Any Safeties?

College Search & Selection
1

What good schools should I keep as a safeties?

I am a senior this fall.
Major Choice: Mechanical Engineering and Astrophysics.

ACT with writing - 26
English (26), Math (31), Reading (24), Science (22)
SAT - 1740
Math (660), Critical Reading (510), Writing (570)
(I’m planning to take the tests above another time, I will most likely improve by at least 1 point on the ACT, and 100 on the SAT)

GPA - Unweighted (3.98), Weighted (4.19)

EC:
I am multi-lingual.

100 + Volunteering Hours (Various Organizations, Library, Tutoring, etc…)

Played the piano for 8 years
Played the guitar for 4 years
Won certificates in both instruments
Performed in front of audiences ( Recitals, Ensembles, etc…)
Took ABRSM exam for Music Theory Grade 3 - passed
Took ABRSM exam for Guitar Practical Grade 3 - passed with Merit
Took 3 Guild Repertoire Piano Music Exams and passed all. (1 of them I earned a plaque) (3 of them with certification)

I played on the JV team for Basketball and Soccer in freshman year of high school.
I played tennis for about 4 - 5 years. I reached the sectionals tournament of USTA Norcal in the state of California with my team, Almaden Valley Athletic Club (AVAC).

I also achieved recognition in the field of art, as I do all types of mediums: Oil Pastel, Pencil Shading, Pen & Ink, Watercolor Paintings, Acrylic Paintings, Oil Paintings, as well as Graphic Design (Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator).
I won several medals and certificates in art contests.

I am also proficient with all of Microsoft Office and HTML.

Great letters of recommendation.

I flew to the country of Turkey and interned there at Gediz University with a professor in the area of Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering . As I shadowed him and aided him in his research, I learned the basics and the foundations of aerodynamics, college level.

Appreciate all your help!

2

I don’t think UC Santa Cruz is a safety for you, but you should still strongly consider it if you’re not dead set on mechanical engineering. UCI is another excellent option, but more a high match, particularly for mechanical engineering. UC Riverside and San Jose State come closer to safeties although a true safety would likely be Cal State Long Beach (I’m less familiar with Northern California schools as I’m from Orange County).

How much can your family afford? There are a number of excellent privates that would happily take you although might not provide you with adequate funding. One that immediately comes to mind is the Illinois Institute of Technology located in Chicago.

3

Safeties have to be affordable, and most don’t give any aid.

So, how much will your parents pay? that will decide what your safeties are.

4

Try some of the Cal States.

5

You may be able to do better on ACT with a prep course first, and do a lot of practice tests. Are there any tutors in your area or prep classes?

What is your home state?

6

California is my home state, and my parents are willing to help me pay off the college tuition by maybe half the cost or less.

I do not want to attend State schools.

I know this time around that I can get a 29 on the ACT, I don’t know if that would help.

7

I know a CA resident that is attending Cal Poly SLO in ME and he loves it.

I would research to see what schools are good possibilities for your major.

Maybe something else will be affordable.

8

You need to get a fixed amount of what your parents are willing to pay. You also need to run the Net Price Calculators for each school to see what your parents are expected to pay (EFC) and if you are eligible for financial/merit aid. As a Freshman applicant, you will only be allowed to take out $5500 in loans. Everything else will be up to your parents, FA if eligible and any money saved by yourself. For the UC’s you are looking at $30,000 in costs that need to covered some way. DO NOT ASSUME when it comes to money. Get your parents to commit now, so there will not be any surprises after acceptances are released and you find schools are unaffordable.

As a California resident, you have so many excellent schools in which to choose and many are Cal States. Cal Poly SLO, SDSU, CSULB and SJSU have excellent academics that will get you where you want for less costs than many privates and possibily UC’s.

Unless you can get your ACT to your goal, your UC choices are limited, so you need to cast a wider net.
Just for your FYI: I have 2 son’s attending California colleges, one at UCD and one at SDSU.
Neither is eligible for financial aid, so we are full pay for both schools: UCD @$30K/year and SDSU @$20K/year. Both are getting excellent educations.

Good Luck.

9

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I do not want to attend State schools.

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then why are you applying to Purdue???


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I am planning to apply to Purdue University

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10

@mom2collegekids - Purdue is not a state school, rather it is a public university. Examples of state schools are SDSU and SJSU.

For now, forget the tuition and board fees. I need to know which schools I can guarantee to get in for next year. I need at least 1 or 2 safeties for now without worrying about costs.

@Gumbymom
I know that state universities aren’t bad, but I am really trying to get into a UC.
Is LMU a match for me? - I know it is REALLY expensive and all, but I just want to find out if my stats are good for engineering at LMU.

11

If you cannot afford a school where you have a high chance for an acceptance, then it is not a safety. You cannot forget tuition and fees. No school can be a safety unless you can afford to attend. LMU is probably a High match for you, but it is expensive and your stats will not get much merit aid. You would need to rely on FA to make the school affordable unless your family is willing to spend $60K/year.

UCM would be your UC safety if you can afford $30K/year. UCSC would be a Match but you should bump up your SAT/ACT to make it a solid match.

12

Um… “public university” and “state school” mean the same thing. They receive significant funding from the state they are located in. In-state students generally get preferential admissions and pay lower tuition (because the tuition is subsidized by the state’s taxpayers). Just because it doesn’t have the state name in the name of the school does NOT mean it isn’t a “state school”. Purdue IS a state school, just as surely as UCs or CSUs are state schools.

13

Purdue is a state school of the state of Indiana. Almost all public schools in the US are state schools (the few exceptions are schools like the military service academies).

As far as admission goes, UCM is probably a low match (and it does have ABET-accredited ME). UCR is probably a match. So is probably UCSC (though no ME, but it does have a reputable physics department). A whole bunch of CSUs offer ME, so if you apply to several of them (not just CPSLO and SDSU), it is unlikely that you will be rejected from all of them.

You are likely to be back here in April asking whether you should attend your “safety” that is really too expensive because it would involve a huge amount of debt because your parents will contribute much less than you believed (and people will reply telling you that you will have to attend your default safety of starting at a community college – a decent option in California, but probably a let-down for someone who seems to be turning up his nose at perfectly good schools).

14

@intparent @ucbalumnus - First off, I am so sorry. I didn’t realize that state schools and public universities are the same.

@Gumbymom - I can afford $30k per year for the UCs. The rest for other colleges, I need FA and my parents are willing for about 10k to 15k per year.

@ucbalumnus - I really desire to attend a well known school for engineering. And the “perfectly good schools” are still hard for safeties for my stats. I don’t have “perfectly good schools” as safeties.

15

If your parents will only contribute $10,000 to $15,000 per year, a $30,000 cost of a UC would still leave you $15,000 to $20,000 for you to come up with. This is generally more than a student can be reasonably expected to self-fund ($5,500 federal direct loan + part time and summer work earnings).

Seems like you have plenty of company in terms of students who do not want to attend any school that could be a safety.

16

OK OP, your CR + M score is currently 1170, and ACT 26.

If you sharpen your test taking skills and can achieve ACT 30 or SAT equivalent by the Dec test taking time, and you are studying engineering, and you apply for admission and scholarship deadline for UA (University of AL) in December, you will qualify for Presidential Scholarship (full tuition scholarship for 4 years) and extra $10K in engineering (other students have to have ACT 32 equiv OOS for Presidential; engineering scholarship fulfills).

Higher test scores will help you with your CA state school applications and other school applications and merit scholarships.

Essentially your parents are willing to contribute room and board and incidental costs.

In order for you to get merit, your stats have to be where a school is willing to give you merit.

UA has been growing their STEM and recruiting higher stat kids, and incoming classes now have more OOS students (and a pretty good amount from CA).

In case you haven’t seen this, this gives some of the background on UA’s growth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV8g7kxJps

A school like Purdue (if you receive acceptance to their main campus and in your field of study) is going to be way expensive when you consider cost/benefit.

I know a student with a bigger budget that didn’t have three admission safeties, with ACT 30 and strong GPA (achieved that test score in junior year and didn’t retest in senior year). He now is going to a private college that his mom attended that doesn’t even has his degree plan (he will go 2 years, and then transfer to one of three schools to complete the engineering in 3 more years unless he changes his major and stays for 4 years to the high cost private). He was admitted to VaTech (OOS for him) but not in his major; he didn’t want to go to his home state university (the only one that admitted him into his eng degree choice - he was awarded full tuition scholarship). He IMHO applied to a school he had no chance of getting in (Stanford). He was ‘shocked’ by his limited choices when all was said and done. Parents didn’t make him look at or apply to schools he didn’t want to look at (I think they are not going to make that mistake with their younger student).

You need to apply to enough true safeties (where you can get in for your major and where you can afford). You want to keep UG debt as low as possible. Maybe your parents are not willing to take out Plus loans - the amount you can borrow is very limited as a UG fr, so, jr, sr.

Use your time well, especially during your first semester senior year - if you can, cut back on school and EC responsibilities - focus on the testing and your school applications/scholarship applications. You have to cast a big enough net. During second semester perhaps you can do some visits and get to your final school choice that is affordable and where you can study your areas of engineering. My eng DD got her ACT score up to the 30 during her first semester senior year with a lot of effort, and she cut back on everything else to focus on it with test tutoring, practice tests, etc. She even took the SAT again just because getting the full tuition scholarship and extra eng scholarship was such a big financial boost.

17

@SOSConcern

Thank you for your reply, but I still have no idea which schools to apply for safety.

Lets say my ACT will rise to a 28-29, and my parents are willing to contribute 20k.
I need three schools to consider as safety.
As @SOSConcern said University of Alabama could be a safety, but I need three schools to apply as safeties.
Can anyone help me with this list?

Appreciate your help!

18

Safety is two dimensional - financial and admission.

UAH could be a safety financially w/o hitting the ACT 30 that you would need to get the Presidential and Engineering scholarships at UA. UAH has a chart - so look at that (www.uah.edu). It rewards higher GPA will lesser ACT/SAT. UAH is excellent in engineering (also look at their ABET accreditation). Co-op and internship opportunities for engineering students in Huntsville area.

Another - look at MS State. However it is in a rural setting.

You do need to focus on your standardized testing (ACT/SAT) which will help you on the two dimensions - in-state admission, and financial safeties for those that will give merit for ACT/SAT and GPA.

The Real ACT book (if you don’t have it already). Are there any test prep centers or tutoring help? DD found the one on one help with test tutoring (along with practice testing) to be very beneficial. If you have taken the SAT, look at the chart for “Compare ACT and SAT Scores” on www.act.org web site.

Your California schools - maybe you will need to consider a community college for your first two years.

19

Hypotheticals aren’t safeties either. Go ask your parents how much they’ll spend, then let us know. You really need to build a plan with a concrete dollar amount and your current scores. You can always add a couple reach schools which will turn into matches if you do increase your scores, but you need real safeties on your list first.

20

A problem is that with your current atats you have few safetiea dir engineering. Look into cal poly Pomona, south Dakota school of minea, missouri school of mines, and the passhe colleges in pennsylvania.