Best Undergrad School Not Perfect Students

You seem like a good candidate for UVA or perhaps Virginia Tech if you want to study engineering. Incidentally you'll also get in-state tuition.

I don't know how difficult in-state admission is at UVA or VT. Many state schools make admissions decisions largely on test scores, so if you can get a 34 or 35 on the ACT by retaking it, that would be really helpful and likely worth the cost of the exam.

I have been accused of overselling engineering, but it's an incredibly versatile degree. It's also a difficult degree that requires you to be good at math- not everyone can pull it off, and it's a great signalling mechanism for those who can. If you're talking Calculus this year, and you're on track to getting a 4 or 5 on the Calculus AP Exam (either AB or BC), you'll have a good sense of where you are. Engineering at Virginia Tech with a strong GPA- a top ten Engineering school nationally- would be particularly compelling- if not for working in IBD, for working in portfolio strategy, HFT, or systematic trading. And if that doesn't work out, there's a huge safety net. A Computer Engineering degree and programming skill would give you options everywhere from Microsoft to Lockheed Martin to Twitter to Getco to GSAM.

Fall semester of Junior year is a little early to take the ACT and sometimes students who take a prep course or study some more can post significant improvements. One year and a Kaplan class raised my SAT scores from 1290 to 1600 (old scale). Given your GPA and coursework, if you can somehow pull off a 36 (I've seen it done) on the ACT, you would be in the running for Berkeley, CMU, NYU, and Cornell. You may also be able to attract scholarships from IU-Kelley, UW Madison and other out of state programs to bring the cost of attendance in line with in-state tuition, if you would prefer to go elsewhere.

I'm not sure what your financial situation is and whether you are willing to spend an extra $100-150K on a college degree on top of in-state tuition. I am of the view that unless you are pretty sure you want to be in finance or consulting (and 16-17 is still very young to form an opinion about this), career outcomes for VT Engineers and Cornell Engineers look very similar. UVA and VT are both excellent schools with reputations that extend to NYC, Chicago, the West Coast, and (I believe) internationally. Given your state, ACT scores, the potential for a higher score, your GPA and AP/honors classes, you are actually in better shape than you think.

I don't think you are going to get into Harvard or Stanford unless you have some sort of really spectacular EC that few people have, but short of that, your odds are really as good as anyone else's at being in the Front Office on Wall Street in ten years. My profile at 16-17 was very similar to yours', I studied CS at UIUC (very similar as a CS school to Virginia Tech), got hired into Quantitative Analytics (basically a group of Programmers and PhDs who help the firm get its prices and risk numbers for trading), and eventually made it to the trading floor as a front-office Desk Strategist (someone who helps traders understand their risk and helps salespeople understand options trades they can put on for clients).

If you choose engineering, I see a similar potential route for you. In fact, your route may be easier given the shift towards technology in the markets and the presence, now, of these elite HFT and Quant shops that didn't really exist as much back when I was graduating.

However, traditional finance might be a better route. I've gotten burned for speculating on this in the past, and the fact is that I don't know as well as some of the Finance majors who've been there. I do know that if a traditional business degree is a better route, the tuition premium for Cornell or NYU becomes a little more compelling, although UVA is still a great school for business.

If your parents make decent money but won't make their full Expected Family Contribution, short of an MIT or Stanford Engineering admit, or perhaps a Harvard/Yale/Princeton Econ admit, VT Computer Science/Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering may very well offer the best opportunities relative to the sticker price.

Bottom line: You're in great shape. I think you might be in the running for an NYU, Cornell, or Duke if you have the ECs, solid AP scores, and can do a little better on the ACT. If you don't get into NYU, Cornell, or Duke, you should give a lot of consideration to VT for Engineering or UVA for general business. Everyone from Stanford to MIT to UIUC to Harvard Engineers have a lot of respect a VT Engineer, and the people who don't tend to be the less informed less intelligent folks. UVA is a great school with a national reputation that is probably on par with Berkeley as well as an infamous Honor Code. UVA graduates have a reputation for being at least nearly as smart and elite as many Ivy Leaguers, and for perhaps scoring a few more points on scrappiness.

Relax; you may be in better shape than you think, and your first job out of school is not your last job out of school.

I'm a Virginian. Whole family went to Virginia Tech, including my brother recently. My other brother went to JMU. I went to College of William & Mary. Dating a recent UVa grad and have a bunch of Washington & Lee co-workers. And I'm going to be pursuing an MA/PhD in economics from George Mason starting in fall 2014. So I feel like I'm a pretty decent resource here.

1) Since so many of family members are connected to VT, I know the most about them even though I didn't go there! Virginia Tech has a 70% acceptance rate; however, I think the median GPA is around 3.9 (maybe even 4.0). I'm surprised you took the ACT since the SAT is much more prominent on the east coast. Nevertheless, it's a VERY good score (on par with a 1450 or so SAT math/verbal, which is very, very competitive at VT). Admissions to VT is going to be a crapshoot for you; however, when I applied a decade ago it was 100% stats--GPA, IB/AP classes, SAT. There was an optional essay but that was for the people who were kind of so so. VT gets countless thousands of applications from candidates from Northern Virginia who have very high GPAs and good (not absurd, but good) SAT/ACT scores. You have great ACT scores and so-so GPA (compared to the average/median). I would think you'd get in but it will kind of be a crapshoot. If you want to do high finance I know numerous finance majors who did well at VT and went to Charlotte, Richmond, D.C., Atlanta, and NYC (rare) for high finance roles. They were VT finance's best of the best.

2) UVA....umm, your ACT scores are about the average for admitted applicants. My guess is that you'd probably get rejected since your GPA is considerably lower than the average. But it can't hurt to apply. They have a much more holistic admissions process, so essays and recommendation letters will be much more important. It's possible if you have a good story.

3) JMU has a great finance program (in fact, they are consistently ranked better than VT's), but its placement isn't as good. At the end of the day, its name just is not as big as Virginia Tech's in the Mid-Atlantic region--frankly, nobody looks at undergraduate business school rankings. I know a very smart girl who went to JMU and got I believe a degree in quantitative finance (holy cow!). I don't think she ended up in the business though.

4) Washington & Lee has a new scholarship program that pays all or most tuition for most students, so their admissions standards have exploded recently--they are pulling people away from the Ivy Leagues now, so I would think it would be a very difficult admit. Tuition is basically as low as Virginia state schools, so that's why I'm including them on my list.

5) Now, my alma mater, W&M. It's basically going to be the same as UVa--your ACT is very good but GPA is "low". WIll come down to great essays and recommendations and interviews. Places pretty well into regional finance roles.

6) George Mason may have the single best finance and economics professors of any school in Virginia simply because of their location in a, well, real metropolitan area. Placement for finance majors in high finance roles are, well, almost non-existent, but the learning would be wonderful. Absolutely phenomenal faculty.

UVa, W&M, VT and every other state university has agreements with the state community colleges. There's automatic admissions to any school of your choice with certain grades after 2 years at the community college. Getting into UVa is a piece of cake out of the community colleges since they are REQUIRED to admit you if you demonstrate the basic level of performance. If you are absolutely dead set on working in a high finance role and you don't get into UVa or W&M out of high school then go to your local community college and get the minimum required grades and transfer in. Guaranteed admission. UVa on-campus finance recruiting is stellar.

"Easily" is a strong word. I don't know how competitive UVA is these days, particularly for in-state admissions. I would check UVA's and VT's class profiles for ACT scores.

One thing that would seal the deal at Virginia's two amazing flagship state schools is a 35 or 36 on the ACT and continued performance on the GPA front. State schools don't like to admit it, but admissions are heavily (not entirely) driven by formulas that involve test scores and GPA (with credit for honors and AP courses).

The good news on the ACTs, IIRC, is that you can pick your best score to submit without submitting the other scores you'd rather hide from the admissions committee.

One comment on the GPA's is that VT's seems to have some sort of adjustment in it, perhaps for AP or honors classes. OP may have given us his raw GPA:

http://www.admiss.vt.edu/apply/what-we-look-for/

Mid-50% GPA: 3.78–4.23

Note: Each applicant is evaluated in the context of the high school(s) attended. Admissions’ review of grades is based upon the letter and/or numeric grades presented for each class, not the GPA. GPAs above reflect weighted and unweighted grades as reported by high schools. As a result, the GPAs of offered students vary widely.

UVA, Michigan, NYU.

I think VT and UVA are in the target category here, perhaps even on the safer side of target, but they are hardly in slam-dunk territory.

Would anyone like to speculate about CMU, NYU, or Cornell? My guess is that these could also be targets, but they may be more on the reach side.

I think a school like Dartmouth, Columbia, Wharton (Accy, not Finance) would be a reach but not entirely out of the question.

If someone stuck a gun to my head and asked me for a prediction, my best bet is that OP is at UVA or VT in two years, depending on whether he tells us now that he's good at math and might enjoy CS or Engineering, or if he tells us he'd prefer something less technical. The economics of an in-state education are just too compelling for this likely top decile but not utterly spectacular student.

Thank you all for the great feedback on my question! To update my profile a little, my weighted GPA is around a 4.35, currently in AP Calc AB (will get a 5), AP Chem (probably a 4), IB English HL, IB History, IB Comp Sci and IB German. My main concern about this is that I am not in the top 10% of my class. Currently I am ranked in the top 15%. This in itself posses a problem because for some reason UVA only really accepts people who are the top 15 students that come from my school, and I don't even live in NOVA! Any more feedback would be greatly appreciated.