Junior Starting College Search

College Search & Selection
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<p>Here are my stats and extracurriculars:</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 unweighted/around a 4.6 weighted</p>

<p>SAT: 2150 (first sitting without really studying well, definitely retaking); 760 CR, 710 Math, 680 Writing (11 Essay). This is an improvement from my PSAT this year, which was a 207 with 740 in CR, 66 in Math, and 67 in writing. </p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests: 760 US History, 740 Molecular Biology (taking Chemistry, Spanish, and Math II in June)</p>

<p>AP: 5 on AP Biology (9), 4 on AP US History (10). Taking AP Chemistry, AP Euro, and AP English Language in the spring. </p>

<p>Rank: Our school doesn't do rankings, but out of a 200ish person class, I'm fairly certain I'm in the top 5 or 10 students in my grade. I'm extremely competitive in my school even with the other 3-4 kids whose schedules are a little bit tougher than mine.</p>

<p>Class Schedule: </p>

<p>(our school grades by semester so first letter will be first semester and second will be second semester. If there's a letter replaced with (N/A) that means the class was only a semester long.)</p>

<p>9th grade:
AP Biology: A/A
English 9 Honors: A/A
Geometry Honors: A/A
Spanish II Honors: A/A
World History Honors: A/A
Debate I Honors: A/(N/A)
Digital Media: (N/A)/A</p>

<p>10th grade:
Chemistry Honors: A/A
English 10 Honors: A/A
Algebra II Honors: A/A
Spanish III Honors: A/A
AP US History: A/A
Computer Programming I Honors: A/(N/A)
Debate II Honors: A
Computer Art Electronic Imaging: A</p>

<p>11th grade: (only first semester)
AP Chemistry: A
AP English 11 Language and Composition: A
Precalculus Honors: A
Spanish IV Honors: A
AP European History: A
Writing Center Tutoring: not for credit</p>

<p>Ethnicity/Race: Puerto Rican (I was born in the US but both of my parents are from the island)</p>

<p>Competitive private high school in Florida; it sends the majority of its kids to University of Florida or Florida State University.</p>

<p>ECs:</p>

<p>My main thing is debate, so I'm going to have a section just for debate stuff and then a section for everything else. </p>

<p>Lincoln-Douglas Debate (9-11, probably later)</p>

<p>9th grade awards: (novice)</p>

<p>4th place at a local tournament
Top 8 (Quarterfinalist) at a national tournament
Top 8 (Quarterfinalist) at the national novice Championships (Also 4th speaker)</p>

<p>10th grade awards: (JV)</p>

<p>Top 2 (Finalist) at big name national tournament and Top Speaker
Top 32 (Sexto-Finalist) at the most competitive national tournament in my division</p>

<p>11th grade awards: (so far in Varsity)
Top 32 (Double-Octafinalist) at a national tournament in the highest caliber (if you want explanation of how these tournaments are ranked ask)
Top 16 (Octafinalist) at national tournament</p>

<p>Debate leadership:
Co-Director of Lincoln-Douglas Debate. I coordinate practices and rosters for tournaments as well as teach novices how to debate. I have a good shot at Captain senior year.
Summer Debate Camp Instructor: In August 2010, I helped run a summer debate camp for incoming novices to the program. I taught them how to debate. So far, they have been pretty successful in their novice divisions. </p>

<p>Debate Education:
I've been to two nationally competitive debate summer camps, for 2 and 3 weeks each respectively. I also attended the summer camp I taught at in 2010 my incoming freshman year.</p>

<p>Other things:
Hospital volunteer: (11) I volunteered 4 hours a week this semester (I can't do it next semester) at the local pharmacy in my hospital. I'll have about 60 hours and it is pretty similar to work experience since I have a shift and a manager. </p>

<p>Pre-med club: (9, 10, 11) I was the Club Representative in 10th grade. Didn't get a leadership position this year because of a technicality. </p>

<p>NHS: (11) National Honor Society</p>

<p>Mu Alpha Theta: (11) Math honor society at our school. We have to take 4 membership exams. I do as well on them (still taking them) as the people in BC Calculus. </p>

<p>National Spanish Honor Society: (9, 10, 11) </p>

<p>Honor Council: (9, 10, 11) Our school has a strict honor code, and I've been on the council that reviews violations of it since my freshman year. This council is selective.</p>

<p>Given all of the above, I have about 150 hours of community service.</p>

<p>I'm interested in chemical engineering and chemistry. My top choice is Rice, so I'm looking for schools similar to Rice. Size can be small to medium, but nothing enormous. Location doesn't matter to me since I'm the most indifferent person in the world when it comes to weather as I've traveled the country in various seasons for debate and never really had a problem with weather. I realize that my SAT math score needs to go up if I want to do engineering, but I'm good enough at math that I'm sure I can accomplish that. I see and like the appeal of LACs but want colleges that offer engineering so I have options, which is why I like Rice. I will not need financial aid but merit-based aid would be nice if I can get it. I'm looking for strong science schools where the students are happy.</p>

<p>Can I have suitable safety, match, and reach schools given my stats above? The only one I really know for sure is Rice. If you need any more information, tell me: I feel like I didn't include enough but that's because things like size and location don't really matter to me that much. Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>Rice certainly seems like the perfect fit based upon your criteria. If you like smaller schools that also offer Engineering, you might want to look at Bucknell, Union, Lafayette and Lehigh. Furman has an outstanding Chemistry program and one of the best Mock Debate teams in the country, but no Engineering. That may be worth a look as well. Good luck to you!</p>

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<p>Harvey Mudd, Rose Hulman, Case Western, Swarthmore</p>

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<p>@Bobby: Wow, I didn’t know that about Furman, and my school has a good number of seniors going there each year. That’s awesome!</p>

<p>@GeekMom: I also really like Harvey Mudd. What would I need to have a good shot there, since it’s really selective and seeing that you have a son that goes there?</p>

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<p>Like all schools these days, every year is ever-so-much harder than the previous year. You have as good a shot as anyone, better if you’re a girl. I think they really would like hearing about your debate (but not to the exclusion of STEM) - they want well-rounded, communicative people. Other than that, I really don’t know - passion, essays, letters of recommendation - the standard stuff. Everyone must take Chem, Phys, and Calc in high school. Be aware that 1) they don’t have chemical engineering, just engineering, and 2) they only have STEM majors.</p>

<p>And another school to look at is Olin.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the advice so far!</p>

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<p>you are probably taking a scholarship</p>

8

<p>wow I’m amazed at your grades… :S
You’ll definitely do really well on the Chem SAT II. I took it without studying much and it wasn’t that bad.
I heard that Rice is really good for top students as well. :stuck_out_tongue: My friend’s a senior applying for a chem major so she already finished her college apps.
do you have any SAT study tips? I feel very unprepared right now… I’m taking my first one March 10.</p>

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<p>* I will not need financial aid but merit-based aid would be nice if I can get it. I’m looking for strong science schools where the students are happy.
*</p>

<p>engineering…</p>

<p>Do you know what discipline within eng’g that you’re interested in?</p>

<p>Are you also pre-med?</p>

<p>So, your parents are willing to pay for wherever you get in? If so, you’ll have lots of choices.</p>

<p>What do you like about various schools? for instance, what do you like about Rice?</p>

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<p>I’m only really interested in chemical engineering or general engineering programs that let me specialize in chemical engineering in terms of engineering.</p>

<p>I plan on being pre-med, since my top two job choices are either a chemical engineer or a doctor in my mind right now, and if anything just to to keep my options open since any field I could imagine majoring in (chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering) would only require a couple of extra courses (biology) to fulfill pre-med requirements.</p>

<p>My parents are willing to pay for wherever I get in. Financial aid is not an issue; I only mentioned merit aid because my parents are going to reward me for getting merit aid by giving me some of the money they would have spent on the tuition otherwise. </p>

<p>I like Rice because everyone seems really happy to be there, and it has an intellectual atmosphere. I like the location a lot, but I’m not going to out right reject anywhere else (besides maybe Hawaii and Alaska :P). I like the depth of the courses offered at Rice as well. For example, since I do debate I like philosophy (not enough to major in but definitely to dabble in), and Rice is one of the few schools that offers a course in meta-ethics for undergrads. Similarly, its chemical engineering and chemistry departments offer really interesting electives. Finally, I like the medium size of Rice: not too small, not too big. If I had to pick between the two extremes, I would pick too small, but neither will turn me off from a school.</p>

<p>Also as an update to the OP, I’m eligible for the National Forensic League All-American All-Star Award, and my coach informed me this weekend that I am going to be a captain of the debate team my senior year. Additionally I will probably qualify for National Hispanic Scholars, and I will try to get as far as I can in that competition since my SAT scores meet the requirements for advancement.</p>

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<p>Harvey Mudd is probably not a good choice for pre-med because they have less grade inflation than most schools.</p>

12

<p>Check out Tufts and Brown.</p>

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<p>Lafayette College in Easton, PA is a LAC of about 2400 students. About 25% are engineering majors. Lafayette has a generous merit scholarship program called the Marquis Scholarship for which you should be in the running, based on your stats. [Lafayette</a> Scholarships Tuition & Aid Lafayette College](<a href=“http://finaid.lafayette.edu/financing-your-education/types-of-financial-aid/scholarships/]Lafayette”>http://finaid.lafayette.edu/financing-your-education/types-of-financial-aid/scholarships/)</p>

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<p>Thanks, so far all of these places interest me.</p>

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<p>An offbeat choice that is at least worth throwing out as a possibility: [Olin</a> College Profile - SAT Scores and Admissions Data for Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering](<a href=“http://collegeapps.about.com/od/collegeprofiles/p/olin_profile.htm]Olin”>Olin College of Engineering: Admissions Statistics)</p>

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<p>Will they reward you for choosing a school that just costs less?</p>

<p>You may want to consider University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. It has a very good reputation for chemical engineering, but its out of state list price cost of attendance is significantly less than most other out of state public schools and private schools (about $29,000 per year, versus up to $50,000 or more per year).</p>

<p>[Costs</a> and Aid](<a href=“http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/costsaid/tuition.html]Costs”>Cost of Attendance | Office of Admissions)</p>

<p>Of course, University of Florida costs even less, at around $20,000 per year for in state students.</p>

<p>If you are considering Florida State University, be aware that its engineering school is shared with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, which has a lower list price cost of attendance by a few thousand dollars per year.</p>

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<p>A few LACs do have engineering programs. The course offerings won’t be nearly as broad as what you’d get at a large engineering school (or most big state universities), but they’d be more than sufficient to meet your pre-med needs. </p>

<p>Swarthmore is the most selective LAC with engineering (not including Harvey Mudd). Less selective match/safety possibilities include Bucknell (a small university), Trinity College (Hartford), Lafayette, and Union College. Bucknell, Lafayette, and Union all offer merit money.</p>

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<p>Lafayette and Bucknell sound really cool, but I’ll look at those new schools too. Thanks everyone!</p>

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<p>Use [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) to search for ABET accredited chemical engineering degree programs; this may be easier than going to each school’s web site to find what they offer.</p>