Chance my daughter for engineering (TX resident - 4.0 UWGPA, 1580 SAT, 1520 PSAT, 36 ACT) [<$60k]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: TX
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public
  • Other special factors: Moved from Midwest to Texas in sophomore year. I have a twin who is applied for business finance major and will create another chance me.

Cost Constraints / Budget
(60k per year) flexible

Intended Major(s): Materials Science Engineering for most colleges. Electrical/Compuational/Chemical/Engineering Physics/Computer science if MSEN not available.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0

  • Weighted HS GPA: 5.1

  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)

  • Class Rank: N/A, within top 10

    to 20% due to high school change from 2 different states (top 5% in school if not considering freshman year).

  • ACT/SAT Scores: 36 Superscore ACT and 35 Composite, 1580 Superscore and 1530 Composite. 1520 in PSAT/NMSQT

List your HS coursework

  • English: AP English Lang & AP English Literature
  • Math: AP Pre Calc, HIGAP, AP Calculus BC
  • Science: AP Physics 1, AP Chemistry, Biology Honors, Chemistry Advanced
  • History and social studies: AP Economics, AP Govt, AP world history, AP US History, AP Human Geography
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed) Mandarin Chinese Level 1,2,3
  • Visual or performing arts: AP Drawing
  • Other academic courses: AP Seminar/AP Research (Capstone)
  • 15 AP courses including senior year (8 AP exams completed with 5’s and 4’s)

Awards

National merit semifinalist - applied for finalist.

Scholastic Golden key award for Art

Future problem solvers state and international qualifiers x2

AP scholar with distinction

National school recognition and Rural small town (NRSTA)

Extracurriculars
Work-English private tutor

Clubs- NHS, NAHS, MUN, Mock Trial, FPS etc

Volunteering - Museum, Temple (100+ hours)

Summer programs - leadership data science

This is the weakest part of the application.

Essays/LORs/Other

Excellent writer. Adding more essays and supplement not an issue.

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): Texas A&M (admitted), UTD - Comp. Science (admitted), UMN (admitted with 30k scholarship), Penn State (admitted)
  • Extremely Likely: UPitt (EA), USF (EA), UCF (EA)
  • Likely: FSU (EA), Ohio State (EA)
  • Toss-up: UMD (EA), UF (EA), UCI, UCD, Purdue (EA), Northeastern (EA), UIUC (EA)
  • Lower Probability: UT-Austin (EA for computational engg), GTech (EA), UCSD, UMich (EA)
  • Low Probability: Northwestern (RD), John Hopkins (RD), UPenn (RD), UCB, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon (RD)

Please suggest any other targets or reaches for this profile.

1 Like
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I think your list is fine just as it is. No need to add additional colleges or do additional applications. You already have a few fine acceptances…congratulations. Just wait and see on the rest.

You already have ten reaches on your list, and a bunch of targets. Why do you need more?

And great you got all of the EAs done!!

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I agree with @thumper1 about not needing to add more colleges. The list is a good one. Your daughter already has some solid acceptances and will have many schools to choose from when all her results come in. The hard part will be deciding between them all. Does she have any favorites?

ETA: after looking at your list again, I might subtract some of the RD schools. Depending on your financial aid situation, many of them will come in over 60k. UCLA won’t give you any aid and that’s over 80k. I’d take a good look at the NPCs of the rest of the list before finishing any more applications.

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I also agree that this is an already long list and that your daughter doesn’t need any more schools to add. She’s a very strong student and already has some great acceptances! TAMU has a fabulous MSE program so hopefully the pressure is off!

The only other reach school I’d consider would be Cornell. They have a very strong program in MSE. (And if your daughter is starting to hit her max with applications, I’d apply to Cornell over U Penn).

Side note:
For your daughter’s intended major TAMU has a stronger program than UT . My D’s valedictorian picked TAMU from out of state for undergrad and is now getting a fully funded PhD now at one of your d’s reach schools.

If you or your daughter have any questions about combining chem e with mse, or career outcomes, please reach out. My daughter was a chem e with an mse concentration at Purdue and works in the materials industry.

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I would just add, if you’re NMF, and it sounds like you will be you might consider Alabama where you’d crush the budget - and get 5 years tuition, 4 years housing, and $4K a year (which basically covers food). So even a Masters would be free tuition.

You have tons on your list - but they are mainly substitutional and note that FSU’s engineering is a few miles off campus, shared with FAMU.

You note volunteering at a Temple, 100+ hours. I’m not sure if that’s a Jewish temple or another religion but Bama has over 1K Jewish students (1,250 per Hillel) and is a top 60 school nationwide in Jewish population. The Bloom Hillel has a really nice facility and is active.

My son chose it over Purdue and had 19 interviews and 5 offers by xmas and a 6th from his intern company.

I don’t think you need any other schools - but if you’re a NMF and if you’re Jewish (don’t know), it’s certainly reasonable to look at it given the largesse and amount of $$ you’d save, not to mention the campus is stunning so it might be a great fit.

I do think the UCs were a poor choice given your budget. And if you don’t qualify for need, then your low probability schools were too. You say flexible on your $60K budget, but does that include $95K? If so, then you don’t really have a cost constraint. But you could have applied to top schools like Ga Tech that are equivalent to your high reach and hit the budget.

The student can certainly get into any school on the list and probably gets into most. I do wonder why it’s Material Engineering at most but then CS or Engineering at others.

Why apply to the others if they want materials engineering?

In my opinion, major over school - because you want to study what you want to study, not study something different just because of a rank. And stick within your budget, which you created for a reason.

Good luck.

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Thanks very much for your reply. Just wanted to make sure she applied for the right colleges in EA and it looks like she did based on your reply. So far she didn’t apply to any UC colleges and any Regular decision colleges.

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Her first choice was TAMU and they also give some $$ for NMF and also possible brown scholarship for full ride. She likes Ohio state with stamp eminence and Penn state with millennium scholarship for MSEN concentration programs. I will ask her to apply for Cornell instead of UPenn and thanks so much for the suggestion. She is not sure about Alabama materials science program. Her first choice was only MSEN but in some colleges ex. UT Austin this wasn’t available for undergrad so she decided on computational and then still going to masters in materials, UTD I heard CS is the best choice and asked her to apply. Since I have 2 kids starting college at the same time, hopefully we get some scholarship if they apply for same universities. I am still not sure whether to apply for any California colleges because no scholarship possibilities. She got $30k per year with Minnesota and that’s another good college she likes for MSEN program.

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If the first choice is A&M, then why apply to the low reaches which will be more expensive than the UCs (assuming no need aid as they don’t have merit at NU, Penn, and I don’t think CMU.

My son’s gf was in Metallurgical and Materials - I don’t think there’s an issue there (at Bama) or anywhere else. The major there is Metallurgical/Materials and they are ABET accredited for Metallurgical. She is gainfully employed and had numerous options - but she did the 5th year Masters because it was free (in the same major). I know they took all the females in the major to some sort of seminar and job fair in Chicago - and there was a lot of interest from that alone. School paid.

Some schools - like A&M and Purdue - don’t have direct admission but I believe if they are NMF at A&M, that is waived (a new thing but you might check into that) - ie. you don’t go in as a defined engineering major but have to apply after a defined timeframe.

Things like Brown or Stamps are incredible. I don’t think you can count on them - even with your stats - but agreed, they are a whole other world. They are Hail Mary’s in other words…apply but assume it’s a higher reach than your low reach list of schools..

I do think her list is too long and for that you start with budget. Run the NPCs of schools like Northwestern or Penn, etc. Then whack the ones with the wrong major.

Just know with engineering, unless she’s looking at niche fields, the school name likely matters little short of a few.

And I personally think the CS/CE to a Materials Masters is a terrible idea.

For one, one doesn’t need a Masters but if you get it, there will likely be some classes she will need to make up before going for it.

I have a friend whose kid did Physics at a Boston school and is doing a Mech E Masters at Ga Tech and yet had to do a lot of pre req work before he started - and that’s a more direct path than the one your daughter would choose.

So I wouldn’t be applying at all for majors not of interest - but that’s me.

Best of luck.

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Unless you can be full pay at $75,000 or so for the UCs, and a bit less for the CSUs, why would you have your kid apply?

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So personally, at this point I would see no reason to consider colleges without MSEN as an option, and for that matter colleges that are not competitive in MSEN with TAMU, Minnesota, and Penn State, AND that would also be competitive on cost–which is a rather high bar!

So I would also be slashing that RD list way down, although I agree about Cornell, and I would probably make a point of keeping Northwestern (assuming both have suitable NPCs).

But that might be it for me for RD.

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These would be very expensive as an out of state student. They will not fit a $60,000/year budget.

These are very good schools. Any of these would provide an excellent education. For UMN of course a good winter coat would be needed. :slight_smile: If you are from the midwest you might already have this.

For engineering, UC Berkeley is excellent. However, I am not convinced that it would be worth stretching the budget compared to TA&M which is also excellent and is also ABET accredited. A bachelor’s at TA&M plus a one year master’s at Stanford might not cost any more compared to just a bachelor’s at UCB. If it were me I would probably drop the UC’s.

Given your daughter’s excellent results to date, frankly the two schools that come to mind are MIT and Stanford. While both are reaches, and both are academically very challenging for students who attend, they might be possible. Either one would only make sense if a student wants to work very hard for a full 4 years.

However, do not underestimate the high quality of the excellent schools to which your daughter has already been admitted.

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Why does the student need reaches ? A reach doesn’t necessarily mean a better outcome.

But if you are looking for admissions targets or reaches, these are ABET accredited that I didn’t see on your list that hit budget.

Cal Poly SLO

Case Western with merit

Ga Tech

Fit is most important. Rank has no part in fit. Budget does. You want to find the right school.

You will be on campus four years, day after day. Chasing a name for name sake - doesn’t bring happiness or necessarily a better job.

I’ll acknowledge I’m not a fan of how you are going about this - because I see rank chasing and not fit chasing. You’re even wiling to major in an undesired because you think the school name is better. Lots of kids today - even at top CS/CE schools find themselves unemployed. There was a biomed student at Ga Tech whose parent posts here who just found a contract job after nearly a year. 24% of 2024 UCB kids per their placement report in ECE were still looking at the last update. That’s the top school in the country - think about that. Find your fit. Kids from all over have success and kids from all over don’t.

Pursue the passion.

Good luck.

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This student already has ten reaches on their list. I can’t see any reason to add more.

In addition, they have three excellent and affordable acceptances already.

2 Likes
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Is it still her first choice?

Any other colleges that have no chance of becoming preferred over all of the already affordable admitted colleges can be dropped from the application list.

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But also, she should check on secondary admission to major and how difficult changing majors can be at each college. Materials engineering is usually not too full or competitive, but changing into computer science or computer engineering can be at some colleges.

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While I agree and noted earlier they should trim, the OP specifically asked for this.

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Thanks for the response. I think with the received acceptances TAMU is her first choice since we need to wait for other acceptances. Since our household income is less than 200k, I was hoping for some need based scholarships and that’s the reason I was thinking about applying for reach schools. I think it better to drop UC colleges from our list and go with whatever we applied so far and try out few reach schools. Twins will both go to college next year, will that help getting any need based scholarships. We will know more in the next couple of months based on admission outcomes. TAMU has ETAM process which can be bypassed for NMSF applicants.

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Agreed. I’d also not apply to Purdue (has FYE which is like ETAM), UIUC and U MIch - but I’d guess you’ve already applied - so no harm, no foul.

You’d have to run the Net Price Calculators to see if having 2 at the same time will help. It will depend on the school. I put Northwestern’s below. You need to do for each - but why does it need to be a reach? Budget it what you should matter - but do these for the privates - and as a public, only UVA as they meet need.

To save money, I’d strongly consider the largesse of UTD or Bama given National Merit - but I would not go to UTD for CS. Why? What if she decides against a Masters…or if she still wants to do it, how many pre-reqs will she need to take. I’m not sure how CS relates to Materials Engineering.

Good luck

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Just a heads up to the OP that MES is not a competitive entry major at Purdue. A 3.2 GPA will guarantee transition to the major which shouldn’t be a problem for a student with this background/profile.

I do think Purdue and TAMU are peers for the intended major though so the cost savings of staying in state will be hard to beat anywhere!

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I think your student will get in to many of the schools on her list. Mine is at UPenn MatSciEngineering (& she is part of the dual degree Viper program). It is a fabulous school and department. There are only about 430 or so Engineering students in each Freshman class, anyone accepted to Engineering can declare any E-major after the first year, no caps or competitive entry. The competition is getting into UPenn Seas in the first place!

The small numbers overall and departmentally allow the students join research labs early, get to know professors which makes getting LOR easier, &access increased undergraduate funding for various resume-building opportunities. The school has a strong interdisciplinary focus, and has more highly-cited researchers per total faculty than all but about 3-4 universities in the US.

Large Engineering schools are a completely different experience. Mine did not apply to any larger ones other than UVA, they would have been a poor fit for many reasons. Make sure they are the right fit for yours.