Can only apply to 8 colleges, which ones?

College Search & Selection
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<p>My friend can only apply to 8 colleges since his high school has a limit and really wants to study engineering. I was asked for some suggestions as to where to apply to not only gain admission but also receive some help with the tuition/ room and board.
Here are the stats:</p>

<p>Male
URM
3.5 GPA (unweighted) A's in math and sciences, B's in English and history
SAT - 780 Math / 780 Reading/ 680 Writing - taking SAT II's in November
Has some sports EC's, Eagle Scout, does many hours of community service
Parents make a combined income of 60 thousand a year</p>

<p>His reaches are Harvey Mudd and Stanford and has visited both. He needs to round out his list with some target schools and maybe one more reach school. He will go anywhere in the US. Any ideas are welcome-thank you!</p>

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<p>He should add USC to his list . They have a very good engineering school- Vertibi.
Is he a NMSF? Did he taker the PSST and score 220? [ assuming he is from Calif?]
If he is not from Cal what was his PSAT score? USC offers 1/2 tuition scholarships to all accepted NMSF’s. They also have a very generous FA program[ though not as generous as Stanford]
Others to add are Carnegie-Melon, RIT.</p>

3

<p>Lowrie Family Donates $17 million to Ohio State Engineering</p>

<p>September 08, 2011 02:09 pm </p>

<p>The Ohio State University today announced a commitment of $17 million from Ernestine and William G. Lowrie, an engineering alumnus, in support of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State. The commitment is the largest made by an individual donor to engineering at the university.</p>

<p>The gift will endow construction and support of a new laboratory facility, create the H.C. “Slip” Slider Professorship for an untenured faculty member in chemical and biomolecular engineering, establish a new endowed chair and provide an endowment to support new initiatives in education and research.
**</p>

<p>**OSU Robot Competition **</p>

<p><a href=“OSU Robot Competition - YouTube”>OSU Robot Competition - YouTube;
**
Four HUBO Robots Come Together for Beatles Cover **</p>

<p>“This is all part of a $20 million Major Research Infrastructure grant awarded by the NSF. Later this year, the robots will be doled out to partner institutions, including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Tech, the University of Southern California, Ohio State, Purdue and UPenn, whereupon additional hijinks are virtually guaranteed to ensue.”</p>

<p><a href=“http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/four-hubo-robots-come-together-for-beatles-cover[/url]”>http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/four-hubo-robots-come-together-for-beatles-cover&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Scholarships</p>

<p><a href=“Merit-based scholarships - The Ohio State University”>http://undergrad.osu.edu/money-matters/scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>here is a great CC thread to read as well- it has a wealth of information:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1379469-schools-suggestions-engineering-major-merit.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1379469-schools-suggestions-engineering-major-merit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Case Western
Lehigh
Bucknell
Rice (If qualify for fin aid)</p>

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<p>Yes, he does attend a strong California private school and would probably prefer to stay in California but will consider anything in the US that the family can afford. I am not sure of the PSAT scores but I’ll mention that to him.</p>

<p>Thanks for the links & suggestions, I’ll pass those along.</p>

<p>Any chance of him getting into Stanford or Harvey Mudd with a 3.5?</p>

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<p>California has many excellent public universities for engineering. There shouldn’t be any need for a student with his scores and GPA to leave the state, but if he wants to do so, he’ll probably find his best options for need-based aid at private universities. Alabama is one state school with good merit scholarships for OOS students who meet specific criteria ([Out-of-State</a> Scholarships - Undergraduate Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Out-of-State”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html)).</p>

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<p>Any thoughts on one more reach school (besides Harvey Mudd & Stanford)?</p>

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<p>Carnegie Mellon? Is there some branch of engineering he is particularly interested in? that could affect what people would suggest.
Have they done the EFC calculator? Sounds like they would qualify for a lot of need-base aid.
Stanford: 7% acceptance rate, 91% of incoming freshmen had GPA of 3.75 or higher. [Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2011-2012](<a href=“http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2011.html#admission]Stanford”>http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2011.html#admission)
Harvey Mudd: acceptance rate was 14% for males. They don’t report on GPAs, but 95% were in the top 10% of their class.
Being URM will help up the odds a little…
If he is in a “strong private school”, what advice is his college counselor giving him?! He or she would know best where he should apply…</p>

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<p>UC Berkley</p>

<p>CSUs</p>

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<p>Santa Clara…he’d great great merit and aid…it can almost be a financial safety.</p>

<p>USC</p>

<p>Because he’s from a modest income family, he needs to make sure he has a financial safety.</p>

<p>Is he in Calif? Does his school count EACH UC app as a school? Or do the UCs and CSUs count as one.</p>

<p>If he doesn’t live in Calif, then don’t apply to the Calif publics.</p>

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<p>Yes she said he lives in cal</p>

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<p>Right, in California. They count UC’s as one application. Apparently the counselor has suggested RPI, Rose Hulman, Cal Poly (SLO), Purdue, CMU, Santa Clara and I am not sure of the others. He is not sure what ‘type’ of engineering at this point.</p>

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<p>Oh, and I’m assuming the others are Stanford and Harvey Mudd, that would make 8.</p>

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<p>3.5 GPA (unweighted)</p>

<p>well, I’d say that applying to Stanford would in all likelihood be a waste, unless he is a recruited Athlete, black or out of state. As that is not the case, USC and HM are probably are his more “realistic” reaches.</p>

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<p>Less than 9% of enrolled Stanford students had HS GPAs below 3.75. Multiply that by a single digit admit rate and the result is below 1%. </p>

<p>Harvey Mudd, according to SATs and GPA alone, is about as selective as Stanford.</p>

<p>What’s his class rank?</p>

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<p>I don’t think they rank but I’ll find out where he is among the rest of the class. Seems like Stanford & Harvey Mudd are out plus they are extremely tough engineering programs to get through. I am sure that USC’s engineering is very difficult to get through as well even if he did get in, plus he’d have to be awarded $$.</p>

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<p>Found out that the school does not rank the students and he scored just over 200 on the PSAT.
I’ll pass all of this information along, I know it will help. Thank you so much!</p>

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<p>he scored just over 200 on the PSAT. </p>

<p>that is below the number needed to reach National Merit Semifinalist status.</p>

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<p>He may want to consider whether each school allows changing engineering major easily, or has an engineering undeclared option that allows declaring a specific engineering major later without a competitive admissions process.</p>

<p>Would any number of UCs be one application, and would any number of CSUs be one application for this purpose?</p>

<p>Has he checked the EFC on some net price calculators, and checked with his family on whether they are able and willing to contribute that amount?</p>