Chance + Match a Male for Nuclear or Electrical Engineering [FL Resident, 1580 SAT, 3.93 UW, NMSF (probable NMF), <$10k, not enough need-based aid to get there]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  1. US Citizen
  2. FL Citizen
  3. Public Gifted School (Minimum 120 IQ score to attend)
  4. No specific demographics except First Generation American Citizen, if that counts for anything

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

  1. Very low budget. School with least debt possible take priority, unfortunately.
  2. Due to parent’s income (Above 160k), cannot qualify for FAFSA or Pell Grant but due to the nature of our family supporting international relatives, we do not have much money to spare.
  3. TAMU estimates 60k per year for OOS

Intended Major(s)

  1. Nuclear Engineering
  2. Electrical Engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.93 (subject to change, as my AP Physics 2 grade will go from a B to an A due to a grading error)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.95 on a 5 point scale
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t rank but guidance counselor said I was top 10%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 SAT 1480 PSAT

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: English 1 Honors, English 2 Honors, AP Lang (score: 4), AP Lit (senior year)
  • Math: Precalc Honors, AP Calc BC (score: 4), AP Statistics (score: 5), Stat 2 Honors (senior year)
  • Science: Chemistry Honors, AP Physics 1 (score: 4), AP Physics 2 (score: 4), AP Physics C: M + E&M (senior year)
  • History and social studies: AP Human Geo (Score: 5), AP World History (Score: 5), AP USH (Score: 5), AP Macro (senior year), AP Gov (senior year)
  • Language other than English: Spanish 2 Honors
  • Visual or performing arts: Yearbook staff (4 years)

Awards

  1. 2 Honorable Mentions Regional level from the Scholastic Awards for Photography,
  2. National-level competition qualifier for American Rocketry Challenge (under my leadership as Co-Founder and Vice President)
  3. National level competition participant for FIRST Robotics (under my leadership as Media Captain)
  4. Selected for highly competitive research program at FSU called Young Scholars Program

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Co-founded school’s first ever rocketry club and got to nationals our first year
  2. FIRST Robotics member for three years
  3. Volunteering over 150 hours at local FabLab
  4. Luminary Literary magazine member for three years (each year winning a state-wide competition award)
  5. Tutored for Schoolhouse.world for 20 hours for 66 students
  6. Performed research over the summer at Young Scholar Program about nuclear engineering, x-ray detection, and material science.

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

  1. Maybe like 7/10? Still have yet to get feedback so take that with a grain of salt. However, I’ve been told I write good personal essays.

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)

  1. TAMU - EA (dream to get in w/ free ride)
  2. UF - EA
  3. FSU - EA
  4. UCF - RD
  5. USF - RD

If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): FSU, UCF, USF
  • Extremely Likely:
  • Likely: UF, TAMU (NEED SCHOLARSHIP FOR TAMU)
  • Toss-up: UMICHIGAN (NEED SCHOLARSHIP FOR UMICHIGAN)
  • Lower Probability: UCBerkely (NEED SCHOLARSHIP FOR BERKELY)
  • Low Probability: MIT (NEED SCHOLARSHIP FOR MIT)

P.S. These are the colleges I wish to go to. All the Florida schools will probably be free due to the Bright Futures + Benaquisto scholarship. The real issue is the others, which I need substantial funding to actually attend.

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Congratulations on your achievements! You have an impressive application and will no doubt have great choices next spring. As you’ve stated, affordability will be the challenge more than admission.

Any school requiring a merit scholarship, particularly a competitive scholarship, should be considered a high reach. Your profile is competitive so it’s definitely worth going for it, just be aware of the chances. When applicable, make certain you understand the criteria of the scholarship and tailor any essays to highlight your strengths in those areas (leadership, service, etc.)

Since you’re a likely NMSF, have you considered schools offering big merit for NMSF/NMF? I would look at UT-Dallas, UTulsa, Bama, UAH as a start. They don’t all have nuclear but do have EE.

MIT - no merit, only need aid. You should run the net price calculator to see if your family considers it affordable. If not, no need to apply.
Berkeley - extremely limited merit in small amounts. I wouldn’t bother applying unless you’re okay with full pay $75k.
Michigan - extremely limited merit for OOS students and most are smaller $.

As an aside, hopefully some of the engineering experts will chime in, but I’ve seen some posts cautioning that majoring in nuclear may be too limiting. There may be more career opportunities with mech or elec with some nuclear focused electives. I don’t know engineering so I’m just putting it out here so hopefully it prompts others to address.

Best of luck!

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Thank you! I have considered Tulsa for a little bit so maybe I should look into that more!

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You should note that TAMU has rolling admissions. It’s possible their most popular majors(like engineering) may fill up sooner rather than later. Don’t wait too long to get that application done.

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Yep! I got all my essays done, just waiting for my transcript to update at this point. :slight_smile:

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Do you have any interest in a military career? There are certainly nuclear engineering opportunities there. When you say TAMU and Nuclear Engineering, I think Corps of Cadets. And this is one way to get a scholarship, although ROTC full rides are competitive and I’m not sure of the timeline for pursuing that route in this application cycle.

At Tulsa, Engineering Physics might be the way to go - EE is one of the concentration options within the major, but the strong physics foundation would also prepare you well for a Nuclear Engineering grad program if you wanted to pursue that. Tulsa’s Engineering Physics program is ABET accredited. As an aside - you didn’t mention any interest in foreign language study or study abroad, but if you did decide to take the NMSF full ride at Tulsa and pursue their dual-degree International Science/Engineering program, the 5th year is free too. (Fourth year is spent abroad and includes an internship.) Maybe not a fit for your interests but good to know about in case.

Your funded options in Florida are great too, so you should have good choices!

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Oh, definitely! I actually planned on joining the Navy after getting a masters in nuclear engineering. I was kind of confused about the Corps of Cadets. I put in as interested, but is it like ROTC?

Tulsa is sounding really good, too so I’ll look more into it later. I’d like to go to a southern school, just culture-wise so it sounds like a good fit as well.

Thank you!

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Congratulations on making yourself a strong applicant. I agree that U. of Tulsa should get a strong look.

In reviewing your college list, it appears as though you prefer big state schools. You may want to consider:

  • Ohio State (if your Michigan loyalty isn’t too strong yet)
  • U. of Maryland
  • U. of Missouri

All three of these have full rides available, though they are obviously extremely competitive to receive. But they seem to share some of the characteristics of your other favorite schools, so at least worth investigating.

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UMich was kind of a “eh, why not?” because of its nuclear program. To be honest, I don’t know if I’d enjoy living there or get used to the northern culture shock, lol. But I’ve heard good things about Ohio as well!

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Unless there is a policy at FSU, UCF, and USF that states that if you meet these particular requirements that you are guaranteed admission, then they would not be assured admissions. At most they would be extremely likely (which I classify as 80-99%).

But as I was sharing with you in the other thread, FSU admissions have become increasingly difficult. I’ve learned that UCF and USF have, too. I don’t follow Florida admissions closely enough, but @kevi2900 might have more to say. As a Florida resident with your profile, I suspect that you will get into most, if not all, of your state’s publics. But I do know that there were some very unhappy parents this past spring when their excellent in-state students did not get an admission to FSU or UF. You may want to take a look at the results threads for the Florida publics that interest you.

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If you have not found this thread already, it is dedicated to the schools that give big merit (sometimes up to a full ride) for National Merit scholars:

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Would the naval academy be a possibility?

Paging @ChoatieMom

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If you stay in Florida only UF offers Nuclear Engineering
So this is your first major decision will you be ok going to a school where that is not an option.

If you are ok going to a school without Nuclear Engineering an EE degree is available at all your Florida options

All the Florida schools you listed their EE degree and UF Nuclear Engineering Degree are ABET Accredited Programs

For your Weighted GPA make sure you are using this formula

the core, weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale that UF calculates as part of the evaluation process. Dual-enrollment courses in core areas and any AP, IB or AICE classes receive an extra 1.0 credit weight, meaning that an A is worth a 5.0 on a 4.0 scale. Pre-AICE, pre-AP, pre-IB and Honors classes receive a 0.5 credit weight, meaning that an A is worth a 4.5 on a 4.0 scale.

Essay is more important at UF than other Florida Schools. On the Common Data Set UF list GPA, Rigor and Essay as very important. Test scores as important. Class Rank Considered under academic criteria

Non academic
Extracurriculars, Talent, character as very important. First Gen, Volunteer/work as important. Geographical and State Residency is considered.

LOR are not considered

Also for UF make sure application in by November 1st deadline for a January 24 decision
If you miss deadline chance of admission is slim regardless of stats

FSU engineering school is a little unique in that it is a joint program with FAMU
It is the only joint program with a HBCU
It has its own campus about a mile or so from main campus with Bus service
and the majority of students are from FSU and your degree will be from FSU
FSU Earl Admission deadline is October 15th this year with a Dec 12 notification

UCF
This is the first year they are not rolling admissions. They are switching to a EA model I would apply EA

Key Dates for Early Action Applicants:

  • Early Action Application Deadline: Oct. 15, 2024
  • Early Action Material Submission Deadline: Nov. 1, 2024
  • Early Action Decision Release Notification Date: Nov. 15, 2024

USF
I would apply EA by November 1st you will get a decision on December 10th
If you apply after November 1st it is rolling admission
I believe this is a change from previous years as well

Good Luck
Keep an eye on all the Early Admission dates
Have kids currently at UF and FSU if you have any questions

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If you are a NMF won’t you get the Benacquisto? Or have the requirements changed again?

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If the OP’s primary goal is to serve as an officer in the Navy, then USNA, ROTC, and OCS are all viable paths to consider.

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UCBerkeley will not be in budget as an OOS student.

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I would and I qualify for Bright Futures so it’s full ride to any public school in Florida!

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Yeah, it’s kind of a hail mary, lol.

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From what I can tell by reading their website and Reddit threads, the TAMU merit situation is in flux. Because of your high stats, your final cost willl be less than 60K, but I can’t predict how much less. In years past, although TAMU’s automatic scholarship for NMF was small, they typically awarded additional large merit scholarships to NMFs which stacked on top of the NMF award, resulting in tuition being fully covered. But now, some of those big merit scholarships seem to be drying up.

But still apply! Fingers crossed!

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Thank you for your insight! I admit that UF is probably my best option just funding wise and the fact that it’s a good school by itself. But something about the culture I don’t vibe with. I feel like TAMU is more of a match both major-wise, culture-wise, and future job opportunities wise. But I guess that’s not going to be a big deal.

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