Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Community College
Poor with moderately bad upbringing (drug addict traumatized dad from being a child slave to the mafia, ex addict mom)
Intended Major: Math
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
HS GPA: 2.7
College GPA: ~3.96
ACT/SAT Scores:1100 (Retaking)
College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
Major preparation course work: Calculus 1-3, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations 1-2, Discrete Math, Probability, Real Analysis 1, Abstract Algebra 1, potentially Topology. Two programming classes and Physics 1-2.
Extracurriculars
Did 4 years of MMA in highschool, 1 year of football, 1 year of wrestling. Did one year of D3 wrestling in college. Participated in Putnam club at my CC, created a real analysis course at my CC and got participants for it. Took abstract algebra and topology as a visiting student. Tutored, worked, helped my household financially. Minor independent projects in computational graph theory.
Essays/LORs/Other
Good essays about being raised by a theoretical physicist and being attractd to STEM initially, but failing at first and thinking I wasnt meant for it, to seriously pursuit a professional MMA career while in HS/College only to realize that what I really loved about it was the learning and skillbuilding aspect and the lifestyle of a pro mma fighter wasnt for me, to dropping out of my college to learn (pretty much for the first time) highschool math and calculus by teaching myself, to go on to become a pure math major.
The bad news is that I think that the highly ranked famous universities are unlikely for the rest of your undergraduate education. Please note the last two words of this sentence.
I would not be surprised at all if given this list you end up at VT or maybe (?) UVA to complete your bachelor’s degree. Given the huge improvement that you have accomplished through your own very hard work, I expect you to continue to do very well at VT (or maybe at UVA).
Then, if you want to continue on to any graduate degree, I think that you will be a competitive applicant even at the reach schools from your list. If at some point you apply to graduate programs, any shortcomings in high school just will not matter. At that point your excellent results in college and university will matter.
However, you story is also a bit unusual. You might surprise me and get accepted to one of your reach schools to complete your bachelor’s degree. We never know until the results come back.
I appreciate you going for the gold but Harvard, per the CDS, had 2042 applicants and accepted 13. Can you be one of the 13 - sure? Is it worth the app? Well 2042 thought so but.
Stanford was 102 of 4532 so that’s “better” but not good.
As they still want your SAT, maybe if you get a 1500+ you try vs. a 1200 or 1300?
What is your budget? Will these schools meet your need?
UVA is $80K+.
UMD is very strong in math!! Wisconsin and Minnesota would be two other strong publics in math.
I suspect you should apply to where they have an agreement to take you. School’s like Cornell and BU have higher transfer rates but that’s because they guaranteed transfer admission to some who applied out of high school.
Does 3.96 GPA include all college courses from all colleges and universities? (including your previous university, your attendance as a visiting student, and dual enrollment in high school, if any)
That’s not an answer. When I ask what the budget is, the answer is an amount - $10K or $40K or $60K.
What’s a better college? It’s a math major. There’s not better per se.
And if you say I can afford $20K but you want to go to $80K UVA, how will you make the $60K? Can’t borrow it - lucky for you, the government has strict limits - I think $7500 your Junior and Senior Year.
You need a formal budget - a $ amount - and to build a list around it.
Any state flagship will have more math offerings than you can use.
Well I’d probably go over my budget if I got accepted to Princeton in a way that I wouldn’t for VT, so I don’t have an exact amount. Looking for aid but also looking for quality is the best answer I can give you right now
Actually, there is considerable variation in emphasis among math departments. Some may be very pure math research oriented, some may be focused on particular areas of applied math, and some may be focused on preparing future high school math teachers. Larger departments may have a wider range of areas of coverage.
Yes VT is pretty evenly split between pure and applied as as a result it’s very possible that I’d exhaust the pure classes there and be left with nothing to do my senior year
Would graduate level courses and research be available to undergraduate math majors at VT? You may want to find out about that at every college if you want to do pure math in depth.
You’d have access to grad classes and I’ll disagree on research/internship/employment, etc. Most schools have more research than kids who want - and finding a job will be on you in most places. Math is versatile.
Some are. but not nearly as much as UMD and UVA. And every other school likely has much more than even those two.
The problem is that high level classes are niche enough that even a school of VT’s size genuinely may not have profs qualified to teach them, they may not be on offer every semester, etc. and VT is not really known for pure math so afaik even its full grad program is not really that extensive
This is just awesome to see such good progress, progressing from a “B-” GPA to almost an “A+”!
Here lies your problem: You can forget about Ivy League schools unless your scores are completely wrong. You need at least 700 on both SAT RW & M or equivalent ACT scores to have any real chance of transferring to an Ivy. I would attempt the ACT if you can score better on those sections. I would also recommend taking ACT science & writing/essay, if you can score high, & submitting those scores to whichever schools will accept them, even if optional. Spend some time reviewing high school algebra, geometry, & trigonometry. This happens sometimes with some students are completely immersed in subjects like abstract algebra, analysis, & topology - they sort of “forget” about high school mathematics standardized testing & transitioning back into that mindset. Else, I would suggest applying only to test-optional schools with your solid college GPA w/o submitting scores.