Match Me: [>1550 SAT, undecided but definitely a major involving math, gpa > 4, NY resident]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Some of these answers will be vague I’m not getting doxxed lol

Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: New York girlie
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): small public
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.) no :')

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Don’t consider this for now, but I’m pretty sure money isn’t a problem

Intended Major(s)

Possibly Applied math, Engineering?

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it)
    about 4.1 ish (4.3 is an A+ in my school)

  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities)

About 4.6 to 4.7, our school has a bunch of restrictions on honors/AP classes

  • Class Rank: no rank

  • ACT/SAT Scores:

1550 SAT

36 ACT

List your HS coursework

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

  • English:
  • All honors track
  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed)
  • All honors track (Algebra 1+2, Geometry, Precalc), self studying Calc BC rn
  • Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics)
  • AP Physics C, Honors Chem, Biology (required class)
  • History and social studies:
  • Global 1 (required), AP Euro, APUSh
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed)
  • Latin Honors track
  • Visual or performing arts:
  • One year of orchestra
  • Other academic courses:
  • CSA + CSP

All 5s here

Self taught courses in finite math, data structures

Awards
AIME qualified 3x (was close to making distinction if it helps ToT)
Scholastic Writing Gold Key
National Merit Semifinalist (expected)
4th in my county, MathCounts State
National Latin Exam gold 3x

-Concert Festival best soloist award

  • some writing event 2 people from each grade were selected for
  • some math comp awards

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Leader of school’s Math club
In my local Math Circle
Swimmer

  • made states
  • swim club
    Piano

Essays/LORs/Other
*Assume these will all be reasonably strong, like 7/10?

I don’t have much in mind rn for targets and safties because there are so many… reaches I probably have already. would I also have a shot at mit ea? thank you!! I also might add more stuff I probably forgot…

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Are all of your high school grades some variant of A? Some colleges recalculate dropping +/-.

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So you’re a junior ?

You want to major in math. Don’t self study Calc BC. Take it !!!

Do you have 4 years English ?

The good news is - if you decide money is a factor, you can go free or near free at excellent schools if you get NMF. .

In order to determine match and safety, tell us what you want in a school.

Size. Urban or rural or suburban. Weather. Sports. Area ? Etc

Do you a shot at MIT. Yes, if you apply.

Will you get in? Highly highly highly unlikely but that’s the same for everyone. If you don’t apply, you won’t get in.

Tell us more or who is on your list now so we can find targets and matches.

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Yup, Junior here, my school has started the college process already. Thank you for your response! I figured as much for Mit; I guess what I meant was how my chances compare to the regular applicant. To answer questions:

yes, all my grades are some form of an A

On Calc BC, my school restricts it to seniors only so I can’t take it. :frowning:

4 years english

Really? wow was not expecting that :00

I just realized I was probably not that specific with my college search sorry about that! I’m cool with any size. On campus, I’d prefer somewhere more suburban, or near cities; not too spaced out in the city. As for area, somewhere in the north, like Boston! I haven’t looked too much into sports but I would hope they have intramurals or something like that for not recruited athletes.

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Perhaps I missed the English language.

Yes you can next year.

Skipping a foundational math class is in most cases academic suicide in later classes. If you’re that advanced take at a summer college. But don’t self study.

You impress no one (they want to see a grade and completion) and will potentially hurt yourself in the long run by not having a solid foundation.

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hmm, I’ll take your advice into consideration. The thing is I’ve had background in calculus for a while now maybe starting from my freshman year. I’ve used it in competitions and Physics C throughout the year. Often in high school math I find myself in classes that don’t actually teach me anything new, so I would rather take linear algebra or something I haven’t learned than repeat that next year…

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A former University of Chicago president once said, “If we removed our entire incoming freshman class and replaced them with next group behind them, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.” That’s precisely the problem with trying to chance you for top schools. They turn away applicants who look just like the ones they accepted.

I’ll say this, the SUNY system is excellent and has become very competitive with Binghamton being the most competitive campus. But this is where I’d begin for a NY resident because if you’re in the top 10% of your high school class and are a STEM major, as you intend to be, you can attend tuition free.

The next thing I’d look at is male:female enrollment splits. Many engineering schools, RPI for one, have had stated goals of increasing their number of women students. In spite of setting this as a goal, they’ve not been able to achieve this target with the exception of MIT. So, as a female applicant, you should have an advantage. So, I’d request from the colleges the male:female breakdown in the School of Engineering in particular and target schools with the widest disparity. Here is a recent article with gender ratios at top 25 colleges:

Based on this list but excluding state schools with a known preference for in state applicants,I would begin my list with the following:

31% —- Michigan
34.5% - Yale
35% —- Rice
37% —- Duke
37% —- Washington U, St Louis

You didn’t mention if you have a geographic preference, but if I were focusing on the Northeast, in addition to Yale (above), I would look at:

39% - Harvard
40% - Penn
41% - Princeton
42% - Brown
42.4% - John’s Hopkins

The problem with these 2 lists is that these schools are all super hard to get into, so even though being a woman in engineering gives you an edge, they’re still long shots.

Here are some engineering schools with badly skewed male:female ratios which are also more realistic admits:

31% - Colorado School of Mines
32% - RPI
33% - Stevens Tech
35% - Worcester Tech

Keep in mind that nationally the percent of women enrolled in engineering programs is 22%. So, while the numbers on the lists above may look low, these are colleges which have actually been more successful than most at attracting women to their engineering programs.

As I mentioned above, as you develop a list of colleges you are interested in, request directly from the admissions office this same information for percent of women in their engineering school. Lower numbers will mean that your chance of admissions will increase.

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So one thing you eventually have to decide is whether you want Engineering to be an option, in which case you likely should at least try out starting in a first-year Engineering program. That is the usual recommendation because it is usually going to be way easier to switch out of Engineering into another major path like Math than it would be to switch the other way.

I note if you continue to like Math but decide Engineering is not for you, it opens up more options, such as Liberal Arts and Sciences Colleges that are strong in Math but don’t have Engineering. Indeed, even some research universities are like this–like the University of Chicago is a great school for Math, but has only a limited niche undegrad Engineering options.

Another thing you will need to decide is if you want to go to a tech-focused college, like MIT, or a more general university or college, let’s say Brown (spoiler, Brown is also very good for Applied Math). If the MIT approach is your ideal, this could lead to looking at similar research universities like RPI, or indeed an undergraduate tech-focused college like Harvey Mudd. But if Brown is more your style, maybe you are looking at Rochester. Or possibly St Olaf (a forum favorite LAC with very strong Math and also robust merit) if you can do without Engineering.

And then of course there are publics, and I agree the SUNYs are well worth exploring. In Applied Math, though, you could also look at, say Minnesota, which is in a great fun city and offers OOS merit. Purdue is another strong option for Applied Math and Engineering combined with competitive OOS costs. But to sort of come around, whether you would prefer to be at Minnesota or, say, St Olaf, depends on what you end up feeling about Engineering, what sort of college experience you want in general, and so on.

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Interesting take on the schools with biggest male/female skews in engineering. I would have interpreted it as the schools closer to 50/50 are advantaging women more to get to that ratio while the schools that have lower percent women are not giving as big of boost to women in admissions. Maybe the difference has more to do with who is doing a better job marketing to would-be women engineers and doesnt actually reflect “ease” of being admitted?? I dont know.
Also, thanks for posting that article and it may have the correct numbers but i had a laugh at this paragraph: " Many of these schools fail to report any data on the gender composition of their engineering departments. Could this mean that these schools — including such prestigious institutions as the University of Chicago, Georgetown University, and Emory University — are attempting to conceal the state of female representation in these departments?" Yes, evil Emory et al are concealing how many women are in their non-exist eng departments!

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None of the three have engineering. U Chicago Molecular but not regular engineering disciplines.

None of the three should be on OPs list.

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I think U Chicago was in the convo in case student decides no on engineering.

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I understand why you and other posters are pointing out schools that do not offer engineering, but I don’t necessarily agree they should come off the list as long as there are a reasonable number that do. Kids change their minds.

Using an anecdote from my D’s application experience, we were seeking merit to preserve funds for med school. Some would argue she should not have applied to any schools with no chance of merit, but she applied to a few (with our blessing) in case she changed her mind about her career plans. She knew the budget and that it would be wise to stretch it 8 years if med school was in the cards. We wanted her to have options.

I apply the same thought process to kids who are interested in engineering. Unless they are 100% positive at 16-17 years of age, I see no problem throwing in a few schools that excel in other areas of interest. They can make their decision in April and choose according to their plans at that time.

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You raise a fair point and it’s probably a little of both.

The simple fact is that only 22% of college engineering students are female. There simply are not enough to go around to enable everyone to get to 50:50.

MIT is 50:50 and they only recently got there. Why are they 50:50? Because they are MIT. They set a goal to get there and they eventually reached that goal.

RPI, as an example, has had that same goal for at least 10 years, dating back to the time when their president was a woman. Today they are no closer to achieving that goal than they were 10 years ago. They are 32% female, which is a lot better than the 22% nationwide. And it’s stuck where it is not due to a lack of trying. They simply don’t have the drawing power that MIT has.

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Ooooh wrong thread. My bad.

I was thinking the Washington student who is pre med but engineering as a back up.

Someone posted an engineering article upthread and I goofed.

Sorry.

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Have you ever heard of Olin College of Engineering? It’s located in the Boston suburb of Needham. It’s very selective (22%). It’s very small, only about 400 students. BUT its campus was carved out of a section of the Babson College campus and they share many facilities as well as sports teams. There is cross registration between the 2 schools. 400 is the size of the engineering school at many. When Olin was built about 25 years ago or so, it’s really as if Babson just added a school of engineering. They even share much of the same educational philosophy. But in this case, the decision was for Olin to be autonomous with its own independent administration and financing. As a student, I don’t know that you would notice the difference. The combined enrollment is about 3000. There is not even a street separating the two. It is literally just one big beautiful campus which straddles the Wellesley/Needham town line.

In addition to their cooperative partnership with Babson, these 2 colleges are in a 3-college consortium (BOW) with Wellesley College, 2 miles across town and connected by a shuttle bus which runs continuously. As a liberal arts college, Wellesley expands the course offerings substantially. The enrollment of the 3 colleges combined is about 5500. It is also easy to get from Olin/Wellesley to Boston or Harvard Square in Cambridge via multiple forms of transportation.

Olin is different. They have a different approach to teaching and learning engineering. I won’t explain it, but go to their website and see if you like it.

Olin is different. Every accepted student automatically receives a half tuition scholarship, making it much more affordable. In addition, they guarantee to meet 100% of financial need.

Only is selective, but I think that you have an excellent chance of being accepted there. And I think that it would meet a lot of your interests.

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Harvey Mudd has been mentioned, and seems like it could be a great option if the distance from home isn’t a deterrent. At most schools, as others have said, you need to do first year engineering in order to keep the option on the table. But at Mudd, all students do the same core curriculum, which includes some introductory engineering content, and you could fork off into either engineering or math from there. It’s also one of the best tech schools for gender parity.

Rochester has also been mentioned - particularly great place for STEM students who are also musicians, and the flexible curriculum is good for keeping options open, although you’d probably want to start out as an engineering major if keeping that option open is desired. They also have a few more unusual engineering options that might appeal - a very strong optical engineering major that might appeal to a student who loves math, and also audio & music engineering, if that’s of interest.

FWIW, Berkeley has an Engineering Mathematics program. I haven’t done a deep dive into how this differs from Applied Mathematics at other schools, other than that it claims to provide sufficient preparation for grad programs in engineering, which a lot of math degrees would not.

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Have you already registered for the calc BC exam? If not, try to do so ASAP as march 14 is the deadline for ordering new AP exams: Annual Calendar and Deadlines for AP Coordinators – AP Central | College Board

Check out math prize for girls: https://mathprize.atfoundation.org/

Other than Bing, also look at Stony Brook for math. For a safety with a surprisingly strong math program (assuming you start with 4181H freshman fall), check out OSU.

Look into College Now (specifically which math courses are offered through it) and/or dual enrollment or UIUC netmath (self paced) or UCSD extended studies (instructor led, with office hours).

For summer programs, check out Ross, PROMYS, HCSSiM, MathILY, SUMAC, NYU CMT, etc

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What is OSU?

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No one’s mentioned Wesleyan; it’s a prestigious college that tends to not be on the quant/STEM radar because it has such a heavy national footprint in the performing arts (Broadway, a Hollywood mafia, indie rock bands - you name it.) But what people don’t generally realize is that Wesleyan is strong in the arts despite being a small, New England college with big investments in science and math. If it weren’t for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Joss Whedon, and Mike White, it would probably be best known as the only LAC in the country that consistently awards degrees at the PhD level in Math, Molecular Biology and Astrophysics.

By all means, apply to MIT EA, and all the larger ivies, but be aware that as a NYS resident you won’t have a geographic hook for those schools. With ~15% (as opposed to a 2-3% admissions rate at HYPSM); a location in an older suburb, half-way between NYC and Boston, you would have a realistic chance of admission to a really cool college.

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Good recommendation for Wesleyan.

Let me just note that Wesleyan is the largest of the small liberal arts colleges in NESCAC with an undergraduate enrollment of 3066. Most of the NESCAC schools have enrollments of 2000 +/- with some as low as 1400. When enrollments are that low, a fairly high percent of the spots for any incoming freshman class can be set aside for athletes, legacies and the children of big donors and faculty. But when the incoming class is about 750 as in the case with Wesleyan, those spots drop to less than 20% of the incoming class rather than more than 40% in some cases. This makes Wesleyan something of an admissions bargain when compared with similar schools.

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