Match Me!/Chance Me As Well?: [Rising Junior] US Citizen Living Abroad Looking For Schools In/Around New York, Preferably With Good Food

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Context: I live in Asia studying the local curriculum, which is a bit difficult to convert into the GPA system. Most of the stuff related to grades are mostly estimates, so sorry for any confusion!!

Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Asia
  • Type of high school: competitive public
  • Other special factors: female in STEM if that counts, neurodivergent

Cost Constraints / Budget: can pay for anything

Intended Major(s): engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Class Rank: Top 25% (school only discloses quarter)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: N/A, guessing 1500??

HS coursework:

[These are a little bit similar to A-Levels; rough ranking only since school doesn’t disclose]

  • Physics (11-25%)
  • Chemistry (50-75% of class, don’t ask me what happened)
  • Computer Science (top 10%)
  • Further Maths (11-25%)

Chinese GCE: A*

Awards:

  • Semifinalist in some top-student-in-the-county thing
  • Top 20 in an academic competition
  • A minor math award (ranking: top 120/800+)

Extracurriculars
Academic team and choir president, journalism internship (had to get through interviews), various volunteering stuff (for school events, at the hospital)

Essays/LORs/Other
Don’t know yet, but LORs might be a bit weak since teachers at my school don’t have much experience writing them

Schools:
Yale, Cornell, NYU, BU, Stony Brook, Binghamton, UMass Amherst

[Right now, Stony is a bit questionable to me because of alleged food poisoning problems of cafeteria food; it’s mostly there as a match/reach. I do know I can very much liberate myself from meal swipes the second I enter second year of college, but I would like to not spend 200+ days of my life eating subpar food/barely surviving on instant noodles.]

Looking for advice to add/remove any schools in that list

Thanks for even reading this far lol

1 Like
2

You seem to have a fine record.

Don’t guess at the SAT - when you have it, come back.

It’s hard to tell by a ranking how that comes into a grade but obviously the Chem hurts. There’s tons of ABET accredited engineering schools - depending upon the discipline.

But I don’t think anyone can rate you now - without better understanding the grades and a test score.

Does your school place other kids in the US - they may know better.

Given your NE list, and not saying you won’t get into these and it depends on the discipline you want to study, but easier schools to get into would be UNH and URI, as an example of public schools.

In most cases, with ABET accredidation, the where you go matters little.

Keep working hard and come back with an SAT score. And if you can figure a GPA-ish range, that will ehlp too.

Also, what are your highest levels you complete in core areas - math (calculus for example??), Science (you’ve had Physics and Chem), how many years of foreign language (not local), Social Science, etc.

Thanks

3

For Engineering with good food, I’d switch Stony Brook for Virginia Tech - not near NYC but not far either, especially since youre considering UMass Amherst.

@tsbna44 : Further Math means Calc1+2&Linear Algebra&?. Much more advanced than AP Calc (its more advanced than A Level Maths which is more advanced than AP Calc Bc). A Level Physics and Chem is 1-2 levels above AP.

1 Like
4

A statement like this leads me to believe you haven’t really researched your schools of interest very deeply. Not sure about the others, but Cornell and Yale both require two years of on campus living. This would mean at least two years of dorm food. Fortunately, the food at Cornell is excellent. I can’t comment on the food elsewhere.

Also, NYU and Cornell are basically opposites in terms of campus environments. Can you share why In and around NY are so important to your college search?

2 Likes
5

2026 Best College Food in New York

1 Like
6

Not sure what “distance” you need to be from NYC - but Cornell is not a school where you’re going to have access to NY.

Here’s 28 schools accredited for Mechanical Engineering that are within a 3 hour drive - a subjective guess…if that helps.

An easier entry than Stony Brook - as an example - would be Hofstra. You might very well get into Stony Brook - it’s too difficult to understand your profile and you don’t yet have a test score.

Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology Flushing New York
Fairfield University Fairfield Connecticut
University of Bridgeport Bridgeport Connecticut
Central Connecticut State University New Britain Connecticut
Columbia University in the City of New York New York New York
The Cooper Union New York New York
Cornell University Ithaca New York
Fairleigh Dickinson University (Metropolitan Campus) Teaneck New Jersey
University of Hartford West Hartford Connecticut
Hofstra University Hempstead New York
Manhattan University Riverdale New York
University of New Haven West Haven Connecticut
New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark New Jersey
The College of New Jersey Ewing New Jersey
State University of New York at New Paltz New Paltz New York
Stony Brook University Stony Brook New York
New York Institute of Technology Old Westbury New York
State University of New York Maritime College Bronx New York
New York University Tandon School of Engineering Brooklyn New York
New York University Tandon School of Engineering Brooklyn New York
City University of New York, City College New York New York
Princeton University Princeton New Jersey
Quinnipiac University Hamden Connecticut
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy New York
Rowan University Glassboro New Jersey
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick New Jersey
Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken New Jersey
Yale University New Haven Connecticut
1 Like
7

Cornell is in New York. OP did not specify New York City.

8

fair enough - there’s lots of less competitive schools in NY - someone made the comment about - UMASS is not close - so might as well go Va Tech. So I made the assumption of NYC. And OP clearly has no interest in SB but sounds like they put there to be close to the city.

Hopefully OP will update us on geographic need or desire - to be more specific. Coming from overseas, a few of these will be more difficult (but not impossible) to travel to as well.

9

Virginia Tech is about 500 miles from NY, a 7 hr, 30 minute drive minimum. UMass is 165 miles, a 3 hour drive or so.

6 Likes
10

I ‘d consider University of Rochester. They are excellent for engineering and are very partial to international students.

2 Likes
11

If you’d like to stay in NY state check out SUNY Buffalo, RPI, and Clarkson.

3 Likes
12

@TrigBlob can you please clarify what you mean by “in or around New York”

3 Likes
13

Consider Fordham…one small campus in Manhatttan and a larger,traditional campus in the Bronx. Don’t think there is a requirement to live on campus.

1 Like
14

I don’t believe Fordham has engineering.

I noticed the student says neurodivergent - and not sure of their support needs but for engineering, I’ve seen Drexel and RIT (a bit farther from NYC) on many lists. So they might be worth a look.

15

Oops

1 Like
16

If good food is important to you, UMass Amherst is the best in the nation. Every meal is like being at an enormous cruise ship buffet with high-quality food, and lots of interesting ethnic options, lots of healthy option. They have strong STEM education, too, and mostly the dorms are pretty good. You can keep a car on campus, if you want to. It’s about a 4 hour drive to NYC, about 2 hours to Boston, and there are buses, also.

2 Likes
17

Not only does the UMass cafeteria serve great food, but they serve fun food. I happened to be visiting my grandson at UMass this year on Lunar New Year. The cafeteria celebrated the new year with an Asian food festival. It drew lots of locals who are not at all affiliated with the university. As long as they pay, they’re allowed to eat there. That’s how good the food is. The locals eschew the town’s restaurants, which are very good, to dine at the UMass cafeteria!

My grandson happens to be in the Engineering School and he’s very happy with it. He’s also in the Honors Program, which I think ypou’d be invited to as well. That has gotten him housing in the Honors dorm, which is beautiful and is only a short walk to both the main cafeteria and the engineering complex.

2 Likes
18

So just to be frank about something, the most selective colleges in the US like Yale and Cornell are typically looking for top few students in their secondary schools, absent some really rare non-academic attribute they also value highly (or going to a “feeder” sort of school). And Yale in particular is actually need blind for Internationals, which is helpful for highly qualified Internationals with a lot of need, but I believe the evidence is it then hurts highly qualified full pay Internationals.

Places like NYU and BU are a little less selective, but not much, and that includes because they are in such popular locations they get a LOT of applications. On the plus side, they are not need blind, but still, they are typically looking for around top 5-10% sorts of students, again absent exceptional circumstances.

None of this means you can’t try, but I would be realistic about the possibility none of those would come through. And then if you would really like more of a private college experience, that would mean perhaps considering some more that would not be quite that selective.

And others have already mentioned some to consider, but I would definitely look at RPI (about the same distance from NYC as UMass), WPI (also a similar distance and closer to Boston), and the University of Rochester and RIT (if that is not too far Upstate). Northeastern would also be worth a look, I would think.

You might also want to check out Olin. It isn’t like your other schools, it is a smaller undergrad-focused engineering college, but could be pretty cool. You also mentioned being neurodivergent–these smaller, undergrad-focused institutions sometimes really work out well for neurodivergent students, although you would want to research that in more depth for each specific such college. I also note they MIGHT be a little easier admits for women, possibly even more likely to offer merit, because they sometimes are trying to keep up a decent percentage of women.

OK, then Stevens is right across the Hudson from NYC (in Hoboken). Drexel is down in Philly, another great city and a quick train ride to NYC (Drexel’s campus is basically right next to the train station).

Lehigh is also actually quite close to NYC, just on the other side of NJ basically, around 90 minutes drive. If you are interested in the idea of a smaller private college, Lafayette is in the same general area (the Lehigh Valley). There is also Bucknell, about 3.5 hours drive from NYC, so at least closer than Cornell! And finally Union up in Schenectady, near Albany, and about 3 hours drive from NYC (or like 3:40 by train).

That’s a lot of ideas, but point being you don’t have to stick to just the most selective privates, and otherwise publics. And as a neurodivergent woman interested in engineering, maybe some of these options could be particularly interesting (although that is very much up to you), and some might offer significant merit as well.

1 Like
19

If this student wants to get to New York City on a regular basis, a three hour drive each way isn’t exactly right around the corner.

But @TrigBlob has not yet clarified what they mean about proximity to NY.

1 Like
20

Yeah I have definitely not looked into the schools enough. Thanks for pointing the dorm thing out! I can’t believe I overlooked that…

NY is important only because I have relatives living there so if anything happens they won’t be too far away. I’m not really sure if that’s a good enough reason to soft lock my options to Schools in NY and the Surrounding Area TM