Here’s my stats:
I am a high school junior, about to be a senior, and I can’t decide what college to go to. I have a GPA of 4.6 (UW of 3.96) I got a 1480 on my second attempt at the New SAT. As for extracurriculars, I play for the school varsity tennis team, I am a member of SNHS, NHS, and Key Club. I am an Asian male. I live in the state of Texas.
What I’m looking for:
good professors
good campus
able to get some of tuition covered or even full ride (if possible based on my stats).
favorable for my interests, which are biology, chemistry, and engineering
You’re in top-notch academic standing, which opens you up to basically any college option! This is awesome, but requires a lot of personal insight to whittle down a massive amount of colleges to a list of 10-15 that you connect with.
Rice University in Texas is extremely well-liked, highly ranked, and fits your profile well. UT Austin is a great mid-range school for you, and Texas A&M is a good in-state safety.
Looking outside your state, your options are pretty open. You have the stats to apply to Ivies, they’re reaches for everyone, though.
Good professors and good campus are relative to personal preference, and quite plentiful within top colleges. Financial (not merit) aid is dependent on family income. More personal details will go a long way in recommending you schools. Are you opposed to any areas of the country? Big school or small school? Does an extremely competitive classroom stress you out, or do you like a more collaborative environment?
Any personal preferences that you have, no matter how abstract they might seem, are good to post. Comment back, I’m happy to help you out!
Thanks for replying! In terms of other preferences, the school size doesn’t matter too much, but bigger is preferred. I do prefer colder climates, so schools located in the north and midwest would be great. But really the most important factor is that the college offers quality programs for my majors of interest: biology, chemistry, or engineering. I’ve looked into UT Austin and it is definitely high on my list, as it is one of the best chemical engineering schools, and it is in-state. The only thing is that it is very difficult to get into their engineering school (Cockrell). Of course, I am eligible for auto-admission, but I really don’t want to go in with an undeclared major, so I need strong but reliable backups. Hope all this info helps.
What is your class rank? You best bet would be UT Austin if you are within the top 7%. SAT 1480 is a good score but still below admission averages of top schools. Many people still don’t have the concept of new SAT score. Mid 50 for rice was 1460-1580 in new scale last year. For Harvard, Yale, or MIT, 1480 was the 25th percentile.
I am ranked 28 out of 716 in my class so that is about top 4% of my class. I am guaranteed to get into UT Austin because their auto admit class rank requirement is top 7%. That is ensured by Texas state law. But the problem is getting into my major, as the Cockrell School of Engineering (UT’s engineering division) is extremely difficult to get into. Because my SAT score isn’t up to par with top schools, I’m hoping to find some good underrated schools for engineering, chemistry, or biology. Any suggestions based on that context and perspective?
Congrats on your hard work and success! Some northern schools I would recommend researching: Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Tufts University, Lehigh University, and Case Western. Wisconsin and Michigan, like Texas, are great flagship publics. Financial aid would be unlikely at either though. I always like to tout WPI. It is highly ranked (see USNWR) and student starting salaries are among the highest of any school. Very hands-on, project-oriented approach. Nice New England campus in a nice part of Worcester, an hour or so commuter train ride to Boston. We love the vibe on campus. You fit the profile well for Tufts, Lehigh, and Case Western. You can run net price calculators to get an estimate of what you might pay. I would expect some aid at all (including merit aid) but how much I don’t know. Case tends to give pretty healthy amounts to a large % of incoming freshmen.
Tufts is just a few blocks from the Davis Square stop on the Boston T subway system. Case Western is in a nice area of Cleveland, which is cold and gray but a much nicer, cleaner, and more vibrant city than many believe. Lehigh has a nice, traditional campus on top of the hill. The surrounding area is not great, but I’ve heard it’s been improving.
Santa Clara in Silicon Valley is another possibility. Beautiful campus and weather. Silicon Valley offers lots of great internship possibilities. Also Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt gives a lot of merit aid. Good luck!
Literally hundreds of schools could fit the bill for you. Certainly look hard at your excellent instate options. I would expand your search by taking the following steps:
–Talk to your parents about any limitations on your college search (ex. financial, geographic, anything else).
–Talk to your guidance counselor to develop a list. If your HS has Naviance that is a valuable tool.
–Get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) which can often be found in the guidance dept. or a library and start reading about schools in your academic range. Focus on schools that offer merit aid.
–Try to visit a some different types of schools.
–Consider other things that you want in a college. Anything you care about is fair game. A few ideas of questions to ask yourself are: What size school do you like? Do you want Greek Life? Do you care about big time sports? What type of location (not just geographic, but also rural/urban/suburban) do you prefer?
Looking at this year’s merit notes from Pitt, with a 1480 and top 4% rank this student might get $10K per year. MIGHT being the major word—and that still leaves the total cost at around 32-33K per year.
Sorry, if that info is inaccurate. That’s the one school I don’t know as well from personal experience, although we have visited. I have seen it mentioned quite a bit on CC as a place where students get a lot of aid, and I believe at higher levels than the $10k. Thank you for fact-checking; I don’t want to provide inaccurate info.
@TTG --that may have been true once upon a time. It is not true today. 1540+ top 5% minimum seemed to be needed to get even in the 10K-15K per year territory at Pitt.
fly to pittsburgh and check out university of pittsburgh and carnegie mellon. two great schools very different but are so close to each other you can jump across the border of the campuses.
and up the road is duquesne u and chatham u http://www.duq.edu/ https://www.chatham.edu/about/
He has a good shot at UT Austin for engineering, but his chances of getting merit aid are very low and a full ride is going to be pretty much impossible. Same with A&M. Both of those schools don’t give out much merit aid.
He has a better shot at getting aid from rice, but rice is also harder to get into.