i’m a junior who’s trying to make a list of colleges to apply to but i dont really know where to go with my stats and potential major etc etc. ideas would be swell.
gpa: 3.79 uw, 4.55 w (will probably go down a little after this semester ends)
sat: 2240 (710 cr/800 math/730 writing), 800 on math sat 2 and i’m taking chem sat 2 in june
APs: 4 on computer science last year, took 5 tests this year (bio, chem, calc, world, and lang) and expecting 4s and 5s
extracurriculars: member of school online paper for junior year, volunteering at my local hospital once a week, summer internship at national institutes of health, member of a podcast that has had famous guests (although i dont really know how important that is)
i’m an asian (indian) girl in a stem magnet program, planning to go into chemical or biomedical engineering most likely and i want to go to a school that is pretty high ranked in either of those majors. also would prefer to go somewhere that would give me merit aid
location is a little important to me as i would like to be in a place with a cooler climate. i would absolutely love to be in the northeast (specifically boston) and northern california (the bay area). preferably a bigger school too, and more liberal. a radio station is a must. i’m definitely applying to my state school but apart from that im thinking berkeley, jhu, carnegie mellon? am i shooting too high? any advice?
have you thought about boston university? i think that might be a good fit
as far as the colleges you mentioned, i don’t think you’re shooting too high. your stats are fantastic, you’ll definitely be a pretty competitive applicant at most colleges
I don’t think you’re aiming too high, though you’re obviously going to need some less competitive schools as well. For chemical or biomedical engineering, check out U Michigan, U Washington, U Minnesota, and U Wisconsin. (They’re also all large, in cooler climates, and to my knowledge liberal).
Run the NPCs. If you require merit aid, most OOS publics will be too expensive. There are competitive awards at Boston U, Northeastern, Pitt, U Rochester, Stevens Tech.
What’s your parents’ budget?
Even if it’s not cold, definitely apply to U Alabama since you’d qualify for honors college, honors dorm, and full tuition scholarship.
All the universities you listed are reaches so now comes the hard work for someone with your stats, finding matches and safeties you like and can afford.
You should be able to get into at least one of the better Boston schools. Below is a short list that you should focus on:
Northeastern
Boston College
Boston University
Tufts
Brandeis
Throw in some safeties like UMass Amherst or Wentworth and you should be fine.
U of Delaware has excellent ChemE and offers merit to OOS students (competitive, not automatic). Pitt (mentioned earlier) has excellent engineering (not sure about those two specialties in particular) and would likely offer merit IF you are top 5% of your class (your SAT CR and Math are well above what’s needed but Pitt also requires very high class rank). It’s next door to CMU so an easy place to visit while you’re in Pittsburgh.
Maybe Case Western, although it’s not a big school? Nothing says “cooler climate” than the winter wind coming off Lake Erie.
@informative:
Brandeis does not offer engineering majors (they do offer Chemistry and Biochem majors – which might interest the OP, but NOT Chem Engineering, etc.).