To sum it all up in one sentence: “I have no idea what I’m doing.” I need help on making a college list and putting schools into reach, target, and safety
Stats:
-1560 SAT (790 Math/ 770 English)
-800 in Math II, Physics, and Chemistry
-3.91 Unweighted GPA
-4.40 Weighted GPA
-12 APs (9 5’s, 2 4’s, 1 3’s; plan to have done 22 by the end of the year, yes I know this doesn’t help my application but i do it for fun)
EC’s (i know they are not very good)
Robotics- 4 years; MVP of the team for 3 years so far: coding lead for 4 years; student lead for senior year
D&D Club- 2 years; founder and leader
-I helped set up the esports scene for my school and am currently the esports coordinator between our school and the community
When selecting colleges I would like to have a school on the coast (east or west) but I’d rather not the school be in the south (or else I’ll be in the south for my whole life). Finance doesn’t need to play a role, though good financial aid is a big plus.
For anyone who as taken the time to read through this, thank you. You’re helping save my college career. ;-;
You need to apply to two good safeties. For most very high stats students, their in-state flagship is their first safety. The most obvious exception is students in California, whose two top schools (UCLA and UCB) are not safeties for anyone, but who have many other very good in-state public schools.
For this reason, you state of residence is quite important. Your state of residence might also be good to know if you want to attend a university that is relatively nearby. You will be traveling from home to university and back multiple times.
You budget is also very important. Regarding budget, either you and your parents are fine with spending $300,000 over four years, and more like $380,000 if you need to go five years, with no debt at all, or you need to take finances into consideration.
Your stats are great. You will be competitive at many schools. However, this means that there are lots of schools to choose from. It is hard for us to suggest specific schools without knowing more about what you are looking for.
Have you visited some schools? Have you visited large and small schools and gotten some sense which you would prefer? Do you know whether you would rather be in a city or a small town?
I might add that I like your ECs. It looks like you did what you wanted to do, and did it well. Whether admissions will like you ECs I do not know, but I would not worry about it.
Do you have a preference of which coast? You’d get into U of Oregon and Oregon State… OSU is better if you want to do engineering and U of O is probably better for some of the other majors and both campuses are lovely and would probably give you some aid as well with your stats. So there are a couple of safety recs. Otherwise you should answer the questions in post #1 because there are too many options to name… depends if you want big, small, LAC, engineering, etc.
Why no idea? You disagree with your GC and want to aim higher? Or with parents and want to aim lower? You haven’t looked at college guides?
Just telling stats and some ECs (primarily robotics) isn’t what matches you.
Matching takes some work. It’s not just what you want but whether, holistically, you show what they want. You can state preferences, but just saying on the coast is vague. What study ideas?
While I agree that more information would be helpful, I’m going to share that the thought that popped spontaneously into my head was Northeastern University.
The big questions would be:
A) Do you think you would like their model of experiential learning? (Northeastern definitely has a vision on this, and it is a perfect fit for some students…but for others it might not be.)
B) How do you feel about cities? Northeastern is in Boston, which for some students would make it more exciting, but if you were hoping for a more bucolic, rural campus, then this isn’t the right fit.
I live in Tennessee. I plan to Major in computer engineering. I would prefer if the school is urban (suburban near a city is fine too). I have no preference for college size
@LookingFoward It is mostly because I disagree with my gc. The list the she helped me make ended up with out of the 12 schools I’m applying to 8 of them being ivy’s of similar level. Especially because of my EC’s which I heard were very important for top colleges, I think my list is too aggressive.
CMU is a reach for CS for all students. That department is on par with MIT and Caltech.
I think it’s smart not to have a list that is all reaches. IMO, a balanced list is 25% reach, 25% safety, and 50% match. I would look at acceptance rates to CS to determine categories, not GPA/test scores .
Trying to find a safety for CS is a challenge because it’s such a popular major. Do you have your safeties locked down?
If you liked CMU, RPI would be a good match for you and you would see merit aid with your stats.
Case Western and Rochester would be others to consider.
Congrats on your excellent achievements to date. You are a very good candidate for CM, but it is a reach for everyone, as are all of the top schools, as it’s a capacity issue. That said, you have just as good chance as any other high stat kid .
CMU would be a reach for ECE. Not because of your stats or qualifications just because they get so many applicants with similar qualifications. If your visiting there consider visiting University of Pittsburgh next door (you can walk there from CMU). Their Swanson school of engineering also offers computer engineering. They have an excellent Honors program and I would consider it a very strong match to a safety with your stats. You may also get merit scholarships. Very urban. It feels more like a college city than a college campus.
University of Southern California (USC)? If so, a reach (if not a high reach) as they had an overall acceptance rate of 11% last year (I’m sure it’s lower for Engineering)
@hz1343 - congratulations on great stats. Guess you are senior(?)
about AP’s, you said:
It seems you completed 12 AP’s by end of junior year - planning to take 10 more AP tests this year? too many tests for a senior year imo.
+1 for Northeast - especially if you like co-op based experiential learning. One more target to add: WPI (it can be almost a safety for your stats - but then again, as someone else said: no safety for CS)