<p>I've posted before here but I wanted to know if you guys could help me find some reach schools that I MIGHT be able to get into. I'm not looking to waste money on application fees, but I want to see my upper limit for selectivity. </p>
<p>Here are my stats:</p>
<p>I am a white male in Washington state.
I have fairly strong financial need.
I intend on majoring in Electrical Engineering.</p>
<p>Junior
SAT: 2190 (760 CR, 710 M, 720 W)
GPA: 3.63 (Very strong upward trend- 2.95, 3.57, 3.62, 4.0, 4.0, anticipated 4.0 for second semester of this year)
AP: My school doesn't have very many AP classes. They offer 10 total and I will have taken 7 by the time I graduate. I got a 3 on AP World and I think I will get a 4 or 5 on APUSH and 5 on Stats this year.</p>
<p>Senior Classes:
AP Lit
AP Gov
AP Calc AB
AP Physics I
Electronics
Color Design</p>
<p>ECs:
-100 Hours of Volunteering at local children's museum (may be getting job there soon)
-20-30 Hours of volunteering through service club (officer of club)
-National Honor Society next year
-Leadership club that puts on several events throughout the school year including freshman orientation
-Robotics class this summer
-4 Years of private lessons for drums and saxophone
-Volunteering at library this summer
-French Club member
-Math department award</p>
<p>@"Erin’s Dad" Both to an extent. One of my parents is retired and only on social security, which gives her 14,400 a year. My other parent works making 70,000 a year. My brother is in college and we aren’t really in a great situation financially. They say they will have about $20k saved up by the time I’m ready for college. </p>
<p>Another low reach for you would be Case Western. And they have a lot of merit. Run the calc and see how you could turn out. I think Cornell, Penn, Northwestern, Vandy, and, to throw a good BME school in, Johns Hopkins are a little higher than reasonable reaches, but that’s only my experience watching admissions over the last 11 months.</p>
<p>I agree with both U.Rochester and Case Western Reserve. Both have good merit aid too.</p>
<p>Considering your interest in robotics, you might consider Carnegie Mellon. Very strong in robotics. Pittsburgh is an outstanding college town.</p>
<p>Closer to home, check out the University of Portland. In addition to undergrad E.E. it also has a masters program in biomed engineering. Despite the name it is a private school, and should offer good merit aid, especially since you would be in the upper 20% or so for SAT scores. <a href=“http://engineering.up.edu/”>http://engineering.up.edu/</a></p>
<p>Your Math SAT might be at the lower end for a lot of Reaches or the tech-heavy schools like Carnegie Mellon. I’d put Case Western as a High Match. Look at Johns Hopkins, USC (fin aid?). </p>
<p>@shawnspencer I’ve looked at Georgia Tech and it seems like it’s out of my price range, but I will look into WPI and Lehigh. Thank you, I appreciate it.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 Yeah, I’ve looked at Case Western a little bit but I will do some research on it. Do you think if I applied ED to Cornell I might have a chance? </p>
<p>@NROTCgrad I will definitely look into CMU. I’ve also visited UP and I liked it, so I will probably be applying there. Thank you!</p>
<p>@Dunboyne Yeah, that’s one of my main concerns. I don’t really feel like it’s worth my time to retake it, because I am not TOO serious about my reaches. Do you think taking the Math II subject test and doing well would make up for it? I made a few stupid mistakes on the SAT math (accidentally left 1 question blank because I forgot about it), so that kinda sucks. I will definitely look more into JHU and USC is on my list. Thank you!</p>
<p>OP, all I can tell you is that my D had a higher UW and a higher SAT than you when she applied ED and she’s at Pitt. I’m a firm believer in the high school quota theory. If Cornell will take 3 students from your school and the year you apply there’s a desired athlete in there among 30 applicants, your odds go from 3 in 30 to 2 in 29. Nothing you can do about it. If there’s a qualified legacy, too, and there almost always is at least one, you’re now 1 in 28. Doesn’t matter if you’re an ED, so are 10 out of the other 27. If you’re not full pay at this stage, forget it. It’s much harder for the non-legacy/non-athlete/non-full pay from very good public high schools to get into these elite schools than the data suggests. </p>
<p>@jkeli911 I understand that, but my high school is not competitive at all. I think it’s pretty much unheard of for anyone to go to a top 30 school. I’d say at most 1-2 people apply to any top schools in a given year, and they don’t get in. Most kids at my school go to WSU, WWU, UW, or community college. I get what you are saying, though.</p>
<p>is your high school in a largely rural area of Washington state? Regardless, what you tell us ^^^ could be helpful to you, make you more of a diversifying applicant and that non-standard identity needs to be mentioned in your essay(s). Good on you for wanting to do something different and for seizing that opportunity when you were a sophomore. Your stock might have gone up at some of these schools, although I don’t know about Cornell since it has plenty of ag students to fill the “remote h.s.” or “rural student” slots.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 I don’t really want to expose too much information, but I live in western Washington, pretty far south of Seattle. I wouldn’t say where I live is a “hotbed of academic activity” or anything like that, but it’s not a farm town. Most people just don’t really care, and I would say there are about 3-5 people per grade that care beyond just going to a mediocre school (not that I think there is anything wrong with that, I just want to push myself to go further). I will try and incorporate that information in my application. I really appreciate the insight!</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus When I said that, I wasn’t really including UW. I believe the mediocre label might have been a misstep. What I meant to say is that most of the students do not really want to research or find schools outside of the WA schools I stated before. I know the schools are actually pretty decent, but I just can’t see myself at any of them (nor would I be able to if I wanted to, as engineering seems to be exclusive to WSU and UW). I really do not mean to say that the schools are bad in any sense of the word, but I think it would be a mistake to label them “world-class” or something to that degree.</p>
<p>U. Washington engineering is very well-regarded nationally. (I’m an engineering manager in NJ, and am quite aware of it.) You should definitely apply there. As an instate student, It would be hard to beat from a quality vs cost perspective. </p>
<p>U. Alabama has good merit scholarships, and could be a good low-cost option for you.</p>
<p>When you consider schools, you should run the Net Price Calculators and get an Estimated Family Contribution. If your family is unable to pay the EFC, you will need to aim for merit aid, which means applying to schools which offer a lot of merit aid and for your stats are at or above the 75th percentiles.</p>
<p>@sacchi I am definitely aware of UW’s strength in engineering. UW is probably my first choice at this point, so I’m glad it is well recognized across the U.S. I have looked into UA and it’s on my radar! I am making use of the net price calculators as well. Thank you! </p>
<p>@LakeWashington I will look into it, thank you!</p>