Someone please help me :(

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I’m looking for some help finding colleges.

I plan on going to college for engineering, not entirely sure on which type yet. I’m interested in going to a medium-large school, preferably in a larger city, but that’s not a priority. I want to go to a really respected college. Preferably, somewhere nice and far away from home haha. I live in upstate New York in a relatively poor household in a small town of 4000. My school is extremely small. Ideally, I would love to go to college in Cali.

I have a 97.629% GPA. I’m ranked #2 out of 68 students in my class. I’m currently a junior. I got a 1470 without studying on the SAT (760 Math, 710 Evidence-Based Reading & Writing, 16 on essay), and I have a review book and plan on retaking in June. I have yet to take any subject tests or the ACT, but I have the ACT scheduled for June as well, and plan on taking the Math 2, Physics and U.S. History subject tests. At my school, I have taken almost every college course offered, and every AP course offered (which is only 1). Here’s the college courses I’ve taken, or will have taken by the end of my high school career:

-AP U.S. History
-Algebra & Trig. For Calculus: MAT 156
-PLTW: Principles of Engineering
-PLTW: Computer Integrated Manufacturing
-PLTW: Introduction to Engineering Design
-Freshman Comp.: ENGL 100
-Literature: LITR 100
-Intro to Research I: SCIE 170
-Intro to Research II: SCIE 170
-Calculus: MAT 181
-Inter. Span I: SPA 201
-Inter. Span II: SPA 202
-Sol. In Fit. & Well.: PED 118
-Sol. In Fit. & Well.: PED 119

I have a part time job at a grocery store, and I just started to volunteer at the local humane society. I’m looking to get about 100 or more hours at the humane society. I also will graduate with multiple seasons in varsity football, varsity indoor track and varsity outdoor track. I just got accepted into National Honor Society, and I plan on running for executive student council for next year. I also will be competing in a robotics competition in March, and have presented at a PLTW conference in the past. This is about all I have for extracurriculars.

I have a few questions.

What are some good resources to help my college search? I’m currently using mostly just top engineering schools lists by US News, and myCollegeOptions by College Board. How can I find more colleges that would fit me?

Also, what areas will be weak for me in my application? What can I do to make myself a stronger candidate by the time I apply later this year?

Currently, this is the colleges I’m looking at. Would you be able to just tell me if you think each one is a reach, target or safety school? How many of each category should I end up applying to? What are some good colleges that I’m missing?

-California Institute of Technology
-California Polytechnic State University
-Clarkson University
-Columbia University
-Duke University
-Georgia Institute of Technology
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-Northeastern University
-Northwestern University
-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
-Texas A&M University
-UC: Berkeley
-UC: San Diego
-UC: Santa Barbara
-UC: Los Angeles
-University of Alabama
-University of Illinois
-University of Notre Dame
-University of Michigan
-University of Pennsylvania
-University of Rochester
-University of Southern California
-Yale University

I know there’s some on here that wouldn’t even consider me haha. I want to narrow this list down to (ideally) 3 safeties, 3 targets and 3 reaches and wanted some help with that.

Lastly, is there anymore advice you can give me about really anything?

Thank you so much!

Also, let me know if this is in the wrong section of the forum! First day on here haha.

2

sat well below average for caltech, columbia, duke, gatech, met, northwestern, berkeley, ucla, notre dame, usc, penn, and yale
Without a hook, you won’t even be considered here

3

Well living in Texas, I know that A&M is pretty boring literally in the middle of nowhere do not go to that school lmao. But if you want a good city experience with good education here are my top picks for engineering :slight_smile:

-California Institute of Technology
-Duke University
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-Northeastern University
-UC: Berkeley (?) Good school, super competitive, idk much about so I’ll just leave it here
-UC: San Diego
-UC: Los Angeles
-University of Pennsylvania
-University of Southern California

When looking at all of these I can say that your 3 reaches, targets, and safeties are

Reaches
UPenn
MIT
Cal Tech

Targets
Berkeley
USC
Duke (Eh)

Safeties
Northeastern
UCLA (Maybe)
UCSD

Hope that helped narrowing them down a little bit. I kind of saw you going to a nice city where you would be a little warmer and have a good college experience where you could learn alot haha. Chance me back?

4

I’d add Tufts to your list. Very selective but not like Duke. But not warm!

5

I am pretty sure these don’t give college credit. IED, and POE are so very basic classes.

Also why would you put A&M but not UT?

6

How much can you afford for college? If you are in need of financial aid to attend, remove the California UC’s. No FA for out of state applicants with costs around $60K/year.

7

Your SAT is not “well below average” for GT. I was accepted there with a 1500 SAT and a 33 ACT. I was also accepted at Michigan. However, my interest is not engineering but rather physics. Perhaps that made a difference, not sure. Just be sure to have a couple of safeties. @huell0428

8

Are you recruitable for any of the varsity sports?

Can you take Calculus 2 and one more math class (linear algebra, differential equations…)?
Do you have all three from biology, chemistry, and physics (honors) or can you take them online through a virtual high school or through dual enrollment?

Since you’re from a low income household, you may be eligible for HEOP at Columbia (Fu Foundation School of Engineering) and Cornell. Ask your guidance counselor.
Make sure your guidance counselor signs you up for fee waivers as it automatically waives application fees for all universities on the commonapp and SUNYapp. As a lower income applicant, you’ll need to apply widely to a variety of colleges where you’ve run the NPC (net price calculator).

Apply for Questbridge Summer Scholars since it’ll help you prepare your apps AND will help you apply through Questbridge for National Match (which is like having 8 ED schools).

-California Institute of Technology =>reach very academically-minded in its selection. You’d need more advanced math and physics, calculus is the most basic level of math you can have in order to apply.
-California Polytechnic State University => cross out, no financial aid
-Clarkson University => safety, apply early action and to honors, may not be affordable so run the NPC
-Columbia University => reach, apply HEOP
-Duke University => reach
-Georgia Institute of Technology => cross out, no financial aid
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology => reach
-Northeastern University => low reach to high match; run the NPC
-Northwestern University => reach
-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute => low reach to high match, does not meet need; ask your GC to sponsor you for their “medal” award (ie., scholarship if you apply)
-Texas A&M University => cross out, no financial aid
-UC: Berkeley => cross out, no financial aid
-UC: San Diego => cross out, no financial aid
-UC: Santa Barbara => cross out, no financial aid
-UC: Los Angeles => cross out, no financial aid
-University of Alabama => you automatically qualify for a full tuition scholarship; is 15K a year affordable for your family? Make sure to apply as soon as the app is on (mid July) and apply for University Fellows and/or CBHP. Honors is a safety due to meeting automatic admission critera, UF and CBHP reaches.
-University of Illinois => cross out, no financial aid
-University of Notre Dame => reach, run the NPC to see if it’d be affordable
-University of Michigan => reach, run the NPC to see if it’d be affordable
-University of Pennsylvania => reach, run the NPC to see if it’d be affordable
-University of Rochester => reach, run the NPC
-University of Southern California => reach, run the NPC to see if it’d be affordable
-Yale University => reach

In short, you have 11 reaches (all high reaches), 2 low reaches to high matches, no matches, 2 safeties that may or may not be affordable.

Look into:
Union = match
Harvey Mudd (another reach, but… one of the top engineering schools in the US)
SUNY Buffalo Engineering/honors = low match
Bucknell
Lafayette

Talk with your parents: can they contribute something toward your college costs? What’s your budget?
You need to know ASAP.

9

Good list. Might as well add all the UC schools if you want to go to school in CA. It’s just checking a box off on the application.

10

@OHIvyCA: OP is probably looking for substantial FA since they stated they come from a “relatively poor household” so the UC’s will not be worth applying.