@IvyGrad09 Lol thanks for the inspiration for the essay! I did mention earlier in the thread that I think the reason for my 27 is inadequate preparation. Also the fact that my mind is very methodical, so I don’t do well in short amounts of time. That is no excuse though so I’m going to find some books and buckle down to practice. I really think I can get it to a 30, possibly higher as long as I make myself put in the time. I understand where you are coming from with going for physics but I am absolutely in love with space and astronomy. I took a college credit physics class this past year. The professor was TERRIBLE (taught calc based stuff to students in pre-calc, gave us no foundations whatsoever) My school actually canceled the class after the first semester because everyone except me was dropping out. Although it was insufferable I managed a 92. Somehow, this didn’t scare me away from physics and so I signed up for physics c and still plan on majoring in it. That’s gotta mean something right? Lol. Everyone thinks I’m crazy for still going for physics after that class, but I know deep down that I want to study the universe
As for my GPA, my school only gives out weighted GPA. I actually just looked again at my report card. My cumulative weighted GPA is 3.977. Thrown off from one 88% in freshman year geometry. Too bad I can’t round up…
I recognize that Chicago is a very high reach. I’ve actually got to thinking it might be better as a grad school for me. However, I might still apply- just in the off chance I would for whatever reason get accepted. I’ll probably not send in my test scores though and just give it a shot by crafting a stellar essay. We’ll see.
Thanks for the BU suggestion. I’ve looked into BU before, the only thing throwing me off was the financial part as it seemed kind of expensive. Do you know anything about any opportunities for low-income applicants to BU?
@equationlover Thanks! My school only gives out weighted GPA, unfortunately.
Like you, financially it’s gonna be hard. I will be relying on working and financial aid/scholarships because my parents won’t be able to contribute hardly anything.
Coming from OH it is definitely a struggle finding good schools for STEM majors. That’s why I’m looking at Kenyon and Case. But I did look into OU’s Honor college and must say I’m pretty impressed. Will have to look into it!
I do seem to enjoy the LAC feel. However, I also like larger research-based schools like Case too. I just really don’t want to go to a very large school like OSU. I feel like going to a school that focuses on social life and sports is not right for me. Not to say, like half of my school ends up there and it;s probably petty to say this but I don’t want to go to a college where I know a lot of people lol. I want an intellectual environment, which I found in both Case and Kenyon. Still in pursuit of more of these both instate and out of state…
Haverford and Bryn Mawr are very closely intertwined, so there’s more interaction with both genders than you might assume. (And definitely none of the frat-bro culture you would like to avoid!) Likewise, Smith and MoHo are part of the larger co-ed consortium. As a parent of a women’s college student who did not think she would consider one, I’d encourage you to visit if you can and see how it feels, before ruling it out. They can be really good places to get excellent financial aid and/or merit aid, as well as a tremendously supportive (while still challenging) educational experience.
Good luck - if the money adds up at Kenyon, it sounds like a great school to aim for! Make sure you run the NPC before applying ED, because you’re basically agreeing to attend if accepted, as long as they give you the aid that the NPC projects. https://www.kenyon.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/cost-breakdown-by-semester/kenyon-net-price-calculator/ Don’t take anyone’s word for “great financial aid” - the calculator will show you exactly how great you can expect it to be.
On a weighted scale University of Chicago is closer to a 5.0 for their admits. This is from a few years ago but look it up in Naviance if your school uses it. Also don’t rule out OSU (even though my son goes to Michigan… Lol). I hear they give really good aid and you can easily make a large school small. Michigan is also a sports school if you have not heard… Ha… But joining one or two clubs /groups makes it small fast. My son couldn’t find a group to join in his interest since to his surprise there wasn’t one so he started his own with another student. They have 30 members showing up on a regular basis and this is who he hangs with. I would suggest going to at least one football game though. Also only half the games are played on campus and only on Saturday.
What @IvyGrad09 said really resonated with me because I know several kids who came out of OK high schools and went to top colleges wanting to major in math or science, and they gave up on that within the first year, saying that the other kids came in so far ahead of them academically that they felt they would always struggle. This issue was particularly brutal at schools that grade on a bell curve. This also resonated so strongly because my daughter switched from an underperforming school to a high performing school for HS, and it took her 2 years of extra tutoring and summer school in order to catch up with her classmates. Obviously I don’t know anything about your HS other than you said that there weren’t a lot of opportunities for outside enrichment. Unfortunately it is hard for you to tell how well your school prepared you in the maths and sciences since you haven’t taken any math/science APs or SAT Subject Tests yet, so you don’t have any objective data. You might want to try to find out how last year’s Seniors did on those exams in order to see generally how well prepared kids from your school are.
I’m only raising this issue because you should really think about what you NEED out of a college. Do you need a program that is incredibly intense and will keep you on the razor edge of knowledge? Or do you need a school that is going to give you a very strong foundation and possibly fill in any knowledge gaps that you might have? If you happen to apply to U Chicago and Cornell, and you happen to get in, you should think whether these schools will serve your needs. (And they might!) But it’s something you should think about. One thing that you definitely need is a school that will be affordable to you, and will open doors for internships and other opportunities for a future career.
Finally, since money is an issue for you, don’t apply ED. You will want to compare financial aid offers from all the schools that accept you, and you can try to negotiate with schools of the same tier to lower your cost even more. Applying EA, on the other hand, is great because it gives you some idea of how you will do in the admissions process and gives you a short period of time to change your application strategy or application itself for the RD round.
Consider adding Cincinnati and Akron to your list. Akron would be a safety for you and they tend to be generous with aid.
I don’t think you can make an informed decision about your reach schools until you’ve taken the ACT again. 27 is way too low for the reach schools on your list. If it stays the same, you need to recalibrate your list. In terms of prepping - do as many practice tests as you can find. There are a lot on line for free. Also go to the library and check out test prep books. The key is really timing.
As far as AP Calc AB versus AP Calc BC, the traditional way that schools set it up is that you take one or the other, but not both. The smarter math students who did really well in PreCalc go to BC, while the others go to AB. In that system, BC actually matches the speed of coverage of how it is taught in college.
It seems like many schools are offering it a different way now, where Calc AB is taught one year and Calc BC picks up the next year where Calc AB left off. To me, the smarter math students get really screwed. In this approach, it will take 2 years to cover what should have been one year of material.
So you should see if your school uses the traditional approach or the second one.
@ProfessorPlum168 As far as I know I have to take AB before BC. AB is listed as a prerequisite in the course guide and everything I’ve seen/heard from students of the two courses and my precalc teacher (who teaches both AB and BC) has complemented this.
I’ll look into it though. I definitely don’t think its fair that my entire course of math was planned out from 6th grade. I sucked at and hated math in middle school. It wasn’t until freshman year that I started getting A’s in math and started to enjoy it. Really wish I would have been given the chance to take BC.
Different schools take different approaches to AB/BC. Taking BC by itself means that it moves at college-level pace - which is not necessarily a bad thing if you’re ready for that, but expect to put in some serious study time. AB is a single college semester at half-pace. But if your school has normalized taking both, then they may rush through stuff in the first half of BC, making it a bad idea to be the only one in the class who hasn’t taken AB. A strong foundation is more important than how far you get; so the likelihood is that you should stick with AB and focus on doing really, really well.
I was thinking of Akron too. It’s one of those “easy to get in, hard to get out” STEM schools that can be underestimated because of the high acceptance rate, but that actually has rigorous and high-quality programs. (Thus, the 6-year grad rate is under 50%) So it’s kind of like Iowa State - many wash out, but those who do well have a well-respected degree. However, since their distinctive specialty is polymer science, a lot of the emphasis in their physics department is on materials-related areas of physics.
I don’t think it is always true that low-income students shouldn’t apply ED. I think it’s true that “donut-hole” students who are counting on non-automatic merit aid shouldn’t apply ED. But if a student with a $0 EFC has a better shot at a full-need-met school that they love through ED, and that school’s net price calculator shows a favorable result, then by all means they should try to grab that brass ring in the ED round.
HOWEVER, OP sounds like her EFC may not be that low. The description of the conversation with the Kenyon rep is mildly concerning, in that she came away with the idea that an appeal might squeeze out more financial aid than the school’s algorithm would normally assign. I am deeply skeptical of this. More likely, their helpfulness with “solutions” will mean information about Parent Plus loans and outside scholarships you can apply for. Be very cautious and apply ED only if the aid forecasted by the NPC will truly be enough. Otherwise, consider similar schools that are slightly less competitive and might offer significant merit. Look at the CTCL schools - there are many terrific ones in and near Ohio. (Check out Allegheny, which is only a half hour past the PA border.) https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/
Plus, I agree that aiming too high and ending up as an outlier in terms of your preparation will reduce the odds of sticking with a rigorous, desired field of study. At Cornell, for example, many STEM (and more to the point ex-STEM) students complain about intro courses in STEM that turn out to be weeder classes that are nigh-on-self-taught. You don’t need this. As for UChicago going test-optional… this is already a ridiculously-selective school where many highly-prepared students struggle. Test-optional may open the door for a few extremely “asynchronous” students with extraordinary abilities that aren’t reflected in their test scores. But the larger effect will be to attract a whole new population of applicants UChicago can reject, thus lowering their admit rate even further and helping them to storm the top of the USNWR rankings. Taking advantage of their new test-optional option makes sense only for students with very high GPA’s and genuinely exceptional EC’s.
My son goes to Univ of Rochester for CS and loves it! They have great professors, you don’t need to take classes you don’t need…so he is immersed in classes in the field. The FA office was very receptive to our financial situation. Although the program is rigorous he can still enjoy the college experience which the school highly encourages and provides ample opportunities for all students to participate in these events.
