Care to help an aspiring engineer who doesn't know here to start?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a bit overwhelmed by the college search, to be honest, I just don't know where to start. Part of the difficulty is that I'm a sophomore, and have little knowledge of what my stats and the like are going to be like. However, I heard it's best to start early, so I figured I would give it a shot. I tried using both CB and CC's college finders, and I'm just overwhelmed by the number of options I seem to have. I can only get the number of results into the double digits if I add some arbitrary characteristic, such as limiting my search to Hawaii. I want to be a engineer, so I have plenty of options. Perhaps there's something to be said for lack of selection?</p>

<p>Stats
My UW GPA will likely be somewhere north of 3.8, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get an actual 4.0, as it will likely go down a bit from over the next couple years from where it is now. My school's weighting system is so inflated that my weighted GPA is meaningless. My school doesn't rank, but I'm in the top decile and will likely stay there thanks to the screwy weighted GPA system. I took the SAT back in middle school and got a good score (around 2000, including a 750 CR), but wasn't aware I could ask to keep it. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to score somewhere north of 2200, at least if the CB's SAT question of the day is anything to go by. The only bit I'm worried about is the essay, but apparently that can be tackled pretty formulaicly.</p>

<p>I'm a girl, which I hear will do good things for me if I apply as a STEM major, as I plan to do.</p>

<p>Subjective
My schedule is extremely rigorous. I'm in the highest level offered in all my classes, as well as a year ahead in three different subject areas. Normally AP classes are restricted to juniors and seniors, but I'm taking one as a sophomore.</p>

<p>As for extracurriculars, nothing really significant as of yet. I'm a member of my school's FIRST robotics team, and am very interested in robots. Currently I'm teaching myself calculus, so I can teach myself physics, so I can learn how to properly design and build a robot. I'll try and take the Calc BC and Physics C tests in May, if only so I don't have to sit through classes where I already know the material. I'm also in a couple of other fun but - in the eyes of adcoms - insignificant clubs/teams that I am not pursuing leadership in.
I'm learning to speak Japanese, have been for about eight months now, and am somewhere between the levels of Japanese 3 and near-native level, depending on the area (my kanji are excellent). Next year, I'll be take the Japanese AP and SATII tests, as well as the highest-level JLPT, but I know I'm up against many international students - and some Americans - who are trilingual or even polyglots, so I'm not sure how significant that will be. By the time I apply to college, I may have started teaching myself a Scandinavian language.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, I'm going to need aid - a ton. I don't know precisely how much my family makes, but my brother and I are in the free lunch program.</p>

<p>So I'm trying to create a longlist, but I have little to narrow it down by since my stats and the like are still very up in the air.</p>

<p>Right now I've got:</p>

<p>MIT - Hey, a girl can dream, right?
Bama - I'll likely qualify for amazing aid
Penn State - I'm in state
University of Hawaii - It's in Hawaii</p>

<p>These schools are looking lonely, please find them some friends.</p>

<p>tl;dr: Girl looking for good engineering school with good aid, merit or need-based.</p>

2

<p>U of Hawaii is not a place for great aid, but I can imagine the college visit trip request.
When you talk about aid, have you done a possible EFC calculation and had “the talk” with your parents about money? When you say you need “a ton of aid” are you Pell Grant eligible, or is it that your parents haven’t really started tightening their belts for college savings? Since you are only a sophomore, you can greatly narrow your choices to avoid the less than generous schools. You can also work very hard to distinguish yourself in some ways (check out threads on impressive ECs) and try to do indepent research, publish, etc. That will make your reaches less dream and more possibility. Learn all you can about Questbridge and work toward that as well. </p>

<p>As for schools, also consider Cooper Union, Pitt, Havey Mudd and (if you just need merit aid) Rose Hulman</p>

3

<p>Penn State is a good school. It has an aid estimator here:
[Penn</a> State - Office of Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.psu.edu/studentaid/costs/earlyaid.shtml]Penn”>http://www.psu.edu/studentaid/costs/earlyaid.shtml)</p>

4

<p>Why is Carnegie Mellon not on your list of schools? Rice should be on your list too. Princeton is very generous with aid and is strong in Engineering. Finally, top public Engineering schools such as Cal, Georgia tech, Michigan, Purdue, Texas-Austin, UIUC and Wisconsin-Madison can give good merit aid to top students.</p>

5

<p>At Berkeley, you can try for the full-ride Drake Scholarship if your major is mechanical engineering. But Berkeley otherwise will be expensive for out-of-state students.</p>

6

<p>Harvey Mudd, Rose Hulman, Case Western, Caltech</p>

<p>Interestingly, your best financial bet is MIT or any of the ivies - if you can get in there, you’ll likely pay $0 for school expenses. And it’s definitely something you should pursue; with your low income, the schools will be even more impressed with your achievements.</p>

7

<p>Stanford is also generous with need aid – if you get in. Admissions wise, it is a super reach for everyone.</p>

8

<p>Forget Hawaii.</p>

<p>Washington University in St. Louis, Princeton, Cornell. State universities that offer merit money for out-of-state engineering majors include U of Alabama-Tuscaloosa and Oregon State University. OSU is one of the stronger STEM schools out west. For an exceptional college/town environment, investigate U of Portland.</p>

9

<p>katica:</p>

<p>Your profile is very compelling. If you can indeed score >2200 on your SAT I you may want to consider adding some additional reach schools to your list. Being female and interested in STEM is a significant advantage. Here are the most recent gender differences in admit rates for a few top STEM schools:</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd: Male = 17.0% Female = 48.2%
Caltech: Male = 9.0% Female = 23.0%
MIT: Male = 8.0% Female = 16.0%
Olin: Male = 19.0% Female = 70.0%</p>

<p>All of the above schools offer very good financial aid. Also, if your family has a gross annual income below $60,000 without much in terms of financial assets, you may want to check out the Questbridge program, which provides full rides to a handful of qualified students to some of the country’s best schools (including MIT and Caltech). They also provide other college application support. Here are some links that may help you:</p>

<p>Admiitance data from: [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>

<p>Questbridge: [QuestBridge</a> Home](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/]QuestBridge”>http://www.questbridge.org/)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

10

<p>*Engineering schools such as Cal, Georgia tech, Michigan, Purdue, Texas-Austin, UIUC and Wisconsin-Madison can give good merit aid to top students. *</p>

<p>I know that some of these schools give some merit to Top Students, but do all of them? (and when I say Top students…I mean like SAT 2300+). Some with ACT 34 have posted that they’ve gotten nothing from those schools this year…except Purdue. </p>

<p>I think this student needs to find out how much the parents will pay and what sort of need based aid would she qualify for. </p>

<p>I agree that Hawaii isn’t a good choice. Bad with aid. And often the aid that is offered is only to those on the island. And, can be pricey to travel!!</p>

<p>Katica…right now, just do your best in school. Does your school give the PSAT to sophs? If so, take it to see how you do…and use that as a guide for future improvement. </p>

<p>Next year, take the SAT and ACT…and go from there.</p>

11

<p>I’ll be taking the PSAT soon. I don’t know how much my parents will be expected to contribute, but they won’t be able to contribute anything, they can barely pay the bills.</p>

12

<p>My husband is an engineer that hires engineers and he always has fantastic employees when he hires grads from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. They are provided with a solid education and are totally ready when they graduate. He has recommended that school over and over.</p>

13

<p>Be mindful of the severe budget crisis when investigasting any California public university. I wonder if there’s any money for non-residents, particularly at the CSU system and particularly for non-residents whom are lucky enough to be admitted to an impacted major like engineering.</p>

14

<p>Calif state schools won’t work because of money.</p>

<p>Most OOS publics won’t work.</p>

<p>Good luck on the PSAT…if you do well on that, you’ll get great merit at a few schools.</p>

15

<p>The sophomore PSAT doesn’t count for anything - it is just practice. But the junior PSAT can help you qualify for National Merit. </p>

<p>No reason to be concerned about not keeping your middle school SAT score, as there is every reason to expect that your score will be better now. If you’re very accelerated in math, you may want to spend some time reviewing Alg, Alg 2, and Geometry before taking the PSAT and SAT. Sometimes advanced math students don’t do as well as expected on the SAT math since it has been so long since they took the level of math tested, and they can’t do the problems as quickly since they don’t remember the shortcuts.</p>