Chance Me [3.92 GPA, no rank, 1420 SAT, No in-state (Maryland) schools, <$30k; aerospace or mechanical engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
Maryland Resident
White Male
Rural Private
Higher Income
Legacy Notre Dame

Intended Major(s)
1st choice Aerospace Engineering
2nd choice Mechanical Engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.92 (B’s in creative arts)
  • Weighted HS GPA: Estimated 4.12 (Doesn’t weight)
  • Class Rank: Doesn’t rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1420 (780M/640ERW)

Coursework

  • No AP offered
  • Honors gov, honors world, 2 honors other histories, honors polysci, honors eng10 & eng 11
  • Math: Up to Calculus 1
  • Language: Up to Spanish 3
  • 10 Credits of Social Sciences/Studies
  • Straight A since 2nd semester 10th grade

Awards

  • Spanish Award
  • Science Award
  • English Award

Extracurriculars
Varsity Basketball
Varsity Soccer
Family responsibilities
High school admissions
NHS
Coding Club
Lab tech
Rental equipment retrieval
Lawncare
Professional Minecraft Level Designer (Worked for big servers)

Essays/LORs/Other
Very strong CommonApp essay
Social Studies and Math LORs

Cost Constraints / Budget
Ideally no more than 30k
Going for grandparent wiaver in Florida

Schools

  • Safety
    Mississippi State (Accepted)
    Alabama (Accepted)
    WVU (Accepted)
    Florida Tech (Accepted)

  • Likely
    Texas A&M (EA Engineering) - Need scholarship for OOS waiver

  • Match
    NC State (EA) - Need scholarship
    UCF (Grandparent waiver or knights achievement)
    FSU (RD)

  • Reach
    Notre Dame (EA)
    University of Florida - Need scholarship/waiver

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Move to reach for the scholarship. Also, note that there is secondary admission to engineering majors (ETAM), where you would need a 3.75 college GPA to automatically get your choice of major. Otherwise, ETAM is competitive by college courses and grades and essays, with AE and ME being among the more competitive majors (and you must indicate at least three majors to apply to).

Probably a reach for the needed scholarship. Also has secondary admission to major, which is competitive admission.

Why no in-state Maryland schools?

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We went up to College Park and I do not like it. Part of it is being on the other end of the political spectrum, but also the College Park area is not my mojo. I also want to get away from Maryland and the Washington-Baltimore metro.

Edit* for TAMU I marked Ocean Engineering as 2nd, then Mechanical Engineering for 3rd. From my understanding I need $4,000 in competetive scholarships to get the OOS waiver, thought my odds would be good enough.

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If the hs doesn’t weight, what weighting did you use ?

I wouldn’t count on money at NC State or A&M - which has secondary admission btw.

For aero, you already hit a home run with Bama, Ms Stare, and Florida Tech. All three are solid. My son is in aero coming from Bama - had 20 interviews and 5 offers, two of which were aero. He turned down Purdue with merit for Bama and works with kids from Purdue, Michigan, CWRU, NC State and others like Akron, Auburn, Utah and W Michigan.

Not sure I’d go to any of the others, especially given your financial desires/needs.

They’re not going to necessarily put you in a better position. In fact they likely won’t. That’s what people miss. If you’re at an ABET school, I’m most cases you have similar opprtunities available to you. People let the marketing - ie rankings - get to them but I’m not sure short of a few schools that the real world acts upon them.

Have you considered UAH? It’s surrounded by Aero companies.

Good luck.

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I weighted it using 4.5 for honors classes in the same way my unweighted is done. I like NC State because it’s close to home and I have a lot of family there. I also know the networking capabilities there and have seen them happen. The nearest family for Alabama and Ms State is about 9 hours away. I’ve also never been in MS or AL which makes me a little hesitent. I’m also nervous about Florida Tech because we have a friend who had an awful experience there. As of now I’m really hoping I get into UCF. I’m very familiar with the area and have immediate family not far. There is also a good chance it’s cheaper and easier to travel to which is always nice. I’ve thought about UAH, but from what I have read it might be too much of a commuter school/weekends might be hard. I also figured that Tuscalossa is only two hours south. I also do not care about rankings either, especially with how they are being calculated now.

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@crblurz getting $4k scholarship from A&M is TOUGH, if not in-state need based (from identified schools) or NM S/F.
All engineering students start out as General Engineering, despite what choices you listed/ranked.
@ucbalumnus gave a great description of ETAM.
A&M is a fantastic school! I have a recent grad.
But qualifying for in-state tuition is tough. A&M doesn’t dangle or match scholarships from other schools.
Big fan of Mississippi State! SEC, land grant school, Greek life, vet school, creamery on campus, and they give lots of $$. Miss State reminds me of a smaller scale Texas A&M-steeped in tradition.

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I can’t get NM S/F because I missed pSAT 10 & 11. A&M was sort of my shot in the dark. I like MS State but I’ve heard it’s a little hard being out of state and not knowing anyone there. My tuition there is so cheap. I like the SEC parts but I am not a party or greek person. Being as realistic as possible I’ll probably end up having to make a decision between Alabama, MS State, and hopefully UCF. Just based on either rejections or acceptances with little to no money. I do like hearing the cowbells when they play football. :slight_smile:

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Miss State is far less ‘Greek’ than Alabama. The cowbells are great! Lots of OOS & Texas kids attend Alabama and State-due to tuition/scholarships and easier to get into vs our flagship schools, UT and A&M.
Both State and Bama are beautiful campuses (we toured both).

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We have tours planned that I’m looking forward to. I think I have a slight lean toward Bama. I originally wanted to stay close but tuition and cost of living up here is insane. Virginia schools OOS are a down payment on a house and northeast schools are just as bad.

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I’m not even kidding and you can read many stories on here - those who visit Bama - it’s game over. I was shocked my kid dumped Purdue. Something about having his own room and shared bathroom with one kid did the trick. That and it’s beautiful.

NC State engineering is a good 20 minute walk or short bus ride away. Different campus. Same as FSU.

Do you have relatives in Florida or Texas? Kids do get homesick.

Florida Tech is small. Embry Riddle is similar. Have you visited. There’s a poster on here whose daughter goes there. I forgot who but if they come on they can advise on experience. Lots of aero surrounds it.

In the end, you can only go to one school so if something turns you off, remove it. My son removed Florida Tech because they allowed smoking on campus. Lots of Intl kids…

So find the right one but affordability is key.many do get homesick going to college so I understand the concern.

Ms state is also nice but you should visit schools b4 making the decision. If you prefer smaller, you might add UAH - and you can fly to it !!!

I would research UAH. I heard isn’t good. You should find out….ask to speak to a student ambassador. I know hockey is big there.

UCF you’ll get in - and will get some money. Is it enough ? Given what’s around it, I’d be concerned about clearing out weekends. I don’t know. You might look into that too.

Don’t go with I hear. Do the research. Talk to advisors and students at the schools.

Good luck.

Ps as Greek as schools are, it’s easily avoided if not your thing.

No matter where you go to college, you likely won’t know people but you’ll meet them. Bama, due to the $$ is 60% OOS. Ms State is really nice too. More like auburn. To me.

It’s a great time. Don’t be afraid. Take advantage of all each will offer you. With FaceTime family is just a call away.

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Congratulations on your Bama acceptance. I am sure you are aware that not only does Bama have over 1,000 NMF winners, generous FA, they are also the largest Greek community per the web page.

You also may want to google “Bama Rush” to have context regarding Greek influence on campus. Perfect fit for many just making sure you have a sense of fit for your specific preferences.

Good luck.

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And as you commented elsewhere, much of this is old news :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(Most “new posters” read and lurk for a while before posting).

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@crblurz you already have four acceptances which is terrific. If you want to pick a couple reaches, fine, then go for it. But really they should only be schools you absolutely want to attend if accepted and are going to be affordable for your family.

For context…one of my kids did 2 EA applications and 1 rolling. Then asked if she could add a reach. She did…and was not accepted.

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My bigger thing was just wanting to be able to feel like I made a choice. I have a family/good friends everywhere except Alabama and Mississippi. That’s why I applied to more schools, sort of a comfort I guess?

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OP has a great set of schools - and I hope they go and see them vs. diminish them - and obviously there is concern with being new and alone in a different place - and that’s not easy of course and a decent percentage of students struggle this way - until one day they don’t and they can’t imagine having been anywhere else.

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You can reasonably assume that “new” posters read the forum for a while before they post. They need to get the lay of the land and familiar with the threads, the format, that they are researching and are reading information about their college search, etc. Sharing new information on a thread that hasn’t been posted elsewhere is not “old news”. But IMO repetitious info posted in many, many threads , likely read by posters gathering info about college apps. is.:woman_shrugging:

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I’ll assume future posts will be providing guidance to the OP.

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