I have very little ECs, match me 🙏[IB 40 with 777 HL, 1500 SAT, aerospace engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me
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In that case you should apply to Canada, the UK, and Ireland - your IB scores open all doors.

In the US, 38 v.40 doesn’t make a lot of difference - you’ve shown you’re brilliant and will be able to do the work, so their next step is “what will you bring to our community ?”

You could want to study in the US for the sense of community&pride (that comes from the undergraduate college, making you an alumnus), for the general education that will help you fit in while helping you grow personally, and because finding internships and a job as a US citizen graduating from a US college is much easoer than graduating from an Indian college.

Based on your father’s restrictions, I’d say your odds are 50-50 at Virginia Tech, UWisconsin Madison, Penn State University Park, UMD, UMN, NCSU, UCD, CUBoulder, perhaps CWRU.
Since you’re an iB candidate, Olin and HarveyMudd may also appeal to you but are high reaches like the top 10 in the doctoral list.

(Note: buy a Fiske Guide.
CalTech and CMU are very niche in terms of who is the best fit there).

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Note that U.S. News does not offer a general ranking of engineering programs, it only does so by category. As an example, Harvey Mudd appears in a different category from CMU and Purdue. Nonetheless, all three of these schools represent excellent choices for prospective engineering majors.

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Like you’ve mentioned, I want to go to the US for the opportunities that I’ll receive in college (internships and clubs) as well as for post-UG/PG job hunting.

Thanks for suggesting to search for unis at other countries - I’m especially going to be looking into Canada since my school’s alumni mostly apply there due to their extra focus on academics (plus I can just drive in and out whenever I want without visa issues).

More thanks for the list of match unis!

(ps. will get a Fiske guide around application time :+1: + I definitely don’t have the STEM ECs for CalTech :skull:)

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If your dad wants a top ranked school and you have good stats, there is always Mcgill in Canada. You only put in grades and test scores. Its high ranked and could fit your criteria well.

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McGill and Toronto would both be options to seriously consider. Admissions in Canada is generally more predictable compared to the US, and is largely based on stats (particularly grades). Both are well known and respected in the US.

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I would double check your Texas residency. The UT schools are notoriously picky about in-state tuition. I believe the rules require you to have graduated from a Texas high school.

You mentioned earlier that you are a permanent resident. I assume that means US green card? Or are you the dependent of an H1B? The wait time for green card processing is very long nowadays for Indians (I’ve heard decades).

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Mcgill would be an easy application for him. There is no written portion. They like international students with high test scores and IB (based on what my counselor told me when I applied). Mcgill is also very strong in engineering. They even have the McGill Institute for Aerospace Engineering. That institute helps get students on research projects during college. It has a good global reputation. The application took me 30 minutes. I think its worth it.

Edit: I checked the cut offs for his score and grades. He is a good bit above the cut offs. At McGill if you are a good bit ahead of the cut offs the acceptance rates are high.

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I’ve looked further into the residency requirements and turns out a student must have graduate from a Texas high school OR establish a domicile for 12 consecutive months. Unfortunately I won’t be able to prove either of the criteria (seeing that I’ve been living in India for 3 years now).

And yes, by some luck we got our green cards in under 5 years while my friend’s parents had to wait 10+ years - I guess its just quite unpredictable sometimes.

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So above you put - no budget (but no scholarship necessary).

So if you can’t get residency, will that impact where you go?

If you have a budget, what is it?

For MechE and Aero, the where you go, in most cases, doesn’t matter so if you’re open to outside of Texas, you can save
if necessary.

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@jbean45 @DadTwoGirls
Thanks for the recommendations! A couple seniors from my school with similar profiles as mine are currently students at McGill and UofT so I believe I (may) have a good chance as well. It’s nice to know that I can get into great Canadian unis at least :sweat_smile:

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Although it appears that I likely won’t get Texas residency benefits, it won’t affect things too much since my dad has a pretty high budget either ways (up to 80k). And yes I’m open to out-of-Texas options as well.

Plus I’m considering joining the Air National Guard of whichever state my college is in since 90% of states offer very generous tuition aid (from 80-100%), so that’d reduce or remove any budget constrains.

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Make sure you return to the US and spend time there regularly or you’ll lose your green card.

Sounds like you have a good plan overall.

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This!

Can permanent residents join our military branches?

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Yes of course, if I land up in Canada I’ll make sure to visit the US as frequently as I can :+1:

@thumper1 Spoke with a recruiter about this - I will be able to join but only the lowest clearance level roles. At least military service greatly expedites the naturalization process (from 4-5 years to 1-2) so there’s that :smile:

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Closing. Add comments on updated thread.