Could I get into an Ivy League?

srparent15
Wed, 14 Jul 2021 15:51:44 +0000

The biggest thing you have going is First Gen and female as far as Ivies, however, if you’re interested in CS you don’t really have much in background in anything for CS and that may hurt you. For schools that have general Engineering programs and not CS specific (like UT), I would apply only to the Engineering and not say you’re interested in CS. CS programs are the most competitive majors and there are other Engineering majors when CS is in Engineering that are under-represented that you would have an easier time going that route and then ultimately go CS. For instance, at Cornell you can say you’re interested in Environmental Engineering. Same first year requirements for Engineers and you don’t declare your major until soph year anyway. At a school like UT, even if auto admit, no sure thing you would get into CNS for CS so that’s another factor that I’m not sure you could count on. So be prepared. Many students aren’t getting their first choice majors at UT for CS, Engineering or into McCombs.

As for financial aid, having income over 100k and college savings over 100k will not help you as 100k is generally the threshold and you clearly have assets. There are probably other assets as well as they don’t only consider income and a college savings account. The Ivies are not that generous with aid.

I don’t know much about Rice but there was a thread this year where someone got in and ultimately couldn’t go for financial reasons. So do make sure you run the calculators and know what you’re really looking at.

There are definitely scholarships available once you get into a school for first gen students that can help. Also, if your real goal is to go to medical school, then I would consider ditching the CS and pick something in the sciences as a major. Many of the CS requirements are not compatible with the Medical school pre-reqs, so you will be taking extra courses for medical school which may or may not count as your electives for CS. Or, you would be best off applying to CS in schools that have it in their Liberal Arts schools where you can then get some of those other med school requirements out of the way.

I would also look at Emory, although not strong for CS, they are phenomenal for pre-med track and there are some great merit scholarships. Wash U is another one and they’re big on diversity including first gen. Emory might be more of a match while Wash U a reach.

For what it’s worth - I have a kid at an Ivy and one at UT-Austin. Much more impressed academically with UT than the Ivy even though both are Top 5 programs nationally for their programs. Ivies are not all that they’re cracked up to be, they’re just another school and it really depends what you’re looking for and what you hope to gain.