<p>I only went to community college myself, and that was several years after high school, so this is the first I've ever experienced of the college application process. My daughter has handled all of the researching and applying herself with minimal supervision from me, and she knows some that she's applying to are pie-in-the-sky chances, but I wanted to get some feedback on what people thought her chances are at her list and, more importantly, if there are other schools she should be considering.</p>
<p>Activities: School Orchestra for 9 years, local non-school orchestra 2 years, electric orchestra 3 years, national honor society, buddies (local anti-bullying group)</p>
<p>She wants to go into electrical/computer engineering.</p>
<p>Schools:
The Ohio State University (early action) - in-state
Case Western University (early action)
University of Cincinnati (early action)
University of Kentucky (early action)
And now for the two crazy reach schools:
MIT
University of California: Berkeley</p>
<p>lol take the crazy reaches off of the list. don’t throw away 200 $. </p>
<p>I honestly can’t suggest many schools because I don’t know how schools respond to people who are in the top 5% of the class yet have relatively bad test scores.</p>
<p>She has fee waivers, so it’s not throwing anything away. It costs nothing for her to apply to up to 8 schools. And, trust me, I do understand how ridiculously far fetched those two schools are. I don’t know what more realistic schools to recommend to her, though.</p>
<p>The Ohio State University (early action) - Low Match
Case Western University (early action) - Reach
University of Cincinnati (early action) - Safety/Low Match
University of Kentucky (early action) - ???
MIT - No point in even applying imo. They are not even going to look at her application seriously.
University of California: Berkeley - Out of reach.</p>
<p>Take those two off from the list and find better math/low reach schools.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would concentrate my efforts on finding a financial safety. Can you afford these schools if she were to be admitted? (Rhetorical question, but that’s what I’d be focusing on.)</p>
<p>Try for something such as New Mexico Tech or South Dakota School of Mines. She should be fine at any ABET accredited school and those schools have very high male to female ratios.</p>
<p>Suggestions:
Run the NPCs for Union, Clarkson, RIT, Rose Hulman; NM school of Mining, MO school of Science and Technology; Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, Gettysburg as reaches (excellent financial aid)</p>
<p>Applying to MIT is a waste of time, with a 3.4 she would need to have won Siemens or international olympiads or similar.
Berkeley will not offer financial aid and since you have application vouchers I assume you’l need financial aid, so it’s pointless to apply to a school that you can’t afford (it’ll be $50,000/year out of pocket for you)
Those vouchers would be better used for prestigious schools where she does stand a chance, such as the ones named above.
You can look at the Fiske Guide (the town and/or school library should have a copy, any edition 2007+ is fine for the descriptions and student opinions) they have a special category of engineering schools. Read the descriptions for each: which one “sounds like her”? Which offers the kind of environment she’s interested in?</p>
<p>Posting this here in case someone reads this thread later and wants to know how it shook out.</p>
<p>jisaacs2215 wins the prize. She was rejected by Case, MIT, and Berkeley. Accepted everywhere else above plus Wright State University, which she added only because I required it. In the end she’s going to The Ohio State University. </p>