I’m trying to determine safeties and there are just so many good schools out there it is paralyzing. We are at a large public high school and there is no college counseling help there.
Stats:
Texas resident
Rank 13 out of 781 at Public High School
GPA 3.99 unweighted 4.6 weighted
National Merit Scholar Semifinalist
SAT I: Math 790, Reading 780 So 1570 total
SAT II: Math 770, Physics 760
2 years as officer Habitat for Humanity Club
Founder and President School Business Club
Memberships in various honor societies and science Olympiad
Minimum wage job part time during school and full time during summer
White middle class. No hooks
EFC: 35k
Preferences: smaller colleges (within an hour from a major airport), not in Texas, good computer engineering, more nerds - less frats. Not interested in USC (area around campus scared me) Perdue or RPI (too remote) but accessibility to nature especially mountains is of interest. Most big cities are okay except I don’t like New York City, Chicago or DC. I really like the idea of residential colleges but don’t know who besides the Ivies and Rice has that set up.
Reaches I am interested in: MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon
Matches/ Safeties already on the list: Case Western, Boston College
Can you suggest any other Matches/Safeties for me please?
UMN Twin Cities (in city, good for CS/CSE, scholarships, but large), WPI (near city, smaller, good for CS), UMass Amherst (tops for CS, rather large, nice college town), NCSU, UVermont. All will have frats and sports though.
The nerdier colleges that offer CSE would be tech schools like Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, Missouri Science and Tech, New Mexico Tech, Stevens (may be too expensive).
Nerdy, smaller, no frat colleges that offer CS but not generally CSE would include Grinnell, Carleton, Swarthmore, Reed, HarveyMudd… although these would be reaches, so adding Allegheny, Champlain?
Have you and your parents run the Net Price Calculators at each website yet? Are all of the places on your list likely to be affordable?
Is the combination of your rank and your stats enough to guarantee admission at any of the public Us in Texas? If so, then you have a locked-in admission safety. Not the size you are hoping for, but possibly tolerable if all else fails.
There are a couple of threads in the Financial Aid Forum about guaranteed scholarships, and National Merit Scholarships. Those can be good starting places for you to find a few more surely-safe options.
Although not a safety, Cal Poly Slo, seems like a good fit for you: beach, mountains, residential, college town, 35k total cost OOS (you will not get aid). It is 3 hrs from lax or sfo, but easy commute as majority of students come from LA or SF and there is also airport in SLO. Your high stats may get you in (acceptance around 10% for CS/CE).
Thanks. I do have UT Austin as a safety if I can’t get in anywhere outside of Texas. But I’m really hoping to get out of Texas and see somewhere else. All Public schools in TX offer automatic admission if you are in top 7% of class. Not necessarily to the program you want though.
As you know UT doesn’t guarantee you the major you want - although your odds are very good, I’d add one more Texas public university where you’d be guaranteed your major, perhaps UT Dallas as its Honors College is quite good?
have you looked at the “nerdy” colleges listed in #2 and run the NPC for them?