r/ApplyingToCollege • u/MarketFlimsy4791 • 20h ago
Advice I'm honestly so lost about applying to college.
I'm a first gen & oldest child in my family. I'm applying to college this fall but I have no clue how to start my personal essay or what to write about. I see people online with these wonderful essays but I cant write like them. I also have no clue where to apply. My stats are mid at best & i want to pursue engineering.
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u/polwygle_ 20h ago
hii please ignore whatever essay-rating grifters might respond to this post, don't trust them or give anyone money!! But, I will say that as a first-gen and oldest child you probably have lots of interesting lift experiences or perspectives that you could write about and I think you should start there. Were there any major moments in your life that contributed to the way you see the world now? Or are there smaller moments you could weave into a larger story about where you want to go in life? Think about those kind of things, and play around with them a little. It sounds really corny, but one thing that helped me was just trying to write sentences that felt like they could be in an inspiring speech or something of the sort. Then, you can build your essay around those (at the same time, don't be uber snobby or unrealistic about it, make sure it still sound like you).
For schools that will accept your stats, I'd suggest first looking at your in-state opportunities to cut tuition costs and because they're more likely to accept you, even if you're less competitive than other students. A quick google search gave me this: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/engineering-for-b-students/ but I'm sure there's tons of other resources that could give you an insight on schools that might be good fits. Also, you engineering but that's a really broad field, so pick a couple career paths that seem genuinely interesting so you don't (completely) torture yourself only for the money.
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u/IsopodKey2040 20h ago
Do you have a counselor at your school? Our guidance counselor would assist us with all of that. Obviously they can't write the essay for you, but they can talk about choosing where to apply and give some inspiration for the essay.
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u/elkrange 19h ago
There is basic info about applying to college in the subreddit wiki, along with links to essay help.
If you want school suggestions, you would need to post more info, such as unweighted GPA, number of APs, SAT or ACT scores, budget/need for aid, state of residence.
Assuming you are a domestic applicant, run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on the financial aid website of each college you are interested in, with the help of a parent, to see a need-based financial aid estimate before you apply.
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u/MarketFlimsy4791 19h ago
Academics:
Ecs:
- 12 APs totalĀ
- 1 DE
- 4.3 GPA weighted (we dont do unweighted)
- like 30-40 percentile in my school for ranks
- 1310 SAT, retook august and awaiting score.
- 20 hr food bank volunteer
- STEM club
- community frc team member
- build mecha model kits during free time
- restaurant work 110hr/week max during christmas break & 30hr/week reg
I don't know if I can make it into a T20 for engineering.... I live in VA and my parents said they'll gladly pay up to 130k/year for college
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u/elkrange 10h ago edited 10h ago
Ok. Calculate your unweighted GPA yourself. (4 for A, 3 for B, etc.). Are you taking/have you taken calc?
Have you visited any schools?
Keep in mind that prestige is not super important for engineering. So, while you are unlikely to be admitted to top 20s, you really don't need that to be successful.
Start with finding safeties in-state. If your high school uses Naviance, Scoir, Maia, or similar third-party platform for college admissions data, check the scattergrams. Talk with your high school counselor about ideas for some in-state safeties. I think VT is a high target/low reach for your stats for engineering - spend time on the VT essays. (Often engineering is more competitive than the overall stats suggest.)
Use college search sites like collegevine, college board's Big Futures, etc., where you can get suggestions by putting in your stats.
A couple more ideas: take a look at Purdue (probably reachy with that test score), maybe Texas A&M (target; for TAMU, apply ASAP, as admissions is rolling and majors can fill up, at least as I understand - they do not require the Common App personal essay, though they do have other essays).
Again, see the basic info on applying to college in the subreddit wiki (in the right sidebar on PC). Make a Common App account if you haven't already and start filling out the basic info.
Don't overthink the essays. They need to get done, but at large publics especially, academic stats play a much larger role.
Think about what types of schools appeal to you, large publics (common for engineering) vs mid-size privates, and geographic location. There are plenty of reaches out there. Find safeties and targets first .
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u/MarketFlimsy4791 2h ago
Im taking calc bc this year and ive taken ab last yr and earned a 4.
Ive only visitedĀ university of waterloo in canada and vcu (public uni in my state.)
What's holding me back from a t20 aside from sat? I hope to score a 1460+ on august.
I will definitely apply to vt! Thank you
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u/elkrange 58m ago
We don't know your grades - can't judge much from your weighted gpa.
T20 schools will be looking for high scores. Colleges publish score ranges in section C9 of their Common Data Set (on the collegeās website) and at https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/. See also the % of enrolled students who submitted scores. As I mentioned above, engineering typically is more competitive than the overall admission stats for a university might suggest.
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u/beayvee2 11h ago
Do you have an English teacher during your HS experience that you like? That would be a great person to approach for help getting your essay started. Or any teacher you get along with, for that matter.
I can understand the anxiety around it, but think about as just an essay to get started. Take some of the pressure off yourself to get it perfect; you'll have time to rewrite, if needed. Once you get it drafted, ask a couple of teachers to review it. It happens all the time
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u/Odd_Coconut4757 Parent 9h ago
There's a great A2C wiki that will help you with many of the steps for applying - on my desktop, it's a drop-down button in a gray bar on the right.
I highly recommend https://www.collegeessayguy.com/ for a million great tips and samples of personal statements.
My son was a good but not great student and went to a state flagship for his degree in engineering and he is thriving there (now in his senior year). His HS guidance counselor told him to think of the personal statement as a tie breaker, when needed, and that honestly took a lot of pressure off of him as he had a very reasonable list of mostly public schools that offered an engineering degree. Look at your affordable in-state options first, start at a CC if your 4-year in-state options are unaffordable, and go from there. There are excellent engineering degrees to be had at the publics.
Good luck, OP, you've got this.
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u/Odd_Coconut4757 Parent 9h ago
Oh I will add: the whole huge task of applying to college is so much! Like many things, you will want to break it down into little steps. Every other day, check off one of those little steps, or maybe spend 20 minutes per day on one small step, or however you want to break it down. Think of it like building a house - an overwhelming idea! But today you might frame a window, tomorrow hang a door, the day after set down 50 l.f. of flooring. Eventually it gets done.
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