I’m a junior (international student) and I’ve been trying to compile my college list. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
Colleges:
-Location: No specific preference
-Type: Mid to small size colleges
-Diversity: I hope to goto a school with a diverse mix of people
-Good co-op or internship
-Good career service
-Hopefully not a extreme party school
Myself:
-Intended major: Computer engineering or computer science (either works)
34 ACT (35E 36M 31R 33S)
3.98 GPA
SAT Subject test: 770 math II, chemistry (Taking in june)
APs: Physics, Chemistry, Chinese Language, Language and Composition, Literature, Computer Science A, Music Theory,
European History, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Stats
APs: Physics, Chemistry, Chinese Language, Language and Composition, Literature, Computer Science A, Music Theory, -
European History, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Stats
ECs:
Internship next two years related to environmental engineering
Robotics team (2 years)
Computer science team (probably a few medals)
Over 600 volunteer hours for being teaching assistent in science and engineering summer classes
City Youth Orchestra for 2 years (1st violin)
1x in State Symphony Orchestra
Grade 9 in violin and piano
Teaching piano for 2 years and violin for a year
Grade 8 in Music Theory
National Honors Society (2 years)
Mu alpha Theta (3 years)
Secretary for Service Club
Trilingual
Current college list:
Carnegie mellon, Cal Tech Georgia Tech, Harvey Mudd, UW Seattle , UIUC, UW madison, RIT, Case Western
CMU, Georgia Tech, Cal Tech, and Harvey Mudd are reaches; I’m not saying that you shouldn’t apply, but you need to seriously temper your expectations regarding admission at those schools. I think that you are competitive for CWRU (you might send a PM to @bopper, who is fairly knowledgeable about CWRU, regarding chances for CWRU) and very competitive for RIT. Do look into WPI and Rochester.
Financial aid for international students is very limited.
Can your family afford sticker prices of up to $70K/year for some schools (maybe more than that with travel and other expenses)?
In case you do need financial aid, then for each school that interests you, you may want to check its Common Data Set (section H6) for information about aid to international students. Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin Madison, and UW Seattle apparently do not offer any financial aid at all to internationals.
“Safety” usually connotes a slam dunk on admissions plus affordability. I don’t know that I would describe RPI in those terms.
Assuming that RPI has a Common Data Set available to the public (most schools do, but some don’t), look at the information in Section C regarding test scores and GPA for entering students; that might give you a feel for how you stack up against recent entering students there.
And, I think that your chances of admission are low at the four schools mentioned above.
Going from a 34 ACT to a 35 ACT is probably not going to make too much of a difference, IMO. Further, you should look at Section C7 of the CDS, which tells you whether a school considers standardized test scores to be “very important” or “important” admissions factors. For some schools, GPA carries more weight in admissions decisions than standardized test scores.
Also, for schools such as Tech where acceptance rates are low, admissions decisions are not based on a matrix or a list of boxes to be checked off; instead, you get into “holistic” determinations for admissions.
@gandalf78 Since my internship next year is working with environmental engineering which isn’t very related to my intended major, should I spend that time doing other works instead and get a better EC?
In my opinion, your ECs should be things that you are interested in and passionate about, and not be a calculated attempt to present what you think an admissions officer might want to see.