Chance/Match Me, an under-average Asian with low GPA [bio/biomed eng; PA resident, 3.4 GPA, 1420 SAT, <$50k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Pennsylvania
  • Type of high school: high ranking & very competitive
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Female/Asian (Chinese)
  • Other special factors: diagnosed anxiety/depression, currently undergoing screening for ADHD (not sure if these count but they’re certainly factors in my performance)

Intended Major(s)

  • bio/biomedical engineering, kinda undecided but something STEM-related
  • taking a minor in liberal arts

GPA and Test Scores (need to recheck after this year is over)

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.4
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 3.88; my school doesn’t do + or -
  • ACT/SAT Score: 1420 SAT I (710 both sections), will be taking SAT II and ACT before fall

Coursework

  • extenuating circumstances freshman year carrying over into sophomore year
    9-10th: mostly honors
    11th: AP Bio, rest honors
    12th EXPECTED: - AP Psych, AP Art, APES (enviro. sci), rest honors
  • 2 years of foreign language - should I take online courses so that I can receive my 3rd and 4th year of world language credits?

Awards yeah… not much

  • scholastic art awards honorable mentions, all 3 years of HS so far
  • planning on submitting more works to different art competitions

Extracurriculars

  • volunteer work for NAHS, now holding officer position
  • Key Club volunteering
  • not sure if this counts but I did FLL competitions for 2 years in middle school, and now I coach elementary kids in preparation for FLL
  • applying to get my first job this summer

Cost Constraints / Budget
not sure… Parents would definitely be happy paying less than $50k haha

:white_check_mark: - visited campus in-person
Safety

  • University of Pittsburgh :white_check_mark: - essentially guarantee for all students from my HS
  • Penn State - which campus to choose??? the main campus seems overcrowded and overwhelming.

Match

Reach (honestly most of these are probably far reach :smiling_face_with_tear:)

Far Reach

  • Washington University in St. Louis :white_check_mark: (dream school/campus, my scores however…)
  • Boston University
  • Cornell (…don’t laugh)

Please do suggest other schools !! preferably within a 500-mile radius of Western PA, I’d prefer to stay closer to home. Also, since I don’t have many extracurriculars/other special things about me, what else could I do to strengthen my application?
Also, what are some good ways to find scholarships that don’t depend on eligibility for financial aid? I can’t seem to find many ways to earn aid without classifying as low-income.
Thanks so much in advance!

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I would move Lehigh to the reach category. I would also get a firm budget. A lot of the schools on your list are going to cost more than $50,000 a year.

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Without considering admissions chances, you can do some modification of your list based on budget. Carnegie Mellon and Cornell don’t offer merit scholarships, so those won’t be affordable and can come off the list. I also don’t think you’ll get merit aid from UMich, UIUC, or Purdue (though Purdue would fall within your budget). Perhaps Purdue can stay on, but UMich and UIUC are too costly.

I’m glad you have some in-state publics on the list. Maybe people who know more about Pennsylvania’s weird public system can chime in with some other good in-state options to include. Temple?

For close-ish schools with engineering where I think you could get in, and might come in within budget? U of Cincinnati, U Buffalo, U Toledo, and U Akron come to mind first. Maybe U Dayton as well.

As for admissions chances, your matches are reaches, and you’re correct that your reaches are closer to far reaches. Case Western is unpredictable when it comes to admissions, so be sure to show them lots of interest.

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What math class will you have senior year?

Will you qualify for need based aid? Run some of your schools’ net price calculators to see. If no need based aid, all the schools that give only need based aid will come off the list.

I second all the schools aquapt suggested, you might also look at RPI and WPI. Wentworth would be an academic safety, with a definite chance of being affordable.

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Might as well add RIT too!

I meant to address this in my earlier post, but this is called “merit aid”. By far your best chance of getting merit aid is directly through the schools when you apply. Some of the schools offer huge awards, and putting a lot of effort into your applications will be your best bet. Set aside plenty of time for your essays, answer every “optional” question, etc.

It’s very hard to get significant merit aid from scholarships that don’t come directly through a school – those are called “outside” scholarships. Often they’ll be really small awards. You’ll be so busy with your regular applications that it’s hard to put the time and energy into applying for a bunch of small outside scholarships. Look to see if any are offered through your parents’ employers and your local community, but beyond that, you probably won’t find much funding from outside scholarships.

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Are you eligible for need-based aid? The private colleges on your list will definitely not cost 50K or less, unless you get financial aid. You can run the NPC for Lehigh to get an estimate, as a benchmark. Net Price Calculator Although I agree that Leigh isn’t going to be an easy admit, for engineering.

If you’re confident of getting into Pitt, that is a wonderful option, and you’d have cross-registration privileges at CMU too.

For affordable OOS options that aren’t too large or too far away, you could look at the SUNY schools. Binghamton’s engineering school is relatively small and intimate, and their liberal arts programs are very strong - if you’d like something less urban than Pitt but less overwhelming than Penn State, Bing might be appealing. Your weighted GPA is right at their median, and SAT a bit above. Here’s a profile of a recent grad with an engineering+art focus: Watson grad blends art, mechanical engineering | Binghamton News. Bing is not far from the PA border, an hour north of Scranton.

The profile raises the question: rather than doing art as a separate, secondary pursuit, have you considered majors like Industrial Design that would let you use both areas of strength? This major at Purdue might be a more attainable admit for you than engineering, and it might be a great fit that could still allow you to work in the biomed sector if that’s your interest. Also in geographic range, U of Cincinnati has a very highly-regarded industrial design program, with a co-op model. Lehigh has a Product Design major, and Syracuse’s Industrial & Interaction Design program could be worth a look also. (If you like Syracuse, but not Industrial Design, they do have Biomedical Engineering as well. This comes back to the question of whether you’d qualify for need-based aid, to get to your budget.) Some Industrial Design programs give weight to student portfolios in admissions decisions, which could be a help to you as compared to engineering admissions. In a similar vein, Purdue’s Studio Arts & Technology major could also be worth a look.

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Thank you for the suggestion! I will definitely talk to my parents for their opinion on a budget.

@ColdWombat Makes sense, I’ll be sure to keep this in mind and look for better matches. Thanks for the insight to merit aid and outside scholarships, I had barely any knowledge on this topic until now. I also appreciate the list of schools, will certainly check those out!

@Mwfan1921 I will be taking Honors Statistics next year. I don’t qualify for need based aid, so my guess is I’ll try my luck with outside and merit-based scholarships :sweat_smile:

@aquapt Thanks so much for your insight!! Before I have not really thought about going into majors that would combine both my areas of interest, but I will definitely think about this now. I’ll consider the schools you mentioned as well and look at their offered majors.

Thank you all for the suggestions, this was INCREDIBLY helpful! I appreciate it :heart:

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100% seconding the idea of Industrial design or Product Design.:sparkles:

Will you be taking Calc AB senior year?
Yes you should take Level 3 in a foreign language.
Have you taken physics honors?
(What’s your current schedule and what do you intend to take?)

At Penn State, apply to one of the smaller colleges, such as Ag or EMS. Explore their majors (they have various concentrations). Bonus: not only are they small but they have special scholarships.
https://www.ems.psu.edu/
https://agsci.psu.edu/students/undergraduate

Seconding SUNYs: Binghamton, especially, but look at the others’offerings.

Explore the many private colleges in PA, run the NPC: Lafayette, Lehigh, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Susquehanna, Franklin&Marshall, Elizabethtown, Juniata… They may offer enough financial and merit aid to make it well within budget.

Ohio has many possibilities, including Miami-Ohio and UCincinnati (Ohio university, Kent State, Youngstown State… are also possibilities for merit.)

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Definitely RIT, if it can work budget-wise. It’s very strong in the art+tech fields. In addition to Industrial Design, RIT also has a very strong Packaging Science program. I know the name may evoke thoughts of cardboard boxes and packing peanuts, but it’s actually a really interesting, interdisciplinary, and highly-employable field that uses both art and STEM skills. Many grads work in the medical sector, because packaging solutions are crucial in that sphere. Another school with a strong Packaging Engineering program is Rutgers: Packaging Undergraduate Studies | Rutgers University, Packaging Engineering

Industrial Design or Product Design programs to look at (they aren’t really separate fields):

Kentucky gives a really good visual of their curriculum. As you can see, it covers a wide variety of topics - math/stats, CAD and UX/UI, anatomy & ergonomics, physical sciences and materials, management and entrepreneurship, plus all of the actual art and design stuff. Lots of interesting breadth + creativity, but not as much of the really gritty STEM depth that’s required in engineering: https://design.uky.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/PD_Curriculum_Jan2020.pdf

A lot of the engineering programs you’re considering are going to be very tough admits with a “softer” GPA combined with light rigor on the math side. Having Calculus isn’t an absolute requirement for most engineering programs, but it is the norm for applicants to many competitive programs. I’m not sure schools like UIUC and Purdue (much less CMU and UMich) are going to be attainable for engineering. (And at Purdue, if you did get in, you’d be going into First Year Engineering, with competitive admissions into the different engineering majors based on first-year GPA. That may not be the situation you want to put yourself in.) At the more competitive schools, applying to majors that leverage your strength on the arts side may be smarter.

On the engineering side, you may want to look at some “friendlier” engineering programs. U of Louisville, for example, has a very hands-on, project-based engineering school that also has a very supportive living-learning community. They have bioengineering and many other specialties. (The university also has an art school that offers a minor to students in other programs.) There’s also WVU, only 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, which has a biomedical program as well. Miami Ohio is a good suggestion too. Biomedical Engineering, B.S. – Miami University Program Finder

When you’re still exploring major and career options, you don’t have to pick a single path and apply to the same major at every school. You can apply to some industrial design programs, and some engineering programs, and even a packaging program or two, and then continue to research the possibilities and see what offers you end up with.

Engineering is going to be very demanding, and making time for a meaningful commitment to an arts program at the same time will make it even tougher. I’m definitely not saying that any one thing would be beyond your abilities, but taking on more than the average engineering student is handling may be stretching yourself too thin. A field that blends your interests could end up being a much happier experience.

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I will not be taking Calc AB unfortunately; I originally was in AB the beginning of junior year (which I had waived into), but I decided to drop down to honors due to the way the teacher taught (it was basically self-studying EVERYTHING). So, safe to say I’ll be sticking to taking Honors Stats.
This is my lineup for next year:
12 grade courses
I’m currently trying to figure with my school’s world language director if I can take a summer course for French IV/V.
Will check out the colleges you suggested, thank you!

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I thought you said you only had two years of foreign language. Why do you need AP psych? Can you take foreign language in that spot instead?

Just a thought. Others can weigh in.

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Same question as above ^

An issue with your schedule is that it doesn’t read as “future Engineering student at Cornell, Purdue or Uiuc”… even at Penn State, though EMS or Ag (the smaller colleges within UP) may be okay with just Honors Physics and Honors Calc with As.

I listed some PA colleges that don’t necessarily have Engineering but do have Physics and where you would be able to study Art, too.
Look into SUNYs with Packaging and Industrial design.
(Industrial Design sounds more like what you’d want but it’s also very selective. Packaging is often ignored despite being an incredibly in demand field for STEAM/art&science students so it is selective but not as competitive.)

I second the RIT, industrial design, and Packaging suggestions because they sound ideal for your interests and academic preparation - but for straight up Engineering, if you take honors physics when your school offers AP Physics, and you don’t have AP calculus when your school offers it, but have electives like Anatomy&Physiology and AP Psych- 2 subjects which make sense for Packaging or Industrial design but which for Engineering would take a backseat to core classes of the highest level offered in calc and physics - all your universities are going to be tough admits.
What attracts you to Engineering ?

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Regarding Purdue, take a look at its Data Digest, here: https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/. Specifically look at the interactive links to “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations” and “New First-Time Beginner Profile”; you should be able to get an idea how you compare recently admitted/matriculated students in the different colleges at Purdue. I don’t think that you are a match for Purdue (engineering applicants are very competitive), nor at UIUC as an OOS applicant.

With regard to Michigan, it recomputes your high school GPA by disregarding all plusses and minuses; so a B+ is considered a B (3.0), an A- is considered an A (4.0). This recomputation may or may not work to your advantage. Also, Michigan is not going to come in under $50K for you.

Generally, you might look at the Common Data Sets for the colleges/universities in which you are interested. Section C7 will have a list of the academic and non-academic admissions factors and how each school weighs them (for example, whether the school considers GPA more important than standardized test scores, and vice versa) and Sections C9-C11 give objective information about matriculated students at the particular school.

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Here’s one more Industrial Design program that’s in your geographic radius (a little over 200 miles from Pittsburgh) Industrial Design - JMU Great student quality of life at JMU. OOS COS is just under $50K even without merit, and I think you’d be likely to get some merit. They do also have an engineering major, although there’s no biomed concentration… and there’s an excellent variety of liberal arts offerings. Their Honors College would also be a possibility for you.

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Have you checked out Drexel? It has a co-op program up there with Northeastern but no where near as competitive. It’s one of my son’s top choices, if only there were a little more green on campus I think I think it would be first choice. I’m not sure what kind of “vibe” you’re looking for, but it’s an urban campus, right in the middle of Philly, which is why the internship programs are so extensive. The school spirit, sports culture will be nowhere near what you’ll get at PennState. Our tourguide was a bio major and we were blown away with the research opportunities she was already given as a freshman.

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Additionally, if the co-op model appealed to you at Northeastern, I’m seconding @aquapt’s suggestion of U. of Cincinnati. They, too, have a co-op model, but will also have a lot of school spirit and sports culture.

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Have you given Drexel a look? Although it is not nearly as competitive, it offers a co-op program comparable to Northeastern. It’s one of my son’s top picks; if campus had a bit more greenery, I believe it would be his first choice. I’m not sure what sort of “vibe” you’re searching for, but the internship opportunities are quite wide because the school is urban and located in the heart of Philadelphia. You won’t find anything like the school spirit and athletics culture at Penn State. We were astounded by the research opportunities our tour guide, a bio student, was being afforded as a freshman.

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Yes, I agree that Drexel’s co-op program is right up there with Northeastern, and the internshipss and research opportunities are fantastic. It would be my son’s first choice for exactly the same reasons, we started looking for trees and lawns on the tour because everythign else lined up so perfectly. He’s going to a neuroscience camp there in a few weeks so we’ll get a better feel for it.

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