Ambitious High Schooler with Interest in Cog Sci [WA resident, 3.99 GPA, 35 ACT (36 super), 1520 PSAT, <$50k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • Rising Senior in Fall 2024
  • Male
  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: WA
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public HS in upper-middle class suburbs
  • Other special factors: none, not URM

Cost Constraints / Budget
Parents will pay up to 50-55k a year but that probably means some loans. Did Harvard’s net price calculator and we expected to pay around 35K a year COA out of 85K total at a full-needs-aid school.

Unsure? I’m into Computer Science, Languages, and Psych/Neuro, so thinking Cog Sci or Comp Neuro. Strongly considering Pre-Med. Parents open to any field but they’re both in IT and don’t want me doing CS. They’ll support me either way, though.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.99
  • Weighted HS GPA: ~4.55, with APs on 5-point scale and honors classes/pre-AP on 4.5-point scale
  • Class Rank: Not sure, but very likely top 10% and probably top 5%.
  • ACT Score: 35 composite, 36 superscored
  • PSAT: 1520 (so I think I can get National Merit?)

HS Coursework
Listing important coursework

  • English: pre-AP English 9 and 10, AP Lang (5)
  • Math: up to AP Calc BC (5) also 5 on AP Calc AB
  • Science: Pre-AP Bio-Chem, AP Chem (5), AP Physics 1 (5), APCSA (4), Adv Prog (2nd year programming)
  • History and social studies: AP World (5), APUSH (4), AP Psych (5)
  • Language other than English: up to AP Spanish (5)

Next year: 5 APs including AP Bio and both AP Physics Cs, and a college-level Data Science course

Awards

  • Multiple Science Olympiad regional and state placements including a 1st and 2nd place at state.
  • 1st place FBLA Nationals (computer science-related event), qualified for nationals in all 4 events at state, including 1st place in different event.
  • Ranked 6th in state for Brain Bee.
  • Multiple MOS Certifications including Word and Excel Expert.

Extracurriculars

  • Learning Sanskrit for 4+ years, local volunteer instructor, and among 15 national interns. My project is an app to supplement classroom learning.
  • NHS school secretary, member since 6th grade, and nearly 300 hours since then.
  • Science Olympiad school team manager.
  • Coding Club tutor and vice president.
  • Founded and part of Link Crew student committee at school, also Link Leader last year.
  • Tennis JV past 3 years, hoping to make varsity this year (and it’s likely)
  • Assisting a speech perception lab virtually at UW Seattle since December, doing my own research project this summer with the prof’s help unlikely to be published anywhere significant.
  • Been playing classical Indian instrument for almost 8 years, multiple performances at nonprofit fundraisers and played at one event with 2K+ people
  • Proficient in 5 languages: 3 Indian languages, English, and Spanish

Essays/LORs/Other
Haven’t written essays yet, they’ll probably be decent 6.5/10? I’m close with my school counselor and multiple teachers, so good LORs 7.5/10.

Schools
Don’t care about social life or area as long as it’s within 30-ish mins of an urban or large suburban city (for personal reasons, not for entertainment). I am a nature guy, though. Don’t mind big cities, slight preference for medium-sized colleges. Professors that care about undergrads would be nice. I really like the idea of top private schools (Yale, Harvard, Stanford, etc.) where I can explore what I like and declare my major second year but those are far reaches.

I’ll also take suggestions on majors. I honestly enjoyed most classes in HS if they were stressful at times. Like I said, I’m most passionate about Computer Science, Brain Sciences, and Languages. I also like Philosophy, History, and Ecology. Less keen for Engineering but open. I did have a space science phase. I enjoy working with others. A career with good pay and work-life balance would be nice but don’t mind going thru a lot of school first. I’ve thought about CS major with premed track but I’ve heard its super stressful. I may go to a spiritual/cultural school outside the US after undergrad and that would be a two-year gap. This is an important part of my life but I’m worried it’ll really hurt my chances of going to a top medical school, and then I wouldn’t be able to specialize in something like brain sciences. Would this be the case?

With my PSAT score, I think I have a good chance at NMF, but it’s not guaranteed, right?
I’d love to go to USF or UCF with NMF, but I can’t tell which ones cover full COA. Websites aren’t super clear. I thought about UA but parents don’t want me going to Alabama? Open to other good NMF schools fitting my interests.

Staying on the West Coast would make travelling home easier but I’m totally open to good colleges elsewhere. Considering UCs, which are good in location and fantastic for my interests. I do not know if they are worth the cost of attending if I am going to do premed (which I’m not decided on either). Do they give any aid OOS?

I am looking for any schools from lower-end reaches to safeties. If it’s a low-target or safety, I would for enough merit aid so it doesn’t cost significantly more than in-state.

If you want to chance me go for it too I’ll take any help lmao.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): UW Bothell
  • Safeties USF and UCF (mainly for NMF), UPitt?
  • Target: UW Seattle
  • Reach: WashU, Yale, UPenn, Harvard, UChicago, Johns Hopkins, Stanford
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UCs do not give need-based financial aid to out-of-state students. They do have merit scholarships, but most of them are relatively small and not common. At a few campuses, the high reach Regents’ scholarship comes with a variable award based on financial need, including for out-of-state students, but most campuses’ Regents’ scholarships are a fixed amount that is not huge.

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Ok, thanks for the information! Sorry if it was unclear but my parents can pay up to 50Kish a year, does this change need to be reflected in the title?

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You brought it up at the end and it makes sense.

Tulsa is full ride for NMSF.

Alabama gives you 5 years of tuition and 4 years housing for NMF. For NMSF, it’s 4 years tuition and one year housing…and there’s some more money.

UT Dallas is another strong one.

I think the issue with the Florida schools is they limit how many get it - but check into that.

There’s even more schools than I though that give NMF deals. For example, U Houston gives tuition and fees free.

So - now that you’ve done that - here’s some other ideas.

Schools like Rochester (open curriculum) and Case Western - where you can have several majors - meet need - run the NPCs.

On the West Coast, USC meets need and has at least 50% off tuition if you get in - for NMF. The Claremont Colleges might work for you. Run the NPCs.

You note you’d like a major suggested - but it’s not necessary - because you can go and explore at schools and figure it out later.

Would LACs interest you - or schools like Emory, Rice, Vandy, etc? I see you have WUSTL.

For large schools, both UVA and UNC meet need - you might run their Net Price Calculators. Location wise, UNC fits better for your desires. Or how about a Brandeis oe even BU, Northeastern and Tufts meet need. Run the NPCs, etc.

Looking at your list - I wouldn’t say USF and UCF are safeties. I would say they are admission safeties In fact, UCF notes Out-of-state students are not eligible for Florida Bright Futures, but we have other scholarship opportunities available.

USF does say full cost of attendance - but reach out and ensure it’s for anyone and not just a limited #.

If they are unlimited in quantity, then they are safe.

Does FSU not interest you? You’d be under budget - and it’s got a great Honors program:

Florida State University’s Out-of-State National Merit Award scholarship package has a total value of approximately $75,776 distributed across four years. It includes a 100 percent out-of-state tuition waiver, a $16,000 Vires scholarship, and a $2000 NMSC stipend (if college sponsored). This scholarship guarantees admission into FSU’s distinguished University Honors Program once National Merit Finalist standing has been confirmed. In addition, all National Merit Finalists who apply to the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) during the first year, which connects high-achieving students with distinguished research mentors to work as research assistants, will be guaranteed admission to UROP.

Agreed UW and your reaches as well.

Pitt - you’d need significant merit - and it’s unlikely (but not impossible).

A U of MN would make more sense for an urban school - you’ll be high 30s with merit… and National Merit appears to give another $2500 a year .

Just some thoughts.

Best of luck

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You said that $50K means loans.

You can only get $5500 the first year and frankly, you have the golden ticket - and you can spend a lot less.

My advice would be not to overspend - even without NMF, you can easily make budget.

Loans are not your friend…

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Those are some great options, and I will look into all of them. Thank you so much for your help! Had no idea that so many other schools outside Ivies met full need. Some of these, like FSU, I’ve considered, but are less appealing in location. U of MN I’ve heard is good for Psych, but afaik it’s a pretty safety school and I think it may make more sense to go to UW Bothell at that point.

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UMN is nationally recognized in so many fields. I recommended it because it’s a Pitt substitute at a price that meets your budget. Pitt is very unlikely to. It’ll be easier to get to as well. Pitt simply won’t hit cost.

UMN is bigger than Pitt…it’s rank in US News (not that it matters, it doesn’t) is 53 vs. Pitt 67. In the Brown U open source CS rankings, Minnesota is 40 vs. Pitt 61. It’ll meet all your educational needs and frankly, it’ll save you money

Nothing wrong with Bothell but you’ll get into Seattle.

WUE offers opportunities too - but not sure the schools would interest you. For example, Oregon State likely isn’t geographically what you seek.

It’s 3rd party (so you want to verify with the school) but here’s all the schools that meet need. Some are need aware - meaning if you have too much need, they could use that against you admission wise.

Given you want to be within 30 mins of an urban area…look at these - there’s 3 sections - no loans, no loans for some, loans. I took off those not in that distance (using my judgement).

Duke University|Aid is loan-free if your parents earn less than $40,000. Your family will not be expected to make any financial contribution.|
|Haverford College|Aid is loan-free if your parents earn less than $60,000. Families making more than this threshold can expect small loans ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 a year.|
|Lafayette College|Aid is often loan-free if your parents earn less than $150,000.|
|Lehigh University|90% of undergraduate families with an income less than $75,000 received grants and scholarships in an amount greater than the full cost of tuition.|
|Rice University|Aid is loan-free if your parents earn less than $200,000. Students whose parents make less than $75,000 will receive coverage for tuition, fees, room, and board, whereas those whose parents make between $75,000 and $140,000 will receive full coverage for tuition only.|
|Tufts University|Aid is “typically” loan-free for students with total family incomes of less than $60,000. All other students qualifying for financial aid can expect to have a maximum of $7,000 in loans per year.|
|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|Low-income North Carolina students may qualify for aid without loans through the Carolina Covenant.|
|Washington University in St. Louis|Aid is loan-free if your parents earn less than $75,000.|
|Wesleyan University|“Domestic students from families who earn less than $120,000 (with typical assets) are offered a financial aid package with an additional $3,500 for freshmen, $4,500 for sophomores, $5,500 for juniors, and $5,500 for seniors in Wesleyan scholarship that replaces the standard loan package.”|

Here’s Every College That Offers 100% Financial Aid (prepscholar.com)

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Some, if not all, the NESCAC schools overlap the Ivies in terms of location and academic mission and are, generally speaking, twice as easy to get into. I’d definitely take a look at Amherst. There’s also Wesleyan University, just up the road from Yale. Most lean heavily toward the Dartmouth prototype. You may want to take a look at this thread:

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If you do get National Merit, UT-Dallas has a great NMF package. The Honors College has its own housing, and the CogSci program is quite robust, with a choice of concentration areas and a strong CS component - CS is a strength of the school in general: Cognitive Science BS - School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences | The University of Texas at Dallas It’s also very diverse; more than 40% of last year’s entering class was Asian.

If full-need-met schools would give you enough aid (which it seems as if they might, given your interest in “top privates”), Pomona would be another reach but excellent for CogSci. Vassar was the first US college to offer a CogSci major, beginning in 1982. Carnegie Mellon has a fairly computation-heavy CogSci major that might be a good fit for you; it’s in Dietrich, the school of Humanities & Social Sciences, so not as crazy-difficult an admit as CS. Same neighborhood as Pitt (and you can cross-register), with a nice combination of urban features and available nature.

Rice is another reach school worth considering.

Northeastern doesn’t have a CogSci major, but their combined majors, such as CS+Behavioral Neuroscience and CS+Linguistics, might work for you. They give NMF merit which used to be around 30K/year, but it’s unclear how much they’re giving now.

URochester gives both need-based aid and merit, and has a great Brain & Cognitive Sciences program, and a flexible curriculum that lends itself to interdisciplinary pursuits. (I expect you’d find other Indian classical musicians here, too.)

UCSD has a large and top-notch CocSci department, but as you note, it’s very costly OOS, and OOS merit is minimal. USC, with NMF merit and/or need-based aid, could well be more affordable, and they have solid CogSci too. (https://dornsife.usc.edu/cognitive-science/)

Occidental has a CogSci major, and meets need, and has a cross-registration agreement with Caltech.

Carleton could be a great one to look at too, if 45 minutes outside of Minneapolis isn’t stretching the radius too much.

Good luck!

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What is your selection index score on your PSAT?

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Assuming this was your PSAT/NMSQT score, a 1520 will guarantee NMSF in any state. As long as you complete NMF application and have no negative issues(school disciplinary actions, academic probations, etc.), you will get NMF.

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You’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions above. So I will just emphasize two.

First, I would add a vote for checking out Rochester. Really seems like a great fit for you, and they have a robust merit program.

Second, I would add a vote for checking out Vassar. Also seems like a great fit, being male might help.

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You have a strong profile and I’m looking forward to your college search and decision process.

Congratulations on making yourself such a strong candidate! Below are my guesses as to your chances for admission at some schools you may want to investigate, many of which have already been mentioned.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Colorado State: About 26k undergrads, WUE school

  • Gonzaga: About 5100 undergrads

  • Saint Louis (MO): About 11k undergrads

  • U. of Minnesota: About 39k undergrads

  • U. of Montana: About 7200 undergrads, WUE school

  • UT-Dallas: About 22k undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Brandeis (MA): About 3700 undergrads

  • Case Western (OH): About 6k undergrads; (likely only if you show a lot of demonstrated interest)

  • Macalester (MN): About 2200 undergrads

  • Occidental (CA): About 1900 undergrads (leaning towards likely)

  • Reed (OR): About 1500 undergrads. This is very much a fit school, but if it’s the right fit, then it could be really great.

  • U. of Rochester (NY): About 6800 undergrads

  • U. of San Diego (CA): About 5700 undergrads

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Vassar (NY): About 2500 undergrads

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Tufts (MA): About 6800 undergrads

  • Rice (TX): About 4500 undergrads

  • Vanderbilt (TN): About 7200 undergrads

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True. If the OP got a perfect
Score they are all set. Just wondered what their SI was. I guess I can figure it out :slight_smile:

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I didn’t think too much about LACs because I was under the misconception that they wouldn’t be suitable for any premed options. Doing more research though, these seem to be excellent schools too. Looks like they’d be more on the reach end, but definitely going to look into them. Thank you!

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Yeah, 1520 on my PSAT/NMSQT, so 228 SI.

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Any school matches with pre med - short of a specialized school like a conservatory or culinary, etc.

Your issue will be two things:

  1. Budget - and many can get aggressive financially

  2. Taking advantage of the financial largesse that your NMF will offer - and you already expressed an interest in this.

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Rochester, Occidental, and UCSD look like some good target options. CMU might be more computation-heavy than I’d like, but it would be easier than getting in for CS. And UT-Dallas’s NMF package is epic. Thanks!

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Pretty much any college with a biology major offers the course work needed for pre-med purposes, since the pre-med course work is basically the frosh/soph biology major courses plus some upper level biology (biochemistry, genetics), introductory statistics for science majors, English composition, and introductory psychology and sociology .

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Wow, thanks for adding Chacing and the undergrad population to the list. This does open up a lot of possibilities.

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