Hey guys, so I’m having some issues deciding what colleges I should apply to. I want to major in Computer Engineering. My wGPA is 3.84 (my school doesn’t show unweighted). It’s low because I was a terrible student freshman year so I started my high school career with a 3.57 but it’s been increasing every since; last semester of junior year I got a 4.4 GPA. By the end of senior year I will have taken 12 or 13 AP classes and I’ve taken them since freshman year. Unfortunately my test taking is terrible and I got 3s for all my AP scores. My highest ACT is a 30 but the math score for that particular test was low (27) my highest math score was a 29 so maybe colleges that look at multiple ACT scores. Freshman year I took geometry and got a B & C. Sophomore year I took Algebra 2 Trigonometry & Stats and got Bs and junior year I took precalculus and got As and I’m currently in AP Calc AB. I live in IL and I will be taking a loan for college and am looking in the $30k-$40k range. I am willing go to out of state also. Currently I have UIUC, Purdue, tOSU, UMinn Twin Cities, IIT, and IU. I recognize that UIUC may be a reach for me so I am looking for schools within my level and some safetys too. Thanks!
Bump
You may want to add some schools that participate in the mid west tuition exchange program to the list.
@billcsho I can’t seem to find anything when I search that up
UIUC Engineering and CS are out of reach.
As a freshman, your right to a loan is capped at 5.5k.
So, what’s your parents’ budget out of pocket (from income and savings?)
Do you currently have a job? Summer job savings?
Obviously retake the ACT on September and study seriously every day as a higher score, especially in math, is your best chance at scholarships.
Would you be interested in CS as well as CSE? It’d open up more colleges and more possibilities.
Forget Purdue and tOSU as they won’t be affordable. Run the NPC on Miami Ohio and Ohio University, Butler, Drake, Allegheny, Truman State, Gustavus Adolphus, Beloit, Luther, Knox, UMN Duluth, UMN Morris (<= very well known for CS despite small size and you can transfer to UMN TC after two years if you do well, if not your degree will be valuable as is; they have no OOS surcharge and it’s like a private college but at public prices, a really good deal.)
Run the NPC on all of them :).
When you say you are taking a loan and your budget is 30K, please know that an individual freshman can only borrow $5,500. Any other loan money would be a parent loan or a loan with a cosigner who is responsible for payments until you are economically on your feet. If you do not have an adult to back you, your loan options are limited.
If your family is low income, you may qualify for financial aid, though.
@MYOS1634 thanks for your input. I’ll definitely be getting a job early next year and all throughout college. Generally CS is harder to get into and I’d like to do a mix of hardware and software. I don’t know my parents’ budget but they told me to aim for Purdue so I’m assuming they’re okay with Purdue-like costs. I’ll look into the colleges you listed. Thanks!
Arent you out of state for Purdue? Have your parents looked at the current costs to send someone there?
I would not assume anything at all about being able to afford that.
@AroundHere crap. I just checked. It is expensive.
Don’t assume. It’s very likely your parents mean that you should get into Purdue or an academic equivalent and have no idea it no longer costs 12k oos but 45k. (Back when your parents and I went to college, state schools could be in the hundreds, 3k tops. Even with minimum wage at $5.25 you see the way wages have risen v. college costs? Yup, if wages had increased like college costs, minimum wage would currently be $52.50/hour :D. And how would a normal adult be able to imagine such a huge, insane increase in public universities’ costs? Even if savvy, how could they think “oh yeah, September 2008, financial crisis, obviously colleges lost state funds, endowments, investments, and everything went crazy” In other words your parents likeky have no idea whatsoever that UIUC would cost them 32k instate and Purdue more than 40k.).
So, please run the EFC calculator, show results to your parents and see if they can pay that much money from savings and income. (Most people can’t, which means you need to find merit aid - finding universities where your test scores are top 10%). Then, show your parents for all the NPC S you ran about the colleges above - which ones are affordable from savings and income?
At that point they’ll probably give you a yearly budget - 30k, 10k… Thank them, because it’s a LOT of money, and get to work: you can now cross every college that falls out of
(Start working now since you’re mostly aiming at colleges that don’t meet need,and save everything. The more you save, the higher your budget. You will work during your first year in college to prepare for the following year as well as pay for incidentals while on campus, or, if you can’t afford to dorm, to pay for gas. Keep in mind that freshmen shouldn’t work more than 10-12hours a week, and for all students working more than 15hours a week means a decrease in grades.)
CS is not harder than CSE to get into. Both are incredibly competitive at universities that admit by major and especially at UIUC, where they expect 4.8+/5 GPAs and stratospheric test scores.
Most importantly, CS is offered at colleges that don’t admit per major, like the private ones I listed. It means you can indicate two majors of interest on common app but they only check you have the necessary basic preparation for it academically, you can put CS and History and they’re considered equally, there’s no major that’s harder to get into. So, it increases your odds to get into college and have your major, v. Universities that select based on major.
@MYOS1634 Got it. Thank you so much. This is too depressing. I can’t take the Sept ACT as it’s in 2 weeks and Oct may not be received on time. I also started looking at UIC as I heard their engineering program isn’t that bad. It’s not UIUC but at least it’s in state tuition and it’ll get me the degree. Any thoughts?
Do you know if you qualify for any financial aid?
If you and your parents run the College Board EFC estimator you might find that a private school with aid is comparable in cost to an in state public university. As your parents fill out this form, write down the numbers so you can run the net price calculators on the schools on @MYOS1634 list in post 4 above.
You need to sign up for that October ACT and study hard. Scores can give you merit scholarships. Scholarships give you options.
“You need to sign up for that October ACT and study hard. Scores can give you merit scholarships. Scholarships give you options.” You should also apply Early Action to any public universities as some of them close certain popular programs (such as Engineering) early. Good luck!
@AroundHere @londondad I just talked to my parents and they just said they are able to pay $30-40k with loans. So that makes Purdue and OSU options. I’ll talk to them about taking another ACT but it may be too late.
If your parents are funding the majority of your education with loans:
- The loans could run out if something happens to hurt their income or credit rating
- The loans will take them a long time to repay if they borrow 40K each year for 4 years
The responsible thing to do is to run EFC estimators and net price calculators.and keep your loans to a minimum
Search for Midwest student exchange program.
Check the Purdue and OSU websites to see if they will accept October ACTs for Early Action applications. I had a look at Purdue and it was not clear to me.
@londondad Looks like Purdue superscores. Not traditional superscoring but they take the highest score in all categories. Which gives me 34E, 29M, 32R, and 28-29S I can’t remember. I’ll find out OSU’s policy.