Should I Bother Applying To Top Schools?

incompletenam
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 05:12:18 +0000

I go to a small school with only about 500 kids. My school offers only 5 AP courses: psych, Calc AB, Lang, Lit, and Bio. There’s only 1 class of each, so it’s hard to even take those classes since schedules can be a mess. My school offers 2 dual enrollment programs. 1 is at a local community college and the other is at a vocational/technical college. I’ve taken vocational classes in EMT and digital design, but they’re irrelevant to 4 year universities. I’ll have my list of DE classes I should have done by the time I graduate, along with other nerd stats nobody cares about below.

My issue is that my school is brand new and doesn’t offer a lot of academic opportunities, and I also don’t have a lot of financial opportunities since my family is close to dirt poor. I know I can easily get into the top public university in my state- UF- due to the fact that their admission process compares you to the other kids in your school. This benefits me a lot since I’m #1 class rank out of 125 kids in my grade. Anyways, my dream schools are out of state, and as much as I’d love to go to a big-brand-name college, I feel like I’m not at all competitive enough. I’m a first generation immigrant, freshly imported from Asia, and I’m the first person in my family to ever go to college. So, what comes with uneducated parents? Nothing. That’s the problem. We have no money. My only other option is to apply to top private colleges with great financial aid, and again, I feel like I have no business in applying there to begin with.

SAT: 1350. 750 on math and 600 in reading/writing. I “don’t know how to grammar,” so that’s why my scores are bad. Forgive me, I’m freshly imported from Asia.
I’ll probably take subject tests in math and Chem in the fall
ACT: no results yet. Probably worst than the SAT since only 1/4 of the test was math, and I can only speak numbers.

4.0 unweighted GPA
4.7 weighted GPA, but since I took vocational classes weighted the same as AP, this is going to be recalculated by universities.

AP classes
Calc AB -5
AP Econ, both macro and micro (online) - no results yet

DE
English comp 1 & 2
Speech
Statistics
Art History
Chem 1&2
Calc 2&3
Diff EQ
Physics with Calc 1
US Gov
International Relations
Eastern Philosophy

Extra curriculars
800 volunteer hours at various places. Mainly did this to explore career options, and also because it’s fun.
Volunteered at a:
Botanical Garden
Hospital
Habitat for humanity
Humane society
Middle school to teach children how to math
Fabrication laboratory
Overpriced nerd camps for nerdy children
Relay for life
Salvation Army
Food drive

Leadership roles
I’m the NHS president for both junior and senior year
Class Vice President for freshman and sophomore year

Nerd Competitions
Science Olympiad - didn’t get anywhere since my school has 8 members in it
Moody’s Mega Math Challenge - didn’t finish it
Skills USA for digital design - got nowhere
Energy whiz - you know the pattern
Local County Math comp - 2nd place for the last 3 years. I kept losing to another kid, freshly imported from India

Random ECs
Self taught oboe + English horn. I play at a youth philharmonic group. I hate music, but I have Asian parents so…
Track and cross country for freshman and sophomore year. Horrible athlete. I did it for fun until it wasn’t fun anymore
Helping build a biodiesel reactor at the fabrication lab I volunteer in

Phew! That was kinda long. I think I’ll major in material science engineering, but that’s subject to change. So should I go to UF, have all my DE credits transfer and only be about $20,000 in debt? Or, should I pursue my dream and go out-of-state and go $250,000 in debt? Or, should I apply to top-private schools and get insanely depressed when I get denied to each one?

Yes, I know, I know, there’s always scholarships that can bring cost down, but let’s assume I won’t get any since we prepare for the worst here.