Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): First Generation
Intended Major(s) Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.7
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.0
College GPA (for transfers):
Class Rank: District doesn’t calculate
ACT/SAT Scores: 31 ACT (Retaking in July)
Coursework (AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
4 AP’s up to date (Human Geo, AP Lang, Chemistry, CS Principles)
Taking AP Bio and AP Calc AB as a Senior
Have taken all the Honors Courses available to me (In Science, Mathematics, and English)
Awards
African American Academic Excellence Award (2 years)
Honor Roll with Highest Distinction
1st Place in State Science Olympiad (2022)
3rd Place in State Science Olympiad (2023)
Extracurriculars (Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Science Olympiad
Student Council Secretary
Education Chairman on NAACP Youth Council
Part Time Job
Volunteer at Local Nonprofit that helped my family when we were struggling
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Decent writer with unique topics to write about in essays
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Can pay a maximum of 5k per school year
Schools (List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)
I am applying ED2 or Regular Decision to most of these schools
Safety (certain admission and affordability)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
Match
Purdue University
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Reach
Vanderbilt University
Northwestern
U-Michigan
U-Chicago
Congratulations on your accomplishments in high school.
In looking at your list and budget, I wondered whether you have heard about QuestBridge. If your family earns less than $60k/year, then you may be eligible and it would allow you to apply to up to 20 top schools and wherever you match you would get a full ride: QuestBridge | National College Match
Also, you may already be aware of this Nebraska program that allows all students from families with incomes of less than $65k to attend tuition-free: Nebraska Promise | Undergraduate Office of Admissions | University of Nebraska–Lincoln. If your family lives in the Lincoln area, then that would be commutable from home and thus within the $5k budget. I would speak with a financial aid advisor about how to get other costs covered, as it appears the Nebraska Promise would use any amount from a Pell Grant as well as scholarships to pay the tuition price, but does allow for extra scholarships to be used toward housing, etc.
I would eliminate Purdue and UIUC from your list as you would not receive any need-based aid beyond the federal amounts (Pell Grant plus $5500 federal loan) which will not get you close to the cost of those schools for out-of-state students. U. of Michigan may now offer need-based aid for out-of-state students from low-income families. The only other publics that I know of that do that are U. of Virginia and U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
All of these schools, however, would be very, very tough admits. I would instead gear your search toward schools that are still very generous to students with a lot financial need but that are not as hard of an admit. Please do not make the mistake to think that they will be easy admits. They will not be easy, but they will be easier admits than the schools on your list (outside of UNL).
Bucknell (PA )
Case Western (OH) - I have heard that they are being very intentional about trying to recruit a more diverse student population.
These next two schools will be likely admits, but it may be harder to get the scholarships.
Florida A&M (HBCU): If you get your ACT score up to a 32 in July, then you may be a contender for the Distinguished Scholars Award which would cover tuition. Even with your current stats you may be able to get Presidential Special Scholarship which would also cover tuition. Both scholarships, however, have a 3.3 GPA requireYou could then use your Pell Grant and other federal funds toward room & board.
You can only apply ED to one school at a time. If you intend to ED, then you would want to 1) make sure it’s your top choice school, and 2) have your family run the Net Price Calculator to make sure it’s affordable for your family. If you’re rejected or deferred by your ED1 school, then some schools offer ED2. At any school that offers an EA (Early Action) option, you should take it.
The exception is for the small number of restrictive EA (REA) schools where you agree not to apply ED elsewhere or (in some cases) EA to some types of other schools. For those REA schools, you have to choose between applying REA there versus ED somewhere and (if applicable) EA schools restricted against.
Otherwise, apply EA where available, and apply early to rolling admission schools. Some schools fill up early, so later applicants face a higher bar for admission.
Some schools, like a Pitt or Alabama, will have merit for strong minority candidates. Other publics won’t.
I suggest having your parents run the net price calculator at some meets needs schools - Northwestern,Boston U, Chicago - a mix of meets needs schools - etc to see what they say they will cost. You can see if they agree you can only pay $5k. If they don’t, then you know these type schools cannot work unless they have a program to support URMs and or first gens.
So Purdue and Illinois are reaches. But again run the NPC and see if they have special merit for URMs. Otherwise you won’t get close to budget.
Questbridge, as mentioned earlier, could be an option depending on your family income.
Just want to echo that Purdue and UIUC would be reaches for out of state, engineering students. Be sure to find one other safety and a few other matches, as otherwise the result could end up being only one admit at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Which would be a fine result but if your child wants some options, be sure to add in some additional non-reach schools.
Edited to add that by reaches, I mean they are both academic and financial reaches. Many many kids at both schools got rejected this year for engineering who had close to 4.0 unweighted GPAs and very high test scores (ACT 33-35). Financially, both are also unlikely to offer enough aid to be in budget.
just going to add Nebraska (the state, not the school) is getting aggressive with keeping top STEM kids in the state. There’s a NE Career scholarship offered to kids to attend in-state colleges if they study certain STEM majors. It’s $8K/yr; in addition to anything the school offers; (for NE residents only). Certainly keep this on your back burner. Good Luck!
I agree with the above posters regarding Purdue being a reach for OOS engineering students. Looking at the Purdue Data Digest, here, https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/, may be helpful in this regard: the Data Digest, under the links for “Admission, Admits, Matriculations” and “New First-Time Beginner Profile” give information in an interactive format on test scores, GPAs, etc. based on different types of student parameters. You should be able to compare your statistics with those of entering freshmen from recent years.