Looking for match schools and/or safeties 8)

College Search & Selection
1

For a little background I’m a rising senior that’s a white male with divorced parents, income is around $150,000 from mom and step-dad but I also have a sister going to college at same time. I’m pretty much open to all schools but I’d like to keep it close to the Northeast area. At the moment I have a bunch of reaches like Tufts and JHU but I want to have some schools that would be just right or easy for me to get into. I appreciate any and all suggestions. My stats are below:

GPA: Upward trend:
HS Classes in Middle School: UW: 3.6 W: 3.98
Freshman: UW: 3.91 W: 4.20
Sophomore: UW: 3.96 W: 4.39
Junior: UW: 4.0 W: 4.47
Overall: UW: 3.91 W: 4.30

Class Rank: Not given, but I’d estimate top 10%

SAT: 1500 (770M 730RW 17 Essay)

ACT: 34 (35R 35W 34S 31M) and then on other ACT got an 8 on the essay

APs: APWH (5), AP Lang (5) , APUSH (5), and AP Calc BC (5)

Senior Sched: AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Gov, Dual Enrollment Academic Writing and Calc III, then advanced band class.

SAT 2: Taking Physics and Math 2 in August, expecting 700+

Academic Awards: Chemistry Achievement Award, High Honor Roll all semesters of HS (so far), got some generic school award for course load, rigor, and school involvement. I think I got AP Scholar with Honor. NYS Scholar Athlete 3 years in a row

Major: Looking to go into Bioengineering or Biophysics

ECs:

Cross Country (1 year) Sprint coach told me to do it and I struggled.

Indoor Track and Field (3 years) Made all league team for two events and was honorable mention for my areas 1st team in the 2017-2018 season. No official captains appointed but I always played a leadership role, teaching the ropes to newer kids for handoffs, blocks, and form. Same could be said for outdoor.

Outdoor Track and Field (3 years) Made all league team for 3 events and was honorable mention for areas 1st team for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Summer Track (3 Years) Ran for a club, Qualified and ran in the Junior Olympics in Kansas.

Jazz Band (3 years) Was with normal jazz band freshman year then was accepted into the advanced jazz band for my sophomore and junior years for trumpet. I’m also in the honors wind ensemble. We meet twice a week for an hour all year.

I’ve done volunteer work here and there with cleaning up local parks or doing charity events with the track team and it probably adds up to around 50 hrs.

I should get into NHS in the fall and plan on joining math league or the trivia club since I’m not going to be doing cross country.

Essay: 8/10, I think I’m a pretty good writer, but the essay definitely won’t be perfect.

Recommendations: 7/10, Got one from my Physics teacher who loves me, another from my Anatomy teacher, and a final one from counselor that’ll be generic.

Thanks again
:smiley:

2

Lehigh, RPI, RIT and come to mind to consider for more match schools. Clarkson for a safety.

3

UNC Wilmington, Rutgers, Memphis

4

The University of Rochester.

5

Pitt too!

6

Case Western Reserve U https://engineering.case.edu/ebme/ and http://physics.case.edu/undergraduate-programs/undergrad-degree-programs/bsdegree-phys-biophys/
WPI https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/biomedical-engineering
and Stevens https://www.stevens.edu/schaefer-school-engineering-science/departments/biomedical-engineering
would all be great choices. All three are Division III if you want to run in college.

CWRU in particular gives good merit aid and is a full-need-met school on the need-based aid side.
Also there are music opportunities there through the Cleveland Instituted of Music.
And there’s a ton of BME and biophysics research there, between the engineering school, the biophysics grad program, and the med school. This seems like a school that could hit both the financial and academic sweet spots for you, as well as being a possible fit sports and music wise.

7

Many state flagships in the NE have the majors you want and should be admission matches for your stats. Many directional state universities would be admission safeties. Whether their OOS sticker prices ($35K-$60K) are affordable depends on your budget.
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php?table=public&state_code=ALL&id=none&sortby=out_state_cost&sortorder=DESC#colleges

Check out UMCP, Penn State, Rutgers, Pitt, Virginia Tech, NC State

Private school possibilities include:
RPI
URochester
Bucknell
Lehigh
Case Western
RIT
Northeastern
Boston U.
WPI

Drexel
Clarkson

Be sure to run the online Net Price Calculators for any that interest you. Try to clarify what your family can afford.

8

Good lists of schools we researched, visited, etc. Just saying we really loved WPI and Case Western. I’ve really gotten to know scores of schools well over the last half dozen years, and WPI surpassed expectations by more than any other school. It has a much closer gender balance than most peer schools. Really blown away by the campus, campus vibe, and students. Very hands on and project oriented, if that is a plus or minus. Case is pretty generous with merit aid, awarding significant amounts to a high % of applicants. Lehigh, at least 3-4 years ago, distributed it less widely. I liked Rochester a lot too.

If you really want to focus on merit aid, I love this handy merit aid chart from Miami of Ohio, a very nice, excellent school, with engineering. Note these numbers qualify a student, but don’t guarantee aid. There is an early application deadline to be considered for aid. This is true at other schools as well. And, they super-score for admission AND merit aid.

http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/

Good luck!

9

Seconding case and wpi + all flagships they provide merit money - in particular look into Temple and UDel.