Cal Poly SLO is also highly ranked for Architecture although it won’t be within budget, but more affordable than uCs. The Arch rankings are quite different from the usual rankings (for instance, Kent State). In the same vein, colleges that are highly ranked by USNWR overall may not match Engineering reputation (although sometimes they do).
©Avg.delulu.student : when you run the NPC on some of the meet-need colleges on your list, are they within your 40k budget?
If it is Top US or bust, I’d still limit your apps to 6 of these schools. There are students from Hong Kong that apply to US elite schools all the time, so grading should be familiar to all of these schools. Are you one of the best in your school? Is there a ranking? How have other students from your school done in the past in getting in elite US colleges?
US college applications is not a lottery. The quality of the subjective parts of your application will matter. I can’t see doing a good job on more than 6 apps±.
Unless you can claim California residency, forget about the UC’s being less than $40k. One place to narrow your list is to apply to only need blind, meets full need for international students. HYPM are the only ones that are need blind and meet full need on your list (unless something has changed recently).
OP is a US citizen so counts as a domestic student.
Yes.
I put the Princeton NPC above. OP’s family needs to fill out to see if they’re even in the ball park cost wise ?
Otherwise they need to add affordable names like Kansas, FSU and more.
But in that case, they’d go back to Hong Kong for school.
Admissions at universities in the US will have some staff who are familiar with the grading scales used in Hong Kong. You will be compared with other students who are studying in the same system. Most of us here on CC are not familiar with the grading scales in Hong Kong which might reduce the value of any advice we can give, but the universities will have staff who are familiar with Hong Kong.
From what little I know, “straight 2s” might be average, but is not any better than average in your system. My understanding is that this will not put you in the top 10% of your high school, nor even in the top 20%. Is this correct?
If there is one single kid in your entire high school, or even in all of Hong Hong, who is able to get 4’s in most of his or her grades, then that is the kid who is likely to get accepted to Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, or Yale.
The list of schools that you are applying to have somewhat complex applications, which require essays. They have application fees. It is going to take a lot of work to apply to this many schools in the US. The application fees will add up. If you are not in the top 20% of your high school, then frankly to me this looks like you are wasting the effort, and are likely to end up in university in Hong Kong. Of course this is probably a good outcome.
Out of the 16 schools on your list, I would cut the list to perhaps 2 or 3 or maybe 4 schools and forget the rest of them.
If you ever get to the point of applying to graduate schools, such as for a master’s degree (which is possible but usually not needed for engineering), then your high school results will not matter, your grades in university will matter (but for now this is in the future), and the top schools in the US will still be there.
Also UChIcago.
Thanks. It looks like OP added Chicago in their 2nd post. I had only looked at the original list.
I believe Michigan offers some financial aid to OOS students similar to UNC and UVA. Aid that could bring the 81k COA down significantly. For an OOS family with say 150k income and no assets, Michigan’s NPC shows need-based aid that lowers the COA to 52k, making it comparable to Georgia Tech and actually cheaper than UIUC, UT-Austin, Wisconsin and the likes that provide zero aid. OP might want to check out Michigan’s NPC, among others.
I alluded to this earlier but am wondering again if you have really looked at these colleges in terms of what they offer vs what you want, especially if you are looking at architecture, where at least two of the colleges in your list house their architecture studies track in the art history department, and emphasis can differ across colleges even for those who offer studio-based pre-professional or professional degrees. Some architecture undergrad applications require portfolios, and portfolio requirements often differ among colleges. This adds another layer of complexity to the effort in essays for each of these colleges. It may be easier for engineering in terms of more standardized offerings across colleges and less effort (no portfolio) for applications, but you first need to decide what you want to do. I tend to agree with the others here who have stated that that long list of colleges is basically a non-starter. There may be a “common app”, but there are still stark differences in what you need to provide for each college. It’s very different to something like UCAS in the UK.
I mean, OP has Cal Tech on the list and they don’t have acrchitecture….this is a well known, name drop list. Clearly.
No post numbers so can’t refer, but the latest list is longer, not shorter. How many hours would it take someone to prep essays for all of these?
I see you added Northeastern. Do you want ONLY the Boston campus, or are you willing to go to Oakland.
Oakland doesn’t offer either architecture or engineering.
I think the Northeastern Boston campus is also a reach.
Perhaps they are hoping to go to Oakland with a transfer to Boston to finish.
What is this student going to do with a bachelors in architecture?