Adding a few more schools to the list

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi there! I've been a long long long time lurker (since around 8th grade), and have garnered a lot of great information from CC. This year, I will be a rising senior and I have an idea of the colleges that I want to apply to. However, my list seems a bit sparse and I'm wondering if I could get some help from my fellow CCers. </p>

<p>Just a few things about me:
Asian Male (unfortunately in this case...)
3.95ish GPA UW (school doesn't do weighted)
2290 SAT (790 M 770W 730CR something like this.)
800 Math II, 770 Biology M, 690 Physics (LOL, retaking this for sure)
5 on AP Calc BC, 7 on IB Math SL, most of my IB exams will occur May of senior year, so no scores on those.
Not sure about class ranking but its up there somewhere.
IB Diploma Candidate, double science HLing, took Math HL junior year, honors, all that jazz since 9th grade.
Planning on taking Multivariable Calculus with EPGY the coming school year.</p>

<p>ECs/Leadership:
The oh-so-stereotypical tennis (however I suck at this, and may not even put this on my app unless I get captain.)
More stereotypical stuff, like Math Team President for the past two years, Honor Society since 7th grade (LOL this is irrelevant)
MUN Co-President (some local distinguished delegate, honorable delegate awards, etc.)
AIME Qualifier (never got my score back unfortunately...)
Proficient in a few instruments (guitar, drums, bass, piano, synth, singing), this includes playing on the church worship team.
EXTREMELY interested in human rights, started a chapter of Amnesty International at my school to get more people interested, have organized a few events (letter signings, etc.)
I intern at the University of Washington's Daily (their school newspaper)
Co-Founder of a music/social networking startup (which has yet to go live, still coding, designing, etc.)</p>

<p>Anticipated Major:
Well this is going to be rather vague, but I'd like to double major, one major will be something mathy (Possibilities: Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, etc.), the other will be something in the realm of political science or international relations. These are pretty flexible (not planning to be a gender studies or art major or anything TOO drastically far from this though).</p>

<p>Colleges I'm Somewhat set on applying to:
Princeton
MIT
Caltech
Cooper Union (free tuition, can't complain about anything but living costs in Manhattan... ewwwww...)
Georgetown (If I get in here, I would like to do their 3-2 engineering program with Columbia)
University of Washington (In-state)
Washington State University (Again, in-state)</p>

<p>Schools still considering:
Cornell (I'm really leaning towards applying to)
Other Ivies, Harvard, Yale, etc. (Not sure about which would be a good fit, someone can help me out!)
Georgia Tech (Great school, just don't know enough about it)</p>

<p>What I'm looking for are a few more schools to add to the list, and maybe some help on whether I should apply to a couple others. I am not too picky about size/location/setting. What I don't want are OOS publics (University of Washington is a great in-state for me), and unless someone can convince me otherwise, I'm not planning on applying to Stanford, just because their financial aid numbers aren't quite high enough, even though they have a nice fit of programs (I may be wrong, please!). Any advice on schools I should be looking at, or the schools that I have listed, please let me know! Thanks so much for your time!</p>

<p>EDIT: At the moment, I plan to apply to Caltech, MIT, and Georgetown EA.</p>

2

<p>Have you considered Western Washington or Evergreen State as a safety?</p>

3

<p>I actually have been thinking about Western, that is def. a possibility (if I do apply there, it will replace WSU most likely). Evergreen State I’ve been to for an Amnesty International event, I wasn’t a big fan of it. Didn’t like the atmosphere that much.</p>

4

<p>Strong engineering program at GT so that’s a good move.</p>

<p>Instead of non-flagship publics in Washington (definitely apply to your flagship), look into University of Alabama. You’d probably get a full ride, research money, textbook money, laptop etc. That would be a great financial safety for you. Though not sure the programs would be strong/good match for you. </p>

<p>But for what you want to hear, if you aren’t sure about your major apply to a strong school so you’ll have more flexibility. You should be in the running for any school you want.</p>

5

<p>@John Black</p>

<p>I’m definitely interested in schools like the University of Alabama, as my family honestly doesn’t have the money to go anywhere beyond in-state without a lot of need-based aid. Right now I have the University of Arizona and University of Central Florida pegged as schools who are more generous with out of state applicants. When I said I didn’t want OOS-Publics, I meant schools like Berkeley and UCLA, which have close enough academics to UW that its not worth paying the OOS tuition for. I will look into Alabama, thanks so much for the advice!</p>

6

<p>Just wanted to say that you have a shot at a lot of merit scholarship programs. For instance, Duke - UNC’s Robertson Scholar Program. At Duke, its full tuition. At UNC, its tuition + stipend. You take whatever courses you want at either school. However, like with Alabama, I shouldn’t overstate and say you’d “probably” get these packages. Alabama just has really generous merit scholarship options and you’re competitive for them.</p>

7

<p>Oh no, I totally understand that no program is a guarantee, or even likely. However, after doing a bit of research on Alabama, I’m definitely interested in the programs they have to offer in addition to those you just posted. Do you know where I could get a list or something of these merit scholarship programs?</p>

8

<p>I’m relatively new here but someone who has been posting longer might know of a compiled list…</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>Georgia Tech is an out of state public.</p>

<p>Stanford may be more generous than you think with financial aid:
[The</a> Parent Contribution : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/undergrad/how/parent.html]The”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/undergrad/how/parent.html)</p>

<p>If Stanford is not generous enough with financial aid, then you may find a lot of other schools to not be generous enough with financial aid.</p>

10

<p>Yes, hence I was only considering GaTech. </p>

<p>I’d be very happy to be wrong on this, as I haven’t looked at Stanford for a bit, but the school seems like a good match for me.</p>

11

<p>Definitely keep tennis on your EC’s. It’s a huge time commitment that makes your academic accomplishments even that much more impressive. I would add USC (CA), particularly if you are a National Merit Finalist, etc., and the likelihood that they will offer you some merit-based aid with that distinction. Good luck.</p>

12

<p>Note that some public schools are relatively inexpensive for out of state students. As in the $30,000 range (as opposed to the $50,000 range) per year:</p>

<p>Minnesota
Virginia Tech
California State Universities (including California Polytechnics, but not University of California schools)</p>

<p>Even cheaper, as in under $20,000 per year:</p>

<p>public universities in the Dakotas
Alabama with [url=&lt;a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Presidential”&gt;http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Presidential</a> Scholarship<a href=“even%20better%20if%20you%20are%20in%20%5Burl=http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]engineering[/url]”>/url</a></p>

13

<p>@jshain I guess I should keep tennis on, though we shall see :smiley: I don’t think I will be a NMF, as I was sick the week of the PSAT (and took the SAT the Saturday before…), so I really didn’t do that well.</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus, I get what you’re saying, however, the University of Washington is a top ranked public school that is cheaper than any of those OOS publics. I am looking at Alabama though.</p>

14

<p>Carnegie Mellon and Case Western are other schools to consider.</p>

15

<p>I found this today. Its a year old but has some good information.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!</p>