GPA/Rank: 3.8 UW / 19/211 last time I checked, likely to go up
SAT: 2070 (800 M, 680 R, 570 W, 6 Essay)
ACT: 34 (34 E, 36 M, 32 R, 35 S, 7 Essay)
SAT II: Math 2 800, Chem ? hoping for 750+
PSAT: 214
Course load: IB Diploma Candidate, taking all IB classes except for Orchestra
Extracurriculars: Varsity Orchestra (section leader + historian), Science UIL, eSports Club (founder and president), 150+ volunteer hours at rec center
Work Experience: Worked in a tutoring center (EyeLevel) for 3 months, and then in a different tutoring center (Kumon) for 5 months, where I tutored kids on math up to pre-calculus level.
TX resident, 90k income, Pakistani, looking to major in Mechanical Engineering.
Early Action:
-University of Michigan
-Georgia Tech
-CalTech
-MIT
Regular Decision:
-University of Texas at Dallas (can get a full ride from ACT score alone)
-University of Texas at Austin
-UC Berkeley
-University of Toronto
-Stanford
-Harvard
I was also diagnosed with major depressive disorder in 9th grade, which I was thinking about writing about in my essays as a special circumstance to explain my low GPA. Do you think I should do it?
I’d drop Stanford, MIT and Harvard unless you like spending the application fee to play the lottery. Your stats and ECs aren’t in that league at least based on what you’ve presented here. I’d also drop UC Berkeley because you can’t afford it if the family income is $90k p.a. If you want reaches, there are more affordable and more likely ones available.
And no, I would not use your essay to explain your low grades in 9th grade. It calls attention to a minor weakness instead of talking up your strengths as an applicant. It’s fairly common for students to see their grades improve between 9th and 12th grade as they mature, get the hang of high school, etc…and schools tend to discount (or ignore) 9th grade GPA.
You need more matches and less reachy reaches. Have you considered Harvey Mudd? It’s part of the Claremont consortium, which are five excellent schools on contiguous campuses - the best of both the LAC and mid-sized college world. Rice would also be a good option. Both reaches but still in the ball park. You’d need to check their financial aid. Wash U is another major reach but still possible.
A 34 ACT and a 3.8 GPA would still give him a chance at those schools. His EC’s might be a little weak but if his essay is good he has a chance at those top schools.
Are you an automatic admit for UT? If not (unless you’d be very happy to attend UT Dallas) I’d consider adding another school or two in the gap between your other options and UT Dallas.
I would drop Stanford but besides that, your list looks good. With your ACT 34, the UT schools (especially since you’re in state) I would consider safeties. Looks balanced to me. Maybe add one more safety and one more match where you have a realistically GOOD shot at getting in.
“which I was thinking about writing about in my essays as a special circumstance to explain my low GPA”
Not on your essays. There’s an “additional info” section on the Common App where you can do that. You could write about how you’ve overcome those obstacles on a personal level on your essays, but it’s not the place to explain grades.
I don’t think you should drop Stanford. They don’t necessarily expect outstanding EC’s but passion and purpose for the ones you have. It’s an uber reach for all, but you never know unless you try. They have super aid; you wouldn’t pay tuition + would get a good discount on room & board w/that income, so that alone should be a reason to apply. MIT and Caltech have similar aid as well. I’d drop Harvard, though, since it’s not a good fit for engineering. Also UC Berkeley, since it’s not worth the price as an out-of-state student.
@Lilliana330 I feel like I don’t need more safeties since UTD is an auto admit full ride school for me and I wouldn’t be too upset with going there (30 mins from my home), I do think I would need more matches though, do you have any suggestions for mechanical engineering?
@N’s Mom It wasn’t just a 9th grade thing, it is still something I am going through to this date. But I will probably mention it in the additional info section rather than in an essay
@N’s Mom also, isn’t UT better for mechanical engineering than Rice and Harvey Mudd? I’d rather go to UT in that scenario even though those 2 schools might be more prestigious
^ USC could be a match. Make sure to apply by the Dec. 1st deadline to be considered for merit scholarships (quite competitive, but worth a shot). Based on your income, financial aid could be either iffy or good enough for you to attend, so apply.
Right now you don’t hit the auto admit line for UT (I read it would be top 8% this coming year and you are at 9% right now). At UCB, UMich and GTech you will be full pay since you are OOS. How will your family pay $50K+/year? Have you thought about TA&M?
With the ECs that the OP has, neither Stanford nor MIT are going to admit him/her. The kids applying for engineering at both of these schools are not just making 4.0s and 2400s - they are also achieving at an extraordinary level outside of class. The usual run of ECs just doesn’t cut it. Every student who applied to Stanford and MIT has ‘passion and purpose’ so that’s not sufficient either. Stanford had 42,000 applicants last year and accepted around 5.1% (it would be even lower if you omitted those with hooks.) And lower still if you consider that 80% of the applicants are STEM majors (so your chances would be a bit better if you weren’t STEM.) MIT isn’t much different.
Like I said, you can play the lottery if you like, but it’s not a good use of your money.
True. I’d have a hard time ignoring the chance at getting such good aid, however small it may be, though. The odds are still better than the lottery’s anyways.
But I guess I have a rather skewed perspective, since I didn’t spend a cent in app fees due to waivers; the OP might not get those.
Two observations: (1) if you choose to bring up the diagnosis for depressive disorder I recommend that you do so through your high school counselor, assuming that he agrees that it would help your application, (2) your SAT writing and your 2 essay scores suggest a weakness in written communication. I would worry that this may come through in your application essays. Consider focusing on this area over the summer by actively writing, studying grammar, self testing, etc.
Apart from the UT Texas Austin your college list doesn’t look particularly convincing. If you drop the out of state publics, the Canadian university, and the very high reaches (Caltech, MIT, Stanford and Harvard) you’re left with no high matches and low reaches.
I recommend that you carefully look at the top 50 or so universities as ranked by USNews and for each of the non-publics look at the school’s Engineering college with care. Through this effort you’ll identify a credible list. Your final list should include 5-10 need blind schools that are in the match and low reach range. You can always add 1-2 high reach need blind colleges in your final list.
OP, I plugged in your info into the sites college match tool. Besides the high reaches, schools like University of Notre Dame, Case Western, and Washington University in St. Louis came up.
All offer MechE.
Notre Dame & Wash U St. Louis both meet need.
Case Western offers merit, although they’re a bit unclear on how much.
3.8UW is not a low UW GPA, especially if it was earned in a rigorous IB program.
You are more likely to get a good n-b aid package from schools that claim to cover 100% of demonstrated need, or close to it (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need). Out of state public schools are unlikely to fully cover your need (so eliminate Georgia Tech, Berkeley and Michigan). Be sure to run the online net price calculators for any schools that interest you … and be sure to talk to your parents about whether they can cover the estimated net cost (the “Expected Family Contribution”).
Once you eliminate the OOS public schools, you do not have a balanced list.
Harvard, Stanford, Caltech and MIT probably are all out of reach.
Cornell, UPenn, Northwestern, JHU, Harvey Mudd, and Rice are somewhat more realistic “reach” schools.
They all offer strong engineering programs and generous need-based aid.
What about “match” schools?
It will be challenging to find excellent engineering schools with generous need-based aid that are not also in “reach” territory. Have a look at Tufts and the University of Southern California (although these, too, are pretty selective).
@Liliana330@tk21769 I’m not understanding these recommendations you’re giving me, all of these schools are ranked lower than UT Austin for mechanical engineering, and you said I have a very good chance of getting into that.
^ You wanted “match/low reach schools” which means schools w/lower acceptance rates and higher overall rankings, regardless of individual program rankings. For undergrad engineering, rankings are not important as long as the program’s ABET accredited. A place like Notre Dame, for example, might have a lower ranking in MechE (although I can’t seem to find those on Google), but it will still provide you a great eng. education as well as a different college experience/student life/etc. Also, the fact that it’s a mid-size private might give you better access to research & etc. I’m not saying one’s better than the other. We’re trying to give you options; it’s up to you whether to use them or not.
