Average Stats, Looking for Match Schools

College Search & Lists
1

Hello!
I’m a c/o 2020 student looking to build up my college application list. I’m looking for colleges where I’d be in the middle of the pack, that are financially doable - at the bottom are colleges I’ve already been accepted at. If you have any mild reach suggestions I’ll take 'em.

My stats:
-GPA 3.7 UW. I’ve taken 3 AP (World history, Physics 1, Calc AB) and scored 4s across the board. I’m going into my second year of dual enrollment classes at a local CC.
-SAT: 1420 (720 R&W, 700 math). Considering retaking this, I did minimal prep and effort.
Rank: about 60/440

ECs:
-Robotics: I am on a competitive FIRST robotics team. We meet for 20+ hours a week January through March, and 5-10 hours a week the rest of the year. This will be my 3rd year on the team. Last year I was a Co-Vice-President, in charge of business and outreach - which includes assisting in raising and spending almost $30,000, helping in robot build and design, and being the sole planner of our extensive outreach curriculum. Last year the team won the Chairman’s Award (which is the biggest award in robotics) because of my outreach programs and award entry essay & presentation. This year I will be a Co-President and in charge of the same part of the team.
-Employment: I work 15-20 hours a week year-round

Interested Majors:
-Engineering (learning towards Civil or Aeronautical)
-Astronomy/Astrophysics ( I have a big passion for space)
-Education (middle or high school, math or science teaching))

Other Info:
-My parents can afford roughly $20,000 a year net, with around $5,000 in wiggle room on the top for grandparent contributions (so up to about $25,000 net absolute max).
-I’m a Washington resident.
-Would prefer a medium to big school in a suburban area.
-I have already applied to Central Washington U, Montana State U, Arizona State U, and Washington State U. I’ve been accepted at the first 3 and meet the cutoff for guaranteed acceptance at WSU (just waiting on a letter). NPCs say $25k/year for WSU and ASU, can’t find one for MSU but expecting similar.
-I’m not interested in UWashington.

Please help me find more colleges to apply to!

2

U of Nevada-Reno has become popular for west coasters (especially from CA), and you’d probably qualify or UNR’s Presidential Scholarship (requirement: 3.5 GPA and 1420 SAT). UNR has civil engineering, but no aeronautical engineering or astronomy. Don’t know if this brings the total cost down to your range.

3

Thank you! I’ll check it out

4

Look at Iowa State.

5

Ok, you have your safeties and their is at least one that you know is affordable. Nice ones too.

Let me tell you how I feel about those categories—reach, safety , match, lottery ticket. They are fluid categories and once you are accepted to a school and it is affordable, it becomes a safety MIT is a safety for the kid who gets accepted early there with a. Doable financial and Harvey Mudd is still a reach school for that student without that acceptance letter in hand. My one son’s first choice school was a lot of kids’ safeties.

If you don’t have any other schools on your list , you are done. You’ve done what most kids are unable to do. They are so focused on the pie in the Sky schools that they need to be yanked back down to earth and asked to research and compile lists of affordable schools that are certain to take them and then once that’s fine, look at those dream schools and categorize them into selectivity categories, often sadly telling them that all the Ivy’s, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Duke , Rice are lottery tickets and some with about zero chance if the school NPCs indicate insufficient financial aid and they need. Merit money to pay those prices.

So, you done unless you have some schools that you like better than the choices you already have. Just because there are other more selective schools out there, doesn’t mean you need to apply to them. Just like UW is there, and you don’t want to apply there.

You can apply away with wild abandon to any school that suits your fancy now. Run NPCs to see if they are even affordable to you—check for merit money available to you at any prospects, especially other state schools that may guarantee to meet full need just for their state candidates or have very few merit awards available for OOSers.

So, congrats, you are done. Any schools on your wish list? MIT is everyone’s lottery ticket, and an impossibility if you don’t qualify for their financial aid because they don’t give merit. What schools do you think you’d like a chance to attend? Name ‘me up! Then we can categorize them into targets, reaches, stratospheric.