<p>Colleges:</p>
<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Columbia University
California Institute of Technology
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
New Jersey Institute of Technology</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>Hispanic Male
SAT 1: R760, M710, W730 = 2200 (Single Sitting)
R760, M750, W730 = 2240 (Super Scored)
SAT 2: Physics - 780, Math2 - 740
GPA: 3.83 UW, 3.9 W
AP: 5 - AP US History, 5 - AP English Language, 4 - AP European History</p>
<p>Misc:</p>
<p>IB Diploma Candidate
Recruited Athlete - Varsity Cross Country / Varsity Track and Field</p>
<p>Description:</p>
<p>Focusing on colleges with amazing physics programs. Planned major in Physics or Applied Physics. </p>
<p>Questions, Comments, Concerns are welcome.</p>
<p>I think you have an excellent chance at your top choices!</p>
<p>Great stats!</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Good luck!! Let us know where you got in! :)</p>
<p>However, if you’re not “in-state” for UIUC or UCLA and you need aid, you probably won’t get any/much.</p>
<p>If you are applying to UCLA, why not apply to UC Berkeley as well? Both should be great for physics.</p>
<p>Add some more schools to the list if you can, you have competitive stats.</p>
<p>you probably have a good shot since you’re an URM and have solid stats. good luck!</p>
<p>Are your parents willing to pay $50K/year for UCLA and UIUC since you are OOS?</p>
<p>Being a URM is not much (if any) help at state schools. </p>
<p>You won’t get much (if anything) from your listed OOS publics.</p>
<p>Can your parents pay “full-freight”?</p>
<p>No, but I am hoping to get a lot of money from outside scholarships and from other sources of aid to help my family pay.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Do you know of any particular outside scholarships that give that much money? Typically outside scholarships are on the small side (like $2500 per year or less), which are NICE, but they don’t make much of a dent in a $50k annual bill.</p>
<p>Both of my kids got outside scholarships, but they are small.</p>
<p>While it’s nice to hope for some nice outside awards, you can’t depend or expect them. There are many kids who apply to many of these and get nothing. :(</p>
<p>Are you a National Hispanic Semi-finalist?</p>
<p>I just noticed that you might be a recruited athlete. Do you know if the schools are offering “full head” or partial head scholarships?</p>
<p>OP, I think you’re from NY? Why aren’t you looking at SUNY Binghamton or Stony Brook as a financial safety? If your EFC is very low I would look at Reed. Also consider Case Western which has good merit aid.</p>
<p>I am from NY, but I hate it. I’ve considered Stony Brook more than Binghamton (dislike), due to the strength of the Physics department, but I really do not like the location and it doesn’t feel like a school I’d be happy at. (As you can see by my list, I like the California climate and location!)</p>
<p>That answers the question of why I am not applying to Berkeley. I only wanted to apply to two OOS schools, so I picked U of Illinois, and UCLA. </p>
<p>I prefer medium to large urban schools, with large participation in sports and good facilities and resources for Physics. Thus, research universities (mostly state schools).</p>
<p>I’ve considered:</p>
<p>U of Southern California (+great location, - no cross country team…)</p>
<p>I’m really only willing to add up to 2 more schools to my list. My application to University of Illinois is already in, and I have supplied my guidance office with requests for Transcripts, etc for WPI, MIT, Columbia University, NJIT, Caltech, and UCLA. </p>
<p>Are there any Mid-western schools that have good financial aid, and would be matches for me?</p>
<p>“hoping to get a lot of money from outside scholarships and from other sources of aid”</p>
<p>Not sure what that means. You won’t get any financial aid at UCLA or UIUC. Unless you can afford $50K per year you should look at other schools. Maybe the Claremonts?</p>
<p>Just throwing this out there. If you apply to NYU-Poly, there’s a very good chance they will pay full-tuition for you to attend. You’re amazing. Anyway, you mentioned you wanted good aid, so there you have it. (hint: apply for honors!!)</p>
<p>On the flip side, lots of colleges will! Like NJIT. Did you visit btw? I never did, though it was my third choice school b/c it gave helluva awesome financial aid (I was in-state) :)</p>
<p>I like your schools though. I wish Purdue or RHIT were cheap…then I’d totlly recommend those for your consideration too. Honestly though, that’s a pretty succinct list, but maybe you need one very good financial aid safety - and that I think may be NYU-Poly. 
Academically, for you, it’s a safety. And b/c you’re also in-state, if you get into Honors, you are solid my friend.</p>
<p>Yes, I visited NJIT, it was alright, but it is not very high on my list. I was offered a full scholarship to the Honors college, so it is my financial safety right now.</p>
<p>On midwestern schools, Northwestern comes to mind. I think they have some sort of program (ISP) that is comparable in rigor to Caltech or something. I don’t know about financial aid, though. Most of the schools on your list are very generous with financial aid if your family income is below a certain level.</p>
<p>“hoping to get a lot of money from outside scholarships and from other sources of aid”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Erin’s dad is right…UCLA and UIUC will not give you aid. They don’t give OOS students aid, because they can barely give aid to their in-state students. Are you aware of that? (A good rule of thumb is that OOS publics can’t meet the need of OOS students…However, there are some OOS publics (lower ranked) that give high stat OOS students merit money.)</p>
<p>I know that you have the one safety that you mentioned with a tuition scholly. However, if you don’t want to go there (which is what I’m picking up from your post - but maybe I’m wrong)…I think you should pick another safety.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>It’s not that I don’t like it, its just that I love my other choices so much! 
</p>
<p>I was considering University of Minnesota, but was a bit wary of the cold weather. Besides that it fits my criteria perfectly.</p>
<p>I really don’t like the Northeast, haha, but I’m willing to make exceptions for MIT and Columbia.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>The fact that you love your other choices so much more is a reason to have another financial safety choice that you will really like. If you don’t get accepted or the F/A that you need, you really don’t want to feel that you were left with the consolation prize and no choices. I like kids to have at least 2 financial safeties (that they really like) so they always have a choice in the spring.</p>
<p>Well I really liked WPI, but I don’t really consider it a safety, due to the rather high tuition cost. But I also like U of Minnesota, which is much cheaper.</p>
<p>Would it be wise to replace UCLA with University of Southern California? I would love to go to LA for college, and both schools offer comparable physics departments, sizes, and other stats.</p>
<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Columbia University
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign*
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities*
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Southern California
Worcester Polytechnic Institute</p>
<p>*application submitted</p>
<p>UCLA already has my test scores and is fairly painless to apply to, so I’d rather keep my options open.</p>