High achieving 15 year old Junior

Chance Me / Match Me
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US Citizen

Private selective feeder prep High School-on scholarship

No special circumstance-not legacy, first generation or athlete

Budget-single mom, $70K/year income, two kids going to college. No budget. Dad has no custody but pays child support. Dad will not fill out CSS profile, refused, kids have no contact with the dad, in court with dad over Child Support debt (5 years). Will be filling out CSS profile waver forms.

Intended Major(s) Econ/Business/Pe Med-Chem/Bio, Chemical Engineering, Neuroscience.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

3.95 Unweighted GPA

Weighted GPA 4.8

School does not provide class rank

Not a Valedictorian, most likely

National Merit Finalist (most likely)

SAT 1550, no ACT (not available in our region) Will try to take ACT during the summer in another state, if necessary

List your HS coursework High Diploma for a Russian HS in Moscow, Russia-4.0 GPA. US High School: 47 credits. 10 math credits, 12 science. Higher classes-Sociology 101 UMichigan DE, Honors English Language and Comp 1 and 2. AP Calc AB (3 on the exam), AP Calc BC, AP World History, AP CS, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Calc 3, AP Bio, AP Physics 1, AP Psychology, AP English Language, AP English Lit. AP test pending, expected to pass with 4 or 5. Bilingual-Russian and English. Turkish-B1 level

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: 4 credits
  • Math: 12 credits, AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Calc 3
  • Science: Bio 5 credits-Chemistry 4 credits, physics 5 credits, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics 1
  • History and social studies: US History 1 credit, Social studies 2 credits, AP World History 1 credit, Sociology 101 DE 1 credit, AP Psychology 1 credit
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed) Russian-Bilingual, Russian HIgh School Diploma.
  • Visual or performing arts: Art History, Design and Technology, Music
  • Other academic courses: Philosophy, Russian and Russian literature, Geography, Robotics
  • Awards

Extracurriculars
Varsity Soccer and soccer (goalkeeper, forward)-since early childhood. US high School-1 year varsity soccer. Junior Class VP, Philosophy Club VP, MathLeats, automotive club. Transferred to the US High School in July 2025, MMA, class president, owned his own business for 2.5 years (social club for teenagers-taught teens English and basics of investing/finance, had guest speakers, rented office space). in taught English to the Ukrainian refugees. Heavy involvement and volunteering during Earthquake helped house, feed and provided emotional support to the earthquake victims. in the US since July 2025-hospital volunteering, shadowing doctors, observing surgeries, 100 volunteering hours. Also volunteering at the school and on the soccer team.

Summers-worked in a digital marketing company (during the summers of 2024 and 2025. Currently applied to the City of Hope summer internship (Cancer Research), waiting to hear on admission. If not admitted, will either shadow doctors at the local hospital and volunteer for a summer camp.

Essays/LORs/Other
Very strong with essays, expect good LOR, has an eventful life (left the US in 2020 after parents divorce, l Graduating two years earlier (skipped grades) Self studied US High School curriculum while being enrolled full time in High School (including APs, DE and Honors). Plays piano and guitar, records and publishes his own music,

Schools
Looking at T20-T50, with financial aid. Very interested in MIT and Stanford, Yale, Brown, Northwestern.

Thank you in advance to everyone who responds and has any suggestions!

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For clarification, OP is the parent

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I don’t see any need to do ACT with a 1550 SAT score.

I’m a little confused here. The student has already graduated high school in Russia but is a junior in the US system, or did I misunderstand something?

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Yes, he has already graduated from a HS in Russia in Jule 2025. But he graduated at 14 years old, and Russian HS is 11 years, not 12. We decided to do two years in an American HS to give him stronger application with more APs and extracurriculars in the US. He did not have enough English credits for a US HS Diploma. He is a US Citizen who lived abroad for most of his life, just came back to the US last summer.

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Ok, got it.

As you need financial aid, have you run the net price calculators on the schools of interest you mentioned to see if they are within budget? Top schools will only give need-based aid. As you go further down the rankings you are more likely to see merit aid added in.

My opinion is that the student’s profile will be attractive to a lot of colleges, but whether they will give enough aid is going to the big question.

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Aid is a separate issue, we are trying to see what’s realistic for him in terms of acceptances. if CSS Profile waver is granted, he will get full aid. If not, I am prepared to take his father to court for college payment and most likely the judge will grant my request

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Well, an acceptance doesn’t mean anything if you can’t afford it, but if you are sure you will get full aid if you need (I am going to assume you have actually run the NPCs and not just assumed full aid) then just be sure to have a balanced list of colleges. It’s really hard to say what is “realistic” talking about top 10/20, because the admit rates are so low. Does he have a chance at them, I’d say so. Is it likely - that’s a much harder question to answer. Some people get multiple T20 offers and some get none at all and you wouldn’t necessarily know why from looking at their profiles. Make sure there are some decent targets and safeties on the list as well.

Btw I don’t claim any legal knowledge but don’t know how long it would take to get a court case going/get a court to decide if you need to go that route, but you’d presumably need an actual college admit in hand to have a dollar figure to argue, and a number of the top schools only release those decisions mid-late March for tuition due sometime in August so that doesn’t seem a long time to me to deal with a case from beginning to end, though I assume it varies by state as well.

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Are you sure? Even if the NCP waiver is granted, you will still have to include the child support on both FAFSA and CSS Profile. That’s why you still need to run the NPCs, with mom’s and student’s income/assets plus the child support.

As an example, here is MIT’s NPC for you to get a cost estimate: Net Price Calculator

Financial aid/budget is a critical piece of building a college list. There is no point to applying to a need-based-aid-only school, only to get an unaffordable acceptance. Run the NPCs to be sure, and keep screenshots.

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Yes, we did NPCs for all schools, with child support. Our FAFSA is 5500.

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Your child has a very interesting profile and could be accepted to any of the top schools in the country. Or be denied by all of them. But go ahead and shoot for the moon.

I agree with others that you should figure out how much financial aid you’d really be eligible for.

I don’t think a judge can compel anyone to pay for a child’s college unless there were specific clauses in the divorce settlement that lay that out. Child support is one thing, paying $100k a year for college is another.

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I am prepared to take my son’s father to court if my son is admitted to T20, if we dont get financial aid. The dad is a doctor owes $250K in child support. I will go to court and garnish his 401K. Please only comment on the acceptance chances-we are very aware of how financial aid works and are already working on the CSS profile waver applications and with lawyers over the court case. We also did run net cost calculators for all T100 schools and have the spreadsheet with the numbers and possible aid options. We do have the list of schools where most likely he will get a full ride or close to it.

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If you meet college requirements from hs courses - you need to look at Alabama. Why ? NMF gets you a free Masters. The meets need aren’t assured to happen but if you get into Bama, you get this. It’s why they’re at or near the very top of NMF recipients. It takes your risk away from hoping for the others. You still can but this is a near cost free fallback.

Tulsa now just appears to be free tuition UTD is also aggressive.

Can’t rate his chances but 15 years old may hurt. He may not be dorm eligible at some

You go to a feeder they should be guiding you.

Good luck

If admitted, students who are eligible for the National Merit Finalist package will receive:

  • Value of tuition for up to five years or 10 semesters for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate or law studies

  • Four years of undergraduate on-campus housing at regular room rate* (based on assignment by Housing and Residential Communities)

  • $4,000 per year undergraduate supplemental scholarship for four years**

  • $2,000 one-time allowance for use in research or international study (after completing one year of study as an undergraduate at UA)

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Thank you for your help, but I am not asking for a financial advice. I am asking about the chances for admission. I will not be commenting on the details of the court case. I am working on the financial side and have a plan.

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Ok. As I said, your child has a competitive profile for any school in the country. As do tens of thousands of others. So no guarantees at any of the schools. But they should definitely shoot their shot. Good luck to you!

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Yes, we are aware of BAMA and a possible full ride. He does not need Master’s, he will be going to Med School. BAMA is not high on the list of students who were accepted to Med School.
Guys, I am asking about T20 schools and chances of acceptance. We know that he can get into many T100 with possible full rides. Getting into BAMA is not an issue. But his dream is either MIT or Stanford and right now the attitude is all or nothing. He does have an option to study in Europe in Russia, and if he does not get into a T20-T30 in the US, he wants to go either to Europe or to the Moscow State University. He is not attached to the US and does not see a point of staying here if the university he is in not recognized internationally. Moscow State University is ranked higher worldwide than BAMA and it will be completely free for him to study in Russia or EU (Ukrainian passport). Nobody knows BAMA outside of the US, if your plan is to work and live in different countries, your college diploma has to have world recognition.

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Sounds good on the NPCs.

I can’t chance your S, I would call him an early achiever. Will he be 16 or 17 when he enters college? Some schools have a different admissions process for students who will be 16 when they matriculate. He has an interesting background, but the competition is fierce at the schools you are talking about. He should absolutely apply to some highly rejective schools that will be affordable per the NPC, without dad’s help, but you can’t count on an acceptance.

Identifying highly rejective schools is easy, identifying affordable target and highly likely schools will take time…I strongly encourage you both to spend time finding those schools. I second looking at the schools that give significant aid to NMFs.

I have advised families in your situation. The plan should include finding FAFSA only schools that will be affordable that he would be happy to attend. Just to play things out…if NPC waiver is not granted and bio dad does end up paying for college, that will mean he is providing most of your S’s support (assuming he’s paying full COA) and then he becomes the FAFSA parent, not you.

ETA:

I just saw this post…That’s great news. Would he immediately matriculate to med school in these countries?

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I would also encourage you to change your username to something anonymous:

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“Guys, I am asking about T20 schools and chances of acceptance. We know that he can get into many T100 with possible full rides. Getting into BAMA is not an issue. But his dream is either MIT or Stanford and right now the attitude is all or nothing. He does have an option to study in Europe in Russia, and if he does not get into a T20-T30 in the US, he wants to go either to Europe or to the Moscow State University. He is not attached to the US and does not see a point of staying here if the university he is in not recognized internationally. Moscow State University is ranked higher worldwide than BAMA and it will be completely free for him to study in Russia or EU (Ukrainian passport). Nobody knows BAMA outside of the US, if your plan is to work and live in different countries, your college diploma has to have world recognition.”

If the dream is MIT/Stanford or bust, then he should go ahead and apply– and then work on his Moscow State and other alternatives.

I’m confused- you certainly don’t need the crowd’s help in assessing his chances at MIT or Stanford- he’s either in at one, both, or neither. None of us can tell you how his age will work against him (but my guess is that it will). Having a 16 year old living in a dormitory is a risk factor and US universities these days are highly risk averse. So he should take his shot and see what happens.

There are lots of stories about young matriculants who adjusted well, their age never an issue, etc. But Doogie Howser and the movies notwithstanding, the chances of him being a 20 year old successful applicant to a US med school are low. Medicine is a marathon, not a sprint and med school adcom’s are even more risk averse than undergrad. They cannot risk a seat to someone who is not ready for the grind or discovers by the time they start rotations that they want to be a robotics engineer and work on new prosthetic devices.

Are you actually looking for more schools given that his dream is either MIT or Stanford? seems pretty binary to me.

And as he thinks about his recommendations, he should give some thought to a teacher who can address his maturity and gravitas and his influencing skills with peers more than just his classroom performance.

I am not a lawyer- but among my divorced friends, the lag between “I’ll see you in court” for back child support and actually seeing a check- averages 5 years. YOU think the judge will garnish your ex-’s wages. YOU think that a pressure campaign will scare him into writing you a check. Meanwhile his lawyer is showing him that investing in commercial real estate in the Dominican Republic or funding a tech start up in Yemen is a bullet proof way to stash his assets for the next decade out of the reaches of the court. And in the “add insult to injury” category- one friend actually had a judge tell her “come back with a pay stub when you’ve found a higher paying job and then will talk about raiding your ex-husband’s 401K”. So onus on the mom to fund college with a higher paying job, and not on the spouse who is a high earning deadbeat? Thanks, your honor.

Good luck but have a plan B.

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I just dont see my kid fitting in BAMA, he’s never been to the mainland USA and it will be hard for him, you only have one life. He is a US Citizen, but he did not grow up here and he is first generation, both me and his dad are immigrants, he will thrive in communities with more immigrants and foreigners, East Coast and CA are a lot better fit for him. We do have to consider his mental state. He has no idea about American Football, Sororities, Baseball, etc. He will be beyond miserable in a big state college in Alabama. I have to consider his interests and background. With his love for soccer, he would be better off in more Hispanic state with large Mexican and South American populations. BAMA is predominantly white American students, very small number of Asians or Hispanics, very few eastern Europeans or Europeans in general, very few international students. Considering that my son lived in Turkey for 3 years in a very diverse community and now lives in Hawaii (very diverse), it will be hard for him to fit in with all American crowd. If you look at T20 schools, they are very diverse, with top schools having more non-white students-MIT has almost 40% Asian and 7% Hispanic, lots of foreigners. Plus the state schools with 40,000 students sound like too much for a 16 year old to navigate on his own. He would be a lot happier in a smaller school. We are looking for a place where he can fit in and be happy. If he does not get financial aid-there is still the entire world and other countries where he can go and study for free. So in the US we are trying to find a place that fits his background.

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With a physician father, most US colleges will not consider him first gen.

In which country would he prefer to attend college? What type of school would he prefer?

If he can matriculate to med school after high school and for free in the EU or Russia, that seems like an attractive option, no?

Say he does get a full ride in undergrad in the US. I agree with blossom that being 20/21 years old when matriculating to med school is a big disadvantage, so he is likely looking at some gap years where he can work caring for patients. Not to mention, US med schools cost over $300K. Many don’t give financial aid, and the ones that do need parent finances.

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