<p>SAT: 2140
SAT Math subject test: 710
Plan to take Chem in October
UW GPA: 3.7, W GPA: 4.9 or 5.0 (top 10%)
In IB Program.
Very competitive high school.</p>
<p>ECs:
Black belt in karate, currently training for 2nd degree. Have been doing this since 2003.
Upperclassmen recruitment captain in Debate Team. Nationally ranked.
President of Young Republicans (Very active)
Intern at mayoral campaign and local GOP chapter. (very active)
Cofounder and VP of County Teenage republicans.
Staff member of National debate tournament.
Tutored algebra twice a week to failing students. Grades dramatically improved.
1st chair saxophonist in concert band 9th and 10th grade. I could not continue due to scheduling issues but I guest played in 11th grade concert.
Piano player since 2000. Honorable mention in Bradshaw and Buono Int'l piano competition.
Director of Oedipus Rex play.
These are all the ECs I put on the common app. They only allow 10. I have put a lot of effort into these. They are not just a 'laundry list'.</p>
<p>Other involvement:
NHS
Science NHS
AP Scholar (5 on AP Calc BC and AB, 4 on Enviro)
Title of excellence - speech and debate honor society.
As part of the IB personal project, I conducted research on nuclear fusion and received full marks on the paper.</p>
<p>I want to do either engineering or business, but I prefer engineering. I am applying to GA tech, purdue, cornell, and other schools. I do not qualify for need based aid at all. I am only looking at merit based scholarships. Will any prestigious (or semi prestigious) school give me that?</p>
<p>Prestigious schools probably won’t give you any merit since your stats (while good) are very average or lowish for those schools. I’m guessing that your M+CR is around a 1430? If so, that’s not high enough for top schools and merit. </p>
<p>The top schools that give merit, would likely need to see a 1520+ M+CR for merit consideration.</p>
<p>for instance, at Wash U, the top 25% of the school has about a 1500+ M+CR. And merit might be given to the top 10% or so.</p>
<p>When you say “half to full scholarship” do you mean half to full scholarship for tuition, room, board, books? </p>
<p>What exactly is your situation? How much will your parents pay? </p>
<p>I understand. I was asking mostly out of curiosity. My parents are willing to pay anything. I just thought there could be opportunity to save some money. My M+CR (1400 superscored) is too low to even be considered for scholarships to top schools. What about schools like Alabama? I know that I can qualify for an automatic full ride there. On another note, is it likely that I receive any sort of scholarship money from Purdue? Also if I had to choose between a full ride to Alabama and full pay to Purdue or GA Tech, what should I do?</p>
<p>They ARE willing to pay anything. I’m in a good financial situation, I was simply just asking out of curiosity because my parents and I want to know how far my scores get me in terms of scholarships. I am making the decision to consider schools like bama because I want the option to save money.</p>
<p>Not sure if it’s at the prestige level you are looking for, but Southern Illinois University (I do not know much about it myself) has the Chancellor’s Scholarship that you can apply for that will give you a free ride (I am pretty sure it includes room + board, but I don’t know for sure). Also, there are many schools that will give you a certain amount of money just for your GPA and SAT scores. Some schools will give you $20,000 per year just for having an SAT score like yours. But I am not sure if that includes need-based aid. Because if it does, receiving merit aid at a public institution would be much cheaper.</p>
<p>By the way, it is probably a good idea to fill out the FAFSA anyway. You never know what you are going to get, even if you do no think you will get any money. Plus, every little bit helps.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already look at the first 3 threads stickied at the top of this forum. Start at the end of the threads, they are long, and work back for the latest lists. But you should always confirm that info by going to the school’s website.</p>
<p>They ARE willing to pay anything. I’m in a good financial situation, I</p>
<p>Ok…thanks for clarifying. They are willing to pay for everything. </p>
<p>Well, you should visit these schools to get a feel. For engineering, it’s not worth it to pay high OOS costs at various schools. You’re not going to get paid more because you went to those schools. Many flagships have good engineering programs because every state needs to produce engineers. </p>
<p>WHAT state are you in?</p>
<p>Which area of eng’g interests you?</p>
<p>“I am making the decision to consider schools like bama because I want the option to save money.”</p>
<p>I have visited Bama and I love the feel of the campus and the general atmosphere. I want to be a chemical engineer. I live in NC and so my engineering school would be NC State. Could I be a contender for the Park scholarship?</p>
<p>Also, USC as in southern cal, or south carolina?</p>
<p>I did visit the Honors College - I generally like Alabama.</p>
<p>Suppose I was accepted into Cornell engineering or GA Tech engineering with no scholarship. Given that money is not an object at that point, should I go with full tuition bama or the elite schools? Coming out of bama will I be unemployed and where would my degree be recognized in the country? Would going to an elite school be a good ROI?</p>
<p>Coming out of bama will I be unemployed and where would my degree be recognized in the country</p>
<p>No you won’t be unemployed if you have a chemE degree. Yes, your degree will be recognized throughout the country. Bama is fully accredited and all of it’s eng’g disciplines are ABET accredited. Do you realize that Bama’s eng’g is one of the 5 oldest in the entire country? </p>
<p>Anyway, although my ChemE son went to med school (instead of working…lol), his roomie who was also ChemE started at some Texas company making over $85k per year. He had his job lined up a year before he graduated. All of son’s non-med-school-bound ChemE friends were immediately employed at high salaries.</p>
<p>Again, you do not get paid more because you graduated from X univ. Companies do not do that. A company might hire 5 people and they came from CSULB, Cal Poly, Purdue, RPI, and GT…and start them all out at the SAME salary. No bonus salary for the GT guy.</p>
<p>If affordability is not an issue, your top priority should be a school where you think you’ll be happy and excel. Chem E grads are in high demand and grads from schools of reasonable quality usually do quite well.</p>
<p>Most engineering recruiting is regional rather than national, and it’s easier to get a good job in the region of the college you attend. So your next priority might be going to school near where you want to end up working. (It’s possible to get a job anywhere, but it takes more work to get into companies that don’t regularly recruit your school.) The biggest differences between colleges will be the companies that recruit there. There will be more national recruiting at name engineering schools like GT, Purdue, Michigan, etc. One good thing to do would be to look at who is attending the career fairs of the various schools to get an idea.</p>
<p>You should also consider that many students change majors in college (especially out of very tough majors like ChE), so also look at other majors available at the colleges that might interest you and the opportunities they might bring.</p>
<p>Regarding scholarships, the sticky threads at the top of forum are a good place to start.</p>