Chance me (please) - Mid-West, Rural State, Small (Very Rural) High School, Chem E or Pre-Med [NE resident, 4.0 GPA, rank 1/130, 34 ACT, <$20-30k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics:

  • Female
  • US Domestic
  • Nebraska
  • Public, rural high school (over 250 miles from the nearest metropolitan area)
  • Potential D-III recruit (tennis - I have received small college interest)

Cost Constraints/Budget:

  • My parents can contribute $20,000 - $30,000 per year, hoping for some merit/aid

Intended Major:

  • Up in the air. Debating between chemical engineering, aerospace engineering, chemistry, or biology

Stats:

  • Class Rank - 1 out of 130
  • GPA 4.0 Unweighted (my school doesn’t weigh GPA’s)
  • I have taken all the advanced classes my school offers and will continue to do so my senior year
  • 12 Hours of College Credit/Dual Credit
  • AP English - 4 (AP English is the only AP class offered to juniors at my school)
  • 34 ACT Composite/35 ACT Superscore (with a 36 composite in the STEM sections)

Awards:

  • Mostly tennis - Our team won the state championship in 2025
  • Individual - #1 singles - Top six medalist at state
  • All-State recognition (2 years)
  • My academic awards are regional and school related — nothing special

Extracurriculars:

  • Tennis - Team championship and third the prior year, individual medalist at state, 3 varsity letters, All-State, All-Academic
  • Women in STEM Club - Founded our school’s Women in STEM Club during my junior year, president, recruited over 20 members in the club’s first year
  • Student council - Secretary, chair of the philanthropic and social committees as a junior and sophomore
  • Class Officer - Treasurer/Secretary
  • Youth Change Reaction (high school wing of my city’s community foundation) - Our biggest project was to plan, design, and fundraise a community drive-in theater
  • Mu Alpha Theta - Secretary
  • Girls State - Local delegate, elected to the Board of Regents
  • Interact Club (high school wing of local Rotary Club) - Treasurer
  • FBLA - Reporter
  • Social Media Club - President, coordinated our school’s social media posts and organized a school-wide event focused on promoting cooperation between clubs
  • Golf - Lettered as a freshman (only played my freshman year in order to focus on tennis)
  • NHS
  • Art Club - 1 year (not much of an artist, stopped after my freshman year)
  • Theater - 1 year (similar to Art Club)
  • Perry Initiative Outreach Program - Orthopedic and engineering exploratory
  • UNL - Career exploration science camp
  • Church - Assisted with summer VBS and aided with our church’s Mid-Week youth program
  • Community Tennis Association - Taught tennis to elementary/junior high students
  • Public Library - Helped with summer youth library camps
  • Community Inclusive Playground Initiative - Helped raise $1,000,000 for an inclusive playground at a municipal park
  • CASA - Volunteer
  • Local chamber of commerce - Volunteer
  • Local senior center - Volunteer
  • Lots of USTA/unaffiliated tennis tournaments in the off-season
  • Worked at chamber of commerce
  • Worked at local aquatic park
  • Tons of volunteer hours

Schools (I think I would prefer to stay in the midwest, but there are some schools I want to consider, regardless of location - some schools for engineering and some for pre-med)

  • Safety - UNL, Iowa State, KU, Creighton (chem or bio)
  • Likely - CU Boulder (CE, AE or chem or bio), Colorado School of Mines (CE major/AE minor), Texas A&M (CE or AE)
  • Lower Probability - Purdue (CE or AE), UIUC (CE or AE)
  • Reach (same majors - CE, AE (if offered), or chem/bio) - Georgia Tech, Michigan (EA and 1st choice if accepted and if affordable), UT Austin, Cornell, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, MIT

I’m struggling between engineering and pre-med. Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated, including recommendations for other schools that you think may be a good fit. Thanks!

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Have you run NPCs for the schools on your list?

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I’m starting the process. Money will definitely play a factor.

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It’s important to run NPCs to find out if the schools on your list have a chance of being affordable. For example, CMU and MIT currently have a cost of attendance around $90k/year and they do not give merit scholarships, but depending on your family’s financial situation it’s possible that private schools like this may hit your budget.

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You need to do this with your parents help ASAP. You list may radically change as many of these do not give merit aid and the public schools do not give financial aid to OOS students. Your top choice Michigan is around 80k a year with no financial aid available to you and a very small chance at merit.

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Are you in-state for Colorado? This might impact whether it will meet your budget.

These are of course reaches. MIT is very academically demanding and is a lot of work. Studying there has been compared to drinking water from a fire hose. You need to want to work that hard for it to be a good fit. I do wonder if MIT is a good fit whether Stanford might be also, although it is of course another reach and you don’t need too many reaches (actually you don’t need any if you like your safeties and matches enough).

And I agree about running the NPCs, or having your parents run the NPCs.

For someone who is considering premed as an option, it definitely is a good idea to avoid debt for your bachelor’s degree if you reasonably can. Also your great results in high school might help you in this regard at least at schools that offer merit aid.

I do wonder about whether any of the out of state public universities will meet your budget. However it looks like you might be on track to get a number of acceptances, which will give you the opportunity to compare options. Just be aware that you might get some acceptances that are just not affordable. In general both engineering and premed are fields where there are a lot of very good universities, and picking an affordable one is a good plan.

This can be a hard decision. You could start taking a bit of each and see what you like. However, engineering classes and premed classes are both quite tough, so you are likely to want to settle on one path before you start to get to the toughest premed classes such as organic chemistry.

If you can get some medical shadowing opportunities that might help you get some sense regarding whether premed is a good path for you.

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OP is from Nebraska.

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So there’s a couple things here.

First congrats on a great record.

As for private tennis schools or any private or OOS school, your family needs to run the net price calculator. Some privates meet full need…some don’t. Your folks have a budget. The question is - do the schools agree - ie will they meet the cost.

So the sure thing is find schools you 100% can afford or close to it.

In other words, your list has some goodies but needs a lot of changes. When you build for budget, you should apply only to schools that 100% can and then others that may hit your budget. You have many that most certainly won’t so while they are nice names, they should come off.

Given your interests, you start with UNL. Thry are showing for tuition, room and board aboit $25.5k next year, b4 merit. They are accredited for Mechanical and Chem engineering by ABET, not Aero but Mechanical is a fine sub.

KU is accredited in both and gets you slightly under $30k for tuition, room and board - not books and fun.

U N Dakota has both majors and hits. SD School of Mines has ABET Mechanical and Chemical hits. W Michigan has both and should work with merit. WVU too. U Louisville too - on Louisville and WVU, they are really Midwest (look on a map) although some perceive as south.

You could get $20k-ish but would need to go South - Alabama, Ms.

Other Midwest schools like Wichita State, Grand Valley or C Michigan, don’t have both majors.

Pre med is an intention, not a major. It’s a set of courses. So you can do both…engineering and pre med.

In general, if looking at engineering vs bio / chem, start in engineering. Usually it’s easy to transition out, but not in.

As for your list - Iowa State misses slightly on automerit. Worth an app. Maybe they have hidden merit I can’t see. .

Creighton - your family has to run the NPC. I put below. If it shows too high a cost, you have to eliminate.

Mines, Boulder and A&M are all high reaches. Why ? Even if you get in, you’re not close to affording. I’d drop all three. Same with Purdue and UIUC. Michigan and UT Austin too.

You might get in but you have near zero chance to afford - and in these majors, most names are equal, despite perceived pedigree.

Cornell, Rice and CMU - have your folks do the NPC. If it shows affordability - great. If not, remove.

Ga Tech is not MW but worth a shot for Stamps (full ride)….tiny chance but why not dream. . Expect a no but you can try. But Bama, Ms State, Ole Miss and UAH get you $20-24k - all are strong - so if you are outside the geography, they are better use of your time IMHO.

Here are two NPCs for your parents. Strong student. You’ll do great. Best of luck.

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Thanks to everyone who responded! I appreciate the honest feedback (and the time you spent on your thoughtful responses). It looks like I have some homework to do:)

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You only need one - so if UNL works for you, the rest is gravy.

Once you understand need from the school’s point of view, we maybe can add more.

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UNL in-state list price is $28k, and may be lower if you get in-state financial aid and scholarships (looks like you are eligible for competitive scholarships up to full ride).

ISU out-of-state list price is $42-45k, and there is a $12k scholarship for a 4.0 GPA, so it is at the very edge of your price limit.

KU out-of-state list price is $45-49k, and there is a $16k scholarship for a 3.95+ GPA, so it is also at the very edge of your price limit.

Creighton list price is $65k, and it is not clear how competitive or how large its scholarships can be.

Check each school’s net price calculator for an estimate of need-based financial aid.

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Yes - when I quoted I used just tuition, fees l,room and board.

Thiings like person/miscellaneous and travel are random , set by the schools. So I used direct to the school costs only.

Of course, next year prices can be higher.

Also, not sure these, but some like Purdue charge a higher fee for majors like engineering. Others for Honors Colleges. So check that too.

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Would you like to solve design problems using math and science principles (engineering)?

Would you like to work with people from all walks of life (including the underserved and neglected) and their medical issues, and are willing to try to go through another reachy admissions gate to get into medical school, and assume $400k medical school debt and 7+ years of additional school + residency before practicing medicine?

You can do pre-med as an engineering major, but it can be a very touch academic road during undergraduate to fit all of the extra pre-med courses around an engineering major, and maintain the high college GPA that is necessary (but not sufficient) for medical school admission.

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My sister went to Creighton for pre-law and is currently attending CU’s law school. She received approximately $27k per year in scholarships. She also did a 3 for 3 program in order to make the cost more affordable. I have considered applying for a Scott Scholarship and double majoring in business and biology/chemistry. Scott Scholarships are full tuition. Not sure how competitive I would be.

I think KU has reciprocal tuition with Nebraska, making it a little more affordable.

I like ISU for its engineering program…I really like the fact it offers aerospace. If I had to choose between ISU and UNL just based on the engineering programs (and throwing cost aside), I’d probably go with ISU. On the flip-side, I like Lincoln quite a bit. Ames is a little smaller.

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One last thing - Creighton - I just looked - no engineering.

U might try U Dayton’s NPC in sub. It has mechanical and chem.

Since you have Colorado schools, Wyoming has ChemE and MechE and will work.

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KU has aero and hits budget so is better than ISU in this sense. If you’re going over, talk to your folks. I’ve showed several within your budget.

I’d eliminate Creighton. No chance of engineering. And it’s $65.4k next year- more the year after. $27k and you are well over budget.

Possible major over school. Fact is, Creighton makes no sense in your case…not with engineering interest.

Since you have Ga Tech (southeast) - for top aero and inexpensive - low $20s - check out UAH. Huntsville is rocket city and the school is surrounded by aero employers, more than most anywhere. And if you end up in the other majors, you’re covered. It’s about 10i kids.

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That is a great way to look at the differences between both options. I agree, the additional cost of medical school is daunting. I don’t think I’m interested in trying to do both while in undergrad. I’d like to have a little time to enjoy college.

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I like the idea of exploring UA Huntsville. I’ve researched it a bit, I will give it a closer look.

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If I went to Creighton, I wouldn’t consider engineering. I like the school, just not some of the limitations. I agree on the cost, it isn’t cheap.

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Your ex or doing both in the sense pre med isn’t a major. It’s classes. But all the majors you’ve chosen are STEM based so they’ll be difficult.

Here is the reciprocation - it’s not all schools but some.

Likely not ones to help you. But yes KU is on there and Cleveland State could work.

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