If you are chasing merit add Miami Ohio, Alabama, and Arizona + U of SC as others have mentioned. Even UTK and Arkansas. At a school like Bama you’d be amazed at the quality of student and facility no matter the rank. Lots of super smart go for that reason. Merit!!
I agree if a school has no app fee or essay, you have 20 common app slots. Use them. But find the schools where that would work. MS state is another as is the well respected Missouri Science and Tech. Others will say that’s a waste but other than sending in transcripts you never know what could happen. We are free tuition OOS at Charleston. Just so happens it was my daughters choice 1a. So another to look at.
If you get on certain school email lists…Minnesota, CSM, Charleston they’ll send you free and no extra essay required apps.
I can’t remember whether you’ve said you’re planning on going T.O. to any of your reaches, but for CS - I think you’d be in the high reach category for the reaches on your list and wondered whether it may be worth adding some more attainable reaches (if there is such a thing). I agree with others that it would be a tremendous endeavor for you to craft worthy applications to all six colleges on your reach list.
Additionally, given the general overall competitiveness of getting a “Yes” from UNC-CH & NC State (even for in-state applicants), and the additional layer of applying as a CS major, I would be cautiously optimistic on those. I believe you have a great chance for one or both, but nothing is a given with these two.
Finally - re your safeties: unless you love ECU, I’d take it off the list. You have enough without it. And Elon - great school but COA is around $70k. Average merit is $5k-$6k/yr - even the competitive Fellows scholarships top out at $10k-$13k/year. While you are a competitive applicant for them, the merit won’t be enough to bring $70k down to $35k.
You look great for VT (my D will be a freshman there in a couple of weeks), but they don’t give a ton of merit. COA for out-of-state is about $41k per year.
The OP will be in a better position for admission to Carolina if he can bring up his test scores (which are a “very important” admissions factor, compared to GPA which is an “important” admissions factor, in the UNC Common Data Set). Also, as has been noted before, being a resident of Wake County may not be a plus, given the increased emphasis in the UNC system on admission of students from under-represented counties and/or who come from poorer families.
Notwithstanding, I agree that the OP should be cautiously optimistic about admission to both Carolina and State.
I will definitely be taking the SAT again in hopes of a 1500+.
Also, thanks for the feedback; I’ve seen people with lower stats get into NCSU Engineering at my school so I do have hope for that.
Gotcha, yeah generally 30K is the limit for us so I’ll definitely take Elon off the list.
VT is also about the same ranking as State so it’ll def be a backup.
I am glad to see you have worked with your family to get to an annual budget. Make sure to run through the Net Price Calculators for your list as some are now reset for your enrollment year.
Keep in mind some of your final financial aid packages may not come until March or later if the decision date is end of March/early April. Even when you apply early action with the state schools…you will get accepted and then wait. With Covid related delays if was even more dragged out this year, but NCSU and Clemson sound like they are consistently behind other financial aid packages. The private schools were able to provide a clearer picture immediately and were close to the NPC Estimates we ran. In October, you can get your FAFSA forms in and that will help give you a picture of the estimated family contribution. Compare that to your $30,000 budget.
Also, each college seems to have a slightly different take on how merit, work study, etc can stack with any need based aid. You may end up with a lower cost out of state at a public flagship or at a private school.
Alrighty, here we are a good amount of weeks later. I finished my common app essay (I’d say it’s pretty good), got recommendations (pretty average, one from English, one from AP Human Geo, one from Physics Honors, and one from APES).
I also got an updated SAT score: 1510
Started supplements for colleges and I’d say they are pretty good and insightful on what I really want to do.
Admission update: Arizona State University - Accepted for CS
NEW college list:
NC State
UNC-Chapel Hill
UNC Charlotte
ECU
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
Tulane
Carnegie Mellon
Duke
Harvey Mudd
UIUC
Vanderbilt
V. Tech
RIT
USC
University of South Carolina
Purdue
Georgia Tech
UT Austin
I sat down and discussed with my parents regarding finances. My parents are willing to pay almost any amount if its a prestigious school. General goal is NC State for CS but I will go to a school if I get accepted into a more prestigious institution.
Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if any additional info is needed.
You need to go to a school where you can maximize your opportunities to learn and to be in a position to get a fulfilling job or admission to a good graduate school, whichever is your goal. This is very different from attending “a prestigious institution.”
Prestigious institutions have amazing job placement, great placement in grad school, and open up pathways for fulfilling jobs; otherwise, they wouldn’t be prestigious, lol.
They may also be prestigious for other reasons; and prestige may not have a direct correlation to job opportunities or great placement that you are seeking. You should be more concerned about getting a quality education, etc., at a place that is a good fit for you, as opposed to merely stroking someone’s ego.
You have many OOS universities on your list that are not “prestigious” - e.g. ASU, RIT, Univ of South Carolina etc. Would your parents pay for those? If not, why are you applying to them when you have safeties in your own state.
You should be aware that UT Austin takes something like 90% of their students from in state. Tulane really looks for expressed interest. Purdue and UIUC are highly competitive for CS.Many of the state universities will want an EA app for CS, provided they have Early Action. So you need to look at your list with a view to putting together a strong application in a focused way.
Yes, to some extent, but in the end it’s still more up to you than it is the school. There are no magic doors (unless your parents’ names are on the building that houses those doors)- you still have to have the drive, put in the effort, make the connections.
That said, if your ultimate goal is employment with a company that is based in RTP, for example, aiming for admission to NC State is a logical move. There’s still no guarantee however, that you’ll beat out similar applicants with degrees from Duke or UNC-CH, UNCC, ECU, etc. for a position with said company.
Not sure if your list is finalized or still a work in progress but it’s a long list with some heavy hitters on there that will require significant effort put into the applications. You have one “yes” in ASU (although I can’t recall whether you’d consider it). Given that you’re applying to a competitive major, I’m thinking ECU, RIT and South Carolina might be your only other true safeties/matches on that list with quite a few reach/high reaches (again, you have great stats but CS is very competitive). Maybe look for some additional matches and ditch some of the high reaches?
Appreciate the thoughtful response.
ASU is not something I’m considering.
UNCC is also a safety. That would definitely be in consideration and will probably go there if I don’t get into any other schools. I don’t think I need more safeties because I have ECU and UNCC, which are in-state.
Don’t I have a chance at the high reach schools? It’s really a hit or miss tbh because it’s CS but I might get into one at least since I’m applying to so many and I have good credentials.
If you were an employer at an IT company and you got two applicants that are both at the same caliber but one was from Johns Hopkins and one was from NC State, who would you chose?