Chance & Match Me: Science major applying to top schools, looking for safeties and matches with good aid and scholarships

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Demographics
Permanent resident, from medium-income non-English speaking country. Both parents speak English fluently for work. I got a scholarship to a private English language elementary/middle school in my country, I have been speaking both English and my native language since I was 4.
Since halfway through 7th grade I have been living in a college town pretty close to a city in the Northeast.

  • Type of high school: Public school, around 1600 students total, usually around 5-10 people every year go to top universities, most go to local univ/work, very socioeconomically diverse (there are literally both multimillionaires and homeless kids at my school), idk if it’s competitive or not
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: White male, 1/4 Asian
  • Other special factors: n/a

Intended Major(s)
Physics, chemistry, mathematics, or some kind of engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.4 (scale out of 5 for AP, 4 for other)
  • Class Rank: 5th out of approximately 400
  • ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1560 (780 both)

Coursework

  • Previous AP (Scored 5 on all): US History, Stats, Calculus AB and BC, World History, Lang, Chemistry, Environmental Science
  • Current AP/Above: Multivariable Calculus, Physics 1, Compsci A, Compsci Principles

Awards

  • All state orchestra in cello 2x
  • AP scholar with distinction
  • National merit scholarship semifinal
  • A few awards at a regional/state science fair for a project I did
  • National honor society - 12th grade only at my school

Extracurriculars

  • Studied cello for 12 years, played in college/youth symphonies, leader/best player in school orchestra and I helped tutor some other players since our school has no cello teacher. Also played in a trio with 2 friends from orchestra and did some community service like playing at children in hospital/nursing homes
  • I designed my own research projects in research club at school, won a few awards in 10th and 11th grade, not published or anything though, minor leadership role in club
  • Volunteered tutoring peers at school, around 150 hours
  • Volunteered at local library in summer, around 50 hours
  • Babysitting, looking after and cooking for little brother at home
  • School soccer jv team
  • Virtual foreign exchange
  • Student ambassadors

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Common app essay/supplementals: I think they are solid and above average but not really exceptional, I would say 6-8/10 but idk honestly
  • Counselor LOR: probably 6-8/10
  • Calculus teacher LOR: 7/10
  • History teacher LOR: 8-9/10
  • Science teacher LOR: 7/10
  • Cello teacher LOR: 10/10

Cost Constraints / Budget
Parents make around $95k total, mostly from dad. According to net price calculators my net price would be around $15k to $25k per year. My parents said they would be happy to pay up to around 20k but are flexible if I my best option is more expensive. However, I still would like to keep costs lower.

Schools

  • Reach: ED Rice, EA MIT, ED2 one of JHU/WashU/CMU, RD Caltech, Harvard, Brown, Yale
  • Target: RD Case Western, UVA, Northeastern
  • Likely: RD Brandeis
  • Safety: Best university in my home country (I really like the university, it’s cheap and I have guaranteed admission, but I would prefer to stay in the US as job prospects aren’t great back home)

Notes
I also had my state university in safety, but my parents will move to another state once I graduate. I checked and I won’t be eligible for in state tuition in public universities in my current or future state, and I don’t really like either state university, so those are ruled out.

Chance/Match Me Preferences
I’m looking for a few additional safety/likely/target schools with good financial aid or scholarships, and also my chances to the current schools I have listed.

  • Looking for research universities, not interested in LACs generally
  • Strongly prefer universities in or very close to a city, would prefer east or west coast but nice cities otherwhere are also OK
  • Looking for universities with good prospects for jobs/graduate school after graduation
  • Less restrictive distribution requirements a plus, but not required
  • Preferrably more collaborative rather than competitive
  • School size doesn’t matter for me, anything that’s not tiny
  • Prefer a university with less focus on sports/less school spirit, with more academic focus.
  • US politics doesn’t really interest me so I would prefer schools that are politically neutral or don’t have too much of a focus on politics/activism. This really isn’t too important for me though
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URochester would be another good match school for you. Like CWRU, it has great music opportunities for non-major musicians. URoch meets need and also gives merit. Flexible open-ish curriculum with ease of moving between majors, very strong STEM. Not quite as urban as CWRU but still on the outskirts of a city.

Lafayette and Lehigh could also be worth a look - they meet full need and have the full range of STEM majors. (They also treat Asian applicants as URM fwiw.) But not urban.

Tufts could be a good lower-reach. BU could be a good target.

UMiami would be likely, meets need and has great music.

For a public where you could get in-state tuition after the first year (path to residency for students), look at U of Utah. Excellent STEM, excellent music, nice Honors College, major city but also great outdoor recreation. Gives generous merit and could end up very affordable for you.

3

Seconding URochester, UUtah, and Lafayette (reach, safety, match).
You need a few more likelies/safetie: apply to UDel for chemistry (pt of strength) and UMN (any major).

4

As with others, recommending you look into URochester.

5

Have you looked at all the schools that offer merit to NMS such as University of Alabama?

National Merit Scholars – Scholarships | The University of Alabama (ua.edu)

6

Thank you for the suggestions everyone, I will take a look into those!

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I like Rochester a lot, I will add it to my match schools list. I added Lehigh as well, I think it has good research opportunities and Delaware to safeties (great ChemE major).

Thanks for the NMS university list, I added U Minnesota Twin Cities and Arizona State as safeties, I like both campuses and Minnesota especially is great for ChemE. I also added USC to Reach/Target, I previously took it off as is financial aid isn’t great, but I wasn’t aware of the $28000 scholarship for finalists.

I’m not sure how to edit the original post, so here is my updated list:

  • Reach: ED Rice, EA MIT (both submitted), ED2 JHU/WashU/CMU, RD Caltech, Harvard, Brown, Yale
  • Match: Case Western, UVA, Northeastern, Rochester, USC, Lehigh
  • Likely: Brandeis, Miami
  • Safety: Minnesota, Arizona State, Delaware, Home Country
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Does anyone have any more suggestions for likely schools? I’m not 100% convinced by Brandeis and Miami yet and I have space to add a few more schools to the list.

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For big NMF merit and strong STEM, UT Dallas could be worth a look. It has the apolitical, non-sporty, “nerdy” quality that I think you’re looking for. Historically a commuter school but has made huge investments in its campus life and reputation. How UT-Dallas Transformed Itself into a Top Texas College | The Texas Tribune

Good luck with Rice - seems like that would be a great fit for you.

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MIT and Caltech have relatively heavy general education requirements.

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Virginia Tech, NC State, WPI, RPI

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I would put UVA (if you are oos) and USC as reaches. Many apply to USC for merit.

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I believe as a NMF, you would get a full free ride at University of New Mexico.

@WayOutWestMom

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Hi everyone, apologies for the lack of updates; I’ve been quite busy recently and I forgot a bit about this post. Many thanks to everyone for your suggestions!

I finalized my college list, below:

  • Reach: ED Rice (Deferred), EA MIT, ED2 JHU, RD Stanford, USC (both submitted), Caltech, CMU, WashU, Harvard, Brown, Yale, Northwestern
  • Match: RD Rochester, CWRU, Northeastern (all three submitted), Lehigh
  • Likely: RD Brandeis, WPI
  • Safety: Rolling Pittsburgh, AZ State, UTD (all three submitted), EA2 UMN, RD Delaware, Home Country

Few updates to my list:

  • Got deferred from Rice the other day, it would have been nice to get in but not too concerned as I like plenty of my other choices, and I’ve improved my essays since then.
  • I’m planning to ED2 to JHU if I’m not admitted by MIT, I visited last month and it completely exceeded my expectations.
  • Replaced UVA with Stanford, I found out it wouldn’t be affordable as I did the net price calculator wrong the first time :joy:. Weirdly I didn’t know much about Stanford before, it’s less well-known where I’m from than the Ivies/MIT and UCs, but I think it’s a better fit than UVA.
  • Applying to Northwestern if I have time to do the essay.
  • Added WPI, UT Dallas, Pittsburgh

Again thank you everyone for your suggestions!

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