(Current junior)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m currently a junior, but I’m having trouble making up my college list (i.e. to determine my match/safety schools).
These are the schools that I’m interested in - U Michigan, UC Berkeley, UCLA, NYU

Basic Info
• Gender: Male
• Ethnicity: Asian (a huge minus, I know) - Int’l Applicant
• Prospective Major: Materials Science & Engineering
• School: A small Episcopal private school
• Location: North Carolina

Standardized Tests
• ACT: 30 (R: 30; M: 35; R: 23; S: 31; W: 23)
• SAT Math Level 2: 800
• SAT Chemistry: 800, 770

GPA
• 10th: 4.00(UW);4.31(W)
• 11th (1st semester): 3.86(UW); 4.36 (W)

AP Courses
• AP Calc AB (10th; 5)
• AP Chem (10th; 5)
• AP Calc BC (11th)
• AP Mechanics (11th)
• AP Music Theory (11th)

Summer Program
• Engineering Innovation at Johns Hopkins

Achievements
• AMC12 School Winner and AIME Qualifier (only once)
• School Honor Roll

ECs
• Math Club (Founder & President)
• Chem TA
• Peer Tutoring
• School Choir
• School Chamber Group
• School Theatre/Musicals
• Choral Society of Durham

Can someone please help me with college selections and how to improve myself as an applicant?! Thank y’all in advance.

2

And I’ll be taking the ACT again in March and April.

3

What is your financial situation? That is a big factor in recommending colleges.

4

@intparent I’ll apply for financial aid for places like NYU, but for the most part, money is not an issue.

5

So your parents have and are willing to pay a quarter of a million dollars for your education with no need based or merit aid? It looks like you are an international applicant (so I assume you do not have citizenship or a green card) so aid will be hard to come by. UCLA and Berkeley will give you no aid, and cost about $55K per year for an out of state student. Michigan is comparable.

I’d say NYU is probably a high match, but as an international you may not get aid - their aid for domestic students isn’t great. Michigan and Berkeley are reaches because you are OOS, your ACT is good but not great, and you are international.

What is your safety? Can you get in-state tuition in NC (not sure about their rules for internationals who live in state)?

You might look at U Minnesota - Twin Cities. Less expensive out of state/int’l tuition than most major universities.

6

@intparent What aspects of my application do you think I need improvements upon (i.e. my ACT, GPA, ECs)?

7

Test scores to start with. Your ECs are pretty average, but you are not shooting for the very top schools. But your test d ores will limit you. And if you can’t afford NYU without aid, you probably can’t afford the rest either.

8

yeah, out of state uc’s are very expensive, and are usually not very generous with finaid. if you qualify for in state tuition i’d definitely apply to unc and nc state (not sure how good unc engineering is although i know nc state is very strong, so maybe not unc) definitely re-take the act since you have time, and aim for higher scores in reading and english, in order to get a high superscore, or even just a higher composite. maybe check out georgia tech, uiuc, purdue, and any other school you think you may be interested in. keep in mind that many of these schools get lots of int’l applicants, especially for engineering, so, assuming you are an international student, it will be harder to get in.