<p>Chance me for CompSci?
I'm an asian male applying for compsci at UIUC, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon (maybe Stanford or Berkeley?) and I'm not really sure where else to apply to for compsci (looking for scholarships). Please let me know if I have a shot at any other top schools with a chance for some scholarship money. I have a sibling in college (UIUC) and one parent who works, around $100,000 income. Total people in my family is 5, 2 parents, me and 2 siblings (one 12 and one in college). I don't know how generous financial aid will be so I'm still looking around. I was thinking maybe applying Northwestern for Economics or any other engineering such as computer engineering or chemical engineering. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for where I should apply or how much scholarship I might get.
GPA: 4.44 weighted, around 3.9 unweighted
Which ACT should I send in?
1. 34 composite, 36 english, 33 math, 34 reading, 32 science and 9 for writing
2. 34 composite (no writing) 35 english, 34 math, 33 reading, 35 science
SAT Math II: 800
SAT Chemistry: 800
AP Computer Science A: 5
AP Language: 5
AP Calculus BC: 5
AP Chemistry: 5
Currently taking: AP Macro/Micro, AP Statistics, AP Literature, AP Physics C, Calc III (dual credit with U of I), Spanish IV
Strong trend upwards from freshman year, straight A's since sophomore year with the exception of a B+ second semester of sophomore year.
National Merit Commended Scholar</p>
<p>EC: Varsity Tennis team.
Varsity Chess team.
Robotics Club.
Very active in local church, served as small group leader two years and worship team member 4 years.
Band for 3 years (didn't take it senior year).
Currently tutor students in free time (mostly math).
Joined math team this year.
Rec letter from math teacher will likely be strong as I did very well in her class (Calculus BC).
Played piano for a number of years and passed the Piano ISMTA Level IX test.
Reffed soccer for local soccer league for 2/3 years and worked last summer as a teacher's assistant for the StarTalk program, a program by the government targeted for helping students learn Chinese.
Volunteered at the library for a number of years (60+ hours) .
Part of a Taiwanese-American program/club that volunteers in the community and earned around 20 hours of volunteering so far from it. Also probably can get 100+ hours of volunteer hours if I ask my Pastor for hours.
I have above average writing skills but not amazing or anything so I can crank out a decent essay. I also live in Illinois btw. Thanks</p>
<p>The biggest question is how much aid do you need to make a school affordable? If you don’t know already, ask your parents how much they can afford and are willing to contribute each year.</p>
<p>Check the scholarship web pages at Cornell and CMU. Not sure Cornell has any being an Ivy but it may. At both schools the scholarships are going to be very competitive.</p>
<p>Cornell claims to meet the full need of all students, CMU doesn’t. But both will determine what they think your need is from the financial info you send them and it may not be what your parents think they can afford to contribute.</p>
<p>There are schools that will give you full tuition and even full rides with your stats. Check the threads stickied at the top of this forum. Start at the end of the threads and work back for the latest lists. But the deadlines for applying for some of these are fast approaching. It may be worth shooting an applicaton to one of the guaranteed award schools as a financial safety.</p>
<p>As for the ACT scores, if a school requires the writing you will have to send the first one, if not I would send the 2nd one for CS.</p>
<p>Each school has a Net Price Calculator(NPC) on their finaid website. You should run it and see how much aid you might get at each school. The NPCs are less accurate if your parents are self-employed, own a business, own rental properties etc.</p>
<p>I would prefer to be under 20k if possible because that’s how much I’d be paying for U of I. Financial aid calculator for Cornell said I would only pay around $13,000 a year for everything. However, I would still like to go to a “top school” for engineering and get a good degree. Is Northwestern good at giving financial aid?</p>
<p>For need-based financial aid, use the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site to get an estimate. No one else can answer the question “is ___ good at giving financial aid?” for you as well as the schools themselves.</p>
<p>Then there is also <a href=“http://www.collegeabacus.com%5B/url%5D”>http://www.collegeabacus.com</a> that supposedly makes it easier to compare multiple schools.</p>
<p>Northwestern claims to meet demonstrated need, so try it’s NPC. The advice to use the NPC will be the same for any school you ask about.</p>
<p>I would go to U of I. It is top 10 in CS and you are in state. Cornell may be about the same as U of I, but CMU financial aid is not good.</p>
<p>Why not just apply to these schools and compare the bottom line cost in April? You just have to be very prepared to walk away from any school that does not meet your family financial criteria. Just make sure you have at least one affordable sure thing for admissions college on your list.</p>
<p>If you are a competitive applicant for Cornell, you might want to check the stickie above for guaranteed merit awards.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Doing so without using the NPCs to ensure that you have at least one affordable safety means risking a financial shut-out (i.e. all of your acceptances are schools which are too expensive). Off to community college you go in that case (not necessarily a bad option, but some students apparently would be highly disappointed to the point that it will affect their future academic performance in that case).</p>
<p>Agreed…you need an affordable sure thing. I thought your instate U was that affordable option. Am I wrong about that?</p>
<p>UIUC is one of those state universities that does not give very good financial aid to state residents. Its net price calculator gives a net price of about $28,000 to $32,000 (only a few thousand off of the in-state list price) for a student from an Illinois family of 5 with 2 in college with $100,000 annual income.</p>
<p>Since the OP’s sister also attends UIUC, we can assume that the total net price of both at UIUC will be about $56,000 to $64,000, which could be a stretch on $100,000 annual income.</p>
<p>I believe this student would get very good merit aid for U of Alabama. They have a great engineering school. It is possible he could get full tuition, plus an additional $2500 as,an engineering major…but he needs to apply ASAP.</p>