<p>My stats:
2020 SAT (740M/540R/740W), A’s throughout high school (not a super rigorous one though), took all the honors/AP classes offered (like 6 total). For ECs, don’t really have a ton - played in band for 3 years and took lessons, involved in church activities, tutored people, have a school job and in NHS this year. My school doesn’t have a whole lot of clubs academically. Won top student for math awards and stuff.</p>
<p>So, i’m not super super smart and not the best applicant, probably wouldn’t make it into those top universities. But, with these decent grades and average ECs, which schools would you recommend as a reach for me?</p>
<p>What I’m looking for in a school is preferably on the medium/smaller size, good location, nice atmosphere. My intended major will probably be engineering of some sort (for my career in the future i’d want to work in making prosthetics/orthotic devices and those types of stuff. a college specializing in that would be a top consideration)</p>
<p>@gearmom home state is Hawaii, 4.09 unweighted gpa. And looking for schools with good financial aid is a huge plus!! Probably merit based because i dont think my family can receive much based on income</p>
<p>What scale is that gpa on then? What is up with your CR it is really out of whack with your W are you signed up for the Dec SAT? If you want merit, you need to have a high M+CR. You also have to go to colleges where you are in the top of the student pool, so a bit of a lower school that you could get in if you were willing to pay full price. Also do run the Net Price Calculators to see what the college will expect you to pay --what have your parents said they will pay per year?</p>
<p>I don’t know what ‘good location’ is for you, so you have to tell us. I suppose you have missed the CSU applications? I hope you put some in.</p>
<p>I The major research universities doing work like you are talking about are doing it in the grad schools. Sure you should get some opportunities but these schools are not small.f you want medium sized colleges doing that kind of research you are looking at privates that are expensive. I don’t think you find smaller schools doing that but you can find smaller engineering schools and get prepared well for grad school.</p>
<p>For smaller, Rose-Hulman would be one to check out. Maybe Bucknell and Lafayette I don’t know too much about them. Maybe Rice is right for you but reach. Oh Santa Clara U in CA would be a good one. The ‘mines’ schools are lower priced and smaller New Mexico and South Dakota. Colorado School of Mines better location but more $$.</p>
<p>Purdue is supposed to have amazing ME resources but big and maybe not interesting area. Univ of Michigan and UW Madison are in a great college towns, very vibrant, but you have to brave the snow. UT Austin nicer weather and great location and less OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Are you currently a junior or a senior? If the former, try to take the SAT again at least once. Raising your critical reading score via superscoring can greatly increase your chance at merit at most schools</p>
<p>@BrownParent thanks for your suggestions!! I have been looking at Santa Clara/Westmont in Cali and applied for U Portland recently. I’ll look at the others though @shawnspencer In regards to my SAT score…I really just do not do well in CR - meaning I just don’t understand how to find what the right answer is. The vocab section is alright, just memorizing definitions, but the reading analysis is what gets me. I took a great PSAT prep class last summer and during the practice tests my math/writing scores went up lots, but my highest cr score was 580. I’m a senior by the way, and didn’t feel it was worth taking again because I really doubt I could get it up significantly.
Do you think USC is too much of a reach for my low m+cr score? Looking at my application it really shows i’m more of a math person. Math/science awards with engineering major haha</p>
<p>It’s nearly mid-December and the OP’s requirements aren’t too clear.
S/he wants a “good location, nice atmosphere” (which is very vague).
S/he apparently needs financial aid but would not qualify for need-based.
S/he doesn’t quite have the stats for big merit scholarships (and besides, it is almost too late to apply for them.)
S/he wants to major in engineering.</p>
<p>Considering all those factors, at this late date, the best choice may be the University of Hawaii.
Many of the best alternatives for engineering are out-of-state public universities, which usually would be much more expensive*. The smaller private schools where s/he’d have a shot at admission will be too expensive, or may not have the engineering programs s/he wants. USC is an o.k. choice as a long reach. It’s bigger than what s/he seems to want, is a bit too selective, and is unlikely to offer very generous merit aid for his/her stats. </p>
<p>@tk21769 sorry for the vagueness, reading this over i realize there wasnt much detail to work with. I purposefully didnt specify because i wanted to hear general suggestions and not only those with specific qualities.
Before i had wanted to go to a smaller college in the west coast, with warmer weather, friendly people, suburban area (things to do but not super high energy city feel), and good academics. However i dont want to be close minded and disregard all east coast/big sized colleges, so i wanted to hear general suggestions, only specifying i wanted a good engineering school.
id prefer not to go to UH (kind of want to experience college life away from home). I hope U Portland/Westmont will accept me, and SCU is my reach with USC being my super high reach haha.
thanks for the suggestion btw! I appreciate them all</p>
