Rising Junior from Georgia - Unsure of His Chances [4.0 GPA, environmental science, geophysics]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • Suburbs of Georgia
  • Pretty competitive public school
  • Asian Male

Intended Major(s):
Potential major in:
Environmental Sciences
Geophysics
Geoengineering
Other Climate Science related majors

Potential Minor in:
Music (violin)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0/4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.3/5.0 - AP Classes give an extra 10 points to raw scores
  • Class Rank: Top 1% in a class of 800
  • ACT/SAT Scores: N/A - I’ll take the ACT beginning of junior year (goal of 35-36)

Coursework

*AP Classes
9th - AP Human Geography (5)
10th - AP Seminar (IDK), AP World (IDK), AP Environmental Sciences (IDK), AP Precalculus (IDK)
11th - AP Physics, AP Language Arts, AP US History, AP Calculus BC

*Taking Calculus BC as a Junior - either AP stat or a special Georgia Tech Math pathway as a senior

*Taking at least 3 years of Spanish in high school but might not be able to take the 4th year - I don’t know if that hurts me since some top colleges recommend 4 years

*Participate in the highest orchestra at my school - very competitive and got invited to the Midwest Clinic (top international orchestra/band conference)

Awards

*9th grade - math student of the year at my school
*9th grade - Honorable Mention in a statewide concerto competition for 6th-12th grade (violin)

Extracurriculars

*Played violin seriously for 8 years

*Atlanta Youth Symphony (made it this year) - most competitive youth ensemble because they take about 40 violins across the state

*Founded an orchestra student mentorship club - higher level players play alongside and help teach the more novice students in orchestra - will expand and bring in more professional help junior year

*Debate Club - officer but probably vice-president by next year since my partner and I are really the only ones trying to build this club from the bottom up

*Competitive Debate - attend national-level tournaments - didn’t really place this year but am aiming to do as well as I can junior year

*Volunteer for 2 weeks at a local engineering camp for young kids - really great experience and probably going to do something like it again

*Take free online courses and have tried to write a couple of research proposals on climate science/waste reduction - can’t really put this anywhere but it will give you an idea of what I do in my free time and what I want to pursue in college

*Junior year I will lock in :slight_smile:

Essays/LORs/Other

*Essays - I’m a pretty good writer and will try to prepare those in advance
*LORs - In the classes I enjoy I go above and beyond in my projects - especially engineering which became one of the best experiences ever - my teacher was extremely supportive of my projects (probably going to ask him for a LOR)

Cost Constraints / Budget
*No budget yet (unless my parents tell me) - I’ll definitely apply for scholarships and probably have the best shot of getting a scholarship to play in a college’s orchestra

Schools
I’m really not sure where I should apply. I’ve been looking into departmental programs at top colleges to see what opportunities I might have to pursue the climate sciences.

Safety
University of North Georgia, Kennesaw State University, let me know of others out of state if you want to

Likely
Same as safety

Match
University of Georgia (applying EA non-restrictive), University of Washington

Reach - These are the colleges I want to go to but right now everything seems to be a reach - let me know if you think I have chances of getting into any of these :slight_smile:

Emory
University of Chicago
Rice
UC Berkeley
University of Michigan
Vanderbilt

Unlikelys (probably apply to 1 or 2 but it will be a long-shot)
Princeton (they have a great Geoengineering program I think)
Harvard (same as Princeton)
Brown

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You have those stats and that background - you needn’t worry about anything.

But you do need to get through your Junior year. And your ACT.

Have the budget chat in the next six months and have them (your parents) fill out a school’s net price calculator.

Harvard, Princeton, and Brown, for example, only have need aid. If your parents tell you the budget is $40k but the school says you are full pay, they can be safely removed. The same would be true of Michigan and the UCs. So budget matters and I can get orchestra scholarships may be at some but not all.

That said, and I’ll base this with a 33 ACT, not a 35 - I don’t think you need No Georgia or Kennesaw.

UGA would be a given. UW may be if a non engineering major.

Emory, Rice and Vandy would be a reach but if you deliver a 35, with ED, the odds would go up.

There’s many schools that will be safety for you. Many.

Get your budget in line first. Tell us your interests. Size. Environment - rural, urban etc that you want. Sports, no sports etc.

Schools like Col School of Mines, U of S Carolina would make FANTASTIC safeties if they meet your interests. Both are strong in your area of interests but they are different schools.

So for now it’s more important to figure your budget (you can go as low as $20k) and the things that you like in a school.

Keep up the great work.

3

I think your best bet is UGA. With Zell or Hope (full tuition) very few schools (room and board out of pocket) will be cheaper out of state and match the above scholarships. It is best for you to stay instate in public. I know one girl in Rhodes who has almost full scholarship to play in Orchestra.

4

Colorado State University would be an academic safety, you’d receive their top merit award and be a likely candidate for the Honors Program (a very nice program with great benefits and not a lot of stress). CSU would be a good choice if you were interested in combining the science aspect of ES, Geophysics, Environmental Engineering or Climate Science as a major with the humanities side of sustainability. There is an interdisciplinary minor in the School of Environmental Sustainability. I hear they have a nice music program that is accessible as a minor or to those that don’t major in it.

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Iowa State and/or University of Iowa are always good safeties. They offer a number of majors on your list. You can apply online next summer and get an instant acceptance as you will score high enough on the Admissions Index. It’s nice to go into senior year with a quality acceptance in hand.

For a reach, Cornell has an Earth and Atmospheric Science degree in the School of Engineering and offers a concentration in Climate Science.

Rochester is a lower reach and will let you combine many of your interests.

5

Thank you so much for the feedback! I will definitely look into the colleges everyone suggested.

I think location for me pretty much only depends on what sort of climate change initiatives the city has to offer. Take Rice vs. Georgia Tech for example. Both are amazing schools but Georgia has zero facilities with Carbon Capture and Storage implemented, an almost tell-tale sign of minimal sustainable development in the city. On the other hand, Texas as a whole has almost 10 of these facilities across the state, some of which are close to Rice. I know college is really busy, but I would love to be able to use that time as a chance to connect with the companies and businesses in the cities around that have a “green” mindset. Are there any Texas schools that are worth considering alongside Rice?

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Again - budget is first and foremost. You need to know what you can afford.

Texas A&M isn’t far from Houston and obviously U of Houston is in Houston and they have a Bachelor in Geophysics.

But come up with your budget first and I’m sure you can find schools to study your interests in various cities.

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Congratulations on your record so far! I don’t have specifics to recommend for you, but would suggest continuing to try to identify a few high-match/ low reach schools that you like — especially ones that you like better than your matches or safeties. Based on your record so far, you’ll have a chance at your reaches - but they’re reaches for nearly everyone, so it’s possible that you won’t get in to any of them (you could! You might get into several of them, but admissions can be unpredictable!). I’d recommend looking for schools with admissions rates in the 30-50% range (or higher) - if your GPA were lower, I’d tell you to check the GPA of admitted students, but with a 4.0, I don’t think that’s necessary.

8

To a large extent geoengineering represents an inchoate field, in that impactful geoengineering systems have yet to be deployed. Moreover, some proposals in this direction may be inadvisable, essentially for environmental reasons. Nonetheless, geoengineering does appear to be quite active as a topic of research.

In any case, you appear to be inteterested in geosciences generally. This site may offer you ideas for colleges to consider further:

Since you have shown quantitative capabilties, colleges with an available data science program (through which you could choose geosciences, or a related field, as your “applied domain”) may be of additional interest.

In terms of the broader aspects of environmental studies, this site should offer you still further ideas for refining your list:

9

My first three reactions are:

You are doing very well. Good job!

You need to find out what your budget is. Your budget will have a very significant impact in terms of which universities it makes sense for you to apply to. Given that you look to be competitive for some highly ranked schools that only have need based aid, you might want to also run the NPC for a few schools and see whether you qualify for any need based aid.

You need to think about what sort of university or college would be a good fit for you. How far from home do you want to consider? Do you want a large school or a smaller school? Do you want a school that is academically very demanding, where most of the students will be just as academically strong as you are?

It also occurs to me that you should ask your guidance counselor how solid your chances are at UGA, and you might want to think about whether UGA is a good fit for you, or if there is some sense in which you would want a different school.

Visiting a few schools might help you to think about what you want in a college or university. We started with schools that are near us, just because they were easier to get to. You might want to similarly start with visits to schools that are near you.

We live in the northeast of the US, and my two daughters and I have dual citizenship with some experience with universities both up here in the northeast of the US and also in Canada. I can think of some schools up this way that might be possibilities. However, I think that first you might want to think about what you want in a school. Part of this might include whether you want to come up this way to the land of snow and real winters for your studies.

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Congratulations on an impressive record. With UGA and GTECH you have 2 excellent instate choices one match one reach.
You don’t need University of North Georgia nor Kennesaw, you need better safeties :).

U Washington is an academic match for Environmental Science but you’d be full pay. Look into UOregon for another academic match, Western Washington and Cal poly Humboldt for West Coast academic safeties. The issue is costs - don’t expect any financial aid from them or minimal merit. Are you interested in the West Coast in particular?

You’re in the ballpark for Rice and Emory. Obviously as you know they’re reaches so it’s
highly unlredictable but you have a shot.

UCs will be full pay (probably 75k+ when you apply.) Not sure they’re worth it.

If you’re okay with smaller and colder, this may be of interest - excellent for science and music, academically strong overall, offers meet need aid and music based merit. You would have to run the NPC and, if interested, join the mailing list to “show interest” and it’d be a likely.
Environmental Conversation (living/learning community)
https://wp.stolaf.edu/encon/
Environmental Studies, Natural science concentration
https://wp.stolaf.edu/environmental-studies/environmental-studies-major/
On campus policy&actions
https://wp.stolaf.edu/sustainability/
Music
https://wp.stolaf.edu/admissions/students/majors/music/
If you’re an excellent musicianyou can compete for a music scholarship
https://wp.stolaf.edu/musicadm

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Is Georgia State better safety than Kennesaw? I am not sure about majors there.

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Also look at pathways with Georgia Tech. It has Regent’s engineer pathways.

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GA Tech is ranked #1 for environmental eng. iirc-- and they may not be known for music but there are plenty of opportunities available including a possible minor if I’m not mistaken. It’s technically a “reach” but I’d be very very surprised if you didn’t get in, especially if you do their math pathway as a senior. Is there a specific reason why Tech wasn’t on your OG list?

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Academically better, better funded AFAIK, decent Honors College, not sure about the majors but they ought to have something of interest. Better safety imho.

ETA : found this - 2 possible BS

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UC Berkeley only uses 10-11th a-g course grades (core courses) for their GPA calculation and is test blind so way to early to determine if you are competitive.

At the end of Junior year you can calculate your 3 UC GPA’s which are unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted for UCB.

Here is the UC GPA calculator and please note that only AP/IB and UC transferable DE courses will get the extra honors weighting in the calculation.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

You are on the right track so far but make sure you family can afford to
pay close to full fees at UCB since they offer little to no financial aid (need based or merit) to out of state students. Assume you will be paying around $74K/year to attend. The OOS admit rate in 2023 for UC Berkeley was 7.8% so definitely a Reach school.

Good luck.

16

As a GA resident, I’m shocked as to why GT isn’t here.

As an instate student, I think you would get in. Not a sure thing, but I would be more shocked if you didn’t get in than if you did.

17

There are only 13 undergrad geological engineering programs nationwide, and many of them are in more remote locations than you want, since you seem also to want to be in or near a city where there is political activity on the environmental policy front.

One that could be a good safety for you would be U of Utah. Reasons:

  • Majors of interest: Geological Engineering, geoscience, earth & environmental science (these three all within the same department), plus environmental & sustainability studies, environmental engineering, urban ecology, and various others.
  • Music opportunities are top-notch; a minor or double-major would be possible if desired.
  • Honors college has robust programming and it’s own great housing. Many of their Praxis Labs address energy & environment topics.
  • Salt Lake City is the state capital, and Utah, despite its conservative reputation, has a surprising number of progressive initiatives. They just sent a delegation to Iceland to study carbon capture. Utah delegation explores Iceland's example in carbon capture to reduce emissions
  • Affordability: All OOS students have the option to take the path to residency and pay in-state rates for years 2-4. Merit aid is possible as well.

U of Wisconsin Madison has a geological engineering major as well. If you like UMich, UW-Madison seems like a logical one to look at as well. Like Utah, it’s in the state capital, and there seems to be plenty going on in terms of carbon capture/sequestration. Carbon Sequestration is a Big Win for WI Ag
UW–Madison’s ultra-efficient carbon capture tech earns top 60 spot in global XPRIZE challenge | All In Wisconsin

Likewise, U of Minnesota Twin Cities: Geoengineering | College | College of Science and Engineering
Bill sponsor says proposal could make Minnesota ‘carbon negative’ - Session Daily - Minnesota House of Representatives

Lots of good options; and the opportunities at these flagship universities in capital cities are not necessarily less than at the elite private u’s you’re attracted to. Dig into what is going on both research-wise and policy-wise, and how the two interact, in each setting; there could be fantastic opportunities for involvement.

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However, the OP specified an interest in geoengineering, which has little conceptual overlap with geological engineering.

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ABET has only one category for “Geological and Similarly Named Engineering Programs.” Minnesota’s actually is called Geoengineering; but the other two that I mentioned clearly discuss energy and carbon sequestration as areas of emphasis and faculty research. Some programs may indeed be better for this focus area than others; that would be something for the OP to look into further. And I know that the OP hasn’t necessarily decided to pursue an ABET engineering degree at all. But it was mentioned and seems like a good option to keep open.

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Op has many interests and I honestly think a lot of schools will hit the mark.

He needs a budget. Many Ga parents will want their kids in state.

And then he can figure out the carbon capture cities he mentioned and examine local programs to see if they take advantage.

But on an overall basis there will be tons of schools to meet the interest.

But like all kids, needs to discuss budget first. Those in Fl and GA even moreso as those pay to keep top students home and so many parents plan to take advantage.