<p>Hello everyone!</p>
<p>My name is Evan and I am currently a high school junior.
I am looking for some suggestions on colleges to apply to. I want to major in mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>Here are some of my stats:
4.0 GPA uw, not sure weighted, but I'm taking all of the hardest classes.
ACT- have not officially taken, but 32 projected based on practice test. (36 on math, 36 on science, not so great in english/reading)
SAT- taking it next month, did absolutely terrible on PSAT (180ish, but 80 on math)
ECs:Not so great!! No leadership positions.
Math Team 3 years
Orchestra 3 years
Bowling 2 years
Golf 1 year
National Honors Society 2 years (only Juniors/Seniors eligible for membership at my school)
FIRST Robotics 1 year
WYSE Team 1 year
Volunteer work:
Designed my church's website/upload sermons
Did the same for a friend's church (used hosting site, so no programming skill/etc. involved, just aesthetics)</p>
<p>Thanks for any suggestions.
I want to find a school that would be a challenge for me, so what are the best colleges you think I could get into?
I would love to find a school with good financial aid, because my parents do not really want to pay anything. :(
P.S. I live in Illinois, but am from Minnesota, and I really like U of MN, but do not know how well I would fit, or the cost.</p>
<p>You can put “net price calculator” in a school’s search box and put in your family’s number to get a cost and financial aid estimate. Your task for finding schools becomes more difficult if the schools’ expected family contribution is significantly higher than what your family is able or willing to pay.</p>
<p>UIUC is an obvious choice since you are in-state.</p>
<p>Minnesota Twin Cities has a relatively low out-of-state cost of attendance list price. Other schools with relatively low out-of-state cost of attendance list price include the Cal Polys and Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>Berkeley is expensive out-of-state, but you can try for the [full-ride</a> Drake Scholarship for mechanical engineering majors<a href=“consider%20it%20a%20reach,%20of%20course”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>Stanford and MIT are reaches for everyone, but may be sufficiently generous with need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Remember to include a safety that you will definitely get into and which you will definitely be able to afford. If none of the above is a safety, look to other in-state public universities (e.g. NIU, SIUC, SIUE, UIC) and schools with large guaranteed-for-stats merit scholarships (e.g. [url=<a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]Alabama[/url]”>Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama]Alabama](<a href=“http://www.me.berkeley.edu/StudentAffairs/ProspectiveStudents/Undergraduate/Drake.html]full-ride”>http://www.me.berkeley.edu/StudentAffairs/ProspectiveStudents/Undergraduate/Drake.html)</a>). You can use [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx) to find mechanical engineering degree programs.</p>