<p>Hi!! :) I'm an upcoming senior and a little bit of a procrastinator, so when I was looking at my college list, I became concerned that all my schools were too selective. If you guys could help sort these into safety, target, and reach (I'm afraid most will be reach) that will be super helpful and informative. Also if you have any recommendations for other schools for me to apply to that are on the level on safety/target please let me know too!</p>
<p>I'm an Asian-American girl from MA if that matters as well.
Prospective major: engineering (maybe biomedical or mechanical idk yet)
Unweighted GPA: 3.88
Weighted GPA: 5.01 (out of 6.3 scale)
SAT I (this is single score because my super score was only 10 higher)
Math: 800
Reading: 720
Writing: 710
ACT: 33 (I don't think I'll send this in because I ran out of time on the essay and wrote 1 1/2-pages that got cut off in the middle of the sentence and scored an 8 lol)
SAT II Bio: 740
SAT II Math level 2: 730
AP Bio: 5</p>
<p>ECs-
*President of Community Service Cooking Club
*Secretary of Best Buddies Club- our club has gotten the highest rating possible rating at the national conference and we're a candidate for most outstanding in the state if that is relevant. Also largest club in school.
*Co-editor in chief of school newspaper
*JV softball for 3 years and captain
*member of national honors society and Spanish honors society
*part time bookstore job for 2 years, 15 hr/week
*weekly volunteer at the public library
*only award is the Bryant book award (does that even count?)</p>
<p>College list:
Boston university
Carnegie Mellon
George Washington university
Lehigh
Northeastern
Purdue
RPI
UCLA
Umass Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Rochester
Tufts
Washington University in St. Louis </p>
<p>There are other schools my parents will want me to apply to which i know are long shots like: UNC Chapel Hill, Brown, Rice, UC Berkeley</p>
<p>Also I'm new on this website so please be nice everybody! :)</p>
<p>Here’s schools that are considered to be the best for both mechanical and biomedical engineering as well as engineering in general (as per USNWR’s peer review rankings); this should help if you think about adjusting your list:</p>
<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology - High Reach
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor - Mid Match
Georgia Institute of Technology - Low Match
Stanford University - High Reach
University of California - Berkeley - High Match
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign - Mid Match
Purdue University - West Lafayette - Low Match
University of Texas at Austin - Mid Match
Cornell University - Mid Reach
Carnegie Mellon University - High Match</p>
<p>Your list:</p>
<p>Boston University - Low Match
Carnegie Mellon - High Match
George Washington University - Mid Match
Lehigh - Low Match
Northeastern - Low Match
Purdue - Low Match
RPI - Low Match
UCLA - Mid Match
Umass Amherst - Safety?
University of Michigan - Mid Match
University of Rochester - Low Match
Tufts - Mid Match
Washington University in St. Louis - High Match</p>
<p>Do you have guaranteed or near-guaranteed admission to any of these on financially favored terms? If not, go to Parchment and see if you have 90%+ odds at getting into any of them and what scholarships you have a very good shot of getting there. Right now, I think you have a lot of matches (especially Low Matches) that increase the size of your list to 13 (not good for a procrastinator!). Your profile looks standard by CC standards (so pretty good), meaning you have to distinguish yourself from other applicants (especially at Stanford) through really emanating swagger and all the attributes they want from your application itself. If I were you, I’d focus my list on high matches and it would look like this:</p>
<p>SAFETY - 1</p>
<p>University of Massachusetts - Amherst (apply to scholarships, Honors, etc. as well)</p>
<p>MATCH - 6</p>
<p>Purdue - low match
Tufts - mid match
UCLA - mid match (likely to get expensive!)
University of Michigan - mid match
Carnegie Mellon - high match (likely to get expensive!)
Washington University in St. Louis - high match</p>
<p>REACH - 2</p>
<p>Stanford - high reach
MIT - high reach</p>
<p>My parents have a decent salary, so the financial standpoint isn’t a huge aspect for my family (although a merit scholarship would make me happy) I’m more worried about if I will get into any schools.</p>
<p>“Isn’t a huge aspect” – have they assured you that they can afford to contribute enough to make list price affordable at all of your schools? Or have you run the net price calculator on each school’s web site and they have seen the results and assured you that they are affordable?</p>
<p>Thank you so incredibly much! you went above and beyond in your answer with all the supplemental information and I really appreciate it all! 
I know that I will have a tuition waver scholarship (from MCAS) for UMASS and I’m 99% sure I’ll be accepted to the honors program because I meet the requirements of top 10% of class and A- average grades</p>
<p>Not all that sure how to reply to comments on this website but to ucbalumnus:
I’m absolutely sure that my parents want me to reach out and apply to as many schools regular decision as possibly (they don’t think those 13 schools are nearly enough) and then they can compare financial aid packages when I get accepted. Basically its not an immediate issue that I need to look into. They are extremely willing to pay all application fees.</p>
<p>@jennyful To reply to a specific person, just begin the comment with “@[their username]” and it gives them a notification if they have it set that way; it doesn’t work if their username has two parts, though (e.g. Erin’s Dad).</p>
<p>Spamming and applying to a lot is a risky strategy (saying this from personal experience)- you want to make sure all your apps are really high-quality and you have enough time to do your homework on what each college wants in its applicants. If something goes wrong and you end up with unexpected obligations, you should still be able to complete all your applications and give your very best shot. You don’t want to have to wait a year to apply again, after all.</p>
<p>You should still run Net Price Calculators, though, so you can figure out what each school is likely to offer and get rid of expensive ones if needed. There will be some tricky ones (like Carnegie Mellon; it’s rumored that they assign each applicant a number reflecting how much they want them to attend and then assign financial aid, but that’s likely not true- in any case it’s really weird here with FinAid) but NPC’s overall give you a very good idea of how much need-based aid you’ll get since not everyone uses the FAFSA methodology.</p>
<p>@divideofzero that is an excellent point about applying to a lot of schools, and it was something I thought about initially before my parents convinced me otherwise. I’ll absolutely look into the net price calculators which was not something I considered before this thread. thanks again for all the info!</p>
<h1>6 for public colleges, you usually have to apply early (before Nov 1) to be considered for merit aid.</h1>
<p>@scholarme oh wow thanks so much for letting me know! i had no idea that i had to apply early for purdue for scholarships. are most schools like this or do i need to look at each individuals school website to find out?</p>
<p>Check each college’s website, usually under Fin Aid / Scholarships.</p>
<p>A&M might be a much safer safety than UT if you are a National Merit Finalist (which seems plausible based on your test scores). They are usually ranked in top 10 or so for MechE most years so similar engineering rankings.</p>
<p>Has out of state merit scholarship money too.</p>
<p>I second @2018RiceParent. If you’re a NMS or NMF, find a state school (usually flagship or almost-flagship) that gives you full tuition+ or a full ride(+) just for being an NMF. It’s the best kind of safety- if you can’t decide and don’t mind the atmosphere, A&M is a perfect safety.</p>
<p>safeties must be absolutely affordable, absolutely some place one will get into, absolutely some place one will attend if all else fails, and, of course, have one’s major.</p>
<p>since only UMass shows up as a safety for you (I do suggest two safeties in case the app gets lost at one), can you afford to go there? there are only two ways to answer this question: 1) ask your parents if they’ll pay the full cost of attendance at UMass, or 2) run the net price calculator and then ask your parents if they’ll pay the EFC.</p>
<p>does UMass have your major?</p>
<p>can you go to UMass and be happy attending there if you don’t get in anywhere else?</p>
<p>A negative answer to any of these questions means you don’t have a safety.</p>
<p>Jenny, I like your list. You don’t need any more. </p>
<p>If you are in MA, then UMASS is definitely a safety. Furthermore, both Northeastern and UMASS have early action and need nothing more than the common app and trivial supplements. Apply early action and you will likely have two safeties before other applications are due. Purdue is rolling admissions so apply there too. You also want to apply early action to Michigan. </p>
<p>If you apply to these 4 schools before Nov 1, IMHO, you will go into the Christmas season with at least 3, but most likely 4 admissions. </p>
<p>In terms of costs, OOS publics will give you the least amount of money. </p>
<p>Also, about that full tuition scholarship for UMASS. UMASS tuition is $1714. The fees are over $10K. The scholarship only covers the $1714 tuition. Disbelieve all you want, but thems the facts. </p>
<p>Hey guys! Thanks for all the info and @2018RiceParent and @dividerofzero unfortunately I was not a national merit scholarship qualifier so I don’t think those will apply to me. @ClassicRockerDad why is it that OOS publics will give the least amount of money? I had the idea that they might be cheaper because they tend to have lower tuition rates that private institutions but perhaps I’m mislead. Also those 4 schools are a GREAT early action plan. Thanks a lot, and I’ll definitely be doing that to relieve some stress from applying to all of them in January. I’m still a bit nervous I may not get into UMich or Northeastern for regular acceptance (I would NOT be interested in NU-In acceptance) but that may just be silly self doubt. </p>
<p>I would prefer for my second safety to be near Massachusetts for job opportunists (I want to live in Boston later on), closer to home, and a general opinionated preference of the area. So I’m not very interested in applying to any Southern schools (I like my snow!)</p>
<p>In general, flagships do not offer OOS applicants much aid or offer them nominal aid because they want to spend their money on the state’s taxpayers instead of on people who’ve paid no taxes to the state. There exceptions. Not every school is a UC or UMich. </p>