MATCH ME! IL resident, 3.9 UW, 1530 SAT, First Gen, CompE <$15K [-1500 SAI]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

LOOKING FOR schools in midwest or east coast that have a strong engineering undergrad.
Demographics

  • IL Citizen
  • Selective high school
  • First gen LI
  • Female

Cost Constraints / Budget
*Under 15k (-1500sai)

Intended Major(s)
Computer Engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.9GPA UW
4.9/4 GPA WEIGHTED
No rank
1530 SAT 770M/760RW (taking once more
5s on majority of AP exams taken. 12 total APS

List your HS coursework
All honors level+ coursework- most rigorous school offers, including specialty engineering classes

  • AP Lit/Lang
  • AP Calc
  • AP Gov/USH/World/HUG
  • AP CSA/CSP
  • AP Env. Sci
  • AP Seminar/Research

Awards
French Alliance of Chicago Scholar (Partnered with my school district and picked around 18 kids to participate out of all french learners)
AP scholar w/ distinction
National First Gen recognition program

Extracurriculars
Raised $100k for Ovarian cancer treatment, $9k for ALS research and $6k for pediatric cancer research
Founder of student voice committee at my school
French cultural immersion program
Student Gov. treasurer
Club officer x2
Volunteering 20h/wk with nonprofit tax help company
Volunteering raising $ for an elementary school every october
Etc etc there are more but they’re of lesser significance.

Essays/LORs/Other
I’d say my essay is pretty strong, but could be better. Supplementals definitely tend to be pretty good. LORs should be good as well. One of my teachers will speak to my academics and achievements more and one will speak about characteristics and how those relate to my academics.

2

What is your unweighted gpa on a 4 point scale. A = 4, B = 3, C =2

What is your need situation ? Will collehes say you have need ?

If not short of living at home you are unlikely to find $15k.

You can get close in the South and maybe Midwest.

Have your family fill out an NPC. What does it show your cost?

https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/lehigh

https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/cornell

3

Unweighted is 3.9 and some change. Need is very high, have been doing NPCs and most top schools are estimated around $5k or under. iirc Yale was around 3k, northwestern closer to 2k.

4

Neither offer ABET accredited Comp E.

Unweighted GPA is all that matters. Some schools will weight them using their own system.

What other things do you want out of a school? Location? Size? Support for hobbies like hiking, skiing, or surfing? Etc. What’s important to you beyond the academics?

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5

So Bama, UAH, and Ms State are all $17-19k. Not where you want but putting it out there.

Obviously UIUC, UIC and SIU in Illinois may hit your # with low income programs.

You can then try high end meets needs schools like CMU, Northwestern, Lehigh, and even some out of your zone - Vandy etc.

But you need the assured admit and affordable. So that’s your southern if you can stretch a few thousand or in state.

Many schools will produce great grads but in your case budget is most important. You, not the school, will make your career (outside of a few).

There’s lots of meets needs schools with CE. But they are not admissions safeties so you need 1-2 admissible and affordable.

Good luck.

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6

Where have you applied so far?

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Cornell estimated about 6k, lehigh closer to 20k

8

Thank you so much for your advice! Yeah, UIUC is super high on my list

9

I tend to like bigger schools when situated in their own college town and smaller ones when they’re in a more urban area. Don’t want to go to a tiny school though. At all. I either want to stay closer to home ( in midwest) or go east. Definitely not west. In terms of hobbies I’d love to go somewhere I can put my bike to use. I also would really to do some sort of study abroad at some point throughout my time in college

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10

MTB, road bike or primarily around town?

11

UIUC
DePaul (Accepted already w/ good scholarship)
Drake (accepted already w/ good scholarship)
Miami Ohio
UW-Madison
UIowa
Nebraska-Lincoln(already accepted w/ full ride)
Ohio state
Northeastern
University of Vermont

12

Around town. My bike is my main form of transit right now and i’d really like to stay with it

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Forgot to mention in original post but i am very open to CS major for schools that don’t have CE

14

You can certainly narrow to schools that have both if you want to keep all avenues open. Pounding out code day in and day out isn’t for everyone.

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Yeah you’re right. As much coding as I have done and enjoyed in high school, I have been keeping in mind that I have limited experience programming in the grand scheme of things, so trying to keep my options open in case I change my mind is pretty important to me too

16

Edit - see next note after seeing your list.

But it’s not an assured safety that’s affordable.

You need at least one, preferably two.

So SIU or UIC.

If you can go a bit higher - I gave you three strong safeties - sub $20k. I

Closer to home - not sure how low but Central Michigan or GVSU.

You may not love the names but you need one of these or something like them. You don’t want to get shut out.

Good luck.

Ps check any school for abet accreditation. Not all you mentioned earlier are.

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17

Forget my last note. You have Nebraska. That’s awesome and a fine school.

Full ride including room and board ? That’ll be tough to beat.

In that case you can reach high.

Do DePaul and Drake meet your $15k price ?? Neuther is accredited in CE btw so be careful where you apply.

UNL is a home run for you. Congrats.

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18

Thanks! Yeah, I’m super pumped about UNL, feels super good to have somewhere I can fall back on. DePaul is pretty close to my 15k, Drake I’m not sure, but it’s not very high on my list of schools I’m prioritizing.

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19

College often cost more than you think. Pizza. Transport. Going out with friends, etc.

UNL is CE accredited.

Drake is not. And it’s likely more than you could afford.

Honestly you shouldn’t even have applied. You should attend an ABET accredited school because many employers require this.

Take your big shots with UNL as your safety valve.

20

Yeah with Drake, honestly, I only applied because I had direct admissions, and they promised me a hefty scholarship. I had no real want to go there anyways. Thanks for your advice :slight_smile: