hi, i am a high school junior in new york city (staten island to be exact). i am really trying to narrow down my list of colleges, since i know that i will have to decide soon enough. i am a potential engineering major and i am female, so i hope this will help me, as well. another factor is finances since my parents make about 70000 combined and can only help me with about 6000 a year (which is a problem among the colleges on my list):
-i am in an extremely competitive math and science institute in my school (only about 60 are chosen out of about 1000; 4000 kids total in my school)
-SAT: taken twice, but will take a third time, for now it super scores to 1840.
-ACT; Will take at the end of the year
-SAT II: Will take at the end of the year
-GPA: around 4.2 weighted
Rank: top 6%
-All my classes for the past 2 years have been honors or ‘institute’
-APs: Bio/US/Eng Lang (this year) Physics/Eng Lit/Poli Sci/Calc AB/maybe Psych (next year)
-apart of SING for 3/4 years
-apart of my student council for 4 years (senator sophomore year, vice president junior, and unsure about senior year for now)
-broadway club
-debate club
-i volunteer at a nursing home every year
-apart of national honor society (potentially for 2 years)
-will have 2 great recommendations from my precalc teacher and my apbio teacher
-currently in a pilot ‘ap’ computer science from UC Berkeley that only of handful of schools have and i am in the only class that my school offers
-i volunteer at my local temple (i am jewish)
-i have taken part in a meeting or two in my city’s borough hall with my local politicians, with the goal of helping young, intelligent teens find the right career goal and meet with mentors
some colleges i am interested in are:
-Hunter
-City college
-Binghamton
-Stony
-New Paltz
-Northeastern
-Boston University
-Stevens
-Carnegie Mellon
-NYU
-nyit
-university of Pennsylvania
-dartmouth
-princeton
-harvard
-cornell
I am open to all criticism and advice:)
Don’t apply to NYU, it is going to be way too expensive for you.
For the bottom 5 schools, you probably have to retake the SAT and aim for a 2100 at the minimum to stand a real chance.
Keep up the good work.
Also, if your parents can only pay 6000 a year, that could be a real problem. Perhaps take a look at this website:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
If you do well on the SAT, you could probably qualify for most of the full-tuition or full-ride scholarships listed.
Even at Ivies, you might still be expected to pay more than 6k a year, as your family’s income is middle-class, so your main priority right now is finding financial safeties.
There is a New York Stem scholarship for SUNY and CUNY students, look into it.
Macaulley honors through CUNY is free but very competitive. Cooper Union? New York Polytechnic which was taken over by NYU last year although it does not have a great social reputation, it is not in Manhattan. You may get more money for going there than NYU would normally give someone in liberal arts.
Your SATs are fine for some of the schools but for the more competitive ones you need to raise them to the 2100-2200 range. Perhaps try the new SAT or the ACT (over a 32). Yale might be a better option than Princeton because they want engineers. You still have plenty of time to prepare. Focus on getting your SATs/ACTs before worrying about SAT2s.
What about WPI or RPI? They can be generous if you are above their percentiles. There are tons of good engineering schools, how far will your parents let you go get one of those college list books from the library?
Do the net price calculators to get an idea of what your parents will have to pay. There are plenty of people who attend Ivies for $5000 a year and many others who pay the full amount and everything in between.
Thank you both so much! Yes, I realize that I need a higher SAT score for the ivys, so hopefully I can score a little higher on the one this week. I might just send in my ACT scores if they turn out better, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. I am very much into the Macaulay program, but I’m scared that I won’t get in because of how competitive it is. @rdeng2614 I will definitely check out that link, thank you. You’re right, finances are a priority for me. @SeekingPam I will definitely start doing net calculators, I never really thought they were accurate, but I will try. They will let me about 4 hours away, so those schools sound good to me, I’ve heard about RPI, but wasn’t sure if the environment was a good fit for me (I still don’t quite know the environment where I want to be, sadly). Wow, I didn’t know that about Yale, that’s great information. Thank you both so much, this helps me tremendously in my college decisions.
Why not add MIT, Tufts University, WPI and RPI to your list for extra reading.
You are a good student.
- Be confident and look with a critical eye for a personal fit. If you are not successful in college, it will not because of your HS preparation or because of your test scores. "Other" factors come into play. You need to get excited about what you want. Work university web cites. As you read, you will develop questions and discover more about yourself.
- They are not selecting you, YOU are selecting them! Select ten or so for a closer look.
- What do you really like to do outside of the classroom?
- Check out the average financial aid profile awarded to their students. Most of these schools are well endowed. You will show financial need because they are expensive. One of these schools was just given a single donation of $40,000,000 to add to their endowment for the sole purpose of helping students pay the high tuition cost.. People want to help you..we need you...BUT,
- Always pick at least one lower cost (usually public) school that you feel fits you. Be selective here too.
- Remember, admission is only one step in a process. Your success upon graduation is the goal.
- Tour selected campuses this summer. Go loaded with questions.
The right fit is not luck.
I would scratch off Tufts. It is a nice place and will give financial aid but is not as generous as some of the others. I know this is far but both UChicago and Wash U have been generous with aid in recent years (I was surprised about Wash U but one of Ds friends was offered amazing money, off the wait list. If your parents say they are too far, point out that getting to Chicago is like taking a bus, there are flights every hour. If they needed to be they could be there within a few hours. The ivies, especially the HYPS but Penn as well are very generous. Since you are in New York, Cornell has lower tuition for some of the schools and fairly generous financial aid. Plus you would get a little bit of extra money from New York Tap. Columbia Engineering is another option, as is Brown which is less than 4 hours away. When you do the calculators make sure you have your parents true financial picture, income, assets, home equity and medical or other extraordinary expenses.
@SeekingPam @retiredfarmer thank you both for your responses. they are very much appreciated.
Your SAT is too low. Reevaluate your choices. If you’re having trouble paying for college, why apply to the Ivies?
Bottom five, probably not. 
NYU is a little pricy. Northeastern and BU, you have a pretty good chance. Idk enough about the other schools.
Chance back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19209443#Comment_19209443
WashU is not a good suggestion for you; they are notoriously test-fixated, and your scores are not competitive. I don’t see the Ivy colleges on your list as likely. You have an edge at some colleges, as a female engineering candidate, but as a NYC Jewish female needing financial aid, you are less appealing to many other colleges. RPI is a good suggestion: you might get a nice aid package, although your scores are a little low. What was your Math score? That is the most important component for Engineering schools. If your Math score is below 700, you will be wasting time and money applying to Ivy League colleges and Carnegie-Mellon. Look at test-optional colleges, via Fairtest.org. Some of them must have Engineering programs.
Come back after you get your sat scores back. Right now, almost all of these schools are reaches. An 1840 superscored is barely above the 25th percentile for BU, 140 below the 25th percentile for NEU, and way below for the ivies and dartmouth.