<p>Hello all, I'm a rising senior that has been looking into colleges recently. I have a good idea of what reach/match schools I will be applying to, but I need help finding safety schools. To be more specific, I am looking for schools where I would not only have a good chance at getting in but would also be a strong candidate for merit scholarships. East coast/midwest schools are preferred, and a strong honors program would be nice as well. A little background info might help:</p>
<p>competitive public high school in upstate NY
probably want to major in physics and/or computer science
white male, parents' combined income >150K
4.0 uw gpa/school doesn't weight/definitely top 10%, probably top 5%
35 act, 780 chemistry, 790 physics, 790 us history, 800 math 2
all honors and ap classes - will have taken 13 ap tests by graduation
ec's - editor for yearbook, math team president, paid computer science research at syracuse u, ~50 hours hospital volunteering</p>
<p>Thank you for taking a little out of your day to read this! If there is any sort of scholarship that you don't think I'd have a chance at, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it: ignorance is bliss, and I'd rather not get my hopes up!</p>
<p>You might wish to look at some of the smaller [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://www.theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://www.theaitu.org) schools which offer merit aid. Most of them have good physics and computer science programs.</p>
<p>I didn’t do too well on the PSAT - I think I’m in the commended range. </p>
<p>Some of the AITU schools are on my list of reach/match schools. However, the only thing I have against the list is that it’s mostly technical schools. While I’m definitely a math/science kind of person and those schools do offer humanities, most of the students will major in some sort of engineering. It would be nice to be around some humanities/social science majors and have access to departments strong in those areas. I’m not talking a full on liberal arts school, but some academic diversity would be nice.</p>
<p>I never knew there were so many guaranteed merit scholarships! I am in the process of looking at those.</p>
<p>Stony Brook is definitely on my radar. My only concern is that people I’ve talked to who go there/are going to go there say that if you don’t make it in to the honors college (which seems competitive) then Stony Brook is a very average (maybe even below average) school.</p>
<p>Do I really have a chance at something like the presidential scholarship at GA tech or park at nc state? Those seem really awesome and something I would definitely apply for if I stand a chance.</p>
<p>University of south carolina honors…all students admitted get some scholarship and was recently named top public honors program. Many of the scholarships also give you some tuition waiver. McNair is big merit scholarship for OOS students and pretty competitive. Really smart group of kids.</p>