Chance Me [international, Electrical Engineering, 3.54 GPA, 1520 SAT, maximum math(and maybe physics) rigor]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • International student, East Asian
  • State/Location of residency: Minnesota
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Small(graduating class <20), private, moderately competitive
  • Other special factors: First generation

Intended Major(s)
-Electrical Engineering
-Second choice majors are specific to each university
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.54/4.00
  • Weighted HS GPA: 3.96
    (Our school adds 1.0 GPA for all AP classes and two math courses(discrete math and post AP calculus) in addition to converted letter grade GPAs, and recalculates along with other unweighted classes, but no AP courses offered in freshman year and barely any in sophomore year, no one has gotten anything over 4.55 ever)
  • Class Rank: unranked
  • ACT/SAT Scores:
    -ACT single highest is 33 composite(35 English, 33 Math, 34 Reading, 31 Science), superscore is 35 composite(35 English, 35 Math, 34 Reading, 34 Science)
    -SAT single highest is 1520 composite(750 English, 770 Math), superscore is 1540 composite(750 English, 790 Math)
    -Since I’m an international applicant, took one TOEFL test and scored 109 total(30 Reading, 30 Listening, 22 Speaking, 27 Writing)

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English:
    -English 9(Regular)(freshman year)
    -English 10(Regular)(sophomore year)
    -AP English Language and Composition(AP)(4 on the exam)(junior year)
    -English 12(Regular)(senior year)
  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed)
    -Integrated Math II & III(Honors)(freshman year)
    -AP Calculus ABC(AP)(3 on AP Calculus BC exam, 3 on Calculus AB subscore)(sophomore year)
    -Post AP Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra(Advanced)(junior year)
    -AP Statistics(AP)(senior year)
  • Science:
    -Biology(Regular)(freshman year)
    -Robotics 9(Regular)(freshman year)
    -Physics(Regular)(sophomore year)
    -Robotics 10(Regular)(sophomore year)
    -Data Science(Regular)(sophomore year)
    -Advanced Biology(Advanced)(junior year)
    -Advanced Physics(Advanced)(junior year)
    -General Chemistry(Regular)(junior year)
    -AP Physics C: Mechanics(AP)(senior year)
    -AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism(AP)(senior year)
    -AP Chemistry(AP)(senior year)
    -AP Computer Science A(AP)(senior year)
  • History and social studies:
    -World History(Regular)(freshman year)
    -U.S. History(Regular)(sophomore year)
    -AP United States Government and Politics(AP)(5 on the exam)(junior year)
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed)
    -French Course IV(Honors)(freshman year)
    -AP French Language and Culture(3 on the exam)(sophomore year)(highest level completed)
  • Visual or performing arts:
    -Art 9(Regular)(freshman year)
    -Art 10(Regular)(sophomore year)
    -Orchestra(Regular)(senior year)
  • Other academic courses: none

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)

  • General education course work: none
  • Major preparation course work: none

Awards
-National Honor Society Member(9, 10, 11, 12)
-Team member of school math team, championship in division for 2 years)
Extracurriculars
-Saxophone player for 12 years
-Calligrapher for 12 years
-Tutored at a summer camp during all high school summers(soccer, math, etc.)

Essays/LORs/Other
-Not much to say for now

Schools
-University of Texas at Austin(second choice major Statistics & Data Science)(RD)
-University of Washington(RD)
-University of California-Berkeley(second choice major undecided engineering)
-University of California-Los Angeles
-University of California-San Diego(second choice major computer engineering)
-Texas A&M University-College Station(second choice major computer engineering(electrical engineering track))(RD)
-University of Minnesota-Twin Cities(EAII)
-Case Western Reserve University(second choice major undecided engineering)(RD)
-University of Florida(RD)
-Georgia Institute of Technology(RD)
-University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign(RD)
-University of Wisconsin-Madison(RD)
-Purdue University-West Lafayette(RD)
-University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill(RD)
-University of Maryland-College Park(RD)
-University of Colorado-Boulder(RD)

Personal remarks: I’m applying to University of Texas at Austin and Georgia Tech partly because of the standardized testing requirement lolol

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Correction: GPA with mid year report stands at 3.54 unweighted, apologies for the title

3

Budget ??

Do you have need or can you afford at some $80,000 US Dollars a year ?

If you want Engineerimg, apply to NC State, not UNC, which doesn’t offer your major.

Do other kids with your stats come to the US? If so, where ?

Statistically speaking, UMN and Colorado are the only two you’ll get in. Colorado not for engineering. At UMN engineering is possible.

Tons of great sub/like schools you can get into.

Good luck.

2 Likes
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Fixed the title.

Agree w/tsbna…let us know if you have budget constraints. Even though your school doesn’t rank would you say you are in the top 10% of students?

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This is a very reachy list. Unfortunately some of the schools that you are applying RD fill the bulk of their class in EA.

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I agree it would be very helpful to understand your budget/pay-status.

I also agree some insight into what your grades mean in context would be very helpful. Like, an unweighted GPA of 3.54 in many high schools might be somewhere in the middle of the college bound seniors, and that is why that sort of GPA is reportedly fairly rare at the sorts of reachier colleges you are listing. But a few high schools have grading norms where that would be competitive for such colleges given that context.

Finally, I am also not clear on your residency status. You are not a US citizen but are living in Minnesota? Are you a Permanent Resident?

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I’m going to pay full tuition everywhere

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And yes I am a non US citizen living in Minnesota, and not a permanent resident.

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I can afford full tuition of all of these schools listed above

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Top 15-20% in terms of weighted GPA, but it’s a really small class(~15)

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Can you calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s? Note only AP/IB or UC Transferable courses are weighted in the calculation and the UC’s only use 10-11th a-g course grades.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

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Unweighted 3.62, weighted uncapped 4.0, weighted capped 3.92

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OK - you need to swap out UNC again - and if I were you, I’d apply to schools like - depending on the part of the country you are open to - Michigan State, Nebraska, Iowa State, Alabama, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee, the two Arizona schools, Buffalo, Utah, Washington State, W Michigan, etc.

You’ll get the same job as you will at most every school you listed - short of maybe G Tech.

You way overstated your chances in my opinion.

PS - if you want EE, then don’t apply for 2nd majors - go to a college for EE - tons would love to have you.

Best of luck.

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You may want to check whether your status or visa allows or disallows you to claim Minnesota residency for tuition purposes: https://onestop.umn.edu/sites/onestop.umn.edu/files/forms/Residency%20Handbook%202024.pdf

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I applied to applied sciences in UNC Chapel Hill, and to be fair I’m going tryhard is purely because of H-1Bs getting harder to get every year and well…ROI of tuition is looking pretty dim if I didn’t manage to stay…

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Just checked and unfortunately I don’t have any of the type of visas mentioned in the document

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You definitely can not count on staying in the US. A bachelors in engineering will get you a 24 month OPT extension, but it can still be hard to find a sponsor.

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I’ve got a lot of personal issues surrounding that(i.e. can barely use my native tongue for any sort of official occasions, family matters, etc.), but I’m just trying my best here and a good college is just a part of it, I’m willing to bet that the acceptance rate for any international student to H-1B is lower than any of the acceptance rate mentioned above

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Also I’ve submitted to all of them, can’t really do anything now…

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You submitted all of those, but looks like you missed the EA deadlines for many? I don’t see you getting engineering for any of those schools, except UMN (probably.)

What does your HS counselor say about your chances to UMN? Seems like a target?

If you want to have more choices than UMN (which isn’t an assured admit), you might consider many of the good suggestions in tsbna’s posts.

What visa do you have?

1 Like