<p>Hello everyone here on CC. I am back for some more help for anything that has any information. Here are my statistics. Assume my weighted and unweighted gpa to be marginally higher than what I am giving you, second semester junior grades will slightly lift them up.</p>
<p>W GPA: 3.75
UW GPA: 3.66
ACT: 31, retaking for a 32
AP Classes taken so far: AP Government & Comparative Politics, English Language & Composition, Environmental Science.
Taking senior year: AP Biology, AP Physics B, AP Human Geography, AP European History, AP English Literature</p>
<p>I took no honors courses freshman year. I took one sophomore year, and almost all junior year. All will be honors senior year. A general upward trend though in regards to GPA. Did my best junior year so far.</p>
<p>I have a few interesting ECs. I did marching band first 3 years of high school, joined many groups Junior year, especially our environmental activism team, we won a nationwide award for that as well. I was elected an office in the history honor society.</p>
<p>My intended major is engineering, most likely chemical/geological/electrical. I would prefer a smaller university however that can be hard to find for engineering schools. A lot of research opportunities would be the best. I'd prefer a rural university but that's a secondary factor.</p>
<p>We can afford about 12k ish / year. I'll run the net price calculators on all the suggestions! I'd like mostly matches by the way - places I can expect to have a good shot at getting in. Thank you for the help</p>
<p>If I get to 32, I can get the full tuition scholarship at Alabama which I am hoping to get when I retake ACT. SLU is another financial safety for me because I have a connection that will guarantee 2/3 tuition paid. </p>
<p>I’ve looked at your suggestions MYOS. My only issue is they only seem to offer generic engineering degrees (exception of Rose Hulman). I’m also under the impression Rose Hulman doesn’t usually offer much need-based aid . . . </p>
<p>Smaller schools will offer fewer engineering specialties, that’s true. For more specialized programs, you’ll probably need larger universities.
Bucknell, Lafayette, F&M, Lehigh will offer high-level degrees though and have good financial aid.
Have you run the Net Price Calculator?
An engineering college that isn’t too big and offers several different degrees is Penn State Erie: The Behrend College. It does have some merit scholarships but the Penn State system has a notoriously poor financial aid system so running the NPC would be essential (+ emailing them because I don’t think their NPC discusses merit, only need-based aid, which would be minimal if you’re out of state :()</p>
<p>I hope it does . . . I feel like our inability to pay a lot is deterring me from leaving this horrible state… I wish I was born in a different state, nothing is good for anyone in Missouri. While University of S&T is great I cannot see myself in a male-dominated university of engineering kids in the middle of nowhere . None of the other universities in Missouri seem desirable to me, except Wash U, which is very expensive and impossible for someone like me to get into, and SLU, but then I’d only be 20 minutes from home… Desperate at the very least to get the 32 on the ACT so I can flee to Alabama or something.</p>
<p>I’ll run the calculators on Tulsa & Lehigh, they seem like pretty cool options at this point.</p>
<p>Wash U is expensive but has very good financial aid. Run the net price calculators.
Why not look into Olin? It’s small and too selective to be considered a match but still worth looking into.</p>
<p>Everyone wishes they were born in a different state - the grass is always greener. Kids from FL and CA on these forums also want to go OOS. And the vast majority of students are limited by finances. A common phrase from many posters is “grow where you are planted”. </p>
<p>You’re probably right. In my head, it’s hard to like it here when there are so many good public universities in CA… but only a handful in Missouri. On par with the boringness of Iowa, from what I’ve heard all around :P. Nonetheless, I still have some decent options here.</p>
<p>Wash U would come out to around 11k a year which surprised me (before any loans), according to the calculator. And considering I would likely be commuting that price wouldn’t be that high. My GPA is probably not high enough or anything “special” about me that I’ve done that could warrant a good chance to get into that school, unfortunately. </p>
<p>It’d be disingenuous to say California and Missouri are equally good, whether for universities or for job opportunities. However, public universities from CA won’t work for your budget since they’re very expensive (we’re talking 55K/year). CSU’s can be a cheaper possibility and some are quite good depending on subject: Cal Poly SLO, SDSU, Chico Honors, SJSU Honors, Cal State Long Beach, for instance may be possible financially, look into it; these are less commuter than the other CSU’s (except Long Beach and SJSU?) but they’re still not quite residential. But they’re impacted in almost every major (meaning that even if you get into the university, you may not get into your major, or may have to go through a second selection after freshman year). In California, engineering is especially impacted, so look into doing CS at Pitzer, Occidental, LMU, Chapman, Santa Clara… Run the Net Price calculators because these universities tend to be pricey and only Pitzer and Occidental meet need. Pitzer is part of the Claremont Consortium and is more the “social justice/applications” college of the consortium (which is like a big university comprised of 5 colleges on a very large campus.) The obvious choice for engineering in CA would be HArveyMudd, Stanford, or CalTec, but both CalTech and HarveyMudd require calculus for admissions and Calc BC is pretty much the average standard for math preparation (many will have taken more than that) so they’re essentially out.
If you can pick CS rather than engineering, it’ll open more possibilities for you in terms of colleges.</p>
<p>I’m not necessarily interested in going to a public university in California. But if I were a resident of California I would have many more options available to me in terms of public universities. would USC be a possibility?</p>
<p>Also, how will having a mediocre class rank ~22-23% and not having taken any honors / AP Freshman year, and only one honors Sophomore year, impact me in these more selective universities?</p>
<p>Is the $12,000 per year including federal direct loans and your work earnings, or just family contribution?</p>
<p>SD Mines and NM Tech are small (about 2,000 students each) engineering-focused universities in rural areas. Their list prices are very low, but still higher than $12,000 per year, so you need to check if merit scholarships can bring their costs down to your range.</p>
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<p>You want rural, but do not want “middle of nowhere”?</p>
<p>Also, small universities with enough engineering students and faculty tend to be male-dominated, since engineering tends to be male-dominated.</p>
<p>I did not realize that the University of Alabama offered that at the engineering school… that’s great! I feel much more assured now. I can’t believe I signed up to take the ACT in June to earn a 32… when all I needed to get the scholarship at UA was a 30 apparently, lol. Thank you for that, I did not realize that existed when I had browsed that list previously…</p>
<p>The issue with S&T is, based off of opinions from siblings of those who have attended that school, it’s not a very exciting place… It’s a really engineering-focused school, so of course it would be male-dominated. Plus, the weather and political climate in Rolla are less than desirable, to be honest. At SLU, it’s about 58% female and 42% male, but its larger and attracts a lot of nurses (female-dominated field). I wish there could be more places like Rice. It’s fairly small, offers lots of engineering programs, but of course its super elite. </p>
<p>12k is the total family contribution. It doesn’t include loans but the only loans we’d really care to take out are the 5.5k/yr ones I can do as a student. That shouldn’t be too much of an issue, if ChemE pays handsomely after graduation.</p>
<p>The location is sort of an afterthought, I’d prefer rural but if it has everything I want in the city I wouldn’t have a problem with it.</p>
<p>Also, I was looking at Lafayette College. It offers ABET accredited engineering programs, including chemical engineering. I’ll have to run the calculator on it though.</p>
<p>At a first glance, those look like pretty cool places - especially Trinity. They don’t have engineering, but their “applied chemistry” major interests me… Additionally, at a first glance, I am eligible to apply for a full-tuition scholarship with a 32 ACT… </p>
