<p>Hello:
My daughter is in senior year of very competitive HS in San Jose bayarea. She has always pushed herself, took mostly APs in her entire sophomore, junior, and now in senior as well.
Due to that her course load has been very rigorous.
Her current GPA stands at: 3.78 UW, 4.25 W, with SAT at: 2260 [710(Reading), 750(Math), 800(writing)].
She did decent in her subject tests as well:
Chem: 760,US hist: 730,Literature:710,Math: 760
She worked both sophomore, junior summers in start-ups, gained incredible experience.
She got DECA international finalist, plays piano, junior tennis, but not much to elevate her.</p>
<p>Here are my couple of questions:
I think my daughter is in top 30% of high school, considering ONLY UW GPA, does colleges look at student rigor, which is not visible through UW GPAs?</p>
<p>Which colleges is best match for her profile, for engineering. We are open to both private, out of state as well.</p>
<p>Thank you “mom2collegekids” & “barrk123”.
From the school website, the decile ranking is listed only on UW GPA, I just sent an email to counsellor for the confirmation.</p>
<p>It is stretch on finance front, but manageable if the school is worth it.
Ok with UCs, but concerned about 5+ years it takes to complete graduation.</p>
<p>She is considering - Computer science or Electrical engineering.
Also she is considering one of this college - CMU/RICE/NORTH WESTERN as early decision applicant? Is there a chance with ED ?</p>
<p>Berkeley and UCLA have among the highest 4-year graduation rates of any public university in the US (about 70%).</p>
<p>In general, 4 year graduation rates tend to track selectivity, since better prepared students are less likely to need remedial courses, take light course loads, or fail courses. For an individual student, the risk of late graduation tends to be based more on the student’s own characteristics than the school. A student like your daughter would likely be capable of easily graduating in four years even at a less selective school with a low four year graduation rate like Cal Poly Pomona (about 8%, despite the offering of a [4</a> year graduation pledge](<a href=“http://www.csupomona.edu/~academic/programs/grad_pledge/index.shtml]4”>http://www.csupomona.edu/~academic/programs/grad_pledge/index.shtml)).</p>
<p>I am not sure I see the issue here. Your D has a weighted GPA of 4.25 and an SAT score, that for the graduating class of 2013 in California, would put her in the running for National Merit qualification. Further her SAT II’s are all over 700, she attends a rigorous high school and you have stated that you can manage full tuition. So if she is looking at schools like CMU, Rice and Northwestern she should be just fine. I would also suggest looking at some reach schools that have good engineering programs such as Cornell.</p>
<p>Your D has a weighted GPA of 4.25 and an SAT score, that for the graduating class of 2013 in California, would put her in the running for National Merit qualification.</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>National Merit qualification is based on the PSAT score. We don’t know what this student’s PSAT score is.</p>
<p>I would have her apply to the UCs, Santa Clara, and various other schools that may give her merit for her stats. UMich might give her some, Rice not sure (M+CR may need to be higher).</p>
<p>If it will be “a stretch” to pay for some of these schools, I would advise another plan. It’s hard to go four years and not have SEVERAL pricey unexpected family expenses…car repair or replacement, major appliance replacement, home repair, dental work, etc. We’ve seen kids having to leave their schools because the family can no longer stretch to pay the bills. Heck, there was one kid here who couldn’t return in the fall because the money set aside for EFC was spent when the home AC had to be replaced. </p>
<p>Another expense that families often don’t consider when their kids go OOS is travel costs…to and from school in fall and spring, and those pricey rates at Christmas. And, especially if a parent (or parents) wish to travel to help with move in, move out, etc. The first time we went to help our older son move into his grad school apt, we were surprised how much it all cost…airfare, hotel, rental car, food, etc Both kids had gone to undergrad instate, so this was a shock for us.</p>
<p>She is a good enough candidate to get decent merit aid at engineering schools that have it - examples would be Case Western, RPI, WPI, RIT, probably Northeastern or BU as well. I think she will have lots of options. But she should visit schools to see what type of environment she likes.</p>
<p>Yes, colleges consider rigor as well as weighted GPAs. Some will have their own weighting formula so her UC/CSU GPA might be different from her high school’s weighted calculation.</p>
<p>Does she want large school or small? Heavily theoretical or more hands on? Is she assuming grad school or working right after her undergraduate degree? These considerations will help narrow down her target schools.</p>
<p>Does she have computer programming experience already from her summer jobs? Is she taking Calc BC and AP Physics C this year? These are factors in a student’s success in Computer and/or Electrical Engineering - the better prepared she is going in, the more likely it will be that she can graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Have you been to Cal Day at Berkeley or the Engineering Open House at SJSU? They’re both in April so they might have been too early in your timeline for 2013, and too late for 2014. You might tour both sometime in the next month or so, and add in Santa Clara if you have time, just to have some points of reference. </p>
<p>Also consider Harvey Mudd if she wants a small school and Cal Poly SLO if “learning by doing” appeals to her.</p>
<p>@HarvestMoon1 said "So if she is looking at schools like CMU, Rice and Northwestern she should be just fine. I would also suggest looking at some reach schools that have good engineering programs such as Cornell. "
So you don’t think those schools listed have good engineering programs? I disagree.</p>
<p>@paisahunt – If you are trying to get merit aid to reduce the cost, step one level down to the schools that offer merit aid as well as financial aid. These are great schools if you are fine with paying full freight. Rice and CMU have some merit aid, but not too much; NU and Cornell do not. Also, I believe that the more competitive the school, the more likely they will ignore rank and weight her GPA themselves. And the school’s academic profile will matter more to them.</p>
<p>Do run the Net Price Calculator at each university’s website, and think carefully about where the money can come from. If you don’t have the full likely cost of attendance already in a safe place, you may want to think about affordable options as worst-case-scenario back ups. Your daughter qualifies for a number of automatic merit-based scholarships and many competitive merit-based scholarships that you can read about in the threads at the top of the Financial Aid Forum. Have her take a look at those colleges/universities and see if any could work for her as safeties.</p>