I really cannot decide what field of science I want to go into…but the ones i’m thinking about are environmental science, computer science, and biology. I just like knowing how the world works so i’m interested in stuff like meteorology, biology, geology, stuff like that. I don’t want to be a doctor or surgeon, but I would enjoy doing medical research as well. Anyways my stats are:
4.1 weighted GPA
3.6ish? unweighted GPA
1350 sat, hopefully higher after I take it in June
AP Euro
APUSH
and next year I am taking
AP Bio
AP Stats
possibly 2 trimesters of AP French but I don’t have room in my schedule for 3 so I could not take the test.
I live in Massachusetts but my family is from the Midwest so I’m willing to go about as far as Colorado.
I visited UMass Amherst and UNH but the people there felt to similar too the people from my high school. They were all kinda similar, dressed the same, and UMass is supposed to be a big party school.
I visited University of Colorado Boulder and loved it… but I’m afraid it was just because it was gorgeous
I also like that it had so many outdoor opportunities because I like hiking and being outdoors. I’m worried about it’s lowish retention rate though
Visited BU and liked it and enjoyed being in the city, but after visiting Boulder’s beautiful campus it was kinda weird not having a green space
Other colleges I’m thinking about are Michigan (huge reach but my grandfather went there and my grandmother worked in admissions)
University of Maryland, college park
University of Illinois
University of Vermont
Can you think of any other large universities I would like that have good science majors?? And out of what I have said what is my best fit?
University of Oklahoma has the largest School of Meteorology in the nation. They attract a large number of OOS students, so there’s more diversity than one might expect. Pretty campus, fun college town.
U of Iowa might be the most underrated university in the country. Great professors, great college town, great sports. Weather not terrible. That whole area is underrated… Oklahoma, ok. State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska. Fun schools, serious academics, great parties.
Rutgers in NJ probably doesn’t have the name recognition as some, but they have very strong science majors. My husband got his MS in Meteorology there years ago. My niece, from NJ, did a lot of research work there during high school in the genetics area before going on to Cornell for her undergraduate degree. They have an Honors college as well that’s very highly regarded
One thing to consider is that if you are undecided, check how difficult it will be to declare any of your majors of interest. At some state universities, some majors are enrolled to full capacity, so admission to them may be competitive by college GPA (and sometimes essays and other factors) even after you enroll at the school.
The first one that popped into my head was Purdue University. It’s very stem centric and very much a research university with excellent programs in all of the fields you mentioned. Like others have said about OOS publics, they probably won’t give you great financial aid but they are “relatively” less expensive than the other schools you have mentioned and haven’t had a price increase since 2012. It is a good match for you academically assuming you apply early. They are a rolling admissions school so admission gets more difficult as their programs fill up.
At many state schools it is difficult to change into a computer science major. And when applying it can be one of the more competitive majors; depending on the school they may not consider you for an alternate major when applying.
As for the other science majors, the degree you need to get to do anything other than low level technician work is a PhD. There is a PhD glut as you can verify with a few minutes searching on the web. Which means places that do research have no trouble filling jobs with highly qualified people. This ripples down and reduces the opportunities for those with just a bachelors degree.
When you say parents are ok at any price, have you actually run some Net Price Calculators and showed them the results (or had them run one)? Lots of times parents are slightly naive about what some schools cost these days.
Every spring we hear from kids who are upset to learn that their parents were “fine” with “any price” because they wrongly assumed that there would be plenty of financial aid or scholarships given, or they wrongly thought that their child could take out loans for most/all of the costs.
Please directly ask them questions like: If I went to Purdue, would YOU be willing to pay the $50k per year for me to go there?
“I visited UMass Amherst and UNH but the people there felt to similar too the people from my high school. They were all kinda similar, dressed the same, and UMass is supposed to be a big party school.”
At some level all large schools are party schools. That is what happens when you put a lot of 18 year olds in the same place with limited adult supervision. However, for science and engineering UMass is actually quite good. You will find quite a few very good students and very good professors there.
The University of Colorado is probably just as much a party school. Out of state applications went way up after Colorado legalized marijuana, which probably gives a hint regarding whether there is some partying there.
The two strongest state universities for science and engineering are almost certainly U.Michigan and UC Berkeley. However, getting into either with your stats is a high reach, and you would very likely have to pay full price.
Definitely run the NPC and show the results to your parents and make sure that they are still okay with the price. Prices have gone up a lot in the relatively recent past.
There are a lot of good suggestions in the comments above. I also thought of Purdue and Rutgers and a few of the other already mentioned schools. Some of the other U.of California campuses are also good. However, I am not convinced that any (other than maybe Berkeley and Michigan) are good enough to justify the cost different wrt UMass Amherst for a Massachusetts resident.
I wouldn’t recommend Purdue because they heavily weed out during the first year. I’d recommend IU, which is a strong university but a bit less weedy. But it’s not better than UMass Amherst and will be much more expensive.
Try to find universities where 3.6 is average and 1400 is at or above top 25%.
Try to find large universities where you’d qualify for the Honors College : College of Charleston, UNC Wilmington, USF (Florida), UAlabama, Mizzou, Iowa State…?
Provided you stick to science and not engineering, perhaps NCSU or Virginia Tech because not all high stats kids congregate there in the sciences (due to UNC CH and UVA/WM).
What about Montana State if you like the outdoors? UVermont? UCSC? Cal Poly SLO?