I need advice, HS junior, advice [aiming for MIT, CS , MA resident, 4.5 GPA, 3.8 unweighted GPA]

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
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When hunting for merit, you’ll want to look for two things:

  1. The school offers merit scholarships. Yes, I know that is super obvious, but lots of schools simply don’t. :slight_smile:
  2. You are a stronger than average student for that school. Depending on how generous or stingy the school is with merit, you might need to be just above average, or you might need to be a much stronger student than average.

Also be sure you pay attention to deadlines. Sometimes a school has an earlier application deadline in order to be considered for merit scholarships.

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That is not a unique situation at all. There are plenty of parents out there who have a hard limit in what they are willing to spend for college.

@tsbna44 usually has decent suggestions for students with limited annual resources. You need to actually target colleges where you will get sufficient merit aid which doesn’t take family income into consideration.

But first, you need a sit down with your family. They need to see how much colleges cost now…and what your options are. And then make an affordability decision.

Most of these T 20 schools do not give merit aid, and of those that do, it’s highly competitive. Schools in the Ivy League give zero merit aid. MIT gives zero merit aid.

So…you need to start researching colleges that will come in at your parent price point.

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Yes and there are so many other colleges available that can provide an even better experience for you at a lower cost. The college doesn’t matter: what you put into your education at college matters. Don’t be upset if you don’t get into MIT, just know that another door is waiting for you to be opened.

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(this is a update as its been about 3 months and plenty has happened since then.)

Hi, I am a high school junior that wants to go to competitive electrical engineering school that is not rural, preferably a city or suburban school. I want to major in EE or EE + CS. I got a 3.8 UW and 4.3 W GPA freshman year and sophomore year, and I’m disappointed with my sophomore performance but I am on track for a 5.1 this year if I lock in on math. I come from an upper-middle-class family, and my dad gets paid around $200k a year, so we’re doing pretty well financially. I’m not sure how much aid I’ll get, but I plan to do ROTC to get money or take on a little debt. I entirely understand what that entails following my education, yes I am fine with serving. I am dropping sports because of medical reasons along with being super busy, at least the winter and fall seasons. This medical reason is long term treatment for my food allergies which should be concluded winter of senior year, though if it takes longer which is entirely possible, I may do a year without rotc scholarship or go instate for a year or to CC just to stay active while I wait to pick up a scholarship for a school that I like more. If I am not treated I will remain ineligible for service in the military. I am still very fit and do calisthenics . I got a 4 on AP Bio and was disappointed but am taking APUSH AP STATS AP LANG AND AP CSP and Physics honors and Math honors right now and am doing super great in all but math honors. I will either take AP calc AB or BC depending on whether I peruse math over the summer at community college or at a summer program, as I don’t think it is a great idea to take BC without any high level math experience senior year. I’m applying to about 20 programs since they’re all super competitive.

My classes senior year will probably be:

AP Spanish, AP Calc ??, AP lit, AP physics (C if I take calc over the summer as previously referenced) AP Art History (I need to take a art class to graduate for a semester so I might as well take a whole year for GPA boost. plus art history is fun) DE Engineering, and Spanish Culture (grad req)

I work about 20-28 hours a week at my local grocery store. I also am head of my JROTC unit and am the head of a robotics team that placed top 50 in internationals, which is solid for a sophomore (it was last year). I’m a Boy Scout and am working on an eagle scout project I am actually passionate about, where I apply my self taught computer skills along with leading a large group. Last year, I was staff at 2 different camps, a Boy Scouts one and a JROTC one along with helping raise 10k for 2 nonprofits as part of a philanthropy program I did in my county. I am leading a satellite design team with some friends and applying for NHS this year along with working on selling some of my custom designed electronics and working on repair work under my business moor performance industries, website coming soon. Our Satellite is currently very competitive and could win best in competition at MIT. I am also managing my local senior communities website along with an eagle scout project website and some other small sites for community service. I am getting mentored every other weekend at MIT from the future society of engineers at MIT and I hope to help out with that or get something out of it more like an ambassador to other high schools for outreach or something.

I took the PSAT and got a 1430 which means i get a commended score and a sick award but not NM which is fine honestly because that’s super hard in my state. I signed up for march SAT and have been doing a practice every weekend, I currently have a 770 for each section which I took today and have been scoring consistently 1520+, I want to get perfect math though for MIT though that is a afterthought.

I live in Massachusetts and I’m Latino. My mom has only a high school degree and is a first-generation immigrant. My dad went to William & Mary, which is a good school, but he doesn’t know much about admissions since he only applied to one place.

I really want to go to MIT, I love the atmosphere and the people and the spirit and the campus and everything about it but understand its a crap shoot. My large list that I need go cut down by preference is currently

  1. MIT
  2. Caltech
  3. Stanford
  4. UC Berk
  5. CMU
  6. GT
  7. Harvey Mudd
  8. U Maryland College Park
  9. WPI
  10. Rutgers
  11. Purdue
  12. UVM
  13. U of Alaska Fairbanks
  14. UMass A and L

This will all be considered with the context of tuition which will be a large factor in my decision, I plan on applying for a Coke and some other scholarships summer and fall of Senior year. I have toured all but the west coast schools and GT. I also am applying to a handful of summer programs, my plans as far as which I would go to are as so.

By most desirable:

  1. MITES Summer and HSF YLI early session
  2. MITES Semester and HSF YLI and LL Rise
  3. NSLI ( I made it to final selection round and its about a 50% acceptance rate at this point)
  4. HSF YLI AND BWSI
  5. Community college + working

I am mostly worrying about my MITES essays as of now and am friends with a few past participants so they are helping me out a little but tell me my ECs and Grades are fitting.

At this point I am also working on research using googles machine learning algorithms for protein modeling and gaps in its accuracy based on training data, maybe a paper comes out of it. I also made it to DECA states and may make it to ICDC but probably not. I won first prize and a 60 person hackathon which was my first time, and plan on competing at a few more over spring. I have been doing wedding photography along with urban photography for fun on my own and published it in a local newspaper. I have also been experimenting on some personal projects and will use these for my maker portfolio for all my apps, notably….

  • Designing and Open sourcing a teaching model for mitosis and meiosis to help students understand crossing over using handheld magnetic models that are 3d printed and can be modified, making a set for my school and offering to other schools, might try and use recycled plastic for extra points (done
  • Building a modular sensor array to be deployed on a drone (learning to pilot drone through sims, yet to assemble, sensor array designs completed)
  • affordable EEG for focus metrics (researched heavy but tabled until more free time)
  • Deployed services and computer resources for my local community on a reproposed computer turned server and planning on making more progress on that (done but will expand)
  • designed Robotics Modular mounting framework and wiring that is 3d printed and lowed maintenance times by 90% (done)
  • A bunch of radio gadgets - I can expand on some but not super remarkable, more for pranking (done)
  • Developing my own Rocket Fuel and testing for optimal ingredient ratios (working on currently)
  • might build vectoring system for my rocket fuel (just researching)
  • Designed chassis for robotic arm with fingers that can be controlled independently, waiting on parts
  • Made my own preworkout blend and waiting on chemical shipments, not fda approved but fun

I am looking for advice on any other schools, scholarships or things I can do that would be fitting for my interests and experience. I understand MIT is totally insane but I will try regardless. I spoke with my parents about how much they are willing to spend and said ballpark at most 20-50 depending on a variety of things. I plan on graduating with about a 4.6-7 weighted conservatively.

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You asked for things you.could do now to help with scholarships. This is a great question since spring junior year is when many schools decide who to nominate for various scholarships. Some high schools have a formal evaluation process others will nominate whoever asks since sometimes no one will. As your counselor.

While there are many opportunities for merit aid and scholarships later on, there are a few to consider now

RPI was suggested earlier and has the Renselear Medal that comes with a $40,000 a year scholarship to RPI.

University of Rochester has Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology. Your extracurricular projects sound like a good fit for this award.

Note that these scholarships only work for that particular university.

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I am going to talk with my counselor about the RPI medal, Thanks a ton that looks great!

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There’s 426 ABET accredited engineering schools - and I’m sure 100+ are not rural. Probably 200+. All will kick your but.

ROTC is another wrinkle. What if you couldn’t get ROTC at a dream school but could get it at - I dunno - U of Kansas.

Why not find a school you like and can afford up front. Sure, you can go in-state but you don’t have to. And you certainly, short of CC, don’t want togo to a four year school with one foot out the door - find a school and stay. But if you do want to go to an in-state public, UMASS, UMASS Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell are all ABET accredited.

As for math, your teachers should guide you AB to BC. You can get into any school with AB - but it will be more difficult to get into a top school - not impossible be though. But you are right to be cautious - you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew.

You are obviously disciplined to work 20 hours a week. Congrats.

Your dad has a degree so you are not first gen. Latino doesn’t help from an admissions perspective, but if you weave it into an essay or activity it could be considered. It doesn’t mean it will.

It’s great that you want to go to MIT - but understand it’s highly unlikely. Also, know and I don’t know the specifics of each school, but ensure the location of ROTC. There was another thread - and Stanford was crazy far from where the ROTC for that branch the student pursuing was - at San Jose State. If it were me and I’m not you and I was doing ROTC, I would never choose a school where I had to commute. So take that into account.

You don’t have an SAT yet so that makes it hard to chance - and your sophomore year wasn’t great. I see you are testing 1520 and hopefully that comes but you never know.

You talk about staying in-state or going to a CC - so you need a budget - for in case you don’t get the ROTC scholarship. I’m reading on the MIT site and it’s not assured. So what can you afford?

UCB won’t see your test.

I think 1-7 are high reach to reach.

#8 UMD is a target as is #11 Purdue.

WPI, Rutgers, and UVM are safe as are the two UMASS schools and Alaska Fairbanks (we don’t see that one ever) - what’s the appeal? Just curious.

You need a budget because you say - considered with the context of tuition which will be a large factor in my decision. So you need a #. If it’s $30K, as an example, you can eliminate much of your list now and sub it with others.

There are schools where you can spend less than UMASS which is mid 30s. Purdue will be mid-high 40s, UMD 50s, etc. There are options from $18K to $30K for you.

So if you can’t spend mid 30s, then you need to add some schools that will buy you ini for your stats (South, Midwest) area. You say $20-50K - that’s a wide range. If you are in the $20K range and you deliver on the SAT, Alabama, UAH, Mississippi State are some. If you can go higher, WVU, U Kansas, Missouri Science & Tech and there will be more. Guess what - all of them will likely kick your rear end academically.

I know a lot is riding on your ROTC - and I just don’t know how to chance the reality of that.

I really do think that you should look at the “where” the ROTC is. Unless you want to commute a great distance (a lot have traffic), well that’s something to avoid.

If you’re going to serve (and thank you), where you get your degree will be irrelevant when you get out and go into the private sector.

Hope that helps.

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I appreciate all of this and am taking saving this for later, Alaska seems pretty and seems like a good place to fall in love with my work and the outdoors as there seems to be not much else, any advice for more targets to balance out the rest of my list, or is that the nature of the schools I am applying to. I feel pretty good about the sat as I am scoring around where I want to be and still have more time to study, I was looking at the big ROTC scholarship thats universal though depending on eligibility I might have to fight for it at whatever school I go to. I guess I am a little disapointed that everything seems like such a reach because I feel like I work too hard for it to still slip away, as stupid as it sounds I also have lots of rich uncles who offered to foot some of my bill and I have good instate so I am not worried about affording college because I have good instate options and if I need to can just go instate to a lower comp school for a scholarship. any advice on what to strengthen, I know academics aren’t great but I go to a rural school and should have worked harder sophomore year, but I hope trending upward can fix that.

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In the end, you need to know the budget. $20-50K is not a budget.

Purdue is a nice target at $50K but not at $20K. UF would be another.

Don’t conflate with perceived rank vs. it’s the best place to be. U Michigan is $80K+ whereas Michigan State could be less than half. Guess what, grads will work together and with W Michigan grads too.

So until you have a budget, it’s not relevant. A target is a school you can afford. RPI may be affordable but if your family says $20K, it’s not - even with the medal.

You are early - you’re not applying for 8 months - so you have time to figure out the budget.

So keep doing what you’re doing, if you have a chance to go visit some local schools - like WPI, UMASS, probably not UCONN or URI because you don’t want rural…but a UNH, UME, etc - just to get a feel for what you like size wise. RPI isn’t far too.

That’s what you should be doing now - but you have a lot of time to formalize a list - but you can learn what you do like.

Not sure your military branch - but let’s say ARMY, go on the website and find your schools.

ROTC Schools Search | U.S. Army

Click on see details. UMASS says this:

While our battalion is headquartered at UMASS, we are partnered with multiple schools to maximize the ability to participate in the ROTC program across the local area:

Western New England University

Westfield State University

Springfield College

Amherst College

Hampshire College

Smith College

Mount Holyoke College

Bay Path University

American International College

But Stanford says this - i.e. you have to go to Santa Clara U which is 20 miles away. You want to do that 2x every day through traffic?

The Military Science Program offers classes open to all Santa Clara students and the Bronco Battalion, an Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) battalion of cadets from Santa Clara University, Stanford University, San Jose State University, and UC Santa Cruz.

All the branches offer this kind of website.

You are early to pick schools but not early to learn about what will and won’t work for you.

And take the next few months to narrow in on a price - not a range that’s wider than the Grand Canyon :slight_smile:

You asked what you can do? Stop obsessing. The past is the past. You can be a total stud - a 4.0 and 1600 and get shut out. You are who you are - and guess what, where you go, especially if you’re in the military, won’t matter. My kid works with Michigan, Purdue, Washington and W Michigan, Utah, Buffalo, Akron. The school name needn’t define you - especially in engineering. Look at Berkeley’s 2025 stats - 13% of EE and CS are still looking. And you are upset at your PSAT is just commended - well, who has the most NMFs? UF and Alabama? My kid turned down Purdue for a school you likely wouldn’t consider (but if you have only $20K) you should. Companies (if you don’t go military) pay by the role and location, moreso than the school. My son was at trivia where he met a Columbia grad from a neighboring company. This was in Utah. Yep, the Alabama new hire made more than the Columbia grad.

Focus on finding affordable that you like - so not rural and inexpensive might be UAH or UAB. If suburban is ok, there’s more, etc.

But no reason to obsess and the only thing to do is to stay focused on school and your job (and find out the budget and visit some schools).

Good luck.

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How many non-A’s do you have in core courses?

Earlier in this thread you said you had a $15K budget per year, but now it’s $20-$50K? Without loans (besides the $27K four year total in federal student loans?) Do the NPCs at each school show affordability? Run the NPCs, not MyIntuition (which is less accurate and gives large ranges.)

What math do you have this year? AP Calc BC will make your app stronger if that’s an option for next year.

Allergies can be a disqualifier for the military, if you will still need treatment. It depends on the nature of the allergies and their severity. Talk with a recruiter to learn the specifics for your situation.

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I got a B last year in Spanish and a B+ freshman year in math, precalc this year with the option for AB or BC, I honestly had little clue as to budgets early on and just gave a number so people would respond to the post but they said highest end is 50 a year. I am sorting out allergies.

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For ROTC? No.

To join a service academy(Air Force Academy, West Point, Naval Academy, Citadel, Coast Guard Academy), you’d need a congressional nomination. I don’t think OP has mentioned applying to any of those.

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Duh. U r correct. Deleted. Thx

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Does this mean that you got a B+ in precalculus? Alternately, does this mean that you are currently taking precalculus?

For applying to MIT, one B in Spanish would not concern me.

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OP is a HS junior and said “precalc this year”

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Me three for the singing happily in the Infinite Corridor! :slight_smile:

OP, if you’re getting an 87 in math before even getting to calculus, and it’s junior year, you need to build out your list for schools at "easier” levels than MIT.

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UC Berkeley will be $90k per year as an out of state student.

MSU has merit scholarships.

Besides UMass Amherst, also consider applying to UMass Lowell - their engineering is quite good.

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If you’d like to consider a superb engineering school in an urban setting, investigate The Cooper Union in Manhattan. It has about the same number of undergrads as Cal Tech but it is older, having been founded in 1859. It offers majors in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Cooper Union was originally founded as a free college, but currently each student receives a 50% scholarship of $22475. There is an additional fee of $2450 for a total cost of $24,950 per year. Beginning with the 2028-29 school year, Cooper Union is planning to return to its roots and make the college tuition free again. As a result your tuition for 4 years would be about $50,000 total, including fees, averaging about $12,500 per year for 4 years.

Operating on the European model for urban universities, Cooper Union does not provide campus housing except for freshman, available in their case only by lottery. However, there are privately run dormitories in the neighborhood. Despite lacking a traditional American college campus, the neighborhood is teeming with college students. Within a few city blocks of the campus are NYU, Parsons School of Design, and The New School. In fact students from those colleges are likely to also be living in the privately run dorms utilized bu Cooper Union students. The Greenwich Village/East Village neighborhood where it is located is one of the great urban neighborhoods anywhere with loads of stuff to do.

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I have been absent due to family issues this year and I hope to get at least a 90 this year and going into the next hopefully a A on AB or BC and maybe physics c if i get some calc instruction over the summer, either at MITES or my local community college

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