<p>I was told that posting my questions here might yield some helpful answers. So have at it. I really, really appreciate any help given. If I could roll back the last 4 years and do them over I would in a heartbeat but I cannot so, anyone who can help me figure out the best way to prove myself is a godsend. :)</p>
<p>You have pretty good stats actually – but honestly, not Ivy League. </p>
<p>Here’s what I would advise you to do – get a copy of the book Colleges that Change Lives, and read it with an eye to getting a sense of what might be available that is not on the extreme edge of high competitiveness. The best thing about that book, I think, is not so much the colleges that it lists but the way it gets you thinking about factors other than rank and prestige.</p>
<p>Colleges like to see a rising trend in grades so I think that you will have excellent chances at many excellent schools, just not at the mega, super selective ones.</p>
<p>Are you male or female? If you’re a girl, take a very long serious look at the women’s colleges – they offer a top flight education but are less selective than their co-ed academic equivalents, simply because they have a smaller, female-only applicant pool. (Less students overall are eligible to apply, therefore the competition doesn’t end up quite as crazy).</p>
<p>Another option that can work surprisingly well is to go to your local CC or in-state U & do very well & consider transferring or perhaps doing a term or year away or abroad. Get your degree with a great academic & work record & then decide what you want to do next–grad school or your career or combine the two.</p>
<p>Good luck. An advantage of going this route is that you’ll save a lot of money & still keep moving forward. It has worked very well for my D–she went to CC & applied to transfer after her 1st semester. She was accepted & allowed to enter after completing 3 semesters of CC.</p>
<p>I have to agree with calmom. Go ahead and apply…but only after you’ve identified other colleges that fit your profile better. Her suggestion to look at Loren Pope’s book, Colleges That Change Lives, is a great one. There are schools out there that can satisfy the intellectually curious, but because they are located in Ohio or Nebraska or Washington State, they don’t get the attention from students like the Ivys, Stanford, etc. </p>
<p>As for how to prove yourself after a less than stellar record in high school–follow the example of our president, who went to Occidental College for two years and then transferred to Columbia. Go to a lower tier, but still very good college, knock the ball out of the park there, and try the transfer route. The downside is that not all schools accept transfers. </p>
<p>Going to UNH as a non-degree student for a year seems like taking a detour.</p>
<p>I’m not seeing anything that looks like an Ivy league candidate - above average but not stellar grades, ditto scores, ditto extra curricular. (Unless the Linux developer stuff is really high level.) That certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of good schools out there. If you really can’t get better SAT scores look at [SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest) for colleges that don’t care about them. Also some of the midwest tech schools are very good, but are a little easier to get into because the kids from the coasts aren’t applying to them.</p>
<p>Saw some people in your original thread who suggested MIT. Just an FYI, here are stats for my son (physics/nuclear engineering major) who was rejected by MIT:
SAT 2110
SAT IIs: 780 Math II, 760 Chemisty
ACT: 35
Unweighted GPA: 3.99 (One A- in keyboarding as a freshman)
Weighted GPA: 4.56
11 AP/IB/TAG classes
Over 1,000 hours in community service
NM Finalist
NHS
NFL 4 years and 2 years of tournament chair
Etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters here that you need to broaden your scope. Lots of great schools out there. You will find one that fits that is not MIT or the Ivies. It might not be in New England but there really is an intellectual world out her in the boonies–west of Pennsylvania and east of California.</p>
<p>OP, Did I miss the part where you said what you can afford? I agree I don’t understand why you would take non-degree courses at UNH. Certainly doing well in college classes will give a lift to your record. Doing them in a CC would save you $. The one thing to remember is transfer students frequently don’t get much aid.</p>
<p>I started out looking at community colleges. The ones around here offer classes at about $900 per credit hour with an average of 4 credits per class. UNH’s main campus (and secondary campus) is $1200 per credit hour up to 12 credits a semester. The community colleges I looked at also do not offer a calculus-based physics course, and I can afford the extra cost.</p>
<p>That combination of nueroscience and physics is an odd one. The best colleges would be attached to medical schools, like Tufts or University of Rochester (not sure I would recommend SUNY Albany for Physics). Most of the highly successful scientists I know can point to a specific mentor for their career guidance - find one in the research area that interests you and you will find your school. </p>
<p>Also, as a reference point, check out the bios for the Public Welfare Medal winners from the NSF, people at the top of the game in research science (plus a couple of oddball winners). Undergrad school rank does not determine eventual success in research.</p>
<p>As an undergrad, you could major in physics but minor in neuroscience. </p>
<p>If UNH does not offer the program(s) you are interested in for undergrad, you might be able to pay in-state tuition at UCONN. (the agreement with all 6 New England states’ public flagships). OOS at UCONN is running about 40K/year. </p>
<p>I don’t think you made your financial situation very clear to us.</p>
<p>**
Don’t go to a university this next year.** Take a gap year. **If you take some classes at UNH then you hurt your chances for good merit/aid as an incoming frosh. ** </p>
<p>The best aid / scholarships are given to INCOMING frosh…NOT transfer students!!! You could be costing yourself a lot of extra money by going to UNH first. :(</p>
<p>What is your budget for college? That is VERY important.</p>
<p>Ok…so you now know that ivies/elites are NOT possible…however, the good news is that your stats are good enough for many very good schools. :)</p>
<p>What is your career goal?</p>
<p>And, please clarify your money situation. THAT is really important.</p>
<p>Re post #6: The SAT scores are good enough for most, and possibly all, colleges that would seriously consider a candidate with that GPA. It’s a mistake to think that a high SAT score can overcome weaknesses in GPA, and too high ends up making the applicant look like more of a slacker – whereas a 1950 SAT coupled with a high B average and a rising trend gives the colleges a clear sense that the applicant is very capable.</p>
<p>There’s no harm in retaking the SAT to see if there’s improvement, but it’s probably not worth losing sleep over. The OP has reasonably good stats for about 90% of the colleges out there. 1950 SAT is NOT bad – it is around 90th percentile overall. You would be amazed at how many well-regarded colleges were “safeties” for my d. with a similar score. </p>
<p>A modest increase in SAT score might help the OP – but a large increase might tend to undermine the application rather than help. I think ad coms are rightfully skeptical when they see a student with stellar scores without a high school record to match – it suggests either that the student has an attitude problem about school, or that the scores are artificially inflated through intense prep --and that in turn puts the burden on the OP to do more explaining on their app.</p>
<p>100% agree with magnetron. I read your original post, and can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see evidence of genuine focused scientific curiosity in someone your age. Don’t worry about your scores/grades. Start visiting web sites of colleges and departments and begin a correspondence with faculty whose research is aligned with your interests. Get in to a lab as soon as you set foot on campus and start a research project. If you are as motivated as you seem and you are able to maintain decent grades as an undergraduate you will have many offers for graduate school and postdoctoral positions. A surprising number of National Academy members are working at large state schools, so look for individual mentors, not US News rankings.</p>
<p>While I agree with calmom, I think that a high SAT score can, in some cases, make a few reaches possible even with a less than stellar GPA. My younger son got into U of Chicago and Tufts with a B+ unweighted average in academic courses. </p>
<p>Here’s why I think they were willing to cut him some slack:
Nearly all the B-'s were in Latin.
The other B- was from honors Chem freshman year.
Although he got B+s in English, he had a 790 on CR.
He had 5’s on all the APs he’d taken to that point.
He had stellar teacher recommendations.
He had an unusual hobby that he turned into a money making operation.
His GC may have put in a good word for him regarding Latin. (He’d dropped a 504 plan when he entered high school so got no accommodations for mild LDs.)
He got a bump from our school’s silly way of calculating GPA’s that put him in the top 10% of the class.</p>
<p>That said, most bright slackers do find colleges that want them, but I agree on the whole GPA is a better predictor of where they’ll get in.</p>
<p>Case Western in Ohio is a wonderful school that really inspired my #3 son .He was not Ivy League material ,but he really pulled it together in mid Junior year of HS . It offered him 17 k merit aid in 2008 .He got additional money in Junior year of college ,and now has 22,500 in aid .Many private schools have generous aid packages ! He has maintained a 4.0 in Engineering ,and he is finishing a very generously paid internship .Some people are late bloomers !</p>
<p>@fauxmaven, so glad to hear about your son’s positive experience at Case. That’s one of my daughter’s two reach schools, and right now is her second choice. We visited in April and mostly liked what we saw.</p>
<p>Case tightened the admission standards this year, dropping the admit percentage from 67% to 48%. The GC at our school said it was the policy of a new dean of admissions, to reduce the number of safeties, who apply there with no real intention of going. Her school was one of the worst offenders - of 110 admits in 2008-2010, only 7 enrolled.</p>