Low gpa strong SAT with strong math focus

[Anonymous]

Good luck OP!!! Your kid will land in a great spot and there are always transfer options, grad school options, etc. Life is long and no decision these 17/18 year olds make has to be permanent. (Having 3 kids has taught me that up close and personally🙂).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hoping OP would come back next year to share the results. This is an interesting case with highly uneven applicant.

I will try my best to remember to post the results. I wish there was a way to pin posts to remind myself. I appreciate all the diverse comments I recieved. I know in the long run everything will work out. So thank you to everyone who responded.

Make a calendar reminder for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(2016 grad) I had similar stats and similar hooks.

If she has several APs with mostly 5s and you're fine being full pay, look to the UK. I was a CS+Math applicant and didn't do well on Oxford's admissions test (which is offered at the British school in DC), but I got a conditional offer from Imperial where they had me take Cambridge's admissions test in the spring, and unconditional offers from Warwick, Edinburgh, and UCL. You can't apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same cycle.

The UK schools other than St. Andrews are through UCAS, which is a common application system that's much simpler than the common app. It asks for a 500 word-ish "why this major" essay and a recc from your guidance counselor and nothing else. When I applied you could only apply to 5 unis.

I focused on small schools in the US and had luck with Case Western in the EA round. For various reasons I didn't do a regular admission round that year and ended up applying to SLACs without engineering programs a couple years later. I ended up attending St. Olaf (which is on the larger end of SLACs) and loved my time there and especially the math department. It's a smaller college but has one of the largest undergraduate pure math programs in the country. Would make a great safety. I'd also suggest Carleton and Grinnell if she's willing to look at any SLACs, but those are probably reaches.

If she's committed to a large school, I think your best bet is large state universities that have great research reputations but 50% acceptance rates. University of Washington, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Ohio State, the UCs besides UCLA and Berkeley, University of Utah, UC Boulder etc. Math doesn't tend to have the kind of separate admissions process that engineering programs or CS often have.

College admissions are about ten times more competitive now than ten years ago. It’s nice you took the time to write this, but it’s completely useless.

Your approach is problematic nowadays.

In 2016, yes your case worked for UCs and other state us. UCs have been test blind for several years now, and they don't even look at test scores for the most part.

I am surprised that you never tried stem heavy schools like CMU and JHU. A hook like OP's would not be overlooked there.

OP said that she is not interested in LACs.

lol that you think Hopkins is accepting this kid. No wonder so many posters here are shocked when their kid is rejected, they are living in lalaland.

Why wouldn't they accept one of the top female math students in the US?

Top female math students are so rare that know one knows the story for them. Also, unless international admissions dries up due to Trump/Miller, international students mop the floor with American math students, girls who do math aren't as rare internationally.

I don't really believe this. Go on Reddit. Internationals by the hundreds talk endlessly about their math competitions (so many olympiads etc) and then report that they got a 780 on the math SAT.

Not sure the top math students hang out on reddit. For most countries, the country is small so their national olympiads aren't substantial. But there are 2 specific countries that combine for 6x the population of the USA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with this, unfortunately. A pure math student needs to be one in a million to really have a lasting impact on campus and as an alum. Most schools would generally prefer to have someone either more creative or commercial, hoping they enhance the community now or donate a building in 20 years. I think some of the STEM and math camps do the same disservice as sports clubs/camps, by implying your kid has a talent that is in demand, when really, at the next level the schools just don't care unless the kid is a profound, genius-level talent.

Math actually is in demand though. High school math Olympiad performance is one of the only high school activities I can think of that is worth putting on your resume even after graduating university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(2016 grad) I had similar stats and similar hooks.

If she has several APs with mostly 5s and you're fine being full pay, look to the UK. I was a CS+Math applicant and didn't do well on Oxford's admissions test (which is offered at the British school in DC), but I got a conditional offer from Imperial where they had me take Cambridge's admissions test in the spring, and unconditional offers from Warwick, Edinburgh, and UCL. You can't apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same cycle.

The UK schools other than St. Andrews are through UCAS, which is a common application system that's much simpler than the common app. It asks for a 500 word-ish "why this major" essay and a recc from your guidance counselor and nothing else. When I applied you could only apply to 5 unis.

I focused on small schools in the US and had luck with Case Western in the EA round. For various reasons I didn't do a regular admission round that year and ended up applying to SLACs without engineering programs a couple years later. I ended up attending St. Olaf (which is on the larger end of SLACs) and loved my time there and especially the math department. It's a smaller college but has one of the largest undergraduate pure math programs in the country. Would make a great safety. I'd also suggest Carleton and Grinnell if she's willing to look at any SLACs, but those are probably reaches.

If she's committed to a large school, I think your best bet is large state universities that have great research reputations but 50% acceptance rates. University of Washington, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Ohio State, the UCs besides UCLA and Berkeley, University of Utah, UC Boulder etc. Math doesn't tend to have the kind of separate admissions process that engineering programs or CS often have.

College admissions are about ten times more competitive now than ten years ago. It’s nice you took the time to write this, but it’s completely useless.

Your approach is problematic nowadays.

In 2016, yes your case worked for UCs and other state us. UCs have been test blind for several years now, and they don't even look at test scores for the most part.

I am surprised that you never tried stem heavy schools like CMU and JHU. A hook like OP's would not be overlooked there.

OP said that she is not interested in LACs.

lol that you think Hopkins is accepting this kid. No wonder so many posters here are shocked when their kid is rejected, they are living in lalaland.

Why wouldn't they accept one of the top female math students in the US?

Top female math students are so rare that know one knows the story for them. Also, unless international admissions dries up due to Trump/Miller, international students mop the floor with American math students, girls who do math aren't as rare internationally.

I don't really believe this. Go on Reddit. Internationals by the hundreds talk endlessly about their math competitions (so many olympiads etc) and then report that they got a 780 on the math SAT.

Just because a student can solve extremely hard problems well does not mean they can solve easier problems with perfect accuracy.