Chance an Indian-American [US citizen] business/economics kid for HYPSM [3.85 GPA, 1600 SAT, 36 ACT]

Well if you are expecting need aid, look at this:

UCI for tuition room and board - not books, transport, pizza at night etc. this year are - $76,523 - and there will be no aid. So if you can’t afford to pay that - counting books, expenses and more, you are over $80K. Cut it now. Getting an acceptance you can’t afford or need loans for is wasting time.

Same with IU - even with merit, you’ll be $50-55K. Is that within budget, if not, you need to cut it out.

So figure out your budget and let’s find you public schools that work - even if they don’t have quite the oomph.

Wisconsin is $60K, etc - again no merit.

So you need to have a budget.

What is that figure?

You can find public schools, with your stats, in the low 20s, etc. Or a UF in the mid 40s, etc.

No matter your goals, you can’t go where you can’t afford.

So find that # from your family…without loans.

Regardless of what your parents (you, not they are going to school) think about UCI or anywhere else - applying to a school you can’t afford is wasting time.

So even if you expect need aid, you need to run the NPCs. What if Duke is $50K for you but your budget is $30K?

You can’t afford it - that school can’t make your list.

So let’s figure that out now so you have an appropriate list. Kids at targets often don’t find jobs and kids at non-targets do find jobs - so while odds are higher, they’re not high anywhere and you don’t need to be strangling with debt for a doubtful job.

So you have work to do vs. just creating a list with big names. You may have to sub in schools like Alabama ($25K for you) vs. a $60K school - and yes, kids get IB jobs (maybe not in the #s) but still a good school. There will be others.