<p>My parents have always been quite clear (thankfully) on the amount of financial assistance they will provide me with in college. They will happily pay fulll tuition/housing for any public school in California (which amounts to about 16,000 per year). However, if I want to go out of state, I will have to recieve a scholarship (I highly doubt I will qualify for any sort of financial aid…although I will definately fill out the FAFSA just in case). So, I am wondering if there are any schools out side of CA (public or private) which would be likely to give me a scholarship. I’d really like to go to an urban school, and for potential majors, I’m thinking along the lines of engineering or maybe economics (I’d like to go on to law school, eventually). </p>
<p>Oh, and here’s my stats:
Female, caucasian.
1900 SAT superscore (not out of this world, I know, although I won’t retest because I did worse in the SAT the second time. I’ll try for ACT.)
SAT IIs - not even worth mentioning
4.0 unweighted, 4.37 weighted.
top 1% in class out of approx 950
i’ve taken 3/5 honors classes and 6/10 APs.</p>
<p>I go to a large public high school which rarely sends students to top universities.</p>
<p>Also, would I have a better shot of getting into a top college as an engineering major (seeing as I am a woman and there are far less females than males in engineering programs) or as a liberal arts/science major?</p>
<p>I would recommend applying to engineering, not so much because it would be easier (I would guess that the lack of female engineers coupled with the fact that it’s usually harder to get into engineering in general would average out to difficulty about equal to the college of liberal arta and sciences), but because it is generally much easier to transfer out of engineering than into it…so if you think you might want engineering, it’s probably wise to try it first, instead of later regretting not going that route.</p>
<p>In terms of colleges, I don’t have any advice. I would recommend my school, Swarthmore, if we gave out merit aid, but it doesn’t. And the only reason for that, is that I think you would be good for the engineering program–I wouldn’t recommend it for most people serious about going into engineering, since it is so small and only offers a degree in general engineering, but for someone who wanted to learn engineering out of interest, but planned to make their career in something else (like law), it seems like a good option. Perhaps you could look for other schools like that…that offer engineering in a more liberal arts context. Most engineering programs are focused solely on engineering, and might not give you the type of writing preparation law school likes.</p>
<p>You could apply to Case Western and Worchester Polytechnic, but they are not in major cities. They do give aid, though. Your SAT scores are low for Olin, but because tuition is free, it would be affordable. It is just outside Boston. Your state schools are probably your best bets, unless you can increase the SAT score by a lot. George Washington U and Boston U give merit aid and may be worth looking at. If you take the ACT, you may score higher.</p>
<p>hahaha damn SATs (i kind of figured that much, though)!! thanks for the input though, guys; it’s always much appreciated :)</p>
<p>now for another question:
So the first time I took the SAT, I got 580 reading, 640 math, and 620 writing (total 1840). Then, the 2nd time I took the SAT (after some studying), I got 630 reading, 620 math, 560 (yikes!) reading. I thought it was weird that I increased so much in one section, but then decreased so much in another section. So, what I’m asking, is would it make more sense to take the SAT a third time (since atleast I increased in the one section), or try the ACT?</p>