Help chance a senior :) [International, Middle Eastern, Mechanical Engineering] [4.0 GPA, 650M/730RW SAT, need FA/scholarships]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics: For a bit of context l’m applying as a Mechanical Engineering major, particularly interested in product development/design engineering

I’m applying as an international student, Middle Eastern (Egyptian currently living in Saudi Arabia) middle class girl (income ~$80-120k per year, will be needing aid).

Academics: 4.0 UW GPA (98-99% avrg)

Took the SAT quite a few times, got a 730 on the English section, but my math score sucks (650), I’m gonna try taking the ACT next month, hopefully it’s a bit better

l attend a private all girls international school (around 60-70 girls in my grade)

No APs because my school (& entire city) doesn’t offer them.

Our yearly coursework includes 12 subjects every year including English (Literature & Grammar), Arabic, French, Bio, Chem, Physics, History, Religion, Physical Education, a math subject (Alg 1 for 9th, Alg 2 for 10th, Pre-Calc for 11th, Calc + Stats for 12th).

Extracurricular activities:

#1

10, 11, 12

Position (50 char. max): Founder & Director: Events, Curation, Fundraising

Organization (100 char. max): [name] : Student Powered Creative Collective

Description (150 char. max): Curated fine art fundraisers: 30+ works, 600+ paid guests, $29k+ raised; trained 30+ students in operations; commissioned for upcoming MENA exhibition

#2

10, 11, 12

Position (50 char. max): Founder & Director: Sustainability & Efficiency

Organization (100 char. max):[same name] : Student Powered Creative Collective

Description (150 char. max): Repurposed ~470 Ibs of tires/jeans into event furniture; collab w/ 20+ local brands to consolidate PR boxes for creators; cut pkg/shipping waste by >70%

#3

9, 10, 11

Position (50 char. max): Enterprise Lead & R&D Engineer, later invited as Coach

Organization (100 char. max): Aramco Formula 1 in Schools

Description (150 char. max): Led 6-member team strategy; raised $8K+ w/ 7 sponsors to fund R&D; CAD/CAM rendered/tested mini CO2 powered cars; coached 3 teams to natls. + 4 awards

#4

11, 12

Position (50 char. max): Creative Director, Board Exec

Organization (100 char. max): [name]- 501(c)(3); Capital One Pro-Bono Program

Description (150 char. max): Launched donor newsletter to optimize ops.; facilitated [Ivy League university name] chapter launch w/ local students; helped 60+ devices reach LA wildfire victims w/ [big brand name]

#5

10, 11

Position (50 char. max): Ambassador: Recruitment & Mentorship

Organization (100 char. max): [royal nonprofit foundation name]

Description (150 char. max): Guided 600+ students nationwide applying to the [program name] across 2 cohorts; reviewed 220+ essays; ran webinars & designed resources

#6

11

Position (50 char. max): Marketing Lead

Organization (100 char. max): [app name] :student-made STEM app for mid/high schoolers on iOS/Android

Description (150 char. max): Assisted feature dev; created in-app lessons; boosted user traction via content; drove 1K+ downloads w/in 3 mo of launch; tested features w/ students

#7

12

Position (50 char. max): Manager & Content Designer

Organization (100 char. max): Senior Class Account

Description (150 char. max): Design personalized content; post regularly; amassed 1.6M+ views + 1k+ followers; work sparks widely recreated trends; engaged 430+ leads; made ~90 commissioned posts

#8

9, 10

Position (50 char. max): Head of Outreach/Partnerships; Exec Team

Organization (100 char. max): [name] : Largest national MUN organization nationwide; pioneered MUN in Saudi Arabia

Description (150 char. max): Managed 1K+ member network; provided 1:1 guidance & pre-conference training; secured discounts & perks for members; supported 4 regional conferences

#9

9, 10

Position (50 char. max): Student Lead of Community Service

Organization (100 char. max): [my school name] - Community Service Program

Description (150 char. max): Organized trips w/ local charities/universities; oversaw ~80 students’ service analytics

#10

10 (summer)

Position (50 char. max): Web Development Student

Organization (100 char. max): Kode With Klossy Web Development Camp

Description (150 char. max): Built a time capsule website in 2 weeks; designed interactive, accessible features; learned HTML/CSS/JS; led peer collaboration

I’m very grateful & I think all my ECs are the best reflection of me, which is very hard to find as a non Saudi girl living in Saudi, I tried my best to make sure the descriptions really shine so let me know what you think!

Honors:

#1

International

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Title (100 char. max):

Arab News spotlighted me & [EC #1 & 2’s] 2-day arts/jazz debut; praised as elevating regional arts culture

#2

National

10

Title (100 char. max):

$1,250 Georgetown Univ. Public Health Summer Program Merit Scholarship; couldn’t attend (financial)

I can’t really think of any other honors I have, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated

Here’s my US list, most as a MechE major (safeties are in my home country):

UPenn

Johns Hopkins

Duke

Washington University in St. Louis

Northwestern

Rice

Tufts

Bowdoin (CS)

Notre Dame

Brown (Design Engineering)

Pick one: Yale, Columbia, or Cornell

University of Rochester

Case Western Reserve

What do you think my chances are & where should I ED1&2?

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You can get a full ride at Tuskegee, I think, although the scholarship links are broken so I would ask them about that: Scholarships | Tuskegee University

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Please also see OP’s chance me posts from last year , which did provide good information:

https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/chance-me-match-me-as-middle-eastern-international-student-currently-near-the-end-of-her-junior-year/3686497/8

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OP- you sound terrific and any college would be lucky to have you.

To be blunt- your math SAT is a problem at the reachy schools on your list. Fantastic EC’s will not compensate for a math score which suggests you might struggle as the ME math gets harder and harder and harder (really quickly).

I’d take a look at schools that are more like Case (a reach but a plausible one) vs. Brown, Yale, Columbia, Penn, JHU….

Don’t know if any of these will be affordable so you’ll need to check on the aid situation, but take a look at Missouri S&T, Drexel, Rutgers, University of Rhode Island. There are dozens of schools like this where you’ll get a fine and comprehensive engineering education but are more realistic admits for you.

Good luck!

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Agree. SAT math score of 650 and overall score of 1380 are too low for most schools on OP’s list. OP cannot avoid sending SAT scores to UPenn, JHU, Brown, and Cornell as they have returned to being test required. However, OP may still consider Duke, WashU, Northwestern, Rice, Notre Dame, Columbia, and Case Western who have remained test optional, as well as Yale who is now test flexible (assuming OP has AP scores). Another possible option is to go for ACT which some students perform better at.

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OP, I don’t see any acceptances.

I don’t know your budget - just that you need aid. You need a budget and then to assure any school can meet it.

You would qualify at U of Alabama for at least a $26,500 scholarship.

Their estimated international cost with health insurance and all that is $56K - so you’d be about $30K - for a very good program.

Here’s the other thing - on the schools you list, they will determine what you can pay, not you.

So you might seek an estimate of cost from their end. People say not to use the NPCs but you might use the NPC to try and see or contact the schools.

btw - your math score doesn’t suck - but given your list, yes, it’s a bit low.

Best of luck.

PS - unless you have a budget and you know the school via the NPC can achieve the budget, you shouldn’t ED anywhere. What if you can’t afford the school that accepts you? But Case and Rochester would be the two “easiest” in my opinion.

Required Funding & Estimated Expenses - International

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Agree that most colleges on your list are longshots (many with acceptance rates under 10%) for ANY unhooked applicant. Even more of a reach for an international applicant. And even more of a reach with your current math standardized test score.

Also note that each one of these competitive colleges require supplemental essays which must be both thoughtful and meaningful. Leave time to do these well. I suggest you cut down your US list and add some more realistic options.

Glad you will have options in your home country.

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Focus on U Rochester & Case Western Reserve as the others are unlikely to make an offer of admission based on your SAT Math score.

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Since you need a lot of money, I would suggest you NOT apply ED anyplace. You need to be able to compare financial aid offers, and you won’t be able to do that with ONE ED acceptance.

Simply put, that ED offer might be the best offer…but then again, you will never know…because you will need to withdraw all of your other applications.

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I agree that you’ve selected a major that is based on heavy math. It gets increasingly more difficult as you progress through the coursework. Need-based aid will only last as long as your GPA holds up. If you can’t handle the tough math, it will impact your funding. Academic Probation exists. The universities withdraw your funding if you can’t maintain your grades.
Surviving and doing well in your high school courses in math is one thing, but math courses in a math-dominated field (Mechanical Engineering) are tougher in university-level courses in the US.

Worse, if the instructors use a curve, you’ll be blown out of the water. Students in these majors tend to be very well-prepared in math and they like it. I have 3 children with strong backgrounds in Calculus and differential equations. They play games with math concepts. It’s fun for them. For me, I have no clue. Two of my children are electrical/ computer software engineers who work with mechanical engineers daily. All of their backgrounds are similar.

I noticed, on your previous post, that you want to establish yourself in the US. If you hope to be sponsored you need a high GPA to even get an interview. My husband won’t interview engineers that have below a 3.5 GPA. My daughter‘s company won’t interview anyone with less than a 3.3 GPA. Those GPAs are very tough to achieve at the university level.

Think about it and see if you really want to begin this major if you don’t like math. I think that you should get more tutoring in the area of math and reduce your EC’s. Your ECs won’t get you in, but your math grades will.

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Looking at your ECs, I’m wondering if design engineering, or some other major that focuses on the more user-centered aspects of product design, would actually be your preference over MechE? I see that you have listed design engineering at one school (Brown).

MechE not only has lots of math (as noted by other posters), but also typically has a very well defined curriculum without a ton of wiggle room to explore other interests. Look at the curriculum for these majors at each school of interest, and think about whether that is what you want to study for 4 years.

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@janaglobal: have you run the NPCs on all these colleges? The net price result won’t be exact but that result is the lowest your family would have to pay. If that’s unaffordable cross out the college. Among the remaining colleges, are some clearly within budget? Those should be your ED choices if you apply ED.
If not ED, apply EA wherever you can - and include colleges in other countries (Canada, Europe, Australia…). If you do get into a college with sufficient financial aid in December, you’ll need all that time you to secure a visa interview then navigate the vagaries of the process. And you may find you never get an interview, just cuz. The number of admitted international students who had paid a deposit but couldn’t join their college - either because they weren’t given a visa on time or because their interview was slow walked… Or any other reason or pretext- was unprecedented for this Fall and there’s no reason this Administration’s new policy is going to change for Fall 2026. So the other countries are there as a happy medium between the US and your current country, or as a Fail-Safe.

I agree your interests and academic strengths seem to match Industrial Design/Engineering better than MechE (which is like that AP Physics C: Mechanics, just much more intense).

Look into

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Maybe. Net price calculators are typically not accurate for international students so should be viewed as an estimate only.

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I’ve not seen a case where the NPC estimates, say, 12k and the student has to pay much less- it could happen but I wouldn’t count on it.
The reverse happens, especially when costs of living are factored in through ISFAA or CSS questions at meet-need colleges (an income of 80k goes further when average income is 3k a year than when the average income is 30k a year).
So if the college is too expensive as per NPC I don’t think there’s much risk in thinking it’s not going to work financially even if the NPC only estimates for US citizens.
At public universities that differentiate between in state, out of state, and international tuition, it can also give a good understanding of extra costs or guarantees required for the institution to issue the I20.

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It’s hard to suggest OP ED or even apply anywhere when they’ve said nothing other than will need aid - which isn’t meaningful. They need a formal - what I’m willing to spend figure.

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Aren’t these usually done for full pay athletes? Are you sure they give aid for postgraduate years?

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To OP: It is fine and recommended that you apply ED to any school on your list which states that it meets 100% of financial need for international applicants.

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Please limit responses to those which provide the information that the OP wants. If the OP wanted to know whether doing a fifth year of high school would help them, they would have asked that.

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I would add “for internationals”

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Hii thank you so much for your reply!

I know that my SAT is the weakest part of my application, besides yk the obvious of being an international student that needs a significant amount of aid

I do have an ACT test next month, & I’m hoping for a better score (although I’m being realistic with the fact that it won’t be that drastic 29-31ish prediction) but ill try my best!