with only about 40,000 earning a 5. The fact that you took Calculus BC “early” and went on to take MVC and Linear at GT also shows strength in math, so it would be a priority to maintain your track record of academic excellence in those as well as your other courses.
Your math acceleration is a strong preparation for engineering or CS. It is a preparation shared and acceleration shared by a large percentage (perhaps about a third) of successful applicants to math-related majors at T20 schools. So in isolation, this is a stepping stone to success in College but may not be a significant admissions advantage.
Your EC’s and awards show nice breadth and some depth, particularly in Clarinet. If you are an especially strong clarinetist, submitting a studio recording is something you could consider to share your talents. For an T20 application, you might describe aspects of your business that were impactful in your community or showed personal leadership as those are aspects of the information that you provided that may be viewed as less clear.
A lot is made on this website about being assessed in the context of your high school, especially academically. You self-studied Calc BC to enable you to take MVC and LA. In my view, that shows both talent, initiative and hard work. Even if others disagree on this point, it is hopefully less controversial that you will be directly compared with students from your HS especially in your year. You will also be compared with students elsewhere with interests in CS and engineering. Top 5% in a class of 400 is a general rank of 1-20. Though your school does not rank, your likelihood of admission likely does depend somewhat on the strength of other students and “2” would be different from “19” academically, and in terms of EC’s.
The most important factor is likely your school’s track record for admission and matriculation for top 5% students. Even in the same county, some public schools might place 25% of their student body in USNWR top 20 schools while others might place 5%. Your school may have this information, or you may be able to approximate an estimate through the school’s published profile.
As with any student with strong academics and EC’s, it is exceedingly difficult to stand out against other students nationwide. If T20 is a possible goal, something you can do now is to look over the supplemental essays from each of the schools that fit your interests and start thinking about answers that would fit your life’s narrative.
Congratulations on doing so well in High School. Your background makes you a very competitive applicant. You are fortunate to have two excellent in-state options in Georgia Tech and UGA and I would be surprised if you are not admitted to at least one of them. If you are interested in applying to a couple of T20 schools, do a little research and see which ones would be a good fit for your interests and preferred location/size/vibe. For example, Dartmouth and Columbia are quite different location wise and Columbia and Brown, while both urban, are very different in terms of academic approach. Before applying to any schools outside of your in-state options (which I assume are affordable) make sure to run the NPC to see what it might cost and if that cost is affordable - these days many T20 schools are $90k+ if you do not qualify for financial aid (although they are generous and several offer aid to families making up to $250k).
Sorry for the lack of details - I believe my budget is around only ~25-30k per year. I would love to be in an urban or suburban area. Weather and sports don’t really matter to me, and I don’t think I would be interested in any Greek life. I think I would prefer a medium to larger-sized school.
Does your family qualify for need-based aid? If the Net Price Calculator at Princeton doesn’t come back as showing any need, then it is highly unlikely that any other college will either, and those schools are generally $85k+/year.
UAH will be one to look at for sure. It will meet budget. And it’s a fine name - especially if you go Engineering. It’d make a nice barbell with Ga Tech - those two alone and your list could be done. Huntsville is a booming city for engineers.