Match a 4.0UW 1500SAT Public School Latino Male for CS/Math [OR resident, <$50k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

*US domestic
*State/Location of residency: Oregon

  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Noncompetitive public(We send about 3 kids to T20s from every class)
  • Other special factors: None

Cost Constraints / Budget
(Not 100% sure. Parents are willing to contribute a sizeable amount especially after they move to a smaller house after I leave for college, income level is shifting but in 200k-250k range. Not able to go full pay at many colleges, any merit scholarship suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Probably would be able to go full pay at OOS flagship but it also depends on some other factors. Money is a big factor for us- I also have a little brother who will attend college)

Intended Major(s)
Most Interested in Computer Science for now, but considering Engineering or Applied Mathematics. For some colleges I plan on majoring in CS + Linguistics combo(UIUC, Stanford(Symbolic Systems), Northeastern)
also interested in business/finance but have very little related coursework or related EC’s
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0

  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.25, weight given to AP courses + one college cc course, no weight for honors, PRE-AP, or other cc courses

  • Class Rank: 1/400(based on unweighted GPA lol, about 5-25 valedictorians every year)

  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1500 SAT(750M, 750RW)

  • 33 ACT(35E, 35M, 31R, 32S) I messed up heavily after the break but in practice scoring much better – will be retaking both ACT and SAT in hopes to get 35+ or 1550+

List your HS coursework
6 APs, 1-self studied, 3 college-level cc courses. 5’s on all AP exams except APUSH(4). Electives are computer science, engineering, and Spanish(AP Lang/Lit). All AP courses where I could take them, although now I look back I should have probably taken more AP’s.
Senior Year Courseload: 6-8AP Classes, All core classes + AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics, AP Spanish Literature + whatever else my school offers(will be taking AP calculus and AP Physics senior year)

Awards
1st place team regional math cc competition
2nd place individual regional math cc competition(same as above, won two different awards here + 2nd place in math relays)
1st place city VEX robotics competition
2nd place western part of state vex robotics
10th place state vex robotics
2nd place mental health competition
seal of biliteracy(English/Spanish)
+all the other basic awards(NHS, math NHS, honor roll, ap scholar, etc.)
Any suggestions to make my awards stronger/any last minute competitions/scholarships ?

Extracurriculars
*Cross Country/Track - year round, 15-20 hr/week, started since moved to new school sophomore year, head fundraiser($1.5K+ raised), volunteer for running events as well. decent times but school is especially competitive for xc so no varsity :frowning:
*VEX Robotics - team captain, TSA VP, started since moved to new school sophomore year. decent level of time commitment but no major awards, qualified for nationals but couldn’t attend due to cost, some volunteering here as well
*Chess club - founder/president(about 5 hrs a week, I organize fundraiser tournaments for homeless $500+ raised, also compete in tournament but no major awards
*NHS VP - organize food drive, manage website, etc.
*Math NHS President, organize events, compete and lead math team, etc.
*Migrant program stem instructional assistant volunteer: only could do freshman year before I moved, 130+ volunteer hours
environmental club: head of composting systems - 3-5hrs/week started junior year, organize compost
*Head Student liaison for local teacher union: made survey with 150+ responses, organizes listening sessions. Also part of career-technical education council
*language lounge: program created junior year to help english language learners
*part-time job(low time commitment)
*allStarCode summer intensive to learn code/business skills(not very selective)
+other random ECs started freshman year but couldn’t continue due to move
*How can I improve this section of my application before the school year starts? Currently cold emailing for research internships + creating an app for congressional app challenge, what else should i do to improve *

Essays/LORs/Other
*Counselor: Decent relationship with her, will ask to put details regarding move and my EC’s 6/10
*Math Teacher: chatGPT’d out of laziness so I wrote her a letter with very personal information that’s pretty glowing and she said she would use that instead so 8/10
*English Teacher: decent relationship, probably a 6/10
*Chess club advisor: She wanted to see me succeed and wanted to write the letter before I even asked. experience as a writer + knows me very well 8-9/10

*Essays: having difficuluties finding a good topic to write about so not sure exactly. I’ve wrote essays in the pasts for internships/other stuff and college advisor + others say they are pretty good so my only issue is finding a topic.

*Additional Information: first school I went to only had IB classes but we couldn’t take any freshman year, transferred to AP + cc school sophomore year, because of this extracurriculars are underdeveloped. also the elective course pathway wasn’t 1-1 so I’m stuck with taking a heavy schedule course load my senior year
Schools
*Need suggestions here. Here’s what I have so far but I would greatly appreciate any advice:
*Stanford University(Major: Symbolic Systems)
*Northeastern University (Major: CS + Linguistics)
*CMU?
*Princeton?
*Harvard
*Georgia Tech
*University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
*MIT?
*UIUC(CS + X(any suggestions for dual major?)
*University of Maryland - College Park - maybe
*University of Massachusetts
*UT Austin
*University of Washington - Seattle
*Purdue University
*Oregon State University
*Arizona State University?
*RIT?
*UC Schools: Berkeley, LA, SD?
*USAFA???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated for improving my application or my college list. Thank you so much!

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So this is important and you need to speak with your parents and get a defined budget.

For example, Harvard is $83,000 a year. Stanford near $90K. Neither gives merit. Have your parents run the Net Price Calculator? If so, is it affordable. You say you can’t go full pay so…you have to look at that.

You say you likely can at publics - but they’re all different costs too. A UF is low 40s full pay and a Michigan nearly double that the first two years and double that the last two - and that’s today’s costs - not tomorrows. So not sure you can make a sweeping statement like you did about costs at OOS publics.

So you need to run the NPCs on these to decide if they should stay - because while you may be a candidate, nothing is worse than an admission that you’re unable to accept due to lack of budget. It won’t be lack of affordability in the eyes of the schools.

*Stanford University(Major: Symbolic Systems)
*Northeastern University (Major: CS + Linguistics)
*CMU?
*Princeton?
*Harvard
*University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
*MIT?

So it’s the same question but you’re in the 50s and 60s with others - can you afford them - UIUC, UT Austin, UMD, etc.

I suspect UMASS and Oregon State are likely admissions - and if you’re ok with them, then you’re list is good - although I’d still ensure affordability.

Others to consider could be an RPI - and you can look into the RPI Medal. Rochester and Case Western are two top schools that offer merit. Public wise, you can go into the 20k range at schools like Alabama, UAH and mid 20s in schools like Kansas. I’d personally remove a Michigan / UIUC and replace it with schools like Minnesota and Ohio State but again, it depends on the actual budget.

Finally - Alabama and there may be others - used to give full rides for the National Hispanic Recognition program. I don’t think they list it anymore because of the Supreme Court ruling where ethnicity can no longer be a factor because you list it. However, it can be picked up in essays and activities - and they may still have the scholarship.

I know others rewarded that too - but I’m not sure which schools - but for this reason alone, an app to Alabama with its scholarship app might be wise. You’re $20K all in - with auto merit - but it can go deeper.

There’s others you can try like a Washington and Lee (who has the full ride Johnson), William & Mary has a nice full ride, and SMU does too. Of course, the odds of getting these aren’t great…but especially at W&L it’s not impossible as 40+ a year are awarded and full tuition beyond. It may not be what you think of when you think CS - but - perhaps the big savings balances that out.

Best of luck to you.

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You really need to get a handle on your budget and whether or not you’d be eligible for financial aid anywhere. You have a very long and reachy list with many expensive schools. For example, UMich is around $70k/year. Many of the private schools are around $90k/year. Run the NPC at Princeton. They are among the most generous. If the numbers are not comfortable for your family, you need to remove those schools from your list. The list is very long and could use some trimming, IMO.

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WM gives about 8 full rides/year for the 1693 Scholars. There are also the WM Scholars which gives full instate tuition.

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My bad. W&L has 40+. Corrected. Thanks for the catch.

Yes at W&M the 1693. Very limited.

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A priori I’d stop considering any UC school as they give you a total of $0 if you don’t live in California. This would normally be fine but the UCs youre considering are all 65-80k ish and give very stringent merit, which you would need all 4 years for any of them to be affordable.

I would recommend looking into some of the better known LACs (in particular Williams, Swarthmore, and Pomona for what youre trying to do). They have a lot of money to give out (most of the time, Harvey Mudd is pretty expensive), and offer really great undergrad learning experiences. Also, you said you were interested in engineering, this program is not talked about nearly enough. I’d run net price calculators on these colleges and see if any of them are to your liking. Good luck with apps!

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My concern is the same as @tsbna44 and some other answers. With parents earning something in the $200-250k range, it is not clear to me that you will get much if anything in the form of need based financial aid. However, you say “not able to go full pay”, and you have multiple schools on your list that do not offer any merit based aid at all. You might want to run the NPC (or have your parents run the NPC) for the first few universities on your list (perhaps down to Harvard), and see what their reaction is to the expected cost.

And to me having an income around $200k and two kids in university, both at a cost north of $80k/year, seems like something that is indeed not affordable for most of us. The cost of university matters to most families. Fortunately there are many, many universities which can provide a very good education in many fields, including CS and applied math.

That being said, I expect you to get multiple acceptances to very good universities. You should just do your best to make sure that some of these will be affordable.

You may very well get merit aid at those universities that offer it, and you are from a WICHE/WUE state. You might want to look at the various WUE schools and try to figure out which ones are better for your likely majors.

I would leave Arizona State on the list. My understanding (mostly from this web site, we did not apply there) is that they have pretty good merit aid, and you should qualify for a good offer. I would also leave your in-state public universities on the list. The Universities of California are likely to be unaffordable. You might get accepted to UCLA or UC Berkeley, but I would be surprised if they ended up being affordable (the exception might be Merced which I think might be a WUE school, but I am not sure that I would go there over Oregon or Oregon State, both of which should be affordable safeties for you).

I think that U.Mass does have some merit for out of state students, but I do not know how much. I am not sure whether UT Austin or Michigan or UIUC or UMD have merit aid for out of state students.

CS and math are areas where the “prestige” of your university does not matter much, if at all. Whether your code works and whether you are reasonable to work with does matter, but you can learn to write code that works at a wide range of universities.

I do not think that this is a problem at all. You have done exceptionally well in high school. Top schools (even MIT and Stanford level) have students who came from a very wide range of high schools. What they have in common is that they excelled at whatever high school they attended, which is just what you have done also.

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To further the last point, colleges often see good performance in a noncompetitive environment as a further positive, so this is actually a plus in OP’s situation.

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As others have said, the vast majority of schools on your list are very expensive.

Create a spreadsheet (on Google Sheets for example - makes it super easy to share with anyone who’s helping you). Run the Net Price Calculator for every school on your list, and enter your projected net cost. Discuss the actual budget with your parents. Then come back and let us know which of the schools you listed would actually be affordable.

Oregon State is a great school, and it would presumably be affordable in-state, so you have a solid safety, at any rate.

Do you have any experience with linguistics? This is a field that surprises a lot of people - those who think they’ll love it often don’t, and many of those who do love it never expected to. If you haven’t checked out NACLO and the International Linguistics Olympiad, you can try past year’s problems. UMass is a top school for ling, though, in addition to being very strong for CS.

You say you’re also interested in business… not having business-related EC’s shouldn’t keep you from pursuing this if you want to.

For CA schools - UC’s are likely too expensive. Run the NPC for USC - it’s very cross-disciplinary friendly and could be a great place to blend your interests. You could also consider Cal Poly, which is a lot more affordable than the UC’s and has very strong CS. San Jose State might be worth a look too - they have a CS+Ling major in addition to straight-CS, Business, Applied & Computational Mathematics, etc.

Re: USAFA - that’s a whole different admissions process, and if you’re not already well into it, you’d be way behind. Are you considering ROTC at your other schools? For a service academy with a traditional admissions process, you could consider the Coast Guard Academy - their Operations Research & Data Analytics, and Cyber Systems majors might fit your interests.

Speaking of Operations Research, this could be a field to consider generally - it combines math, CS, and business in a way you might like. Sometimes it comes under the umbrella of Industrial Engineering (although some IE programs, such as Oregon State’s, are more manufacturing oriented - it depends on the school). You’re already looking at Georgia Tech, and they are a tippy-top school in this field - compare the different tracks in their undergrad IYSE program to the math and CS majors you’re considering, to see whether this sort of program might interest you.

Among schools with WUE reciprocity, you might check out U of Utah. You’d qualify for the Honors College, which has its own very nice housing as well as some really interesting programs. CS is very strong there, and the Linguistics department offers a computational linguistics certificate in addition to a major and minor… plus the math and business offerings are very solid too, and double-majors are well-supported. COA with WUE is under 35K/year - slightly more than OSU in-state but not by much.

If CMU looks affordable, you might check out the Cognitive Science major. It’s in Dietrich (along with math and linguistics) but it includes a lot of CS coursework and has a ling component too. You might check out Pitt as well. There’s a computational linguistics group that is joint between the two schools. https://sites.pitt.edu/~naraehan/computational_linguistics.html

Anyway, try to narrow down what will and won’t work, cost-wise; there are lots of great options but costs will vary widely.

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UMASS will probably give you $16,000 a year.

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That suggests that an important thing to do with every college under consideration is to run its net price calculator.

OOS public university list prices vary considerably, from probably $30k to $80k per year. Less selective ones in the western region may offer tuition at 1.5 times the in-state rate (WUE), but the more popular ones like University of Washington and the UCs other than Merced do not.

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You have a prestige-heavy list which is likely to be problematic from a financial point of view as a donut hole family. I agree with the advice above to consider Utah and drop the UCs. Also make sure you look in-state as a safety.

If you are going to look for an economical but prestigious option then consider the moonshot full rides like W&L, UVA Jefferson, Duke Robertson. With your 5s in APs, you might also look at Oxford.

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Thank you all for the incredible advice. I talked with my parents regarding the price and I was humbled when looking at prices. I’ll be sure to check out all of the universities and scholarships mentioned above–I’ll also be sure to dive deeper into military options such as AFROTC or ROTC as that will make pretty much all of the options listed above affordable. I’m working with my parents to build a more balanced college list but I’m still very open to suggestions on how to improve my college application-- are there any extracurriculars/awards I can start before the application season ends? Is there anything else I can be doing to maximize my chances at achieving a scholarship/acceptance to university? Any further suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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If your goal is to be an officer in the US Air Force, you can find colleges with Air Force ROTC here: College Locator | U.S. Air Force ROTC

Air Force ROTC scholarships are described at High School Scholarship Types | Scholarships | U.S. Air Force ROTC , but not all Air Force ROTC students get scholarships, which are competitively awarded.

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What do you think my chances at getting full scholarship with AFROTC are? What about Army ROTC or another branch? Is it worth it if I most likely won’t stay in the military after my service commitment is over?

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I’m not sure you can improve your application:

  1. Starting something now won’t matter- you need tenure and impact

  2. You have fine ECs already

I don’t like that you said about your math teacher request - that you Chat GPT’d her. This is not a time to slack.

You’ll find a topic. A girl near me who got into Yale wrote about how exhilarating it is waiting for Papa Johns. Another about the yellow fuzz on a tennis ball. My kid wrote about tea and how it can be a bridge to reducing friction and developing commonalities, etc. It doesn’t have to be, per se, directly about you.

You’ll be fine.

The best way to achieve a scholarship is to apply to auto merit schools - hence I mentioned an Alabama before - where you’d get $30,500 off and be less than $20K all in. I’m not suggesting it over Stanford types, of course, assuming you can afford - but these are assured cost schools as a back up - and again, you could potentially earn more based on your ethnicity or other scholarships beyond the automerit.

UAH for smaller, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa State, and so many more would be great. UF is low 40s. FSU, if you get an OOS waiver, $25K…and more.

Schools where you’d get variable merit - like UGA, Miami of Ohio, U of S Carolina, UMN (likely high 30s after merit) and more.

It’s likely a good thing - whether OSU or an Alabama type - to have a strategy of “assured to meet your cost” so you take the budget concern out, then the schools that could get you to the desired budget - and of course your desires like AFA or an ROTC program.

But this way you have an assured home in a great program no matter what happens. Schools like Arizona, ASU, Alabama, Kansas, UGA, etc.- have great Honors programs to give additional enrichment, etc.

But the schools are the easiest way to get money - some have charts so you know up front - and others variable.

Good luck.

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Thank you so much! So sorry for the confusion with the letter of recommendation. I asked her for the letter and provided information(cover letter, resume, etc.) but SHE put that through ChatGPT. Upon reading the letter and discussing with her, I rewrote her(without using generative AI) a letter in detail describing very personal information. I guess I’m a bit disappointed regarding my financial situation but I’ll try to make the most out of this application season and then depending on how it goes, consider transferring to a better school after having money saved up from internships. Grad school/PhD is always an option but I’ll also definitely have to consider long-term life and career goals. Sorry if it seems like I came off as immature, this advice really grounded/humbled me and I’ll be building a more balanced list. Thanks again for your help and let’s hope for the best out of this application season!

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Define better. There’s not better schools. Some will give, on average, better outcomes but they’re not necessarily better. You’ll get out of school what you put into it.

Many kids, including both of mine, choose safeties or cheaper for whatever reason - neither of mine did but not for the money. My son chose Bama over Purdue and is doing just fine - and actually works with Purdue kids.

Looking at your list - it’s full of reaches - so it might be a UMass, Oregon State, ASU or RIT anyway - and you won’t be without peer at those schools - plenty of students with your stats and frankly, better than your stats. At a Bama, for example, they “buy” them in - that’s why they have so many from OOS. Arizona too - although the top merit just went down - and so many others, some of which I mentioned like UMN.

Wherever you land - focus there - not with a foot out the door looking elsewhere.

My kid, in MechE, had 19 interviews and 5 offers by Xmas and is doing well. There are kids doing well from every school and kids not necessarily doing well. He interned after 2nd year with two Ga Tech kids…they were not invited back. He was.

The point - you and not your school so much is what matters - and it’s certainly not a let down if you don’t end up at a top top name.

And your parents have given you everything. They’ve helped make you who you are and have set you up for the incredible opportunities you are likely to have.

When you say something like this - guess I’m a bit disappointed regarding my financial situation - it comes off that you are ungrateful.

There are kids out there that would would give everything to go anywhere to get a four year education - and one way or another, you’re headed to a fantastic school. That’s because of the love and support your parents have given you - and the structure so that you could do so well in schools.

Thank them for all they’re able to and willing to provide - not everyone is so lucky.

Be thankful - not ungrateful.

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Coming to the realization that many schools you dreamed about are actually unaffordable for your family is a big adjustment to your frame of reference. You’re allowed to feel disappointed, and feeling the loss of options you thought you had does not make you ungrateful. If you were still feeling sorry for yourself months or years later, then adults here might be justified in calling for an attitude adjustment. Expecting you to bounce back within hours seems, to me, rather harsh. I think you’re showing quite a positive attitude; there’s no need to censor the fact that you have feelings of disappointment too. It’s unfortunate that you didn’t have the information sooner, and have to shift your thinking so abruptly now.

Do you know what your budget is? Obviously, “free” would be nice… but if you don’t end up pursuing a competitive ROTC scholarship or whatever, what would be affordable? Can your family afford to pay what Oregon State would cost for you? (In-state sticker price is around 32K/year - would you be eligible for any aid?) Portland State also punches above its weight in CS - I know of students who did undergrad there and went on to tippy-top grad programs - even MIT. How about UofO or Utah Honors at around 35K/year - affordable? How about schools that are closer to 50K/year, like Purdue, and probably UMass after merit… or ones in the mid-50’s, like Cal Poly or Georgia Tech? Or low 60’s like UIUC or UDub? Let us know what your realistic budget looks like.

How do the Net Price Calculator numbers look at the most generous private U’s, like Stanford and Rice? Such schools represent the best case scenario in terms of need-based aid - is their aid good enough? If so, keep running NPC’s - which schools give enough aid and which do not?

For a highly-selective CS+Business honors cohort program that would be relatively affordable, you could look at the Raikes School at UNL. (OOS sticker price there is around 46K/year, and they give merit to high-stat students.) The Raikes core curriculum covers CS, business, data science, and design; and then you do the full major in your chosen field (which could be CS or math - the math major has multiple tracks, and the CS major has multiple focus areas too.) Raikes students get some great opportunities.

If you’re considering ROTC, you may want to look at schools with robust Corps of Cadets programs, like Virginia Tech and TAMU.

How did you do on the PSAT? Will you qualify for the National Hispanic Recognition Program? This will qualify you for additional merit at some schools, if so.

Hang in there; you can only attend one college, and you will have good options!

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Seems like a very mature and pragmatic approach if your personal priorities suggest another school will be a better fit. This is entirely about you and what you want in your college experience, not the experiences or judgments of others.

Good luck.

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