thank you for this suggestion!!! I will be making a spreadsheet like you said very soon, and i’ll update it over the summer : o
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hmm alright. im just afraid that my recommendation letters from my STEM teachers won’t be really great, but my technology teachers’ recommendation letters will be very good. they’ve taught me in their classes before so it’s not a club advisor. I feel like recommendation letters will make a difference in my application so I don’t really want any mediocre letters : (
What does your "technology teacher"teach? Is it PLTW or a “career” (vo tech) class?
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He teaches a career tech class but he also teachers PLTW classes
he was also a club advisor so he’s seen me working and my leadership skills as well! I believe that he would vouch for me well : )
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Yes, this is a good person for a rec letter.
Some colleges look at them others they are nice, but more optional in considerations after meeting other thresholds.
Okay, sounds good. 
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hmm, I know a lot of people here advised me to not spend any time on UMD since it is very competitive. however I still really am looking into it 
I think I want to give it a go with EA and just see what happens. or ED and if it’s too expensive I can back out right? Not sure but I want to see how much it would be for me and If it’s affordable I’d love to go…
UMD only has EA, not ED - so yes, you can give it a shot and see how it works out.
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“As a publicly funded institution, UMD is unable to provide financial assistance to international students.”
Non-Maryland Resident Rate is $59,290
https://financialaid.umd.edu/resources-policies/cost-attendance
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A college on your list that does provide aid to international students and has a preference for ED is Union College.
“Last year, the average aid recipient contributed more than $25,000 (annual expectation), with over 75 percent of our international aid budget awarded in the two Early Decision rounds. Need-based awards ranged from $20,000 to just over $70,000, with an average of $51,000 towards the year’s comprehensive fee of $79,722. Financial aid is limited and competitive, so it is important to adhere to established deadlines.”
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I checked out their website. I really value research at whichever university I will be attending and I want there to be lots of hands on work, but it seems like Union College doesn’t have much research activity going on. I feel like I’d rather pay more to be able to attend somewhere that I can get involved in lots of research and have various labs and facilities nearby, instead of pay less to not be able to gain formal research experience. I’m also currently pursuing research and it’s a passion project so I hope you understand why it matters to me! 
I think I’m leaning very heavily towards UBuff. I talked to my counselor about applying to uminnesota and uw madision and she says I should give it a shot, I think I’ll apply EA to both and see what happens. I really love their labs and facilities 
also, could a mod please change the thread title? I’m no longer interested in biomed but aerospace/materials and mechanical. also my gpa is 3.4 now and my SAT is 1420 and <$30k/year
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Madison and Twin Cities aren’t going to be under 30K/year. Not even if you had the stats to get merit. Does your guidance counselor understand your budget constraints?
You could check out U of Utah. Strong STEM, lots of research. A little far, but there are lots of direct flights to SLC and easy access to campus from the airport. And Utah offers a path to residency after the first year… so you’d have to overspend for one year (about 50K OOS), but then your annual cost would drop to under-30K for years 2-4. If you have the flexibility to scrape up funding for the first year, it could work.
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Not a mod, but done. 
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Agree with this re: Twin Cities, although it gets pretty close. Our OOS S23 received $20K merit ($15K regular merit which is the max standard OOS scholarship, + $5K special named scholarship) and with those, the COA according to our spreadsheet would have been about $35K. However, his stats were a bit higher. So it is likely to end up out of budget. It’s an excellent school though, I’m feeling a bit sad my kid didn’t pick it!
I agree that Utah is a great deal with the path to residency.
U New Mexico has generous merit scholarships that should get the cost below $30K with your stats. I don’t know if you like cars, but they have an awesome new facility for their Formula SAE program 
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Although… I just remembered why I didn’t suggest Utah earlier - I don’t think you can get the residency deal, since you’re international. I’m not 100% sure of this though, since you do qualify as in-state in NY, so maybe they’d honor that and let you qualify? I think the odds are against this but it could be worth asking.
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I totally forgot to update this here today, but: one of my parents got a raise recently!!! 
My guidance counselor understands that my family would PREFER under $30k a year. but we can now afford up to $35k a year because of the raise. last night I was talking to my mom about colleges and she informed me that if I get in somewhere oos then they can try and push it to $35k. The budget mostly stems from how much they are willing to pay (so preference of <$30k) rather than how much they are able to actually afford (which is around $35k).
I’m mostly concerned if I’d even get in at all into Madison and Twin Cities. I have yet to ask my guidance counselor about sending in my individual grades for the first quarter of senior year (which I know will be immensely beneficial). I’m also retaking the SAT this weekend and one more time (so 4 times overall, I heard that’s bad but if I’m going to superscore it shouldn’t matter much, right?).
I will check it out and let you know!! path to residency seems interesting I never knew that was an option.
Thank you!!!
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Hmm that sounds interesting!! What major was he going for? edit: also if you’re comfortable, I’m curious about his stats
and yeah Formula SAE seems super duper cool and I will def be joining such clubs during my undergraduate
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I’m going to ask my parents to check it out and see if it’s viable but I feel like I could just stay in NY instead? vs U of Utah. Because I feel like bing/buff are comparable to that university and I’d already qualify for in state tuition here : )
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I will pm you, so as not to clutter up this thread