Without knowing how you define upper-middle class, I’m encouraging you to run the NPC at a few selective schools. You may find you qualify for some aid, but will it be enough to meet your budget?
The most selective schools are very generous with need-based aid but do not offer merit aid. So if they are out of budget you should consider schools offering merit scholarships, which will be a tier down.
Once you answer AustenNuts questions so we understand your preferences we can help with a list of schools that may meet your budget (preferably without loans).
Your profile, academics and ECs, is very strong so you will have options. We just need to know more about what you’re looking for and compromises you are willing to make to meet your budget. (Edit: If attending a US school is a priority.)
Yeah, I should have been more clear about that. My main common app essay is about my cultural identity, how it informed my past, and its relation to my later goals/ambitions in life. I’m trying my best to incorporate it into every part possible in some sense because it really has been a defining feature of my life.
My family (of 4) has a net gross income of 260k a year, which then reduces to approximately 150k after taxes here. I’ll run the NPC at my schools though just to be fully aware of my situation. Thank you!
That’s really important to do, because if the NPCs show that you won’t qualify for need based aid (or enough), all the schools that give only need based aid (no merit) will have to come off your list. That includes the Ivies, UCs ( not much merit for OOS students) and Stanford (only non need based aid for some recruited athletes).
-I’m hoping to major in computer science and electrical engineering.
-I’m not particularly invested in the size of the school, but I’d like it to be around middle-sized.
-I normally do best in classes which range between 20-40 students (This is solely based on the fact that my school is quite small).
-I have no idea about Greek life, so my opinion is not that well informed.
-Yes, I’d like to watch and possibly compete in intercollegiate sports.
-I’m honestly very comfortable in any setting in terms of climate and regions, however I’d like to stay out of the South due to the higher levels of racism and me being mixed.
-I prefer urban settings.
-I’m hoping to restart my martial arts career as I had to abandon it due to the time pressure on me. I’m also very interested in entrepreneurship.
-I don’t have any politcal or relgious factors against me.
You should run the NPC’s to try to get an estimate of what some universities in the US are likely to cost you. You should be very cautious about taking on debt. Recent university graduates frequently do not earn all that much money, and it can be sufficiently challenging to just pay your living expenses even without debt. As one example, both daughters, immediately after getting their bachelor’s degrees, were able to take on a particular job or take advantage of an opportunity that paid badly and was only possible for them because they had no education debt. There is also a strict limit on how much debt you can take on without a cosigner.
Another option would be to get a bachelor’s degree in Germany, and then get a master’s degree in the US. This might cost less than just getting a bachelor’s degree in the US.
The cost of university in the US however is likely to vary wildly depending upon which university you attend.
The various universities of California will be expensive unless you are considered to be a resident of California. With $120,000 for the full four years they are likely to be simply way, way over budget. I do not expect that you will be able to borrow enough money. Stanford and the Ivy League schools have no merit aid at all. They all have good need based aid, but this is based on their definition of “need”. Stanford does have some good athletic scholarships, but I have no idea whether or not they have anything for power lifting. It might be worth asking them, or at least Googling “Stanford power lifting” and seeing if anything comes up.
If I were you, I would take a close look at some of the schools just below the Ivies, Stanford, etc. that offer merit aid. If you aren’t set on a big university, there are some terrific LACs that offer generous merit, saving you the pain of repaying loans (especially important if you think you might want to continue on to graduate school). The UCs don’t make sense to me without financial aid. And maybe look at schools that have strong powerlifting teams - this is not my area, but I can see that schools like LSU, Texas A&M, UT, Georgia Tech etc. are strong. Might you be a recruiting prospect for them? You have a lot of strengths based on the information you have provided, so before settling in for chasing rank, try and think creatively about the possibilities that may be open to you.
I think if you have $30K a year and are making what you say, it’s unlikely that schools you hope for will be close. But do those NPCs - schools like Rice and Vanderbilt and other “meets needs” schools like Miami and Brandeis. Well have your parents do them.
Assuming they don’t come in at $30K and I’m guessing they won’t, then you become a chasing merit student and there will be schools out there for you, but not at the “ilk” you desire.
But those schools have plenty of brilliant kids - why? For the same reason - they buy them in and that’s how you get an affordable and very solid education.
I just ran the NPC calculations, and it said that I would be eligible for a 40k grant per year, bringing the total cost down to about 50k each year. If I solely run those numbers, and take into account the 120k payment from my parents, I would have to find 80k to spend. I’m not sure, but this seems “decent” compared to other college debts I’ve heard of.
Do you think that I would stand admissions chances to these universities I listed, assuming a vacuum of financial aid for a brief moment. I know that Ivies and many other t20s I’m applying to are need-blind in their admissions, so I was just wondering about this.
You can only take $5500 in debt your first year and a grand total of $28k for your entire time as an undergraduate. When you hear about other people’s “college debts” those amounts have had to be co-signed by the parents, making the parents legally responsible for covering the debt if their child doesn’t do so. Many parents will refuse to co-sign and it is not in YOUR best interest for them to do so. CS and electrical engineering are fields where many of the top programs are public colleges anyway, plus they are very egalitarian fields in terms of caring more about what a person can do than where they graduated from. I would make the focus on finding affordable colleges that you can attend without any loans, or with a max of federal loans.
So if Princeton is coming back at $50k, I would recommend eliminating all colleges that do not offer merit aid, as their price will be unaffordable for you.
Would you like some suggestions for colleges where you would receive guaranteed merit aid, or where costs would likely be at or close to your family price point?
Of so, let us know, and folks will toss out some ideas for you.
That is a lot of debt. If you are getting a bachelor’s degree in computer science or some form of engineering it might be just tolerable. For most other bachelor’s degrees it would be a big problem.
Another problem as others have pointed out is that most likely no one will be willing to loan you that much money. You would need to get a parent, or someone else with money and assets, to cosign a loan.
It is possible to get part way through a bachelor’s degree and then discover that it is not possible to borrow enough money to finish your degree. This can be quite unpleasant.
As others have suggested, I think that you need to look for more affordable options. Fortunately there will be people contributing to this site who can offer some suggestions. Also, for most of the more affordable options admissions might also be easier to predict.
Ignoring financial aid and cost of attendance, admissions at the highest ranked universities in the US (Ivy League, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, …) is very, very difficult to predict. In most cases the most that anyone can say is “you are competitive”, but perhaps 80% of applicants are similarly competitive. When you look at the 4% admissions rate for some of these schools, remember that this includes recruited athletes and legacy students (except MIT does not care about legacy). Also it is difficult for me to understand the grade scale used in the high school that you attend. For schools at the Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Caltech level, you might assume that the large majority of applicants are close to the #1 or #2 top student in their high school. When I was a student at MIT I did meet someone who had only been 7th in their high school class (out of about 500 students) but that was at a very highly ranked specialty high school. This was a long time ago and my understanding is that admissions has become more competitive, although possibly less strictly merit based. Also, since I was there the number of incoming freshman has not changed much, and the population of the US and the number of applicants have increased quite a bit.
In other words predicting admissions at the highest ranked schools in the US is very difficult.
I’ll leave it to those more familiar with your scores to answer that. I just wanted to comment on your awards.
$80K is a lot of debt - and that still only gets you a $50K school - and for EE, you can do just as well from many schools, including ones you can afford with no debt.
I have spoken with my parents about the topic before, and they’ve agreed to take out a loan of that amount, but I of course will have to pay it off myself during my schooling, and after of course
Speaking as someone from a racially mixed background, I would suggest you research more about racism in the U.S. To provide you a quick glimpse that racism isn’t always where you think you’ll find it, here is a blurb on a research study conducted with some U. of Maryland faculty members that then provides links to various media that wrote about the study. The image below came from the Market Watch link in that UMD blurb.
So if you become more open to southern states please let us know.
Additionally, I’m acknowledging your preference for urban schools, but with a $30k budget, there may be compromises. Oftentimes college towns feel much more cosmopolitan than outsiders would expect and offer many of the features found in an urban location (like walkability, a variety of entertainment options, etc). Thus, I’m attempting to work towards your preferences, but not holding your preferences as absolutes.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Iowa State: About 25k undergrads and another power lifting school. Sticker price is about $38k but you would probably receive at least $10k, if not more, in merit scholarships (source). Ames gets good reviews as a college town and is about a half hour from Des Moines. Iowa State is also an engineering powerhouse.
Kansas State: About 15k undergrads at this school that often is mentioned on the list of happiest college students in the country. Sticker price is around $40k, but you may get around $17k/year in merit, bringing this school down to about $23k (source).
Oklahoma State
Saint Louis (MO): About 10k undergrads
U. of Cincinnati (OH)
U. of Houston (TX): About 38k undergrads attend here and power lifting can be found here, too. The sticker price is around $33k, but if you get even a modest merit scholarship of about $1k or more, then you are also often granted a waiver of out-of-state costs, which would bring the cost to no more than about $21k. Additionally, I think you’d be competitive for one of the full rides here, too.
U. of Iowa
U. of Kansas
U. of Missouri
U. of Nebraska
U. of New Mexico
U. of North Dakota
U. of Oklahoma: About 21k undergrads with a sticker price of around $40k. Based on fall 2024 amounts, you’d receive around $16k/year in merit, bringing the sticker price to $24k (source).
U. of North Texas: About 33k undergrads and seems like a pretty popular power lifting school. Sticker is about $32k and the same possibility for in-state pricing, making this about $33k. Denton has more than 150k people living there plus it’s in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro (many millions of people).
West Virginia: About 19k undergrads and another very popular power lifting school. You would likely qualify for a $17k Climb Higher scholarship, the $2k Innovators Scholarship (which includes students majoring in EE or CS), and perhaps its Diversity Scholarship ($2500). So from a sticker price of about $41k, the price might be brought down to around $20k.
Likely (60-79%)
Ohio State: About 46k undergrads. Another power lifting contender. Like Pitt, there are scholarships available that would bring this within budget (including a full ride), but there’s no guarantee that you would get it.
Santa Clara (CA): About 6100 undergrads
Southern Methodist (TX): About 7100 undergrads
U. of Denver (CO): About 6200 undergrads here in a definite urban atmosphere. There’s sports fandom here (more around hockey than football). No guarantee that you’d receive sufficient merit, but it’s possible.
U. of Pittsburgh (PA ): About 24k undergrads. Seems to be one of the top power lifting schools and there are big merit awards available here though it’s by no means certain that you would receive one large enough to afford the school. The application window is currently open and they tend to be more generous with merit awards the earlier you apply.
Toss-Up (40-59%)
U. of Maryland: If you get one of the Banneker/Key scholarships, then this would come within budget. Without it, I don’t see a path to affordability.
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
I didn’t have the time to look up each school’s merit aid offers, but I suspect that all the schools in the Extremely Likely bucket would meet your price automatically, except for Saint Louis. For that school and the schools in the likely and toss-up categories, it will be dependent on how much merit aid you receive. They all offer possibilities up to at least full tuition, but there is no guarantee that you would receive one of the huge merit scholarships. Additionally, I believe that all of the schools offer power lifting clubs/programs, with some being amongst the very top ones in the country.
and it’s just a bad idea…and it’s unnecessary when you’ll potentially land in the same role from other schools (which are loaded with very bright and talented students btw).
Just like in life - it’s best to live within your means.
The question I’d have is how do your scores translate to a 4.0 system?
So among this “80%” of applicants, what would you say is the defining feature that sets students apart? Obviously amazing essays are a clear advantage, but surely that can’t be all that there is to it. I assume a large amount of pure random luck is also present as well.
Also for reference, my school uses a German GPA system if you could call it that. We rank from 6 (the worst) to 1 (the best). My German GPA was a 1.1. My school doesn’t do official rankings, but I’m ranked at the top unofficially.
