Chance me: Boston University! I'm really hoping to get in ED for mechanical engineering but I’m unsure of my chances [CT resident, 3.75 UW, 1540 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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I’m really hoping to go to Boston University the fall of next year and I think I am going to apply ED for better chances but I would love thoughts on my chances both ED and

RD

• I’m a US citizen at a pretty high ranked public highschool in CT

I’m hoping to do undergrad Mechanical engineering and possibly pursue a masters in biomedical engineering later

My UW GPA is a 3.75 out of 4.0 and my W GPA is a 4.4 out of 5 (I’m pretty sure honors courses are out of 4.5 and AP out of 5)

My school doesn’t do class rank but I’m definitely in top 10% though I will say my school is very competitive (maybe 1-2 students per year get into an ivy)

My SAT I plan to submit ( 790 math 750 English 1540)

I have been in all honors classes for main subjects (except history because I wasn’t interested in AP)

My AP classes include:

AP Bio sophmore year (4 on exam)

This year: AP Precalc, AP Lang, AP Physics 1 & 2

Next year: AP Psych, AP Calc AB, AP Chem, AP Lit

*No Spanish next year but am taking Spanish 5 ECE this year

I’ve gotten all A’s in all of my history and language classes and my unweighted gpa is lower than I would like because of some rough grades in Freshman geometry, 1 or two quarters of AP Bio and Algebra 2. (I ended AP Bio with a B, Algebra with a B+ and geometry with a B-) This is my main concern because my lowest grades are in Maths and Science and I’m applying for engineering but I really hope my SAT can balance this. Also every year my grades have improved in math and Science and they also improve quarter by quarter.

I have also taken many engineering related electives (all A’s): CAD, production systems, Design careers in steam honors, Principles of applied robotics and engineering honors, and engineering design honors

I hope to get good recc letters from my AP physics teacher and AP precalc teacher

I’m a good writer and am really aiming for a standout essay

Math Honor Society, Science honor Society, world language honor society ( all these require 6 volunteer hours each that l’ve done), National Honor Society, High Honor roll every quarter

My extracurriculars:

Key Club: sophomore, junior (20 hours volunteer each year)

Unified Basketball: Sophmore, leadership role junior,

Big siblings program (helping incoming freshman): I did that this year and am going to do it next year specifically signed up to help a special needs freshman

Voices of change (bullying assembly for Sophmore I had somewhat of a leadership

Advisory ( leadership thing)

CrossFit outside of school 3+ times a week for about & years now

I might volunteer for two weeks at a special needs camp this summer

I’ve babysat for about 4 years (including young kids with special needs)

Other schools I have considered are Conn (safety pretty much my backup plan), northeastern, WPI, tufts

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for my safety school at the end I meant to say Uconn

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Rd no. ED l. you never know.

Good luck

Ps UConn is an odd barbell vs say gw or pitt or VCU or UMN given the urbanness of BU. UConn is rural although I get it’s your in state.

Can you afford BU at $95k?

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disclaimer: i am no admissions officer or BU expert, but as a parent who saw some of my D’s classmates this year get in ED1 to BU with far less credentials, stats (SAT scores) than you, i think you have a pretty good shot realizing it can still be unpredictable. So as long as you can afford it ($95k+/year for 4 years) and that’s a big IF, make sure your essays and teacher recs are the best they can be and shoot your shot. Don’t count on merit aid and run the Net Price Calculator for BU to make sure it is affordable.

EDIT: also, since you’re in CT, you should plan an official campus visit to BU in Boston both for your sake (to get to know the school better and even find things to write about in your essay) and for BU’s sake (they track demonstrated interest).

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Your budget should include the master’s degree. I am not sure whether this will be one year, or two years, or somewhere in between. However, the master’s could well cost well over $100,000 per year and you should plan to do this while keeping your total debt down as much as you can (zero being a good goal if you can manage it). Often it makes more sense to find the economical bachelor’s degree and spend the bigger bucks (per year, but for a shorter time) on the graduate degree.

Both BU and U. Conn are ABET accredited for mechanical engineering. You can get a solid education at either of these schools (whether in mechanical engineering or any one of a long list of other majors).

I am most concerned here about your math grades. It looks like you might have jumped ahead a bit before you were 100% ready. When you get to university, remember this lesson. Do not jump ahead. You can get accepted to very good master’s degree programs with a bachelor’s degree from either BU or U.Conn or any one of more than 100 other universities, but you will want to be applying with a good university GPA, good grades in your engineering and math classes, and good internship or job experience, and good references. You can get good internship experience at any of the schools that you mentioned, specifically including both BU and U.Conn.

I think that you have a chance at BU. I would call it a reach. I am not sure that it is worth the additional cost compared to U.Conn but I do not know your family’s budget.

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Have you visited? If not, I’d recommend it. BU is a very unique campus- far more urban than most. We did a trip to Boston because my kid was interested specifically in BU. Less than 10 minutes into the tour, he knew it wasn’t for him just based on the campus.

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And for CrossFit I meant to say 8 years

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For those asking I definitely plan to visit! Also in terms of tuition I am lucky enough to not have to worry too much about that for now

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That’s good - although I’m not sure what it means.

In essence, BU is $91K+ and growing a year while UCONN is $36K.

So that’s a $220K delta for likely a similar but maybe slightly better or worse outcome.

That’s a family call and if they’re willing to spend that, then congrats to you that you have that flexibility - a real gift.

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Not to be difficult but that’s two qualifiers on affordability — “not too much” and “for now”.

Is your family able to afford the cost of BU for four years? Keep in mind that tuition usually increases every year.

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i didnt mean “for now” like that i just worded it weirdly. I’m not worried about finances just mostly seeking thoughts on my chances.

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