Where should I (not) apply?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys, I have a 3.6 GPA weighted, 2000 sat score, 30 act score, 11 on the sat essay. I know my GPA is low, it dropped as my parents nearly separated twice and left me with mild depression. It's all good now :) Retaking the SAT, hopefully over a 2050</p>

<p>ECs: </p>

<p>NHS </p>

<p>NTHS</p>

<p>Rocketry club</p>

<p>Debate</p>

<p>Chess</p>

<p>UIL in math, number sense, calculator, science</p>

<p>Jazz band</p>

<p>Marching Band</p>

<p>Drumline</p>

<p>varsity swim team</p>

<p>engineering club</p>

<p>President/Creator of Aviation club, we've gotten like 10 people to fly airplanes</p>

<p>President of NTHS</p>

<p>Section leader of band</p>

<p>I have almost 2 years job experience as a book keeper. </p>

<p>Hopefully will have 200+ community service by the end of this summer </p>

<p>I am Hispanic living in one of the poorest parts of the country (across the street from border wars.)</p>

<p>Its a long story, but I, (with the help of a teacher) founded a high school aviation club. One of the first in Texas, it has grown to almost 30 people in less than a semester, over 10 people have received free flying lessons and flown a plane. Recognized in the news papers, TV, school websites, and college professors from UNT have asked to speak to the club. As president and founder, I made all of this happen. </p>

<p>Other interesting things- 1st Place in the state of Texas for chess. This was 7th grade, not sure if it's relevant. I have a trophy that's almost 6 feet tall though :D</p>

<p>Taking an engineering internship at a local business next year. </p>

<p>Helped found the Ultimate Frisbee Organization at my school, one of the first members and supporters, there are no officers though</p>

<p>My job experience as a book keeper: My parents own three businesses. I have been working two years as their secretary/bookkeeper. (This isn't some slack off scam, I clocked in and out and was on payroll like any other employee) Roughly 20 hours a week. </p>

<p>My own ebay business includes buying, selling, and reselling various electronics, collectibles, and vintage products, making up to 500 a week on most successful times. </p>

<p>GPA is lacking, I know, but I'm taking 7 AP classes next year along with the internship I mentioned.</p>

<p>Schools I'm into:</p>

<p>Major is either Engineering or CS. </p>

<p>Note I live in Texas</p>

<p>Tulane</p>

<p>UT</p>

<p>Rice</p>

<p>UCB</p>

<p>Georgia Tech</p>

<p>Stanford</p>

<p>Brandeis</p>

<p>Duke</p>

<p>Pepperdine</p>

<p>Georgetown</p>

<p>USC</p>

<p>Yale</p>

<p>Cornell</p>

<p>U of Tampa</p>

<p>Now I know most of these are reaches, and some of the engineering programs aren't even exceptional. So I'd like to know where you think I should apply and should not apply. Texas A&M is a safety, and I was considering Rochester Tech. What else would you add?
Financial aid is important. My parents have money, but I'd like to get a good scholarship so as not to burden them. I want schools with a good social life also, I'm not the type of person to be cooped up all day. What do you think? :)</p>

2

<p>If the net price calculator indicates that the school is too expensive on need-based aid, and there are no in-reach large-enough merit scholarships, don’t bother applying.</p>

3

<p>How do you know if they’re in reach scholarships if its something they personally review applicants for?</p>

4

<p>The big scholarships* are typically those for the very top students applying to the school. For those, expect to need to be at the top end of the incoming student grades and test scores to even be in the running. You may want to look up the incoming student grades and test scores at [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) or on the schools’ web sites.</p>

<p>*e.g. 40 Acres at Texas, Drake at Berkeley (mechanical engineering only), President’s at Georgia Tech, Robertson at Duke.</p>

5

<p>Financial aid is important. My parents have money, but I’d like to get a good scholarship so as not to burden them. I want schools with a good social life also, I’m not the type of person to be cooped up all day. What do you think</p>

<p>I think you mean that merit scholarships are important. Sounds like you won’t qualify for much/any financial aid, so you’re looking for merit based scholarships.</p>

<p>With your stats (even a 2050), you won’t likely get any scholarships from any of the schools that you listed.</p>

<p>How much do you want your parents to pay each year? $15k? $20k? more? less? </p>

<p>You need to identify schools that give substantial merit where YOUR STATS are well-within the top 25% of the school. </p>

<p>What is your Math + CR score? That is what merit is based on.</p>

6

<p>Exactly, I realized that these school are probably not where I’ll attend. Even if I got in, I doubt I’d afford them. I’m more interested in a better value out of a college. </p>

<p>I’m not sure how much I’d like my parents to pay, since I don’t know how much they could afford comfortably. Overall they can pay for me, but I don’t want to overpay for no reason</p>

7

<p>And a 1320 by the way, but hopefully it will go up</p>

8

<p>Yale, Cornell, and Georgetown do not grant academic merit scholarships. Stanford, according to its 2012-13 Common Data Set, granted 1 merit award of $1009 for that year.</p>

9

<p>That’s pretty rough :/</p>

10

<p>Brandeis and Georgetown don’t have engineering.
Are you going to be able to handle all those AP classes coming up, if you struggled academically so far in high school? Taking AP looks good but only if you can get good grades in them.
Try using the college search tool here on CC with your stats and engineering as a major and any other things that will help filter the results such as location or size. Then start looking into those… Tip: be sure to expand the number of results at the top. This search engine tries to figure out what your odds of admission are. The higher the odds, the more likely you are to be a merit aid recipient if the school gives merit aid.
Hispanics are very underrepresented in engineering and CS so that will help you both with admissions and potentially merit aid. But do try to increase your GPA and test scores - that can make a big difference in what you get offered.
Also, applying to schools further away from Texas may also help as some schools may not get a lot of Texan applications. That’s assuming you would be willing to travel…</p>

11

<p>Well thanks!
I’ll be able to handle the classes, definitely
Where is the search option you mentioned? I’m using the app, is it there?
And wow, I didn’t know applying out of state helped at all
And finally, is it possible to get more than one merit scholarship? For example, at RIT I qualify for the presidential which is 14-18k per year, and the PLTW scholarship which is about 5k per year. Can I get both?</p>

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<p>See: <a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.htmlhttp://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html[/url]”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.htmlhttp://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>On the row describing the PLTW it says, “Students qualifying for an additional RIT merit scholarship will automatically be awarded the scholarship with the highest amount.” This suggests to me that ordinarily they do not stack the PLTW with another award.</p>

13

<p>You need to ask your parents how much they can pay each year.</p>

<p>You mention that your parents have had some rough time recently. That may mean financial issues. If so, they may not be able to pay much even if their income is strong.</p>

<p>You need to sit down with them and ask them how much they can pay. Don’t let them get away with “oh we’ll deal with that later” or “we’ll wait and see how the offers come in”. You don’t know how many kids end up with NO affordable schools when their parents won’t deal with the financial issue first. These kids apply to schools they like, none of the FA pkgs are affordable, and then the student is stuck with no school…just a CC.</p>

<p>Tell your parents that schools’ COAs range from about $25k (instate publics) to about $60k (privates). OOS publics can cost $40k-50k per year.</p>

<p>Have them run the NPC on your state school’s website and maybe run the NPCs on Rice’s website and an OOS public’s website…</p>

<p>Tell them that there are SOME schools (not the ones you’ve listed) that will give you merit scholarships if you can get your scores up a bit. Frankly, many/most of the schools listed won’t likely accept you with a 1320 M+CR as an eng’g major.</p>

<p>Right now, a 1320 is below an ACT 30, so not many good merit scholarships at schools with eng’g. </p>

<p>If you can get your M+CR in the 1400 range, then there are more schools that will give you merit. </p>

<p>You need to throw out your current list (maybe keep a couple for big reaches), and come up with a realistic list of schools that will likely accept you AND will give you substantial merit.</p>

<p>Be sure to apply to at least TWO schools that will give you ASSURED merit for your stats.</p>

<p>Good sized merit is awarded to students whose test scores are well-within the top 25% of the frosh class. So, usually top 5-10%. Of course, this doesn’t apply to schools that don’t give merit. And, for schools that only award a few merit awards, then you have to be in the top 1-2 % of the frosh class.</p>

<p>Your stats aren’t within the top 25% of any of the schools that you’ve listed. </p>

<p>Just to give you an idea of what you’re facing merit-wise. Right now, Alabama wouldn’t even give you much money (only about $3500 per year). however, if you got your M+CR up to a 1330, and were an engineering major, you’d get free tuition plus 2500 per year. That’s worth $100k total.</p>

<p>Alabama is the highest ranked school that gives these assured and generous merit offers.</p>

14

<p>Wow, only 10 more points for Alabama?! I’m definitely looking into that!
And thanks for all your advice. So what you’re saying is, I should look for universities where I’m at the very top of the class for a big scholarship?</p>