Am I a strong applicant to schools like NYU Tandon, Stony Brook, etc.?

Graduate School
1

I am currently in the process of trying to decide whether or not I should prolong my graduation, in order to get a higher GPA. Currently I am able to graduate about two years earlier (I started in Aug 2016) for my undergrad than anticipated, if I do this, then my cumulative GPA for when I conduct applications will be a 3.69. I am mainly seeking to apply to NYU Tandon(first choice) and Stony Brook University for their graduate programs, with their Technology Management programs being my choice. Long story short, if I were to apply this upcoming semester, my application would include the following:

-My major is Management Information Systems.
-Recipient of around $50,000 in outside organization scholarships that I am using currently for undergrad tuition, recipient of a $28,000 dorm scholarship from my institution, Honors College member and recipient of a $2,800 book scholarship, 2 year Resident Assistant (RA), 3 technology and management related internships, Residential Hall Association President, Residence Hall Council Treasurer, I served as my institution’s National Communications Coordinator, National Residence Hall Honorary Member(NRHH), Omicron Delta Kappa Honors Society member, Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society member, former tutor at my institution’s Writing Center, and IC3 Global Standard Digital Literacy Certification. I also am getting paid to teach a one week course to a class of high school students on how to write effective college admission essays (if this is at all something that even pertains to my application).

Alongside this, I speak two languages other than English, I am half-asian, and I can obtain three strong recommendation letters from the Honors College Director, the Head of Student Placements (NYU undergrad and grad alum), and a Computer Science Professor whom I have taken classes and done an internship with.

I am currently taking a GRE prep class, so I have no knowledge of my score on that yet. I am mainly worried about the fact that my GPA is a 3.69. I currently have the option of completing my degree this coming December, or prolonging it to next May and obtaining around a 3.75 GPA if I did so.

Does my application already seem strong as is, or should I prolong my graduation and get the 3.75 GPA?

2

I presume you are interested in a professionally oriented Masters degree. In this case, you need to see if the programs you are interested in will take students starting in the Spring term and whether the curriculum is laid out in a way that you can finish the degree in a reasonable amount of time. It is likely that you will have to self-fund the degree and therefore completing it in a timely fashion is important. Apart from that, your GPA will not go up significantly in that final semester so it is likely that the extra term will not make a huge difference in your admission. The real question is whether the timing is right and the finances are right.

3

The programs I want admissions for both have start dates in the Spring and I have an outside scholarship for funding, so I am not really concerned about these two aspects. I merely just want to see if my application is a strong one. Thank you for your input, though!

4

Find out waht the admit rates are for these programs. I think if you ask them, the should tell you. If the admit rate is 10% or less, you will have a challenge getting into them. If it is more like 20-30% your chances are probably decent. Remember that you will likely be competing with students who have a 4.0 GPA for the most selective programs.