Chance Me (Aerospace Engineering) [international, 8.1/9.0 GCSE]

Chance Me / Match Me
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The good news is there’s lots of ABET accredited aero schools. I don’t understand the profile so no idea if Boulder will work but it’s strong for aero. And it’s on OPs list.

There’s lot of aero companies in Colorado although the government is moving the space command to Rocket City - where UAH excels. Not sure if companies will leave the Denver area. I would think not.

CU won’t hit $35k (not close)nor will Purdue.

If OP gets a 1420 on the SAT and the gpa equates to a 3.5, Alabama will and others like UAH, Ms State, WVU may. Not sure what the private NPCs say but the publics are time wasting. Btw - kids fromPurdue, Colorado, Ga Tech and more work side by side and for kids from lesser ranked schools because ranks are from magazines or websites to make money, not for the real world. USNews which you’re likely using is simply an academic popularity contest of academics from other schools. You can read the ranking methodology to see this. Kids turn down those schools for others every day for myriad reasons, often cost but in my son’s case - for his own dorm room. He was hired with and works with kids, at the same pay as a school he turned down on your list.

If $35k and high ranked is your concern, you’ll be in Canada I’m guessing.

Op - when you have a budget it has to drive your school selection. For the publics, at least, it clearly didn’t.

Good luck.

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I have 1 LOR out of 2

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Oh I see. How did you get to be the one tutoring instead of Y13s?

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What about Waterloo?

Have you been taking the Canadian math competitions like Euclid, COMC?

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My vague recollection is that this is very close to the date that I took the SAT when I was applying to MIT as an international student from Canada. This worked fine.

Is that in Canadian dollars or US dollars? Meeting this budget even in US dollars is uncertain. You need to run the NPCs at the private universities in the US. Reaching this point at the public universities seems unlikely to me.

One daughter was accepted to U. of Colorado Boulder many years ago as an out of state student and was offered merit aid. Even with merit aid it still would have cost about $40,000 per year (in US dollars, not including travel) and I would expect costs to have gone up since then. Given your stats it would not surprise me if you also get some merit aid, quite possibly a similar amount to what my daughter was offered, although I am unsure whether an international student is treated the same as an out-of-state domestic student.

Have you run the NPCs for MIT and Stanford? They of course are not even remotely close to your budget unless you qualify for quite a bit of need based financial aid.

Being a permanent resident of course puts you on the same level as a Canadian citizen. This will help a lot at universities in Canada and will indeed allow universities in Canada to be affordable.

I think that you might be underestimating the quality of the universities in Canada. Canadian universities are in general very good. Of course Toronto and UBC are among the best in Canada, although there are a lot of very good universities in Canada.

These are very good universities. Calgary is also very good. I think that aerospace engineering is a minor there rather than a major, but I doubt that this makes much difference in terms of either what classes you take or your chances to get a job after graduation. Being a Canadian permanent resident I would expect these to meet your budget, even in Canadian dollars.

I would expect your chances at Toronto and UBC to be very good. Note the cost of housing in both locations.

I do know multiple students who got a bachelor’s degree in Canada and then got (or are currently getting) a graduate degree in the US. This includes one student who got a master’s and PhD at Princeton and two students who got master’s degrees at Stanford. This also includes one daughter who is currently getting a PhD at a very good program in the US. Even the highest ranked graduate programs in the US know how strong the Canadian universities are.

One option that you might consider would be to get a bachelor’s degree in Canada and a master’s in the US. This is more likely to be affordable if you find universities that have a one year master’s program. Depending upon whether you qualify for need based aid, and how much aid you are offered when getting a bachelor’s degree, this might or might not cost less compared to just getting at least some bachelor’s degrees in the US.

One issue to consider is that getting a university degree in the USA does not allow you to stay in the US after graduation. You will almost certainly be required to return to your home country (whether Canada or the UK) after graduation.

Also, at least in my experience Canadian employers seem to prefer to hire graduates from the excellent universities in Canada rather than from universities in the US, even when considering highly ranked schools such as MIT and Stanford.

Also, getting a student visa to study in the US has been a bit uncertain recently. I do not know whether this has settled down and become predictable again. Coming from the UK and Canada does seem like it might (or might not?) help compared to coming from some other countries, although again I find this hard to predict. Way back when I did it getting a student visa coming from Canada seemed to be straightforward, but whether this has changed might be worth looking into. Most certainly, when applying for a student visa, do not tell them that you intend to stay in the US after graduation. The intention to stay in the US after graduation can be grounds to refuse to give you a student visa.

And I do wonder whether being in the US for four years, and therefore not in Canada, will have any impact on your permanent residence in Canada.

Finally, since your entire post starts with “chance me”, I guess that I will do this. I think that acceptance to UC Boulder is likely, but affordability is uncertain and I do not see the point in spending more to go there compared to options in Canada. I expect that admissions to Purdue is also likely, and have no idea whether it will be affordable. I think that GT, UT Austin, Stanford, and MIT are all reaches. You are a competitive applicant for any of them, but so are most of the other international applicants.

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CU Boulder nonresident engineering COA for the 25-26 school year is listed as $68,082. CU is not noted for offering much merit aid at this time and I think the likelihood it would hit the OP’s $35k budget number is slim to none. They do not have to offer much merit to attract students, especially in this major. It is a popular backup school for wealthy students from my area (bay area CA) who don’t get in to the CA schools they prefer.

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Respectfully, what you did roughly 30 years ago has little resemblance to college admissions today. The fact is that an early application would be beneficial at the schools on this list. I just don’t understand the delay.

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What else did you project?

Those colleges want to see a transcript with actual grades (and test scores).

They want to see what you do in the classroom, first and foremost. They want to see evidence that you can do well in a rigorous setting especially in the humanities, because those schools are extremely demanding and all-encompassing. For MIT, you would, at minimum, have to be the top academic student in your province.

When you finish your 4-year degree, where do you plan to work in Canada? The US universities will educate you, but they don’t guarantee to provide employment. That’s a US immigration issue.

Aerospace engineering is a very narrow discipline. Most people take mechanical engineering, and aerospace is covered under that. After graduating, you’re expected to return to your home country. Yes, you can try for an OPT, but that’s not guaranteed. You cannot assume, at this point, that you will be employed in a US facility.

Also for most aerospace engineering jobs, you need to be a US citizen for security clearances.

My husband, daughter and son work in these fields, and, at both my husband’s and daughter’s engineering firms, they won’t consider hiring any candidate that isn’t a US citizen. It’s on the first page of their employers’ websites. At my son‘s division, they’re not hiring at all.

That $35K per year won’t get you very far, in a lot of the US universities, but it will help at some universities with lower costs. You’ll definitely get a better deal in Canada.

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I am going to be taking the COMC on October 30 hopefully if teacher strikes are called off.

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Recommended by the Head Of Maths.

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That is a good point! My kids hold multiple citizenships (including US), and my son has been told by his contacts who work in aerospace that they would automatically reject him for any job opening in their companies, because of the anticipated difficulty of getting him a security clearance.

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I thought that if household income salary was less than $100,000USD, then if said applicant from that household got into MIT or Stanford, their college fees including board and residence fees, were covered for all 4 years of college. Would that affect anything?

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In my GCSES, I got 95% in Maths and Further Maths, placing me in the top 1-2% in the UK, I achieved 3 grade 9s (A**) and the rest were grade 8s (A*), would this help?

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MIT and Stanford meet full need for all admitted students, including international students. However, this is based on their definition of “need”.

For people with an income less than $100,000, whether MIT or Stanford will be free is likely to also depend upon how many assets the family owns. However these schools are free for some students. As one example, my freshman year roommate at MIT did get a need based scholarship that covered the full cost of attendance, including room and board. This does happen.

MIT is need blind for international students. This means that your need for financial aid will not have any impact on your chances for admissions. Stanford is need aware for international students, so your need for financial aid might have some impact on your chances for admissions.

And yes, if admitted, this could possibly cause MIT and Stanford to be less expensive even compared to your options in Canada, including your options in Alberta.

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So, what con I do to move MIT from a reach to a target school?

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If being in Aero is the most important to you, and you have a budget, add Embry Riddle (ERAU) in Daytona Beach to your list, and Florida Tech. Both have a LOT of international students and give a lot of merit aid. Plus it is a lot cheaper to live in Daytona Beach or Melbourne than it is to live in Boulder. My nephew lived in Boulder during the same years my daughter lived in Melbourne. Her rent/utilities were about $550 for 3 people living in a pretty nice single family house, right next to campus. My nephew also lived near campus but he paid $1500/mo to live with 5 guys in the ‘garden level ’ (basement) of a house with 2 other groups living on the main floor and the second floor. There were 14 living in the house; the units were all separate, so they didn’t have access to the other groups’ units, but did share the yard, parking, trash, etc. Just saying…

Nephew was in mechanical engineering, never took an aero class, but ended up working on a moon project for Northrup and is still there. You don’t have to major in aero to work in aero (but it is a head start). We see people my daughter went to school with (Florida Tech) on the SpaceX and NASA launches all the time. Lots of opportunities to work in aero when you are living on the Space Coast. And it is pretty cool to be sitting on the beach or at a football game and suddenly a rocket goes over your head; it happened to me more than once and I was only visiting once or twice a year.

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It’s not a target for any applicant, even with a perfect application.

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Admissions has gotten a lot more competitive since I applied to MIT many decades ago.

When I was a student at MIT I met one single person who I think might have had MIT as a target rather than a reach (although I doubt that she thought of it that way at the time, I suspect that she just applied and waited for the result). She was a very strong student. She was a nice person. She had won a major international competition. Her father was the head of state of a medium sized country.

If the off chance that neither parent is the head of state of any country, winning a Nobel Prize in any science category might also move MIT into the “likely” category.

Multiple 800’s on various SAT exams might also help your application, but would still leave MIT as a reach.

Realistically, you just apply and see what happens. If you get accepted that would be a mild surprise. You have great options in Canada and this should work out one way or another.

If you do get accepted to MIT with substantial need based financial aid, and if you go there, then definitely attend the welcome reception for international students (assuming that this still occurs). You might be amazed by who you meet. I walked away from this thinking “how did I get accepted here?”.

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So, how can I increase my chances?

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I think that you should read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. As I understand it, it recommends that you do what is right for you. Whatever you do, do it well. Treat people well. Be yourself and be authentic. Don’t try to be anything other than yourself, a good person, and a strong student. Apply and then don’t worry about it.

Really you are doing very well. This will work out one way or another.

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