<p>Hello. I just finished my junior year, and I'm currently looking for colleges to apply.
I would love to apply somewhere on the West Coast, and possibly East Coast if budget allows (I just love being on the coastal area.</p>
<p>My status as a student: </p>
<p>GPA: 3.95
ACT: 29 (Reading: 25, Math: 34, Science: 33, English: 24)
SAT: 1720 (Math: 700, Reading: 490, Writing: 530)
AP Classes I have taken:
AP Bio (AP Test: 4)
AP Chemistry (AP Test: didn't take)
AP Calculus (AP Test: 5)
AP Classes taking next year as a senior:
AP Stats or AP Calc BC
AP English Language
AP Physics</p>
<p>Other things about myself:
I did some volunteering and my total hours are above 150 hours.
I come from a very low income family, so I definitely need scholarships to go to college.
As you can see, I am very weak on English, and my application essay would not be terrific, although I'm going to do my best.
I would love to move on to Engineering Major in college.</p>
<p>On the West Coast and possibly East Coast, can you give me any suggestions of which colleges would fit me and have chances of getting in?</p>
<p>If you have any questions, please ask me. Thank you!</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at Washington State University, University of Washington, Whitman University, U of Puget Sound, Oregon State, U of Oregon, and Lewis & Clark.
I would be happy to know other fabulous colleges that I missed on my list.</p>
<p>
Glad your starting your search now. What is your home state? Go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the pinned threads there for some merit aid opportunities. Getting those ACT/SAT scores up would really help. Use the supermatch engine on the left side of this page.</p>
<p>Are you going to retake the ACT? If you could raise your English score (it’s the easiest to raise - trust me), your score would be excellent. Get the Red ACT Book, download as many practice and official exams you can find online, and practice taking the exams focusing on the English. This section is about following specific rules. Once you understand the rules, you’ll probably find your scores going up. Get the Princeton Review on ACT Reading and English and PR 1296 for more practice tests. </p>
<p>money is going to largely determine where you should apply.</p>
<p>most schools give lousy aid, so most would not work.</p>
<p>Your total scores are not strong enough for most of the schools that give the best merit scholarships or need aid…and it sounds like your family cant pay anything. Retest and raise those reading and english scores.</p>
<p>what is your home state?</p>
<p>Take a look at the list at <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a> and filter it by schools with engineering. You may want to retry the ACT and try the SAT to get high scores that will open up more scholarship opportunities.</p>
<p>Most of these schools are not in the coastal areas. But Howard in DC is, and your current stats would give you tuition, fees, and room (not board) there: <a href=“http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman”>http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman</a> (note, first come first served, so apply early if interested).</p>
<p>There are also competitive merit scholarships listed at <a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #46 by ucbalumnus - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p4.html</a> .</p>
<p>I really appreciate all of your advice!</p>
<p>I knew that my English score is very low. Not to make an excuse, but English isn’t my native language (I’m Asian. Moved to U.S. about 5 years ago.). So my dad suggested that I take the TOEFL test and send that in with my college application, indicating the reason for my low English skills.
Do you think that would have any impact in admission?</p>
<p>My home state is Oregon. I could go to Oregon schools to save money, but if I could I would love to explore other states and find a new living style. But that is just my ideal and the money issue is inevitable. </p>
<p>I am going to retest both SAT and ACT in the fall, and I’m focusing on English studies.
Do you have any suggestions of how to study for English?
I think my key problem is my lack of vocabulary, so I’m trying to memorize a lot of vocabularies (and also roots, prefix, suffixes) based on the “Top 1000 vocabularies used on SAT/ACT” list. </p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the scholarship links. I found ones that I would love to consider and work to get it!</p>
<p>My home state: Oregon</p>
<p>So my questions would be:
- Would sending TOEFL scores along with SAT/ACT help me with college admission?
- Is there any recommendation/suggestion of how to study for English for SAT/ACT
- What are good Engineering schools aside from Oregon State University in Oregon, Washington, and possibly Massachusetts?</p>
<p>Since I’m more of an Math/Science person, I probably would really aim at ACT rather than SAT, but I will take both to raise my score. </p>
<p>Yes you should absolutely include your TOEFL score and, if you can, a letter from your ESL teacher explaining your progress in all the skills (as a SUPPLEMENTARY recommendation, NOT as one of the “required” ones).
I found “direct hits” to be pretty good for vocabulary. For the rest, read magazines (The Atlantic, the NewYorker, National Geographic, Harper’s, plus weeklies) and never be caught without a book, regardless of what it is (from The Signal and the Noise to Make Lemonade to Pride and Prejudice, it doesn’t matter, but make sure to “steal” a few minutes to read on the bus, while you wait in line, etc.)
The ACT requires about a dozen grammar rules. Learn them, practice applying them, and you should be good to go. 
As for nice coastal areas, I would have suggested UNC Wilmington, in North Carolina, where you’d definitely qualify for honors and some merit, but I’m really not sure they have big scholarships for OOS students (as you’d basically need full tuition to full ride, right?)</p>
<p>MYOS1634: Ok! So I will definitely do that.
I’m no longer in ESL anymore, so I will not be able to get a letter, but it was really good to know that I should have the TOEFL score. Thank you!</p>
<p>Even if you’re not in ESL, I’m quite sure you were enrolled in it for a couple years, right? So that teacher could attest to your progress with the English language. As I said, it’d be a supplementary letter, not a “main” LOR.
Do review the test format, since the TOEFL can be tricky and has specific requirements (the “compare and contrast the lecture and the textbook” essay, in particular, is tricky.)</p>
<p>Thanks for more replies! This is really helping me
I will definitely check on UNC Wilmington.
It is true that I pretty much need full ride, but if colleges offer some work-study or something similar to that, I’m willing to go for that too.
I just prefer not to make my college life even more stressful with money issues when I’ve already got studies and other things to worry as a to-be-adult. </p>
<p>I really appreciate all of your helps! :x
Thinking about colleges and grades/tests, I got plenty more questions that I would love to ask and probably post on College Confidential 
Here I come, colleges!! 
</p>
<p>Check out North Carolina State University! It has an AMAZING engineering department and the sticker price is just a little above 30K. If you raise your SAT or ACT score, Lafayette might be a good option as they meet full need good luck</p>
<p>Jay2631: Thank you for the information!
I’ve been sticking to coastal areas, but I think it’s time for me to look into other great colleges!
I will check on NCSU and Lafayette, and especially for Lafayette because I love meeting 100% need! </p>
<p>No problem and here is a link a fellow cc’er shared with me. It is a list of all the colleges that meet 100% or close to 100% need:</p>
<p><a href=“List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/list-of-colleges-that-meet-100-of-financial-need/</a></p>
<p>Oh wow! This is a great list! Never thought of something convenient like this
And It’s good to see that my top dream college, Smith College, is on this list!! Yay!
Thanks again Jay2631! =D> </p>
<p>Target some meets needs colleges that might accept you. Otherwise you may only get a Pell Grant of up to 5,730 and a Direct student loan of 5,500 (you are a permanent resident, not applying as an international, right?) Work/study only gets you one or two thousand a year, unless your try for Berea College which is free with a job. You need to be open minded about where you will go and you need to identify what you can pay for instate.</p>
<p>Generally OOS public colleges will not give you extra funds. You have your base of 11k you can end up with being ‘gapped’ for the rest. Run the Net Price Calculator for each school. </p>
<p>Look at the colleges in the Automatic Merit
<a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a></p>
<p>BrownParent: Yes I am a permanent resident. I’ve been looking at Lewis & Clark College in Portland too.
I’ve also been trying to search for private colleges with fewer students to have more chance of scholarship.
Thank you for your help! </p>
<p>Remember that colleges that claim to “meet full need” may give considerably different net prices, due to varying definitions of “need”. For the same reason, a college that claims to “meet full need” may not necessarily give a lower net price than another college that does not make such a claim.</p>
<p>Run the net price calculator at each college to get an estimate for your own situation. But be aware that some unusual situations are less likely to be accurately estimated (e.g. parent(s) own a business or real estate investments, divorces and remarriages at schools that use CSS Profile, etc.).</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Thanks for your reply!
Does that mean i shouldn’t rely on those meet-full-need labels of colleges?
Because I’m really struggling to find colleges that would give good financial aids with my stats.
I will check out the net price calculator! Thank you </p>