What caliber colleges should I be considering?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a Junior with an unweighted GPA of 3.9 (freshman and sophomore years and semester 1 of this year average), according to this scale: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/html/academicTracker-howtoconvert.html"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/html/academicTracker-howtoconvert.html&lt;/a> My high school is pretty decent as well. I haven't taken the SAT yet, but my PSAT score was 222, if that counts for anything (which I know it officially doesn't).
I took all honors (except electives) and one AP class freshman/sophomore years, I'm taking four AP classes (including BC calc and physics B1) and an IB class now and will have four or five AP's next year (including physics B2/C and chem). I'm in marching band (since freshman year), TSA (started this year) and used to be in gifted. I do some volunteering for my church and have volunteered a bit over one summer at another place. </p>

<p>I'm not really sure where I should be considering applying to. What type of schools would be "match", "reach" and "safety" schools for me? I've used some of the search tools my high school offers and they return largely Ivy-type schools, but that seems like that would be a long-shot. Would places like Boston University or UMinnesota be decent matches, in terms of me getting in? I intend to major in engineering (aerospace, mechanical or electrical) or physics of some sort.</p>

<p>Also I'm considering dropping down to an honors level English course next year, would that hurt me? </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>You seem to be ready to climb a ladder without thinking about what place is best for you. Start with tuition - what can you afford? If you need aid will it be given? Urban? Suburban? Rural? Greek? Size? Location? Campus culture? Strengths? Lose this approach of how high up USNWR you can get; a fool’s errand. Good luck and best wishes!</p>

3

<p>That’s true. I have been considering other things, but I thought it would be useful to know what type of a school I can get into because I assume that would help my chances of getting employed after college. And partially just self-centered curiousity. You’re right, I need to focus more on other things first.</p>

4

<p>You should have a shot at any place. Let us know what you like.</p>

5

<p>To help others help you, read this, particularly point 1:
<a href=“Before you ask which colleges to apply to, please consider - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>I’m not really looking for specific suggestions. I just want to know what types of colleges I can expect to get into with what chances, rather than making a “what are my chances at x” thread. This way I can factor that in from the beginning. That may be a foolish approach…</p>

7

<p>You cannot determine a safety without knowing that it is affordable for sure, as well as a sure thing for admission. So you need to resolve the cost constraint before finding any safety schools.</p>

<p>You do not want to be the student who gets into several colleges only to find that they are all unaffordable.</p>

8

<p>I know. I figured I would use this thread to know what type of college would be a decent safety school for me, and then do research to find a couple based on other things like tuition. The academic component is the one that I have the most difficult time determining a good fit, so that’s the only thing I’m asking about here.</p>

9

<p>I don’t necessarily disagree with the advice above from snarlatron or ucbalumnus. However, I’ll try to answer the question you asked …</p>

<p>With respect to admission only (not cost), you do appear to be a realistic candidate for nearly any school in the country. Yes, places like BU and Minnesota should be realistic admission “match” schools. Whether they’d be affordable is another question (and a very important one).</p>

<p>You could start with the following list of schools that offer generous need-based aid to all students (regardless of state residency). Most of these are very selective, high-ranking, private schools (USNWR top 50 national universities or national LACs). They would span your “match” and “reach” range for admission selectivity.
<a href=“List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/list-of-colleges-that-meet-100-of-financial-need/&lt;/a&gt;
This would be a pretty good list of reach-match schools even if you don’t need aid (although, many of them don’t offer engineering). </p>

<p>If you do need aid, try running the online Net Price Calculators on a few of the schools marked in bold (which cover a bit less than 100% of need, but are less selective than most of the others). If these schools are not affordable, then you need to focus on lower-cost schools such as local public colleges, or else schools that offer big merit scholarships for students with your stats.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html#post16451378”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html#post16451378&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you want engineering (not physics), the first list I cited may not offer all your best match and reach selections. State universities tend to cover that space better than selective private schools do. However, state universities usually don’t give good need-based aid to out-of-state students. Private schools with relatively strong engineering programs and generous need-based aid include: Bucknell (small), Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Olin, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt, and WashU … as well as Caltech, MIT, and Princeton. </p>

<p>Public universities with decent engineering, plus big merit scholarships open to OOS students, include Alabama and Purdue. If your family can afford ~$30K - $50K+ for an OOS public school without aid, then many other possibilities open up (including state universities with top engineering programs, such as Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota …)</p>

<p>Pretty complicated, huh?</p>

10

<p>With your PSAT score it looks like you’re in the running for National Merit. You can go to the FA forum and look at the stickied threads for NMF and full tuition scholarships for safeties. Your grades and scores put you in the running for virtually any school in the country. The selectivity of those schools will determine whether they are reaches or matches.</p>

11

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<p>A school cannot be a safety if you cannot afford it.</p>

<p>You do not want to research a bunch of schools for your list, then have to throw away most of your list and find other schools after finding most of your list is unaffordable.</p>

12

<p>Thank you tk, that was helpful. And others too, thanks.
ucbalumnus, I was afraid I’d find a list of a bunch of schools and have to throw away a bunch of them for being too selective. </p>

13

<p>Your stats (assuming your SAT score is like your PSAT score or higher) are within range of admission to even the most selective schools in the US, but those are “reach for everyone” schools (you probably need top end stats and high level of extracurricular achievement or award or some other very compelling story in the eyes of the admissions readers at those schools). So if they interest you, you can certainly apply, but start your list with a safety that you are assured of both admission and affordability.</p>

14

<p>Would RPI and WPI and Northeastern be matches or reaches for me (assuming I get good financial aid)? What about the University of Washington (doubtful I could afford it given it’s public and out of state)? Would Penn State University at University Park or the University of Pittsburgh be safeties or matches?
Also, one of the online calculators told us our EFC would be around $3000.
I took the SAT today and I’m reasonably confident my score will be near what I scored on the PSAT.</p>

15

<p>It’s hard to tell exactly how you would fit into these schools “net” without knowing your test scores. With a 3.9, you have a lot of options open to you as long as you earn a good score on the ACT.</p>

<p>For example - average ACT of RPI admits was 29 (25% was 26, 75% was 31).</p>

<p>55% of freshmen had an ACT score between 24-29, 39% had 30+.</p>

<p>54% of kids admitted had a 3.75 or higher GPA</p>

<p>RPI acceptance rate is 43.6% so it is fairly holistic.</p>

16

<p>Yeah I told myself to wait to ask until I got my SAT scores but I guess I forgot and did it anyway.</p>

17

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<p>Go to each college’s web site and run the net price calculator. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania public schools do not have very good financial aid even for in-state students, so be prepared for the possibility that their net price calculators report prices that are unaffordable to you, meaning that you may have to search elsewhere for affordable safeties.</p>

<p>Also, you may want to ask your parents what their actual contribution can be. Often, this is different from FAFSA EFC or the EFC that colleges calculate from their own methodology.</p>

<p>The automatic full ride scholarships that you qualify for may be worth checking into for safety candidates (if they have your intended major and are otherwise suitable): <a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

18

<p>You certainly have a shot at Penn State Engineering, either Main Campus or Behrend. However in-state costs are very high and financial aid very bad for a state university, meaning they may gap you by so much these universities are unaffordable. Try for Shreyer because you would get a $4,000 scholarship that may make the university affordable.
In PA, Gettysburg meets 100% need. Also look into Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, Olin, Rose Hulman, Union, Clarkson, Connecticut; Dickinson and Lawrence (WI) for physics.<br>
If you want to try for geographic diversity, aim for private colleges in the South and Midwest: Emory, Tulane, Wake Forest. UMN-Twin Cities is definitely a possibility but odds that it’d be unaffordable unless you get a merit scholarship. Based on your stats you’d get an automatic scholarship at UAlabama’s College of Engineering (full tuition + stipend, priority registration honors dorm) and you could compete for a selective scholarship to make it affordable based on your EFC (residual cost of attendance at UAlabama would be above $3,000.)</p>

19

<p>I’d like to get out of PA, I just assumed I’d get better aid at public schools here. Good to know that’s probably not going to be the case. I’d prefer going somewhere north/west of here rather than south, but if that’s where I can get good financial aid I suppose I’d take it. Would Canadian colleges like UT or UBC be affordable for a foreigner, potentially?</p>

<p>Olin and Rose-Hulman seem nice from what you mentioned, though I’d guess my chance at getting into Olin would be pretty low. I’ll look into those others you mentioned and ucb’s link.</p>

20

<p>Don’t make your grades or scores your first priority when thinking about colleges. Take a look at colleges you’ve heard of, have been recommended to you by guidance counselors, or you like, then look at similar schools to get a feel for what’s out there. </p>

<p>Once you’ve narrowed it down to a good sized list, then it’s time to take into account majors, financial aid, distance, and affordability. If there’s a school you really want to go to, however, don’t let any one factor stop you from applying.</p>