Not sure how to find a match school & very overwhelmed with college search! Advice?

College Search & Selection
1

hello!
I’m not sure what would be a good match school for me- right now, my college lists consists of my state school (definitely a safety) and a bunch of really selective schools. My family can’t pay a lot of tuition, so my current “plan” is to go to the state school OR go to a college that gives a lot of aid.

this is my current list (DEFINITELY needs to be narrowed down but I’m not sure how!)
Oregon State (safety)
Oberlin
Whitman
Swarthmore
Pomona
Harvey Mudd
Wellesley
Stanford
Yale
Brown
UChicago
Olin
Minerva
Bryn Mawr
Haverford

I know that these schools seem to be all really different, but for some reason I’m drawn to all of them. I want to major in math, physics, computer science or electrical engineering. I realize that liberal arts schools aren’t usually the choice for STEM, but I care a lot about the humanities as well; I want to go to a school that cares about learning for the sake of learning & where everyone is excited and passionate about their classes, but where I would also get a good technical foundation. So a LAC with good STEM departments, or a more STEM-focused school with humanities opportunities would both be good. I want a small/medium school in or near an urban area. I just haven’t been able to find any less selective schools that give ample financial aid and fit that description. Does anyone have any suggestions / am I being too picky? If you’ve been to any of these schools could you tell me about your experience there?

Some info about me: Biracial (Taiwanese/White) female, born in Taiwan and moved to the US between soph and junior year.
ACT Composite: 36
ACT Writing: 25 (pretty confused about that one… normally I’m a good writer)
UW GPA: 3.86 (a few B’s as an underclassman in really hard classes, but all A’s in junior year)
W GPA: 4.24
Class Rank: 21/402 based on weighted, 102/402 unweighted (I’m a little worried about this one- in my new school, there are no hard classes offered for freshmen and sophomores so everyone has A’s from those years, while my old school was different :confused: )
Expecting pretty high scores on SAT Subject tests + probably will be a National Merit finalist/semifinalist

ECs: captain of the debate team, octofinalist at state championship, finalist for international written debate competition in my freshman and sophomore years, a lot of model UN leadership.
Started a middle school debate class, plan/teach classes every week - in both Taiwan and US
Science museum volunteer
Participated in various local team engineering/design challenges
Cross country - just JV
Currently planning a debate program for homeless teens at my local shelter, will start in the fall
Summer science research program at Oregon State for two years
Summer internship at Fortune 500 engineering company, going to ask mentor for a rec letter

I guess my EC’s and stats aren’t “outstanding” but I feel like I have a shot at a decent school. Does anyone have ideas for what would be a good match, whether I have a shot at any of my reaches, and how to narrow down my list? Thank you so much!

2

Oh and for my classes- all of my classes in academic subjects have been Honors, AP or IB throughout high school; currently doing IB diploma. I took AP Comp Sci, AP World, AP Euro and AP Mandarin and got 5’s on all of them. I took three IB sciences my junior year + IB HL math.
For my internship I had to teach myself two programming languages & basic linear algebra.
I realize that the college I go to doesn’t determine my life happiness so I’m not super worried, I just need to narrow down my college list, I don’t know if my reaches are realistic, and I should probably have a higher match : reach ratio.

3

You obviously didn’t look at the Percentiles for ACT Writing. That’s at 90%. Look at U of Alabama as another safety. You’d get full tuition plus. UMich would be a good match/reach. They try to meet need for all students (do meet need for in-state).

4

I think your list is pretty good. You have a number of meets full need type schools assuming that your have run the calculators and know exactly how they match up with what your parents can afford but definitely consider travel costs which may be considerable for some of these schools and if you’ll be OK not going home often. My son gets a nice FA package from UChicago but travel costs aren’t part of it though I think they are if you qualify for Questbridge.

5

Hint: Use the search function on this site!

6

I think Haverford would be a good choice, as we were very, very impressed with their science programs and facilities… You should also apply to Bryn Mawr as a safety/back-up as you can still take courses at Haverford as a BM student.

7

Why Oregon State and not U of O as well?

The best way to start narrowing your list is financial. There is a difference between “can’t pay,” “won’t pay,” and what colleges and universities think you can pay. You need to run your family’s finances through net price calculators (NPCs) offered on each college’s website to see what your EFC (expected family contribution) will be and determine if that’s feasible. From there, you can begin to build your list.

You sound like a terrific student, good luck!

8

Get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) which may even be at your library and start reading up on schools. And agree that the supermatch function is useful. And finances can be an important factor so run the Net Price Calculator for schools you are considering. I would also look for some schools to fill the gap between your safety and your other choices.

9

Lafayette, Lehigh, and Bucknell may be worth looking into as match school LACs with the sciences. Some of them offer merit scholarships

10

visit a few schools and see what draws you too or away from that place
then you wil have a better handle rather than names and statistics

11

If you can afford your safety and you like it, you’re in OK shape.

That said, your list is heavy with reach-type schools. Whitman might be a match for you, but you might consider adding more.

So check out more schools in that general group, like:

  • U Richmond
  • Skidmore
  • Lafayette
  • Holy Cross
  • Trinity (CT)
  • Dickinson

And some U’s that might be matches or high matches for you and which give decent aid, like:

  • Wake Forest
  • Tulane
  • Northeastern
  • Boston College
  • Lehigh
  • U Rochester

I think even Emory might come in as a high match for you (25-40% chance) – it’s really a very good school, but isn’t quite as selective as its academic quality and rep would suggest.