I am currently a junior in high school, and I am curious where I stand for college admissions
GPA: 3.62 (Top 20% percent of class, projected to go up to a 3.73 after this year. Got a 3.4 freshman year, and 3.8 sophmore year. Weighted GPA on schools 4.0 scale is a 3.95)
ACT: 34 (Superscore 36 after 2 tries)
AP Tests:
Computer Science: 5
World History: 4
Physics 1: 5
Currently taking…
Calculus BC
Physics C
Statistics
Economics
SAT II World History: 800
Physics: 770
Math II: 800
Biology: 800
I am a white male, from a very rich town in NJ. I am very low income, and attend a top STEM HS
4 years of Model UN, President senior year
Founder of engineering club
Member of volunteering club all 4 years
Member and treasurer of robotics team all 4 years
Member and officer of programming club all 4 years
Junior EMT
Treasurer of Letter club
Raised over 25k for cancer research
Started non profit that hosted basketball tournaments to raise money for Autism
Held job all 4 years of high school, helped support family
Essays, recomendations, were all very good
High honor roll every quarter
NJ Public Forum debate state quarter finalist
Winner of 2 essay scholarships
Questbridge finalist
If you are from a low income family, many of your “match/safety” schools will be reaches because they will not give enough financial aid unless you win a big merit scholarship. Try the net price calculator on each college’s web site.
Add some more safeties. Hope quest bridge works out for you. BTW - very well done. Would Stevens technology be a good one for you if merit comes through since it’s instate?
Add more private schools, like Case Western Reserve U in Ohio, that meet full demonstrated need. RPI is good, keep it on there, and CMU has pretty good financial aid as well. Look over the Quest Bridge schools, how about MIT, Tufts, and others on their list? Quest Bridge students get top priority at MIT. Congratulations on getting through their tough process.
Will Quest Bridge give you aid for non Quest Bridge schools on your list?
GaTech has some of the worst OOS aid, and NO merit to speak of for out of state students. (they offer 40 students
from out of state , the in state package, and thats out of thousands of students, next to impossible to win).
Purdue offers out of state students merit, you could win that. I know a middle income Tennessee student who
got more than $40,000 in merit over four years. Purdue is also one of the least expensive OOS prices of the ones you list. Michigan is the very highest costs, and Michigan charges more tuition for junior and senior year, so be sure to account for that, when you calculate the costs of U of Michigan.
Stevens Institute of Technology is private, so the in-state versus out-of-state tuition issue with state universities is not relevant there. But check the net price calculator to see if it is affordable (if not, treat it as a reach because you would need high end merit scholarships, not just admission).
Add more Quest Bridge partner schools. Look at Wash U St. Louis, maybe, and Yale needs more engineering students as does Brown. They are not as strong in engineering, as your top choices though you can get a great education at any Quest Bridge partner school. Caltech or MIT, maybe as well, you have BC Calculus, and thats going to help you there. Caltech is much easier for white males than MIT is, so maybe focus on Caltech, even though its very far from home, they offer top financial aid.
Quest Bridge can open doors. Let them help you pick the match schools for your record.
@Coloradomama trust me, I would definetely want to consider a lot of these schools, but I feel like their way too out of reach. Does only being in the top 20% skew my chances a lot? From friends and family I’ve heard that a 3.6-3.7 will set you back when it comes to Ivys, MIT, Caltech, etc. I definetely will consider Wash U.
For questbridge, I put down MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Yale, Swarthmore, Brown, Wash U, Duke, in that order. I was really considering going a lot lower, but I realized that if I have a big opportunity like this i should go for the schools I want. If I don’t apply, I will probably regret it.
WashU Engineering is OK, but there are way better choices to be honest. BME is the best program there and CompSci is all right, but you can likely find a better school for Engineering.
Congratulations! You raised over 25k for cancer research!
What are your possible majors?
Check out robotics related cancer research at WPI @ https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-and-albany-medical-college-developing-robotic-system-treat-brain-tumors They are very involved in biomedical research at the undergraduate level. The average unweighted GPA of the current freshman class is 3.87. You would be a match, but your “other” activities can be the icing on the cake. The entire university is all about undergraduate research.
“Caltech or MIT, maybe as well, you have BC Calculus, and thats going to help you there.”
Most applicants to Cal Tech or MIT will have taken BC Calc as a junior, if not sophomore. They’ll be taking Linear Algebra or Differential equations as a senior, most likely at a community college. So it will be competitive, but not help.
OP: Congrats on being selected as Questbridge finalist. As suggested upthread, have them help you pick a good match.
As backup, apply to NJIT Honors College - possible full ride including housing. It’s a separate application than the regular one, so you do have to make that extra effort. Rutgers also offers scholarships, but I think they’re much more competitive, considering your GPA.
I would second Stevens, RIT and WPI as being worth looking into.
UVA meets 100% need for OOS and has good engineering. NC State, WPI, and Northeastern are all good in engineering. NU gives very good merit aid. WPI does as well but it has been skewed heavily towards women in recent years.