This is my list so far:
Safeties
UTD
Target
UT Austin, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Hard Target
University of Rochester, Georgia Tech
Reach
CMU, Johns Hopkins, Rice
Most of the acceptance rates for these schools are <50% which is why I’m looking for more schools in the safety, low target range. Do you have any suggestions to add or shift schools in my list?
Appreciate all the responses and advice you’ve given!!
With your stats, you would likely qualify for a large merit scholarship at Case Western. I think their max merit award is around $31k. If you also qualify for need-based aid, then with work-study and federal loans, you could bring the cost down to mid-30s per year.
I believe that CMU no longer gives merit aid (except for some limited music and theater awards). Definitely run their Net Price Calculator and/or call them if that is an important factor for you. Otherwise, you may want to swap out CMU for a different reach.
Also, University of Arizona and Arizona State University appear to have good programs and have automatic merit scholarships – you can check their websites to see if they bring your cost down. ASU has a top-notch honors program (the Barrett Honors College) which has a lot of top-performing students and that many people seem to really love.
TARGETS
UC San Diego
Case Western Reserve (good reputation for financial aid)
Purdue
Minnesota
Pitt
Washington
If you can go a bit higher than 40k (and/or can trim some personal expenses) you could look at Cal Poly SLO (California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo). Excellent engineering program, a lot of hands-on experience, and a very good reputation with hiring companies, especially in California. Here is a link to their out of state cost of attendance. You will see that there is some flexibility there. I am not sure of the admissions stats for in-state vs out-of-state, though.
The California Legislature is currently trying to limit the number of OOS students at the UCs, but I haven’t seen mention of the same for the Cal States, which is what Cal Poly SLO is.
One more comment. My son had stats very similar to yours – just slightly higher. He was accepted to McGill’s biomedical engineering fairly soon after applying, which means they considered him a strong candidate, because they accept their strongest students first and then sort of “roll” their acceptances as the weeks (and months) go on. At least, that’s how it was this year.
Although McGill is more expensive than your budget, my son would have been able to enter as a sophomore because he had enough AP credits – and he had fewer than you do. So likely you could do the same. So that means you would only have to pay for 3 years, not four. Note that at McGill, the terms are “U0” for Freshman and “U1” for sophomore. You might also be eligible for a small scholarship.
Note that tuition varies upon the degree you choose. Also be sure to account for the exchange rate, which right now favors US students (each $1 Canadian is equivalent to $.082 USD. – Of course, that could always change, depending on the economy).
Also note that Montreal as a city is thought to be excellent for college students and also is considered very affordable, and rents are way less expensive than in most US cities. So you could definitely save money junior and senior year based on where you choose to live (and McGill only guarantees housing for first year students anyhow).
Also, the Canadian universities don’t care about ECs. You didn’t mention yours, so not sure it that is a strength or weakness for you, but if it’s the latter, that’s another good reason to look at McGill (or the other Canadian options).
Here is a link to their tuition, in Canadian dollars.
https://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/tuition-charges/fallwinter-term-tuition-and-fees/undergraduate-fees
Here is a link to their housing and meal plan costs, also in Canadian dollars.
Right now. Canada is still struggling with Covid concerns much more than the US is and that has certainly affected college students there. But since you are a rising senior, I am sure that will not be a problem by the time you need to make a decision.
Hope this helps. Feel free to DM me if you would like any more information. I tried to DM you, but was unable to.
If OP is out of state (Texas), he won’t be able to afford UCSD – the UC’s do not give financial aid to out of state applicants, and I don’t think they give much merit money either. Plus, the California legislature is trying to significantly limit the number of OOS students who will be accepted to the UCs – although that may or may not go anywhere.
As an OOS applicant, Georgia Tech may be more of a reach for you than a “target” (I presume that you are using this term to mean a “match” as other posters use it). The OOS students who I know that have been admitted to Georgia Tech have either been valedictorian or salutatorian of their high school class (and even that is no guarantee for OOS admission to Georgia Tech).
By Washington, are you referring to Washington University in St. Louis? I’m just confused because they have an acceptance rate of 14% so would that still be in the Target range?
@Bill_Marsh may be referring to University of Washington, but getting “Direct to College of Engineering” admission there is probably considerably more difficult than getting “pre-science” undeclared admission there (enrolling as “pre-science” undeclared means that it will be very difficult to switch into an engineering major, particularly a popular one like biomedical engineering).
Plus, like other out-of-state publics listed in @Bill_Marsh 's post, probably won’t be within budget unless you get enough merit scholarships, which should move it to the “reach” category (to get the scholarships, not just admission).
I was referring to University of Washington.
Purdue is within his budget and a couple of the others aren’t far off.
Marquette. BME work closely with the medical college. They have biocomputing, bioelectronic, and biomechanics focus choices. They also have a 5 year bach/masters program.
(Family member graduated there years ago with BME and is very successful.)
“As an OOS applicant, Georgia Tech may be more of a reach for you than a “target” (I presume that you are using this term to mean a “match” as other posters use it).”
I think Georgia Tech could be one of those borderline match/reach. I briefly looked at their CDS and the 75% for SAT is 1520, so OP at 1580 is probably at the 90%. Their GPA average is 4.07, so obviously weighted, the OP with a 3.93 and 11 APs is probably over that as well.
Do you know if there is a way to calculate your weighted GPA for a specific college?
I think that Georgia Tech has become a much harder nut to crack for OOS applicants in the last few years: for example, of the five kids in my son’s high school class who applied a couple of years ago, only one – the co-salutatorian – was admitted; the rejects included someone who was admitted to MIT, and a merit scholarship winner to Washington University in St. Louis (who was the other co-salutatorian). And a large local IB high school had its salutatorian, but no one else, admitted to Georgia Tech that same year. A few years prior to that, these same schools had several non-valedictorian/salutatorian students admitted to Georgia Tech.
If I recall correctly, according to the CDS Georgia Tech weights GPA more than test scores among the academic admissions factors considered. Rick Clark, the admissions director at Georgia Tech, has a pretty good blog: Georgia Tech Admission Blog – A dialogue on college admission
I think that the OP would be competitive among OOS applicants for Georgia Tech, but the competition is stiff.
If you know the college’s HS GPA recalculation method, just follow that method.
If the college does not reveal how it recalculates HS GPA, then you may not be able to do it.
Weighted HS GPA is only useful when comparing against other HS GPAs calculated with the same weighting.
Oddly, Georgia Tech takes HS GPAs off of HS transcripts at face value, according to Academic Preparation | Undergraduate Admission . So students from South Carolina (where there is a highly exaggerated weighted HS GPA calculation apparently standardized across the state) will have an advantage. When a HS GPA is not provided, Georgia Tech recalculates with +0.5 weighting for AP, IB, dual enrollment, and AICE courses.
There’s really no way to know since most, if not all, colleges don’t publish how they calculate their weighed GPA. For Georgia Tech, if 0.5 is the added weight for honors and AP classes for GPAs in general, as ucbalumnus points out, that’s what you should use to recalculate the GPA.
I wanted to ask if anyone had any advice/comments/suggestions about my chance getting into UT Austin…
Aren’t you auto admit ? Judging by you let #s u must be. if not you’ll have to transfer in
In any case for any school there’s only one way to know- apply
Yes, but I was specifically looking at my chances for the biomedical engineering major. I will definitely be applying.