----- I’m looking to go into either International Business, Natural Resource Management, or Environmental Studies/ Sustainability ------
Current junior at top school
3.6 UW (bad freshman year)
4.2 WGPA
29 ACT (as of now, will retake)
lot’s of ECs (surrounds soccer and club leaderships)
VERY compelling story (common app)
URM- black male
So are these safety schools?
UMD (in-state)
Penn State Schmeal
American U
UPitt (legacy)
Also, how many safeties do i need?
And lastly, are NYU Stern and Carnegie Mellon Tepper low reaches/ high matches for me? I feel like they are really prestigious business schools. What would y’all recommend I do to enhance my chances?
I would be a little wary of counting UMD as a total safety for you if you want to be a direct admit to the Smith School of Business. I have a feeling if you apply for their business school as an international business major (which the stats you have right now, the 29 ACT) you might be put into Letters and Sciences and have to apply as an internal transfer into the school after you matriculate. Avg. stats for direct admits to the business school are usually much higher than the college overall.
Your chances of getting into the school itself are great (I have heard of some relatively high stats students getting deferred to Spring or outright rejected, however, so be cautious!), but the business school is a little iffy, keep that in mind when you’re looking for “true” safeties. Try maybe applying to one of the other schools in the USM system? UMBC maybe, just to be on the safe side? OOS tuition at any of these other universities seems pretty steep…
You should probably be aiming for a 33-35 range if you’re really serious about Stern or Tepper, I think 32 is a little low to be truly competitive, and you’re GPA is already bit low as well. Not saying this to be critical (or hypocritical, considering I had similar stats as well) - just honest. You should try to raise your score to mitigate that bad freshman year.
Avg. SAT is in the mid to low 1400s, avg GPA is 3.8-3.9. Taking into account the conversion from ACT to SAT (http://www.act.org/solutions/college-career-readiness/compare-act-sat/) an improved score of 32 would put you in the middle of the pack, at the average, while your GPA would drag you down to the 25th percentile. That’s not where you want to be. Aim for the best score possible. As of right now, I would say Carnegie Mellon and NYU are definitely reaches, and without an improved ACT score your chances are greatly decreased. Not impossible, but not likely. But, you’re a junior, right? That can change! I wish you the best of luck!
What’s the average ACT score at your school? COlleges will look at your 29 differently depending on whether the average at your school is 17 or 25…
Note that Environmental Science is better (stronger) than Environmental Studies.
UMD (in-state) = match
Penn State =) undecided OR Business with Summer Session (if you apply by priority deadline): safety/Smeal, Fall entrance: match to high match
American U = match to high match
UPitt (legacy)= match
Run the Net Price Calculator on each of these since none promise to “meet need”. Since you’re OOS for Pitt and Penn State, you’d have to pay full costs (45k or so) with no financial aid.