Match Me: CA Asian Female, 4.0 UW, 1550 SAT (superscore), couple strong ECs, Business/Engineering [low income family, need FA / scholarships]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics Asian Female

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident)
  • State/Location of residency: CA
  • Type of high school*: Public Magnet STEM (small)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity *: Female, East Asian
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): Lol none

Intended Major(s)
Business OR
Bus + Engineering pathway

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.32
  • College GPA (for transfers): idk wot this one is
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1550 superscore (WR 770/ M780)

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
School offers ~15 total APS: took 8 + planning to take 4 APs in senior year

APES: 4
AP WORLD: 5
APUSH: 4
AP SPANISH: 4
AP SEMINAR: 3
AP CALC BC: 3 AB: 4
AP LANG: 5
AP PHYSICS 1: 3

Notable: Introduction to Engineering Design (A); PLTW Principles of Engineering (A); PLTW Digital Electronics (A); PLTW Computer Integrated Manufacturing (A)

Senior: Engineering Design & Development; AP Stats; AP Lit; AP Physics 2; AP Calc BC (retake AP exam)

Awards
Honor Roll all years
AP Scholar

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience- will be pretty vague)
FIRST Robotics Competition: all 4 years, one of the team captains of 100+ member team, qualified for World Championships multiple times, part of small awards team to get 3 awards, pioneered documentation, other technical contributions

Big aerospace company internship: 125+ hours, lead intern, focus on project management/communications

Small startup engineering internship: interned at same company for past 3 years, published documentation, managed schedule

Neuroscience Organization: 1 of 300 international applications from 1,000+ applicant pool, presented research poster at symposium

DIME Program: in progress but given $1000 to invest in stock market + curate portfolio

Girls with Impact: in progress but personal mentoring for entrepreneurship + how to grow successful business

Essays/LORs/Other
Very strong essays, strong/good LORs

Cost Constraints / Budget
Less than $60,000 annual income with 5 members in household
Looking to supplement costs (I’m looking at a lot of privates) with scholarships/aid

Schools
Would like more recommendations (or anti-recs too!) :

Safety(certain admission and affordability)*
Chapman University
Pepperdine University
University of Washington

Likely
UCSD (our high school is an unofficial feeder system)

Match
Scripps College

Reach (God willing)
Barnard College, USC, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, UPenn, Cornell, Northwestern, Stanford

Please recommend more schools that are strong in business and are urban + on the smaller side! Thanks!

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Have you considered Questbridge? Are you eligible?

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Check the net price calculator on each college’s web site.

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Are you by chance a National Merit Scholar - Semi Finalist or Finalist?

What is your budget? When you say I have 5 kids in the house and $60K in income, that doesn’t tell us what you can afford.

I know California has some grants - maybe @Gumbymom or @aunt_bea are familiar.

As for your list - unless Chapman or Pepperdine offer to meet need or have full rides, I don’t see how they could work. U of Washington definitely cannot work. The publics that meet need (if you have it) are UVA (works for business and engineering although it has secondary admission for business) and UNC - just business, not engineering - and also secondary admission.

UCSD - if the state offers a way to get you there. Bigger than you want but great school. UCR and Irvine have actual business schools and Davis is starting a major.

Scripps meets need so that’s a good choice in that sense. However, if offers neither business nor engineering - so in this sense it’s not a good choice. Engineering is a 3-2 so a 5th year - at another school. You would be better attending a school that has engineering - USC and Stanford might be too big but they meet need. A school like Case Western or Northwestern would make more sense - or if you want an LAC, a Lafayette or Union College.

Your reaches are great.

So - your shot is you need a meets need school. Your lowest cost - not necessarily urban or small - are Alabama, UAH (10K kids and more urban), and Mississippi State. I’m assuming you’re not a National Merit Finalist. These would be $20K-ish and I know you have zero interest. Florida State low 20s - assuming you get an out of state waiver. Just pointing out - forgetting desires - these would be about as cheap as you can get.

So - small schools - Washington & Lee meets need and it has the full ride Johnson Scholarship. It’s not urban - but it’s small and really nice and you roll down a hill into town. SMU has what they call the Presidential Scholarship. It’s in the city. Both are strong in business and both have engineering although W&L is not ABET accredited. But both are hail mary schools for kids on a budget - but you’re the type of student that would have a chance.

William & Mary is mid size (not urban) - has a great B School - but - they have some full rides. U Richmond meets need and it’s in Richmond - not directly in the city but not far.

This is the issue - and this is why we need to know your budget.

So figure out your budget and let us know if you are a National Merit Finalist. In your case, your budget may drive your decision because you could go to college for free or very inexpensively. While you may have to settle for a bigger school than you’d like, many have Honors Colleges to help shrink the campus size. And you’ve got the grades and test scores that some schools will pay for - and sometimes you have to make that tradeoff to keep costs down.

Just for fun, have your parents fill this out and tell us what it says your cost would be:

Good luck
Welcome | Net Price Calculator (collegeboard.org)

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California is pretty generous with need-based financial aid. OP may qualify for the Blue and Gold Opportunity plan if she attends a UC:

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/tuition-financial-aid/types-of-aid/blue-and-gold-opportunity-plan.html

Also there are Cal grants that she should qualify that can be used at any California college:

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Some universities offer combined business & engineering degrees. Lehigh University’s Integrated Business & Engineering major is an example.

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Seconding the question about Questbridge. If you qualify, this would allow you to apply to a number of the schools that interest you, plus more; and the aid package if you Match is even better than the usual aid from the partner schools. (The difference can be especially stark at schools like USC, which aren’t as generous as the “Ivy+” schools.) All of the schools on your Reach list are QB partners except for UCLA and CMU. Scripps is also. (Although I agree that it isn’t a fit if your primary interests are business and engineering.) Additional Questbridge partner school options include Boston College, BU, Caltech, Case Western, Claremont McKenna, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton, Rice, Notre Dame, UVA, Vanderbilt, Washington & Lee, and WashU in STL… plus a bunch more that, like Scripps, do not explicitly have business or engineering.

If you like women’s colleges, why not Smith, which has an engineering major, or Wellesley, where you could cross-register at MIT? (Both are Questbridge partners as well.)

Washington & Lee could be a great one to consider, even if you aren’t applying through Questbridge. They give 10% their Johnson Scholarship which is a full ride. They choose not to participate in ABET accreditation so that their engineering major can be more flexible; this could be a great fit for a student who wants more of a business slant. They have a strong undergrad business program as well, and you could potentially combine the two.

Another way to combine business and engineering is to study Industrial or Systems Engineering. The emphasis of these programs can vary - some can be more manufacturing oriented… some emphasized operations research… so you have to look at each program to see how well it fits your interests. But in general, this could be a great fit, since you don’t seem to have another engineering specialty (like chemical, electrical, mechanical, civil) that’s of more interest than business. Berkeley, for example, has a top IE program; the department offers both a major and a minor: Undergraduate Programs - UC Berkeley IEOR Department - Industrial Engineering & Operations Research USC has this major too: Undergraduate Program - USC Viterbi | Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering. Northwestern, Stanford (where it’s called Management Science & Engineering), and Cornell (where it’s called Operations Research & Engineering) also have top programs in this field. Columbia’s department actually has multiple undergraduate options. Cal Poly could be a great option as well: Industrial Engineering | Cal Poly

Lehigh has a strong undergrad ISE program as well B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering | P.C. Rossin College of Engineering & Applied Science in addition to the IBE program which Publisher mentioned. (IBE students have the option of a 5-year dual-degree plan, to get an ABET-accredited degree in a specific engineering discipline, which can be ISE). Lehigh meets need and gives no-loan aid to low-income students; and prior to the SCOTUS decision, they were unusual in giving a URM “bump” to Asian applicants.

A college is not a safety unless it is highly likely to admit you and highly likely to be affordable. I don’t think UW-Seattle is even an admissions safety, but it is most assuredly not a financial safety. I see no path to affordability for you at UDub, unless I’m missing something. Maybe you meant WashU, which would meet your need, but then that’s definitely not an admissions safety.

Have you run the Net Price Calculators for all schools?

I’d definitely encourage you either to pursue Questbridge, or to identify favorites that are verified-affordable via the NPC and give a good “ED bump” to apply to ED1 with a possible ED2 backup. Northwestern, for example, gives generous aid and has a much higher acceptance rate in ED (19% vs. 6% in RD). Lehigh offers ED2, and they fill more than 60% of their class with ED applicants.

Lots of suggestions have been made; if you can response with more clarification about Questbridge, NPC results, and which kind of major programs appeal to you, the advice can be further refined to be more helpful.

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This won’t be known until next year. Semifinalists are notified in September and Finalists in early 2025. California is one of the toughest states for NMSF.

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Yes but as you or others have said - if you get one you likely both. I should restate tho - to say if you believe you will be.

Otherwise OP needs to give a budget (not just I need merit) and fill out some NPCs. I put one above but will need for each.

If they get National Merit, they may not love the choices but they’ll be able to afford to go to a great college for a low cost.

I’m assuming likely not in this case. Most OP’s mention the expectation.

And then given the family income, Questbridge does seem another appropriate possibility - so great suggestion from those who brought that up.

It’s great OP is seeing the discussion…to understand the various implications related to finances.

Thanks

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I would add more UCs and CSUs, such as UCI, UCD, CPSLO, CPP and SDSU to increase your chance of getting FA and acceptance. For OOS public such as UDub, you will still pay $60K a year after merit. Good luck.

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Here to endorse Questbridge for you. Please look into it. Penn has a dual-degree Wharton/SEAS M&T program, so give that a look, too.

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I am assuming that you’re aware the Chapman and Pepperdine have religious affiliations and requirements.

You should apply to more CSUs and UCs, as mentioned previously, in order to have access to business majors and use your Cal grants and the MCS scholarships.

Go to each university’s website, search for “net price calculator” and start inputting some numbers and see what comes up. The computer will automatically assume California State funding options including CAL grant and the middle class scholarship.

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After identifying affordable safeties, which you have been given a lot of advice on, if not doing Questbridge, I would go all in on finding schools that are NO LOAN/ Meets 100 percent financial need for your income bracket. You can google this information, there are lists out there. These are mostly high reach schools, but you can run the NPC for appropriate schools and find out how much aid they will give you. Off the top of my head, I would suggest, in addition to any Ivy League schools, Rice (you would get full tuition, board, & fees paid under the Rice Investment), WashU, Duke, Vanderbilt.

From your list, I believe (but am not sure!) Penn, Cornell, Northwestern & Stanford would be No loan/ Meets full need at your family income level- but not Barnard, USC, or Carnegie Mellon.

I know a lot of these are high reach schools, but if you have at least a couple of affordable safeties, I would suggest finding and applying to the most high reach / good fit for you schools as you can - paying $0 and having $0 loans coming out of college would be worth it, IMO, and you have the stats/ qualifications to get into these schools.

The suggestion upthread of identifying a Meets full need/ no loan ED choice is also a great one if you have a top choice (unless that top choice is an Ivy League school (other than Cornell) or Stanford, in which case I personally would not REA/ ED). Northwestern, Rice, Cornell, Duke, WashU, Vanderbilt I think would be good ED contenders for you, IF you like one of these schools above the others after researching/ possibly visiting. Look into Fly in programs for these schools for low income students if you want to visit.

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Here’s a 3rd party list - I think you’re looking for the first section (no loans). Of course it’s third party make sure to verify on the school’s website - and again, do that school’s net price calculator (not the simpler my intuition model).

Here’s Every College That Offers 100% Financial Aid (prepscholar.com)

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Why does Williams appear on the NO loan list AND the no loan list for families under a certain income.

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Third party - hence you have to check each individually. I know in the past, some had no loans dependent upon income.

But any third party list, folks have to validate the info.

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“Meet need” colleges can give widely varying net prices, due to each using its own definition of “need”. Best would be to use the net price calculator at each college of interest to see if it is likely to give an affordable net price (= list price minus grants and scholarships; loans and assumed student work earnings do not lower net price).

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I was going to mention Lehigh, but it has already been done a couple times, but I still wanted to add another vote for checking it out.

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You are correct. That is why I suggested this:

It also varies which of these schools take into account home equity, business assets, etc. so the NPC is definitely the most accurate, looking at a general list as suggested is just a starting point.

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I have found a variety of lists, some accurate, some not - that is a good starting point. And schools change things yearly.