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Does anyone have another reach school they would recommend for her? She’s got an unweighted GPA of 4.97, weighted is around 5.38, ACT score of 34 (superscore is 36) 6 or 7 APs (all 5’s so far), standard ECs. She wants to major in Aerospace Engineering and she’d need somewhere that would prioritize grades and scores over ECs, and that she’s got **at least a 20% chance of full tuition or more[…?/quote
I think finding the list above is fairly easy, but NerdMom was looking for ones that give merit aid. Like others have said, with the possible exception of a few of those (like TAMU and UMD from what I’ve seen) that list isn’t going to help her much. It’s tough to find that magic overlap of good+affordable with regards to specific majors, in many cases. I think the other problem is if you’re looking for a “reach” school for your kid it’s not going to offer you merit. If I understand the game correctly, you have to be a little overmatched for the school to get that merit money.
Personally, I’m still deeply stressing over the possibility that we’re aiming too high for a lot of the schools for our D17 and she’ll be full-pay for most of them. I’m thinking that I need to have a conversation about putting GTech on her list because it’ll be affordable for her instate with the Zell and it’s really, really good. Ugh.
I don’t think there is a way. We think D has a shot at all schools where she is seeking merit (otherwise we wouldn’t bother), but there is no way to quantify her chances. She could get merit at all, merit at none, or merit at some. No one knows. All you can do is apply to schools where your kid’s stats are in at least the top 25% (but better yet, top 5-10%), your kid has the other qualities/characteristics that the school is looking for, put together a great application and wait and see.
There is a poster here who is getting full tuition or even more at Wichita State for aerospace engineering. UA Huntsville would give a full ride and Huntsville AL is a great location for Aerospace.
I have also seen people recommend to major in mechanical engineering which is not as specialized but provides opportunities working for Aerospace companies.
The schools on that list are not known for generous merit.
And with some of the Texas schools there might be concern about not getting into the engineering major of choice.
A lot of schools don’t superscore the ACT–Texas A&M and UT for example are on that list but they do not superscore the ACT. So that is a 34 ACT.
And the OP asked for schools that would prioritize grades and scores over ECs. The merit aid at those schools is for tippy top students (which this student IS) PLUS amazing with the ECs (i.e. the 40 Acres Scholarship kids who have saved the world already by 18)
We are sitting in Texas as IN state residents with the same stats and similar major and faced with the very real possibility that she a.)wouldn’t get IN at UT to the major of her choice despite the great stats and b.) would get in at A&M but then it’s a big unknown that first year as to whether or not she would get her major of choice at the end of the first year.
Someone on another thread suggested taking a good look at Western Michigan–
D was sick last week and made no progress. Other scholarship application opened up, and 2 won’t be open until November and December. So I created another spreadsheet. She has a lot of essays to go. She’s going to try to get all her school work done during the week for the next 2 weeks so that she can devote 2 straight weekends to finishing everything up. October 15th will be here very fast.
Her GC still hasn’t submitted her rec or any of the school materials, which means she still has a lot of apps that aren’t complete. It sucks not having control of an important part of the application process. And we’re still waiting for 1 of her teachers to upload the submitted rec. It looks like she’s having trouble with Naviance, so I had D send an email to see what the problem is. Hopefully the GC gets his part in next week. D and I just did the calculation and each GC has around 110 seniors (in addition to underclassmen). I know they are overworked, so we are trying to be patient, but it is still frustrating.
So my D applied to 5 schools and yesterday she get’s an envelope from University of KY that we think is an acceptance letter. I say we think because she went camping with a friend and isn’t home to open it. She won’t be home until Sunday so the envelope just sits at her space at the kitchen table taunting us all day long.
Little sister was a bit sad when she saw the envelope as the reality that big sister will be going away is starting to become more real to her.
@ca1543 my ds is in the same boat regarding school profile, no ranking but he is in the top 1%. Our school profile doesn’t really help him because the top gpa barchart is top 10% but his gc said she would communicate that he was top 1%. I have to assume that is in her rec letter so I would talk to your child’s gc to see if they do that. Also we know that at the schools where many kids apply, when they read the apps, they will see that he is higher than others. Not so much at the schools others do not apply to which is why we need the gc to communicate that.
@MotherOfDragons - I am so glad you asked that - I feel like as a parent going through this common app the first time it is a challenge in many respects. Thank goodness for others on here who help answer our questions (like yesterday regarding how colleges get your school profile - I am not sure what all the counselor & school report shows but did go watch a webinar. I think we’ll be submitting apps over time and may even modify the essay after it is submitted to some - who knows. We still don’t have an accurate transcript or any final letters of recommendation - hopefully soon. first deadline in Oct. 15th.
I am wondering about Honors at Univ. Of Maryland College Park - DS wants engineering and likes cybersecurity. School is so big - wonder if Honors Programs there do make it feel smaller with lower class sizes, themed housing etc. - should investigate further perhaps.
“It’s tough to find that magic overlap of good+affordable with regards to specific majors, in many cases. I think the other problem is if you’re looking for a “reach” school for your kid it’s not going to offer you merit. If I understand the game correctly, you have to be a little overmatched for the school to get that merit money.”
“How do you determine a 20% chance of merit outside of the automatic merit schools?”
Both of you make excellent points. D2 is fortunate enough to have four really great options with lots of merit, but the flip side of that is that it doesn’t make sense to try for any reach schools where there is little or no shot of ANY merit money. I researched both the top stats and available scholarships (full tuition or more) at other schools – what they offered, how many were awarded vs. how many freshmen were accepted – to quantify as best I could her chances.
Then someone – I think it was mom2aphysicsgeek – was saying the chances at GT were so tiny for OOS, much smaller than I had anticipated, so I thought I’d better look for a replacement. The 20% figure was just my way to try to quantify that I was looking for something with a better shot than GT.
BUT I think @MotherOfDragons is entirely correct that one of the qualities of a “reach” school is that it’s good enough to not need to offer much merit. So we’ll just let D2 go with her current list and see what happens.
Thanks! I do a lot of looking over her shoulder, so I don’t know the common app as well as I would if I had my hands on it and was running different permutations on it, etc. Like-what happens if I do this, or this, or this.
I don’t want to mess with it because it’s hers, but I also don’t want to say “hey save GT for regular round if EA doesn’t work out” only to find that we can’t do that (although I don’t think GT’s on the common app anyway, but you see my point).
So sad… a senior boy in our school collapsed during cross-country run and passed away. As he was leaving school to the xc meet Friday, he said “Have a good weekend!” to DS. So full of life. Taken so suddenly.
Life is fragile. Hugs to all our seniors.
@MotherOfDragons – I share your concern that my son’s list is too reach heavy. As I have commented here before, on paper/Naviance, he is in the green for every school, but the reality is these single digit admit rate schools do not need another white boy from upper middle class east coast suburbs pursuing a CS degree. He does not satisfy any institutional need. While I think he is amazing, I understand the reality of the process AND the fact that there are many, many other applicants with almost identical stats. And several of them will be applying from his own school!
His class is the most high-performing that has come through the school in years. In many ways, it has been wonderful, as there is this sizable peer group moving through with him, and supporting/collaborating with each other, both in the classroom and in ECs that have not received attention at the school in the past. Both the multivariable calc teacher and Physics E&M teacher commented on both the size of the cohort and how well they work together. They have been very fortunate to have each other, and the group has been self-supporting.
@itsgettingreal17 – While at Open House the other night, I asked about the Naviance LOR problem that I had read about here. Head of guidance said that Naviance attempted to improve some features and in the process, destroyed the feature that used to allow teachers to upload their LOR once and then have it either pushed out by Naviance to CA or pulled by CA from Naviance. I do not know the details of the workflow, but that feature worked three years ago and was still not working as of this Thursday night. Teachers have to manually force the LOR to each college individually. Naviance is aware of this ‘glitch’ and working to repair, but in the meantime, our Guidance is involved with each LOR personally at this point. Since son’s first deadline is Oct 15th and he will probably be filing on the 15th, I am not focusing quite yet.
@MotherOfDragons – yes, she can apply using same CA into 2017. I believe the file may clear out next summer, but not certain about that. Also, if she decides that she wishes to tweak her CA essay or say she earns a new award that she would like to add to the CA, she can create multiple versions of the CA. I do not remember how to do this but I am hoping to figure it out soon, as my son will be applying to a few schools that require submission of entire testing history and to others that do not. Taking the SAT winter of sophomore year was not a brilliant idea, and his scores reflect that. So I want to figure out how to submit full testing history on CA to schools that require it, and not send the soph year SAT scores to schools that do not require it.