Not Sure Where to Go...

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I’m currently a high school senior from Florida and I’m not sure where to even apply to. My dad never went to college and my mom only has her associates degree and forgot a lot about applications and such. I know I want to do something in engineering, maybe aerospace? Could you possibly help me make a decision on where I should apply to? I know UCF will automatically accept me because of their top 10% knights thing where they’ll automatically enroll the people who are in the top ten percent of their class, but I kinda don’t want to stay in Florida. I’d rather live in a city-type of environment. Also I would like to know if there are any schools that would be willing to give me a full-ride, if my tuition is being paid for, I wouldn’t care where I would go as long as they have engineering.

Here is my basic info:

Courses I’m currently taking:
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Literature
AP Physics 2
AP Physics Mechanics
AP Physics Electricity and Magnetism
AP Calculus AB
AP U.S Government
AP Macroenomics

AP Exams I’ve taken & their scores:
World History - 3
Statistics - 2
Language - 4
Biology - 3
U.S History - 4
Physics - 2
Chemistry - 3
Psychology - 4
Environmental Science - 2

My current GPA (weighted) is 4.8163, and unweighted is 3.8980
My class rank is 20 out of 733.
My SAT scores are really bad tbh, I’m taking it again in October and I’m actually studying for it this time. But I’ll put it down here anyways even though they’re bad: 1180. (620 reading, and 560 math) I probably should’ve studied instead of winging it. I’m also taking the ACT in December.

The extracurricular activities I’m in are:
National Honors Society (2 years, 11th grade was a junior representative and 12th grade a secretary)
National Science Honors Society (2 years, 12th grade a treasurer)
National English Honors Society (3 years)
National Social Studies Honors Society (2 years)
National Technical Honors Society (2 years)
Interact Club (1 year)
Beta Club (1 year)

Volunteering:
Florida Hospital - 101 hours
Orange County Animal Services - 8 hours
Wolf Lake Elementary School - 10 hours
(I’ve volunteered for other places through my clubs but I just fill out the volunteer hours form and turn it in)
In total I have 150 hours.

2

So do you think you qualify for need-based aid, or are you asking about merit-based scholarships?

3

@Oregon2016 Both if that’s possible

4

http://thecollegematchmaker.com/111-ridiculously-awesome-full-tuition-schoarships/

Here are 111 colleges that offer full rides based on scores. Check it out and see if your score qualifies you for any of them:)

5

@Futuremed17 Thank you!! this helps so much, I just gotta get my SAT score higher next time

6

Make sure you do Khanacademy before the next one.

As of now you might get a free tuition scholarship at Howard University in Washington, DC.

This site has other hbcus that would give you a scholarship but not in bigger cities than Orlando.

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

7

Honestly, you should decide after you retake the SAT and see what your score is.

8

Do try the ACT. Some people just do better on one test over the other.

9

http://main.abet.org/aps/accreditedprogramsearch.aspx

If you are serious about engineering, the above site lists schools with accredited engineering majors and which engineering disciplines they are accredited for.

This should be your starting point. Then you need to look at the admissions criteria for schools that interest you. You need to look at their aid policies to determine if aid is possible. Especially with merit aid, there are not that many “full-rides” (usually defined as full tuition + room and board) and not even that many “full tuition” scholarships out there, and many of them are highly competitive. You need to be among the top students at a school (typically) to receive significant merit aid.

If you can improve the standardized test scores, some schools such as the different Univ of Alabama schools and Ole Miss offer guaranteed scholarship amounts based on gpa and standardized scores.

10

Note that most merit aid based on test scores & grades cite minimum scores & grades to be "considered,"while others (e.g., Alabama, Oklahoma State, TexasTech) are “automatic” for certain scores & gpa’s.