teachermom

My daughter would like to major in Engineering. Her SAT math score was a 660, but her verbal was a 550. Her gpa is a 6.65. She would like to go to a large state school; University of Maryland, Penn State, Virginia Tech. I was hoping someone could comment on her chances for admission or make suggestions for other schools.

aibarr

What point scale is that GPA on, and is that weighted or unweighted?

Interesting that you chose to title your thread "female and engineering"... I don't think that gender has *that* much bearing on her admissions potential...

Citan

Actually, gender has a lot of bearing in Engineering admissions, and especially if it is in EE/CS. I don't know about other schools but our Dean at UCLA is always harping about how there is a lack of "minorities and women" in EE/CS and other branches of Engineering. So yes, being female (or Black/Hispanic/Native American) would definitely give you a huge boost in admission chances in Engineering. I am not familiar with schools in the East but being female only helps her chances to get into good programs as there is a heavy emphasis on recruiting females and minorities in Engineering programs across the country. Good luck to your daughter.

aibarr

Given two equally qualified candidates, admissions committees might and often do give a bump to the minority. The trick of it is to be one of those equally qualified candidates. Maybe a minority or woman is given the nod at larger programs more often, but if they accepted every girl that offered 40 bucks and a filled-out app and gave them the place of people who've proven through grades and scores that they'd be good engineers, then engineering would not be such the sausagefest that it currently is. As it currently stands, the unqualified applicants fall to the rejection pile, they scoop up the most qualified applicants (the quantity of which exceed the number of students that they can admit), and the percentage of qualified women and minorities that they accept may be somewhat higher than the percentage of non-minority men that they accept.

But no, it does not give you a HUGE boost in the admissions process. You have to get there first. Being a good candidate gives you a HUGE boost in the admissions process.

This is precisely the reason why affirmative action irritates the heck out of me.

OP, what field of engineering is your daughter considering?

RealM

I'd say she is in at Maryland, Virginia Tech, and Penn State. I also suggest she look at Purdue University if she wants to major in engineering.