<p>Hey, I am going to be a senior and am not sure what schools to consider, which are safeties/matches/reaches ect. I am a math and science guy so I am hoping to go into some subset of engineering however I have no type in mind yet. I was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions of each type of school (safety/match/reach)</p>
<p>9th Grade 5 A's 7B's ... 3 Honors Classes
10th Grade 6 A's 6B's ... 3 Honors 1 Ap Classes
11th Grade 11 A's 1 B ... 2 honors 3 Ap Classes
12th Grade ... 2 Ap Classes </p>
<p>5 math courses, 5 science, 4 english, 3 social science and up to an including spanish 3.</p>
<p>Top 10% of the class </p>
<p>Unweighted GPA of 3.602 and Weighted of 4.394. Upward trending</p>
<p>ACT --- Single Sitting
- 36 Math
- 34 English
- 31 Reading
- 31 Science
--- 33 Composite</p>
<p>ACT --- Superscored
- 36 Math
- 34 English
- 34 Reading
- 34 Science
--- 35 Composite</p>
<p>SAT --- Single Sitting
- 800 Math
- 650 CR
- 610 WS
2060 Total</p>
<p>Besides All of this my only extracurricular activity that is actually impressive and not just groups that people join to put on applications ect. is my volleyball carrer. Last year my team Placed 2nd in the Nation at Junior Olympics; highschool team was nationally ranked this year by espnrise </p>
<p>Alright thanks for reading through that if you did... Now I need some opinions, what schools should i be looking into?</p>
<p>Do you want to play VBall in college? **I love the sport and hope to keep playing but I do not want to sacrifice a higher level education for the game. If I can get into a great school and play there that would be perfect. **</p>
<p>What can your family afford? ** Money shouldn’t be a huge issue ** </p>
<p>What’s your home state? ** I am from Illinois **</p>
<p>Rural, suburban, urban? ** the order I would rank those is suburban, urban and then rural
**
Large, medium, small? ** Small-Medium Range **</p>
<p>Greek Life dominate the social life or no? ** I’d prefer a mix, I feel I’d do well in either atmosphere so I can’t see this being a huge factor in my decisions **</p>
<p>University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign should be on your list (although small-medium it certainly is not), at least as a safety. Absolutely top-notch engineering program, and still reasonable affordable for IS applicants in spite of the state’s budget woes.</p>
<p>I agree…UIUC should definitely be on this student’s list. It’s about $30k in state, right? </p>
<p>*What can your family afford?.. Money shouldn’t be a huge issue
*</p>
<p>Just make sure with your parents that they are willing to pay $55-60k per year. Many students whose parents have high incomes find out that their parents have no intention of paying that much (or they simply aren’t able to pay that much). So, just check and be sure. Once you have assurance that they will pay $55k-60k per year, you won’t have to worry too much about finances…but still have a financial safety just in case of some odd family setback.</p>
<p>however, if your parents say that they can only pay X amount, you need to know that so that you include some appropriate and affordable schools.</p>
<p>WashU as a reach. It has Div III sports, so you may be able to play, and may even be an admissions help.</p>
<p>Many of the LACs in PA have engineering, but tend to have a large greek scene - Bucknell, Lafayette. Lehigh is a U not a LAC, and a bit bigger than the others. Union is a LAC in NY with engineering.</p>
<p>Alright Thanks for the advice mom2collegekids, I’ll talk to them to make sure. And thanks for the suggestion annasdad. Anyone else have any other schools to look at?</p>
<p>Total estimated costs for 2011-2012 are $28,204 - 33,028 (based on a 10 meal per week plan), with engineering at the upper end of that. With the state budget out of control and the General Assembly equally out of control, who knows what will happen next year? One good thing, at all the Illinois publics, what you pay in tuition the first year is what you will pay for all four years. Fees can go up, but in recent years they haven’t.</p>
<p>The best way to describe WashU’s admission process is “quirky” (several friends of mine with stellar student kids who were rejected use stronger adjectives). Anyone who says they can game it either has inside info or is just plain wrong. Therefore, I’d consider it a reach for anyone.</p>
<p>Look at the oldest engineering school in the U.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It’s a small school (about 5000 undergrads) and it has instructional/research facilities on par with much larger schools like Gatech, UT Austin and UIUC. </p>
<p>They are current touring with Caltech, Princeton and Columbia. You may want to see if this tour will come to the Midwest:</p>
<p>Just make sure you visit RPI before you decide to go there, Troy isn’t the greatest place to live. Not terrible or anything, just not for everyone.</p>
<p>Wash U doesn’t have DIII men’s volleyball, but there is a men’s club, which has been a great experience. Academics certainly aren’t compromised, we had three starting BMEs.</p>