Hello! I would LOVE to go to Santa Clara for a multitude of reasons, but I know their engineering school is competitive and the tuition may be a bit much for my family without a scholarship (we will not get much financial aid due to my dad’s assets - we own apartments).
So essentially, how likely am I to get into the engineering school and possibly receive a scholarship?
Demographics
State/Location of residency: Wisconsin
Type of high school: Competitive public - usually sends 1-2 kids to T20’s
Gender/Race/Ethnicity: White female
Other special factors: N/A
Intended Major(s)
Computer Science (B.S. so in the engineering school)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.97/4.0
Weighted HS GPA: 4.46/5.0
Class Rank: Not sure, probably top 10%
ACT: 34 (30M, 33S, 36R, 36E)
Coursework
AP HuG (4)
AP Gov (3)
AP Psych (5)
AP CSA (predict 4)
AP CSP (predict 4)
AP Calc BC (honestly no idea how I did)
APUSH (predict 3)
AP Lang (predict 3)
Senior year courseload:
AP Physics C
AP Econ
AP Lit
AP French
Calc 3/linear algebra
Awards
NCWIT Women in Computing Affiliate Winner
Won a small local engineering competition
NHS
AP Scholar
Extracurriculars
Destination Imagination (8 years)
Team Co-captain
Qualified for States 3 times
Competed at Global Finals twice
Created a DI team for students with special needs to compete on
Created a social media account to share DI memes
Community Service (3 years)
200+ hours working with kids with special needs/bringing them on local field trips
20+ hours training an artificial intelligence robot to recognize deforestation patterns via SAS AI
Coding (2 years)
Extensive knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
created several personal websites from scratch
helped fix up the website for my dad’s apartments
Part-time job at Pet Supplies Plus (1 yr)
15-20 hours/week
helped build the store last summer
usually in charge of the register/other general retail tasks
Best Buddies (3 years)
selected for the leadership board, was one of 4 people out of 70 in the club to help plan and lead meetings
Cross Country (JV) (4 years)
active member, not very good at it but I really had fun with it
I run our instagram account lol
Summer Programs
Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Camp (2020)
Notre Dame Summer Scholars Research Computing Track (2021)
Student-Athlete Leadership Council (3 years)
led discussions about making good choices for middle schoolers
Debate (2 years)
qualified for State in 2020
Photography (3 years)
Self-taught in digital photography and Adobe photoshop, but no significant accomplishments or anything
Essays/LORs/Other
Essay: I’m a decent writer, but I don’t really think they’ll be anything crazy special, I will try to have fun with it though
LOR 1: My Calc BC teacher, I think he’ll write a pretty good one as I worked hard in his class and he kinda got to know my personality
LOR 2: My AP CSA teacher, he will definitely be able to speak on my skill in Computer Science but didn’t know my personality really well.
According to SCU, the selectivity of their schools does not “differ greatly”. The acceptance rate of SCU is 48%. Your GPA is in the top 25% of their engineering students, and your ACT is at the top of the mid 50% for engineering. Your ECs are good, and you are a woman applying to their engineering school. All of these work in your favor.
I would put SCU as either a low target or a likely, and I’m leaning towards likely.
What can/will your parents pay for college each year? Knowing how much you need in merit is critical to categorizing Santa Clara, and any other school on your list.
My dad currently has enough saved so that he could pay 35k/year with zero debt on either of our end which I’m super grateful for, we could probably stretch that too. I think 45k/year or under would be ideal, but we can make it work if it’s over that.
However, if it’s really getting up there, although we could technically afford it if we stretched it just might not be reasonable to pay 75k/year for a CS degree when UW Madison is such a good school (although the opportunities in silicon valley would probably be amazing, so maybe it would be worth it?)
It’s not reasonable to pay $75K for school - when you can go for less.
Santa Clara is a possibility - but maybe not strong at $45K.
But Arizona, Arizona State are for starters - they have Honors schools. If you want to go smaller. How about Colorado School of Mines or perhaps lesser ranked private schools that are still very good - such as RPI, Lehigh, Florida Tech, RIT, or WPI. You might add in Case Western and Rochester although $ wise that might be stretching it. You can definitely get a $35-$45K solid education though. There’s also schools like Rose Hulman, Missouri S&T, SD School of Mines and New Mexico Tech - there are great schools where kids are getting fantastic jobs - and you save lots and lots of $$.
You have to merit shop - meaning apply to a few extra and sign up for their additional scholarships.
Also, seek private money - women in STEM might be more available. And make sure your parents tap their employers - my company gave my son $1K and daughter $2K.
I failed to mention UAH - another "cheap"mid-size school for someone like you - very well thought of. You can also add a UT Knoxville, Kentucky - the point is, large, mid size or small, there are a lot of opportunities for you to save.
It will be tough to beat UWisconsin for CS. Does your HS use Naviance or Scoir? If so, that should help categorize UWisc….likely nearly a safety for you.
With a $45K budget, SCU will be a reach. All you can do is apply and see how much merit you get, but needing ~$30k merit to attend makes it a reach (although you are likely to be admitted, if it’s not affordable you can’t go). Make sure to demonstrate interest.
It should be straightforward to compare CS career outcomes at the schools on your list. If you don’t see major specific placement details, call the career center and ask.
Look at the Minnesota schools for another safer choice…should be affordable with tuition reciprocity.
Did you take the PSAT? Any chance to be an National Merit Finalist?
What other factors are you looking for in a school? Size, geography, vibe, etc?
Rochester and Lehigh are unlikely to be affordable. Look at DePaul, Miami Ohio, and Dayton….those are all likely to be in your budget. Are you interested in LACs?
My S had very similar ACT and grades and was awarded $12k merit In the early action round from SCU for CS. My information is that is fairly typical for this profile and they are hardly ever giving out merit at the level you seek. His counselor said once they gave a very significant sum that surprised her so you can totally give it a try.
He was also accepted to WPI among others with a bit more but I have read that WPI is significantly more generous with female merit. Colorado School of Mines is a good suggestion as they are also imbalanced gender-wise. My S received $26k from Seattle University, so you might check that out. They have strong CS job placement and are in a high tech city. Essays are pretty important these days imho.
I agree to apply broadly, so long as you can do a great job with the essays. Test optional was a real game changer last year even for students with high test scores. Good luck!