help! need match schools!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I am a female Junior at a public/magnet high school in MD. I'm looking to major in biology, maybe biomedical engineering.</p>

<p>I have my reach schools (Yale, MIT, Brown, Harvard, Hopkins, Columbia, Stanford)</p>

<p>And some safety schools (UMD, UMBC)</p>

<p>But I need MATCH schools.</p>

<p>SAT: 2340 (740 CR/800 M/800 W)
GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.6 W
AP: World History (4). Currently taking Calc AB, Physics B, Environmental Science, US History, and English Lang. Plan to take (senior year) Calc BC, Bio, Chem, English Lit, maybe Stat/Physics C</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
*Field hockey for school - JV Captain 10, Varsity Captain
*Club Field hockey
*Lacrosse for school - will try for captain
*NHS - will try for President
*Spanish Honor Society
*Tri-M Music Honor Society
*Math tutoring volunteer
*Peer Pals - will try for vice president
*Green Team - will try for co-president
*All County Orchestra
*Chamber Orchestra
*SAT prep tutor
*Girl Scouts
*Summer Internship at Johns Hopkins Bayview doing biomed research</p>

2

<p>A safety is a place where you are absolutely guaranteed admission based on your stats, and that you absolutely know you can pay for without any aid other than federally determined (by FAFSA) and/or guaranteed state aid and/or guaranteed merit aid from the college/university itself. UM-CP and UM-BC are pretty safe for your stats, albeit not perfectly safe. Have you run the Net Price Calculators at both websites to see how safe they are financially? If they aren’t read through the guaranteed merit-based scholarship threads in the Financial Aid forum.</p>

<p>Depending on your budget, there could be scads of matches for you out there. How much can your family pay? More than what the NPCs indicate they will be expected to pay, or less than that?</p>

<p>How far are you willing to go from home? Is California OK in general, or just Stanford? Is the Midwest OK? What about the South? Do you want a residential experience, or is a commuter/suitcase school other than UM-BC OK? Do you want a heavy STEM environment, or more of an LAC feel but with strong STEM programs?</p>

<p>What about Smith?</p>

3

<p>I’m willing to go anywhere on the east coast or California (I have family there). I don’t want to be anywhere not on the coasts.</p>

<p>My parents only make about 50k a year, so I really need schools that cover 100% of financial need. </p>

<p>I really want a residential experience. </p>

<p>I don’t have a preference for the STEM environment, I just want to make sure it has strong STEM programs.</p>

<p>And I definitely want a co-ed school</p>

4

<p>Then you will want to start your search here:
[Colleges</a> That Claim to Meet Full Financial Need - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2012/02/16/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need]Colleges”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2012/02/16/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need)</p>

5

<p>IMHO, you’re a very strong student.
I view matches as between 40-90% rounding to the nearest 10%. </p>

<p>Hopkins is about 40% except for biomedical engineering
Cornell 50% - female engineer
Carnegie Mellon 50% - very strong student for both science and engineering
Lehigh 70% - female engineer
Tufts 60% - female engineer</p>

<p>Anything else that I can think on a coast of that HAS biomedical engineering is a safety except Penn, Princeton, CalTech and Duke which are probably reaches, but not unreasonable ones.</p>

6

<p>How did you conclude those percentages? The overall admit rate for the Engineering school at Tufts is 26% (the university as a whole is 21%), and I suspect the engineering applicants are not overwhelming male like they are at science/engineering focused schools (like RPI). So I don’t think her odds go from 26 to 60%, though her stats do match up very well with accepted students.</p>

7

<p>How about Boston University, University Of Pittsburgh, Boston College (maybe high match), and since your in Maryland UM College park (low match/ high safety). What are you looking for location wise?</p>

<p>Also I hear Tulane offers a lot of merit aid. Not sure about any of these colleges biomedical engineering programs though.</p>

8

<p>University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania (I think)
University of Southern California
University of California at Los Angeles</p>

9

<p>USC seems looks like a great choice as a match school for you.</p>

<p>I would also look into Tufts (high match) and Boston University (low match/safety). Case Western Reserve and CMU (high match) would be good, but they are not on a coast.</p>

<p>I agree with rimthegreen that Boston College would be a good match school to look into, but they do not offer any engineering majors, so that should be taken into consideration.</p>

<p>Michiganbaby94, UPenn cannot be considered a match for any applicant, imo. Penn is very selective and would probably be a low reach for the OP.</p>

10

<p>

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<p>Because this student has way better stats than an average Tufts applicant (not student, but applicant). Her odds a priori are much higher than 26%. I guessed at 60%. </p>

<p>However using our school’s Naviance, its closer to 80% in her Naviance neighborhood, and that’s with a lot of data. </p>

<p>It’s definitely a match.</p>

<p>I would think that for this student, Penn engineering would be about 30%.</p>

<p>USC is a great choice for a match that I missed.</p>

<p>In our Naviance, Boston College does not reject anybody with stats like that. They also have early action, so can be almost a safety if applied EA.</p>