<p>Hello. Its my senior year in high school and I've been applying to some schools.</p>
<p>I'm planning on doing a physics major, and I live in Texas. Question though, what sort of schools should I apply to (in/out of state) for a physics major with these credentials.</p>
<p>4.0 GPA weighted
3.7 nonweighted
act-30
SAT-1850 (740 math, 560english/550reading)
cal BC - 5
chem 4
us history 3
phys b - 3 (school began offering physics c, so I didn't take this test seriously)</p>
<p>Dual enrolled in cal III in my local university this semester, will be taking partial differential eq 2nd semester.</p>
<p>currently enrolled in physics c, AP macro and AP gov and AP English </p>
<p>4 years of varsity wrestling. District runner up, regional quarterfinalist (didn't qualify for state)
varsity captain senior year</p>
<p>UIL science - team placed 2nd at district
Doing UIL math for fun this year, haven't participated in meets yet</p>
<p>I speak 3 languages fluently (eng, Russian, and Ukrainian) and easily communicate with people in German.</p>
<p>That's about it. Could you just give some solid undergrad physics programs to apply to, I would appreciate it.</p>
<p>$20k per year budget will cover much of the costs for TExas publics. </p>
<p>What is your rank? Will you get admitted to UT and TAMU?</p>
<p>What about Texas Tech?</p>
<p>To go outside of Texas would require either schools that would give you enough merit or schools that give FA (depending on whether your family qualifies).</p>
<p>See if that rank doesn’t change at the end of first quarter - if so, apply immediately :).
You’re auto-admit to TAMU but many students who want UT-A don’t want TAMU and vice versa (let us not get into it here :p)
Is $20,000 your EFC as calculated by a Net Price Calculator (what they can pay at most) or is it what your parents are willing to pay?
Beside Texas publics, you should apply to Lawrence University in Wisconsin, they’re quite good at Physics (it’s one of their “specialties”), they admit students with your stats, and they have a good combination of need-based and merit-based aid for students with strong stats in maths and physics (like you). They would also appreciate your being multilingual, especially if you planned on doing a Russian minor or second major, since there can’t be too many of those (and it can be useful, along with German and French, for graduate physics study, although the most important aspects will be 3rd and 4th year classes in Physics and Math).</p>
<p>20k is the maximum they are willing to pay for me. And i really wasn’t interested in a language minor/2nd major, but it may be something to consider. Thanks for the suggestion. And i am more interested in UT, what do you think my chances are with these stats with being outside of the top 7% - the high school i am in is fairly competitive.</p>
<p>Well, you can always indicate you’re thinking of being a Russian major/minor. Many freshmen change their minds after a semester anyway so if it helped you get into a school one semester of Russian wouldn’t be too bad (and since you are fluent, you’d have an official certification in the form of an advanced course on your college transcript - right now, unless you have an official certification, there’s no “proof” of your level.)</p>
<p>“willing to pay” indicates that your EFC will be higher and you’ll need merit aid. Apply to Texas public schools but they’re only likely to meet need.
Definitely look into Lawrence and other schools (especially in the South) where you have a shot at merit aid. You might have to relax some of your criteria though because if their EFC is 35,000 even if the school meets 100% need, you wouldn’t be able to go, and if the school doesn’t meet need (as most do) you’d be stuck. Remember that you can only take $5,500 as a loan.</p>
<p>A key question is, how much higher is your EFC at a school like Lawrence than that $20K your parents are willing to pay. This will determine whether expensive private schools (such as Lawrence) are even worth considering. I don’t think it is too likely that you’d get enough merit aid from these schools to cover the entire difference between $20K and the full cost of attendance. Average merit aid at Lawrence is about $12K; full COA is about $50K. This is fairly typical of schools like Lawrence. Average merit at the College of Wooster, Hendrix, or Centre College would be a little higher (but nowhere near $30K).</p>
<p>Use an online net price calculator to estimate EFC at a couple of such schools.</p>