<p>Also look at the website imfirst.org. it is for first generation students like yourself. The colleges that participate in that program are called partner colleges and they are actively looking for first generation students like yourself. Review each college partner and see the levels of support they provide at the different stages of the process. I think you can also fill out a profile where they will match you to college partners. </p>
<p>Another resource is the Venture Scholars program. sign up to be a Venture Scholar at this link. <a href=“http://www.venturescholar.org/”>http://www.venturescholar.org/</a> You can submit your profile and they will send it to affiliated colleges. </p>
<p>A website I really like for learning about colleges and figuring which colleges are the most generous is collegedata.org.</p>
<p>I agree that you need to put on some safeties and matches on your list. Last year a ton of well-qualified students like yourself got shot down by the UC’s. You are a male wanting to major in engineering or sciences. It is highly competitive therefore you can never assume a UC like SD or SB is a safety. Last year a local salutorian who matches you pretty closely with grades and test scores did not get into UCSD. A student of mine with great grades and an SAT over 2100 but who wanted engineering did not get into a single UC. Last year UCSB received over 1K applications for the 68 spots in Mechanical Engineering. Our UC’s are impacted so you cannot consider them safeties. Students from your high school may have been accepted but you have to remember that majors come into play with admissions. You have a problem typical of high-achieving students. You do not want to believe that you may have to attend a match or safety so you do not find one you love. For my students they have to give me 3 reasons why they have a school on their list and prestige is not an acceptable reason. As others have pointed out you have some schools on your list that do not even have your major. </p>
<p>Since your need is great I would look at those full-tuition offers on that list you mentioned as well as the
“Colleges that change lives” schools. ctcl.org. </p>
<p>Also take off NYU- they will never give you enough need and you do not want to take out the number of loans it would require to attend it. </p>
<p>You have to remember that there are 40K high schools in the US. If just the valedictorians applied to Harvard there would still be about 37500 vals unhappy who did not get into Harvard. The simple reality is that there is not enough space for all the qualified candidates- the ivies regularly report that they could fill their classes 4 or 5 times with qualified applicants. You have seen this already with your rejection from that one summer program. </p>
<p>Take advantage of the early action process to get into some schools. It will take some of the pressure off and you will know you can go to college. My DD this year applied to her safeties at the end of June and got accepted by them in mid July with merit money. She knew she was going to college that was affordable to us. </p>
<p>Good luck. </p>