<p>Senior. My non-safeties are as follows:</p>
<p>Penn State UP
Georgia Tech
Duke
Stanford
Johns Hopkins (first choice)
Case Western Reserve
UMich (haven’t applied yet, still considering.)</p>
<p>I applied biomedical engineering or engineering undecided for all these schools. Yes, I know JHU BME is competitive. I would love to go there even if I’m not accepted BME.</p>
<p>Without writing up my entire “Chance me” profile, these are all pretty much reaches save Case and Penn State.</p>
<p>2180 SAT (single sitting), 95/100 GPA, Interesting and passionate ECs, many leadership positions, good supplements.</p>
<p>Have you applied to Shreyer? You’d have a definite shot and it’s an AWESOME programs with all kinds of perks (such as living in upper-class dorms right in the middle of campus rather than in cramped dorms far out, trips, internships, scholarships, great classes…)
[How</a> to Apply: Schreyer Honors College](<a href=“http://www.shc.psu.edu/future/apply/index.cfm]How”>404 Error: Page Not Found - Schreyer Honors College (SHC) at Penn State University)
It’s a bit late but if you do it <em>today</em> they may still consider you.
Other than that, Penn State should be a safety indeed.</p>
<p>How much can your parents afford? If they don’t have $45-50,000 in the bank set aside for each year of your education, Georgia Tech and UMich are unlikely to be affordable (remember that as a freshman you can only take $5,500 in loans).
Duke, Stanford and JHU BME are obviously reaches for everyone, but one could do a lot worse than going to Penn State UP for engineering 
especially if you give yourself a shot at Shreyer.
And I just read your screen name 
so obviously you’re not a junior :p</p>
<p>Yeah, unfortunately, I didn’t apply to Schreyer. I decided to apply to Penn State pretty recently (I know, it’s pretty dumb of me given my situation), so I missed the Jan 15th deadline. I’m going to call admissions tomorrow to see if I could still be considered for Schreyer if I submit tomorrow… Which means I’ll have a lot of writing to do lol</p>
<p>Do it today and submit tonight.
Odds are they’re just starting reviewing everything.
When you call tomorrow, say you submitted on Sunday because until Friday you didn’t think you’d qualify but an adult told you that you could.</p>
<p>What if I went with the “I never seriously considered PSU in my college search until recently and now I’m upset I didn’t apply earlier” approach?</p>
<p>are your first gen? URM? from a lower income or a rural/lower-income area?</p>
<p>“I never seriously considered PSU before” won’t work… especially since it’s kind of insulting to Penn state! You should really go with the approach I told you above, and/or explain that you’re 1st gen or from a rural area where nobody’s pushed you toward PSU but you decided to apply on your own, and now someone told you about Shreyer except it’s past the Jan 15 deadline but you have everything ready and submitted (or ready to submit).</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re right. Now I’m not an URM or first gen, I’m actually a legacy (mom is alum at PSU), but I will most likely get a decent finaid package wherever I go. I have five siblings, two in college, one in a tuition school, with income ~100k.</p>
<p>I will do as you suggested and get started on the Schreyer supplements! I honestly have no idea why I didn’t apply to Schreyer. Perhaps when I first applied to PSU I considered the honors college out of my league!</p>
<p>This is the second time somebody on CC convinced me to apply somewhere. Sheesh!</p>
<p>Ugh, I had 2 of 3 Schreyer supplements completed when I called their office this morning. They told me to not even bother submitting it. They said it wouldn’t even get reviewed.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>It’s too bad your mother didn’t make you apply to Shreyer.
I’m very sorry.
I guess the deadline was firm. Perhaps you’ll be able to get through Gateway - you need a minimum 3.7 GPA your first semester. [Gateway</a> Admissions: Schreyer Honors College](<a href=“http://www.shc.psu.edu/future/gateway/index.cfm]Gateway”>404 Error: Page Not Found - Schreyer Honors College (SHC) at Penn State University)</p>
<p>You know what? I think this is better for me!</p>
<p>If I end up at PSU I’ll be more motivated to perform academically and in a research setting during the first semester. It would give me a tangible short term goal… and I generally perform very well when I have those!</p>
<p>Great then 
</p>
<p>I’m sure you’ll have lots of great choices no matter what. Do keep us updated. Students here love to see “actual results”, and indeed it makes so much more sense than “chance me” threads… :)</p>
<p>Of course! I might (probably won’t) do one more chance thread once my January SAT scores are sent to the schools that accept them, then I am doing a results thread. Where do you suggest I post that thread? On the individual university pages or a big one with all the schools on the chances board?</p>