State: Nebraska
HS Ranking (US News): Unranked, but an IB school, average ACT score of 29, widely considered the most competitive school in the area
Student Rank: 25/589
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.149
Summer School before every high school year
Clubs/Activities/Extracurriculars/Leadership etc.:
Marching Band 9th-12th
Concert Band 9th-12th
Jazz Band 9th-12th
Show Choir Band 9th-12th
National Honors Society 11th-12th
Cross Country 12th
Spanish Club 9th-10th
Diversity Club 9th-10th
Chemistry Club 10th
Running Club (temporary club during 11th grade)
HOSA 10th
University of Nebraska-Omaha Honor Band 10th-11th
Private Trombone Lessons 4th-12th
Omaha Area Youth Orchestra 8th-10th (separate Brass Ensemble in 10th, section leader 10th)
All-State Orchestra 11th
School Pit Orchestra 11th
Peer Tutoring 10th-12th
Tech Team Producer at High School Church Service 10th-12th
Diversity/Leadership Training 10th-11th
Shift Leader at local food bank fireworks stand 9th-11th
Volunteer/Community Service:
Autism Walk Volunteer 10th
After Prom Volunteer 9th-11th
Kids Against Hunger 9th
regular biweekly food pantry volunteering 9th-12th
ACT: Composite 35, English 35, Reading 35, Math 35, Science 36
9th Grade Schedule:
American History
Biology
Concert Band/Marching Band
English 9
Honors Spanish 2
Honors Algebra 2
Gym Class
Intro to Computer Science
10th Grade Schedule:
AP Human Geography
AP Statistics
Chemistry
English 10
Honors Spanish 3
Marching Band/Wind Ensemble
Zoology
Debate 1
11th Grade Schedule:
AP Biology
English 11
Honors Spanish 4/Spanish 5
Honors Precalculus
Marching Band/Wind Ensemble
Physics
Psychology
AP Psychology
Predicted 12 Grade Schedule
Marching Band/Wind Ensemble
AP Physics 1
AP Lang and Comp
AP Calc AB
US Gov
Law Studies
Accounting 1
AP Macroeconomics
Intro to Engineering Design 1
Max Net Cost: $40k
Income: roughly $120k
Preferred Location: basically anywhere
Predicted Major: Civil Engineering
Size: preferably at least 10k undergraduates, but willing to consider smaller
City Size: preferably 30k+
Thanks for combing through all this text and for any suggestions!
Is this what your parents are saying? that’s 1/3 of their gross income. If this is an estimate of what you think your family can pay, please ask them. If they have college savings, then this amount is reasonable. If they don’t, it would probably be difficult for them to pay 1/3 of gross for college.
University of Rochester: great engineering program with research opportunities, plus free music lessons at prestigious Eastman School…may be a perfect combo for you. Your GPA and ACT are solidly in their target range.
Other great engineering schools that you should research: RPI, WPI, Georgia Tech, Cal Poly, Carnegie-Mellon. Perhaps Virginia Tech as a safety, yet still an outstanding school.
As reach schools, maybe submit a couple apps between: MIT, Caltech, Ivies, Berkeley.
Berkeley makes no sense, the OP is out of state and couldn’t do it for $40K (and will not get aid). Agree that they should apply to a couple of reaches that are strong in engineering (although that generally is not most of the Ivies…). But MIT, CalTech, Harvey Mudd – pick a couple of those after running the net price calculators on each site to see what your cost would be.
I would not dismiss Ivy engineering so quickly. Solid programs, especially for students who have broad interests (like OP’s obvious musical interest). Full disclosure: I graduated with EE degree from Yale and it has served me very well in corporate world and entrepreneurial ventures…I would not have traded that college experience for anything!
Yes Mudd is a great school but far smaller than OP seemed to want. (admittedly Caltech also on the very small side.)
Most out-of-state publics are going to break your $40k budget.
If you’re a little bit flexible, UW-Madison (low $40k’s) would be doable. And the University of Minnesota, I believe, is actually under $40k all-in for OOS students. Both UW-Madison and Minnesota have excellent Engineering.
But run the NPC for some private schools too – most of the more selective privates give pretty good need-based financial aid, potentially driving their COA under $40k.
Civil Engineering? Where do you want to live afterward? Many civil engineering firms have local colleges they strongly prefer hiring from as more local (regional) colleges tend to teach for the local regs. Around here, Penn St and Va Tech are strongly preferred. Both have excellent Civil Engineering programs.
Penn St is not likely to assist with aid at all, so not sure they’re affordable. I’m not sure what, if anything, Va Tech might do. In the old days they offered merit aid, but I might be dating myself.
If you want to stay near home, ask some local firms what schools they hire from. Once you’ve had that first job, you’ll be assessed based upon what you’ve done so school name won’t matter, but getting that first job… connections to desired colleges for your area can help.
So, elite privates typically don’t have especially great civil eng. programs. And the best publics are almost all too expensive. Wisconsin & Minnesota are around $40,000. For less than half that amount you could get a solid civil eng. degree from the publics that throw a lot of merit aid at applicants with high ACT & SAT scores. Check out Texas Tech, Florida State, South Florida, Florida International, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Kansas. But good ol’ Nebraska-Lincoln might be as good as any.
Does Nebraska have reciprocity with Iowa? If so, Iowa State should be on the radar, and the OP should be a shoo-in for their Honors program. ISU should certainly be under $40K with those grades/scores.
Northeastern is a solid engineering school, is in Boston and fits your other criteria well. Wirth your stats, a solid merit offer would be likely too, making the price close to the 40K range. Probably a very comfortable match school.