I am a junior and I am currently try to search through schools. I really want to study physics, or physics engineering or applied physics. Of course I know about that MIT is excellent in physics, Stanford as well. But these are all very high reach schools. I struggle now finding the target and safety schools, and possibly good reaches.
For comparison, I consider Purdue University to be my target, and it has a strong physics program. RIT will be a target for me. UMass is an easy safety based on my curriculum.
I have a weighted GPA of 4.6, but did not take SAT yet. (Unweighted GPA is 4.0).
Before this year I was not able to take APs so now this year I am taking PreCalc, Physics 1, Bio, CSP and Calc BC (I know, a weird mix but by the time it turned out to be this way I couldn’t change it)
Can you please help me to find some good schools with strong physics programs? I don’t think my parents will be able to pay more than 30k per year. Ideally would be to find schools in Massachusetts, but I am not really concerned about the distance, so that just a side note. Thank you very much!!!
Arizona - strong in physics. Top 10 in many studies - every easy entry and great merit for your 4.0 - frankly, a better school for physics than many you’d have as a reach (if the fit is good for you).
CU Boulder solid too as is UCSC - all of which are easier than Purdue if that’s your target. RPI for private.
Check the net price calculator on each college’s web site. If not affordable on need-based financial aid, then the chance needs to be based on getting a large enough merit scholarship, not admission.
Many out-of-state publics like Purdue, Colorado, and UCSC are likely to be reaches (at best) to get sufficient merit scholarships to meet your price limit. Less selective ones like Arizona may have sufficiently large merit scholarships awarded for stats that you have.
Do you expect to qualify for need-based aid, or will you only get to your <30K budget via merit aid or low sticker price (i.e. publics that are in-state or have reciprocity rates)?
Did you take the PSAT? (Wondering about whether there’s any chance you’d be a National Merit Semifinalist.)
UMass is a great school - tough to beat as a safety unless you’d get huge merit somewhere else (hence the NMSF question). The top SUNY schools seem to match UMass pricing for strong MA applicants (Binghamton, Buffalo, Stony Brook). UMaine has its Flagship Match program. None of these would be a clear win over UMass in general, but depending on the nuances of what you’re looking for, some might be worth a look.
There are good full-need-met schools that aren’t as reachy as MIT/Stanford, if your demonstrated need matches what you actually need. Maybe run the Net Price Calculators for CWRU and URochester, and see how much aid you could get. And the various Boston-area full-need-met schools that are not Harvard/MIT: Tufts, Northeastern, BU… and Brandeis which was already mentioned.
CU Boulder doesn’t give large enough OOS merit awards to get to <30K. U of Utah has a lot in common with Boulder, strong STEM, and you can get residency after the first year, so the four-year price could hit budget… but I can’t see a MA student who prefers to stay close to home choosing that over UMass.
So, a lot hinges on the demonstrated-need question.
Ohhhh - I missed the $30K - so Arizona is it from the list.
There are others too - they may not rate for physics but it doesn’t mean they’re not good - but schools like Alabama, UAH, Ms State - you’ll need a test.
Arizona - no test.
And others too - $30K will be tough but FSU if your test is good enough - and more.
All true, but if UMass-Amherst in-state is on the menu, and OP prefers close-to-home, I’m not seeing a winner among these, unless there’s National Merit full-ride potential. Maybe Arizona, on its physics reputation, but that’s a long way to go when UMass is as strong as it is.
Have you run the net price calculator for each of these schools? What did they say you’d pay at each?
What was your PSAT score? Why haven’t you taken the SAT or ACT yet? Coming from MA, a state where testing seats aren’t hard to find, you will need scores since you’re either merit-hunting or gunning for schools that “meet need”.
It’s hard to make any suggestions that fit your criteria until you tell us how much meets-needs schools would charge you, as well as your test scores.
Affordability is going to be a challenge unless you qualify for enough need aid, so you definitely need to be checking out NPCs. I agree UMass Amherst might be tough to beat for a public, although Arizona does have a very well-regarded department. Privates might be better bets to get on budget, particularly if you either would get enough need aid as per their NPC, or get close and might get stackable merit.
So IF they would be affordable, some of the stronger Physics departments at less reachy universities at least near Massachusetts would include, in addition to RIT which you already mentioned, the University of Rochester and RPI, both of which might offer you merit.
If you are at all interested in smaller colleges, you might want to check out Haverford in the Philly area–still pretty reachy but not as much so as the reachiest colleges. No merit, though, so they would have to be affordable based on just need aid. Another to check out would be Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster, PA, which has a pretty cool department (you might be interested in their Computational Physics track). Still in PA but in the middle of the state, you might look at Juniata, and then in Northwest PA (between Pittsburgh and Erie), Allegheny.
Finally, if you are willing to look at smaller colleges in the Great Lakes/Midwest, you might check out Carleton (no merit) and Grinnell (merit)–again reachy, but usually not AS reachy as East Coast peers. And then less reachy with more merit, maybe Oberlin, Kenyon, Lawrence, and Kalamazoo.
Have you researched the colleges suggested in your prior recent topic (Chance me to MIT and Olin, and help me find target schools [MA resident, 3.9 GPA, high FA need, physics or related major])? Inevitability, we will repeat some of those suggestions here (e.g., Haverford and Grinnell as reaches and Lawrence as a highly likely admission), which won’t help you unless you actively research the suggested colleges further. As another repeat recommendation, you will find the ultra-Apker-producer (and ultra-reach) Williams within your preferred vicinity of Massachusetts (LeRoy Apker Award - Wikipedia).
Agree. Another repeat suggestion would be Wesleyan University (reachy, but not MIT reachy). OP needs to start crunching the NPC numbers; they may be eligible for need-based aid they’re not even aware of.
From your previous thread I suggested Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA), Stony Brook (NY), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY). Stony Brook will match the tuition price of UMass. For RPI and WPI, run the Net Price Calculator at each school to see if they will be affordable.
I took PSAT but didn’t score very high - 1390 (perfect score in math but English was worse, I am not a native speaker)
I didn’t try to run NPC yet, my parents are just very busy this month, so now I am trying to find as many good schools as possible to then check the financial side.
If we recently bought our first house with a pretty high credit (have to save on food to pay all of the loans), will we be considered as need based?
If you’re having to skimp to pay the mortgage, then I assume your family income isn’t super-high, so hopefully you will qualify for some aid. (And there won’t be significant home equity to reduce your aid at schools that consider that - some do, some don’t.) But the only way to tell is to use the calculator for each school you’re considering.
The perfect math score bodes well, especially when applying for STEM!
Hopefully you can run the numbers for at least a few representative schools, pretty soon; being able to tell which types of schools are affordable will help a lot with bringing things into focus.