I would encourage your D to apply to her in-state safety schools EA so she will (hopefully) get an acceptance or two in hand by December regardless of how the REA turns out.
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USCâs merit deadline is now Nov 1.
Do I have to apply Early Action (EA) to be considered for a USC Merit Scholarship?
Yes, unless your intended major does not participate in Early Action. Early Action is not available if you are applying to the Iovine and Young Academy or majors in Architecture, Art and Design, Cinematic Arts, Dance, Dramatic Arts or Music. Applicants to these majors should apply by December 1 to be considered for both admission and scholarships.
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Thx.
I encourage OPâs D to call and ask about merit deadlines for their major, USC has said the website isnât completely accurate/some changes are coming.
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D23 has similar stats but narrower ECs. She has a similar in-state situation with a Top 50 flagship thatâs not a safety but a likely admit for her stats and a reasonable choice over other top schools.
For her, Columbia and Chicago were off the list due to very urban settings. JHU, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon off the list due to heavy STEM vs. a more balanced school. Northwestern and WashU off the list due to high cost vs. the in-state option, and Swarthmore, Vassar, Amherst off the list due to the very small size compared to others.
The current list looks like an immense amount of work for the likely outcome of a few acceptances to the less selective schools on the list.
Would your D be happy spending her fall semester free time on essays just to get admitted to USC and Vassar in addition to UNC and NCSU? Is a ~4% chance at Harvard or Princeton worth the effort and cost? These end up being very personal decisions.
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For whatever it is worth, my D and I were on a visit to MiT recently and the dean at the info session as well as the tour itself really emphasized interdisciplinary work and the arts. Mine has done some work in visual arts for a nonprofit and found the arts emphasis and inclusion refreshing, including descriptions of art in dorms, using arts with technology, etc. My D is a heavy stem kid but also enjoys other subjects and thought before our visit it might be âtooâ techy and while it was highly intellectual vibe(a huge positive), the focus was definitely much more broad than we thought, including the required 8 humanities core courses and emphasis on why they are important. To me it has a lot of overlap with some of the other highly intellectual schools on OPâs list .
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My daughter is also applying for the fall of 2023.
She got a 1480 (760M, 720E) on her SAT and has a 5.07 weighted GPA, 3.9 unweighted GPA.
Biology major (likely research, not pre-med).
5 APs passed, taking 3 APs her senior year. Magnate law program. All honors courses outside of AP classes.
3 sport athlete (4 years of varsity basketball), decent ECs but not significant leadership positions, decent volunter experience (volunteer work with her temple distributing food to food banks, etc., coaching/mentoring younger basketball players).
Here is her list of schools (we are in state for NJ but she is more than likely interested in going OOS). We are very sensitive to the fact that her education will likely be 6-7 years in duration so we prioritized schools that are relatively affordable after factoring in merit aid.
State schools:
Binghamton
Florida State
Purdue
Miami, OH
UNC-Chapel Hill
TCNJ
Rutgers
Va Tech
UMass
South Carolina
Wisconsin
Delaware
Private Schools: (need merit aid for the $ numbers to work)
Washington and Lee
Richmond
Lafayette
I think you have a good list of schools but the overwhelming majority will be likely be a reach and REALLY expensive ($85K/yr). Just curious, is $$$ no object? No state schools to shoot for? UNC-Chapel Hill is obviously a great bargain in-state.
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MIT talks about balancing STEM with the humanities and social sciences, but the shared student experience is facing the demanding problem sets in the core math, physics, chemistry, and biology courses. And the student body overwhelmingly majors in Computer Science, other Engineering, Math and Physics (across the Institute, only 46 Economics majors, 1 History major, 13 Poly Sci majors, 6 Literature majors, etc.). To us, it seemed very different from most elite schools.
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USCâs admissions rate is about 12% and about 25% of the class is admitted EA or early. And USC isnât known for just taking the highest stat type students either. As I remember, there are many 4.0/1,600 type students that are rejected by USC.
Maybe @Mwfan1921 @WWWard or @CADREAMIN can address my question as it relates to USC being considered a âmatchâ for any applicant.
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For what itâs worth my STEM kidâs list is similar, except doing ED for Northwestern, no Yale as too close to home, no Princeton as didnât vibe there, no Columbia as sibling attended, no MIT, UChicago, Swarthmore or Carnegie Mellon or Johnâs Hopkins as too intense, no Wake or USC as not having his major, no WashU as it is in Missouri and we arenât doing red states and certainly not those with abortion bans. We added Wesleyan (if your d likes Vassar and Amherst surprised it isnât on her list). Also , UToronto, CU Boulder and UWash, Seattle as targets/safeties. Also UPenn and BU which you also donât have on the list. We arenât doing the instate publics though.
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Apologies meant my kidâs list was similar to OP, but replied to another post by mistake- our list isnât at all similar to yours, apologies for confusing post, NJParent.
âWFU is still a safety even applying RD?â
Per the data, indeed it is.
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Thnak you for the response; they seem to overlap on many schools.
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That is a comprehensive list; thank you for your feedback! UNC-system schools are the main safeties. Yes, we are full pay and prepared for the full cost.
Replying to you and 2Devils:
I agree with both of you in part and those descriptions are consistent with our visit day. My daughter has done artificial intelligence/programming, many Stem activities and her research is in engineering. Mit portayed itself as a math and science focused school which still provides a solid humanities education taught with a stem âlensâ , if you will, with an arts focus that was evident. The intellectual intensity was similar to JHU, Uchicago and Harvard. Understandably one cannot get a complete picture based on a visit, but the virtual sessions have helped too. Mit is not perfect, but it is a match for fit for her. Thank you both for your thoughts.
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Somewhere above I said I defer to the HS GC for categorization, especially because this seems like a good school with history of acceptances at some of these colleges, and OP did say they have in-state safeties on the list so probably doesnât matter whether others are classified as a match vs reach anyway. Lots of supplemental essays though!
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If sheâs still thinking engineering, WFUâs program is a more liberal arts based program. Itâs a year old and TMK hasnât received ABET accreditation yet. UNC only offers a dual Biomedical Engineering program with NCSU (approximately 80 students per year, per school as a competitive secondary admission). If she likes it, NCSU would likely be her best bet as an engineering safety.
USC is not a match for engineering, imo. The acceptance rate is less than 10% for a class size of 410. They are also heavily into diversity, which is great but may make it even more competitive. Almost a third of the class is Hispanic, 17% international, 14% African American.
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I would add Clemson to that list. I have one currently at Miami. Great bargain for OOS and she loves the school. My wife and I both went to Lafayette. My kids would not apply too small. Also very little merit money at Lafayette. Also it seems to me that the 3 privates are very different and smaller than the state schools on the list. If she doesnât want the big state school I would focus on some of the catholic universities as they tend to give good merit money and they are a little larger. Places like Duquesne, Dayton Xavier, St. Louis University, Creighton etc. I can tell you that Viginia Tech and Wisconsin give very little to no merit money so looking at full OOS pay at those 2. Both my kids applied to Delaware and got good merit offers. Personally I loved Delaware. Great location, very pretty campus. Good size public university.
Good luck.
If your daughter wants to do research in graduate school in STEM, her PhD tuition will be subsidized and sheâll also receive a stipend. Some of the stipends arenât very big, but most will pay enough for living expenses. This is a big contrast to med/law/other professional school, and to grad school in non-STEM disciplines.
I think itâs smart to pursue merit aid, but if she goes to grad school in a STEM field, it will take about 6 years on average to get a PhD and it should be fully funded. Donât bother with a Masterâs degree as those are generally not fully funded and have fallen out of favor in biology (except in very specific fields or circumstances).
A bio prof friend at W&L recommended this scholarship for my son. Heâs not interested in the school, but perhaps it will be useful for your daughter:
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