(i’ve only just signed up for this website, please let me know if this is inappropriate or if i should take it down!)
so i’m a junior now, and looking for colleges i should start researching. i haven’t done much research into colleges yet, and i’m kind of panicking over it.
south korean (1st gen immigrant, moved in elementary school. on visa rn)
female
middle class
living in southern california (suburbs area)
i want to major in computer science, or something chemistry/physics/other science related. i’m also considering going in undecided though. (any opinions?)
looking for a more urban setting. not completely necessary but i do want a change of scenery
no preference of state or region
SAT1: 1550 (770 EBRW, 780 M)
PSAT: 1510 (selection index 226)
AP tests: took biology and european history (both 4s) last year
currently taking calculus ab, english lang, and computer science a. i expect to do well on these, since i’m doing well in the classes.
GPA: 3.85 unweighted, 4.17 weighted (cumulative over 2.5 years)
if it matters, i’m managing all A’s right now and i’m taking more challenging courses now than freshman or sophomore year
i also took advanced physics and am currently taking honors chem, because they were the highest level courses and my school doesn’t offer AP for those
marching band 4 years, winterguard 4 years (or at least planning on it)
classical piano for 10+ years, i took the certificate of merit tests which i finished in freshman year (level 10)
violin for 5 years, school orchestra for 2 and district orchestra for 1
some volunteer hours for various things, but never continuous and not that many
i’m also applying for part time jobs currently to earn money
please lmk! and no comments about how lacking i am in extracurriculars/leadership, i know all that already and commenting about it won’t help me
Start with your college budget? Eligible for Need-based aid and/or are you looking for merit aid?
CS is highly competitive and many colleges that have CS in the Engineering school, admit by Major so check each school of interest to determine if going Undecided will be problematic (especially the UC’s and Cal States).
Obvious California schools to consider all the UC’s, Stanford, Santa Clara, Harvey Mudd, Cal Tech, Cal Poly SLO and Pomona, San Jose State and San Diego State for CS/STEM majors.
Out of state depending upon budget, look at University of Washington, Arizona State with Barrett’s Honors College along with University of Michigan.
thank you for the response! i’m going to look for merit aid, but it’s not a complete necessity. if i get into a college that i really really love, i’ll go without aid.
i plan on a couple UC’s and university of washington as matches, and higher UC’s and caltech as reaches, but i don’t have any safeties. do you have recommendations for those? i’m not exactly sure how to start looking.
A safety school would be where your stats are above the 75th percentile, is affordable and you are willing to attend no matter what.
Based on your posted stats, San Jose State, Cal poly Pomona, UC Riverside and San Diego state (consider the Weber’s Honors college) would be possible safeties.
You will unquestionably be a National Merit Semifinalist, and will almost surely advance to Finalist, so so you should also look to see which colleges provide good merit for National Merit Finalists.
There are colleges which have full tuition scholarship for NMFs, and many colleges have smaller, but still pretty decent scholarships for NMFs. I think that Arizona State and U Arizona have full tuition scholarships, but I may be wrong.
Are you the first in your family to attend college, or just the first to be born in the USA?
both my parents attended college and received bachelor’s degrees. and i was actually born in korea, i’m just a permanent resident here.
thanks for the recommendations!
U of Rochester could be a good fit. They’re very strong in your academic areas of interest and also a great place for musicians - they will value your music EC’s. It’s considered an urban school, although the campus itself is more urban-adjacent vs. right in the city. About 27% of URoch’s undergraduate population is international, many from Asia, so it you’re interested in having a Korean-speaking community, you’ll find it there. You’d have a decent chance at some merit aid.
Case Western Reserve U in Cleveland could be another good possibility. They have a joint music program with the Cleveland Institute of Music, and they’re great for STEM… and particularly great for undecided students, as they have an “open door” approach to moving among majors. Nice urban campus that you might like.
Neither of these schools has a marching band, though - is that something you are hoping to continue? U of Miami is a good one to look at if you want a good marching band program and still strong sciences. This would be a low-match/safety for you and I think you’d get good merit. Reachier schools with marching band include Vanderbilt, Northwestern, USC, and Notre Dame. (USC gives good merit for NMF - at least half tuition and sometimes full tuition… and it’s also a good place in terms of flexibility to change and blend majors - good music performance minor options for students in other majors, too.)
Another great school for musician-scientists is St. Olaf in Minnesota. CS and the sciences are very strong there, but there’s no engineering. And it’s not urban - it’s about 45 minutes outside of Minneapolis. But for a student whose EC’s and possibly a lot of her social life have centered on music, the music-saturated campus culture can be very appealing. This would be another low-match/safety for you.
Northeastern also gives good NMF merit, and a very strong College of Computer Sciences with terrific co-op opportunities. Their CS+X combined majors (one example: https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/program/bs-combined-major-for-computer-science-and-physics/ ) might appeal to you. There’s a lot going on musically both on campus and nearby - the Boston Symphony and Berklee/Boston Conservatory are right in the same neighborhood.
And as others have said, you could likely get good merit at a number of strong OOS flagships, some of which also offer reciprocity rates to CA students through the Western Undergrad Exchange.
thank you so much for so many recommendations, i’ll definitely look into all of those! i would love to continue music as a hobby through college, but marching band might be too much of a time commitment for me. U of Rochester sounds especially great, i’ll definitely put it down as an option.
Based on your criteria, I agree that the University of Rochester might suit you really well.
If you would like a change of atmosphere from the suburbs, a rural or small town setting would provide this as well (while being appropriately collegiate), but it doesn’t sound as if this represents what you have in mind right now.
With to respect to entering college with an undetermined major, this is a common approach at many, particularly private, colleges, at which a major wouldn’t be declared until the second half of sophomore year.
Regarding your search in general, you shouldn’t feel panicked in any way. Now is a good time to have started.
WPI is another that might appeal. I keep hearing great things about their music programs, and it’s an excellent and innovative STEM school, with access to both the smaller city of Worcester, and the major city of Boston a short commuter-rail ride away.
Agree that you’re not behind at all! Keep up the good work and do your research on a range of reach/match/safety schools you could be happy with, and you’ll be fine!
What are your summer plans? If you don’t mind working with kids, summer camp jobs can be a way of logging a form of leadership experience, while still making money… and you could look for specialty camps in the areas where you have interest and skills. Hiring cycles are getting underway for many programs.
that’s a relief to hear, i was just worried because it seems a lot of juniors have future plans already. this summer i’m going to apply to a couple summer programs (girls who code, cosmos) but i’m not really expecting to get in because they’re extremely selective. therefore i’m planning on applying to teach at gateways for a month or so, and i want to secure a part time job (at a bookstore or tutoring maybe) that i can continue through senior year. i’ll try looking for summer camps as well, since it’s nice to have a lot of options!
