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Demographics
US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident)
State/Location of residency: NJ
Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Normal High School w/ ~100 in our senior class
Other special factors: low-income, single-parent household
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Her income is not <65k, but not >80k
Intended Major(s): Mechanical Engineering. Also product design? (undecided)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.565
Weighted HS GPA: 4.261
Dual Enrollment GPA: 3.77 uw
Class Rank: Top 10%
ACT/SAT Scores: 1170 SAT (580 English, 590 Math), 25 ACT (29 reading, 24 science, 23 math and English)
still waiting on my Sept. 19th ACT, along with my Oct 3rd SAT, Oct 27th SAT and Oct 17th ACT which are all upcoming.
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
Current Senior Year- AP & Dual Enrollment (FDU College Credit pending): AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics (Dual Enrollment), AP English Language and Composition (Dual Enrollment), AP Psychology.
Completed AP & Dual Enrollment (FDU College Credit received): AP Capstone (Seminar: 3, Research: 4 [Dual Enrollment]), AP English Literature & Composition (5, Dual Enrollment), AP US History (4, Dual Enrollment), AP World History (3, Dual Enrollment), AP Chemistry (3), AP Precalculus: 4 (Dual Enrollment).
Completed Dual Enrollment (FDU College Credit received): French I, Financial Literacy.
Completed Honors: Biology Lab, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra II, English I, English II, US History I.
Awards/Honors
AP Capstone Diploma (2026): 1 of only 5 students school-wide to earn this; recognized for multi-year original research and multi-subject mastery.
AP Scholar with Distinction (2026): 1 of only 10 students in the school to earn this designation (placing at the top of the school’s 48 total AP scholars).
NJ SEEDS Scholar (CSP Scholar '27): Selected in 2025 for a highly competitive academic leadership program involving college-level coursework, Saturday academies, and a rigorous 3-week summer intensive at Bucknell University (Summer 2026).
College Board National Recognition Program: National Academic Scholar.
Volunteer Service / Peer Leadership Certificate: Logged over 1,006 officially recognized community service hours.
National Honor Society: 8th grade - present
Extracurriculars
Peer Leadership Club: Core member; participated in many volunteer service events like Thanksgiving Turkey Drives (delivering meals to poor families), the annual Holiday Gift Giving program, and more. I also donated 50,000 soda can tabs to a Ronald McDonald House, which has been an initiative of this club since 2020.
NJ SEEDS College Scholars: Active participant in the Saturday Academy cohort.
SWENext member (Society of Women Engineers): Participate in national SWENext High School Leadership Academy programming and connect with NJ/NY collegiate engineering networks to explore CAD modeling, 3D prototyping, and university STEM pathways.
Family Support: Help with family responsibilities at home, including some cooking and household chores/management to support my family.
Languages & Independent Learning: Self-taught Japanese language study (100+ day continuous streak on Duolingo). I am not fluent, but I am actively working towards becoming more proficient in the language.
SWENext High School Leadership Academy: I recently enrolled to participate in bi-weekly national engineering leadership modules, technical workshops, and mentorship sessions with industry professionals. I am using the program to explore engineering disciplines, build professional networks, and prepare for university-level STEM coursework.
Pre-College Engineering Training (Case Western Reserve University): I am currently completing university-level training through CWRU titled “Engineering: From 2D Sketch to 3D Model.” I am learning 2D sketching, 3D modeling fundamentals, and spatial analysis to design and 3D-print original structural models.
Essays/LORs/Other Essay: about my dad, who was never present in my life (mom was never married) and how it made me avoid committing to anything myself. Used a metaphor of him being a ghost and other imagery, which gave a ghastly vibe. Still revising it.
LOR 1 (AP Lit teacher): probably strong since I got a 5 on the exam and ended with a 94 in his class, and also showed a strong work ethic the whole year.
LOR 2 (AP Chem): probably decent since even though I got a 3 on chem, I still ended with a 93, turned in all hw assignments, and even stayed after school to help clean up lab materials. Also, he had nothing bad to say to my mom whenever she visited for back-to-school night.
Both of these are teacher evaluation sheets, so it’s just checking boxes.
Schools (not final)
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): Rutgers New Brunswick (EA)
Extremely Likely: NJIT (EA), Stevens Institute of Tech (EA)
Likely: Union College (RD), RIT (EA), RPI (EA), Virginia Tech (EA)
Toss-up: Purdue University (EA), Lafayette College (RD), CWRU (EA), WPI (EA)
Lower Probability: Olin College of Engineering (RD)
Low Probability: MIT (EA or RD), CMU (RD), Georgia Tech (EA)
I would just not bother applying to these three schools (unless the application is already submitted). As an example, the median score on the math SAT for students arriving at MIT is 790 (according to prepscholar this is also true at CMU). There are lots of freshmen there who got 800 on the math part of the SAT exam. I thought that these three schools require SAT or ACT scores, but I suppose that I might be mistaken.
Rutgers, NIT, and Stevens are very good universities. Make sure that at least one is a safety (your guidance counselor should have a good sense here) and you should be fine.
I do however wonder about 590 on the math part of the SAT for a potential engineering student. How do you generally do at math? For a potential engineering major I would be way more concerned about how you do in math classes, as compared to how you do on the English part of the SAT test.
Okay, so you are planning to take the ACT three times & then SAT three times.
Assuming that your scores do not significantly improve (like 28 ACT or 1300 SAT), you need to drop all these schools:
Focus on just the Assured, Extremely Likely, & Likely categories.
I am not sure how you assess that you chance of getting admitted to Rutgers New Brunswick is 100%. Have you seen the Rutgers Fall 2025 Undergraduate Admissions Profile? Engineering is one of the harder schools to get admitted to. You should not rule out the local community college A.A./A.S. option just yet.
To be honest, I only started taking math seriously in my junior year—which you could probably already infer from my low-ish GPA. However, I am working hard to build a stronger foundation in math, since I am currently taking AP Calc BC and did alright in AP Precalc. I feel like if I had more preparation for the math section or more exposure to the topics on the SAT/ACT, I would do a bit better, but that’s honestly just a guess.
I’m not really sure why I put it there either; I think I just wanted to put something in every category, if I’m being honest. Also, my local community college doesn’t have my major, so do you have any advice on how I should go about that route?
This is what I just looked up on google. Would you be able to commute to any of the following community colleges? Some of them feature transfer agreements with Rutgers & NJIT.
This is good. You are taking your high school studies more seriously. I didn’t skip over your Awards, Honors, & Extracurriculars which look excellent. You also scored a “5” in AP English Literature, the top score along with several "3"s & "4"s which can possibly earn you college credit. You need to continue to build upon this foundation which may need to be at a community college. Else, you may need to seek out four-year universities with higher admit rates than Rutgers & Stevens with lower mid-50% SAT ranges & GPA ranges. NJIT seems to be a more promising option given your current stats.
I would put Rutgers and Stevens as reach for you. Please consider Montclair State University, William Paterson University, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University.
That is what I explicitly stated: I didn’t perform at my absolute best in my math classes before my junior year. I agree with your statement and fully acknowledge that I have no excuse whatsoever for my poor performance on standardized tests. So, I would appreciate any SAT/ACT resource suggestions or tips for improving my scores. I’m fine with paid resource suggestions, but would prefer free ones for now.
I would recommend resources that offer actual previous test questions. Test-prep companies are not allowed to use any actual previous test questions, so they must simulate them & often do a poor job at it. Simulated questions are either too easy or much harder than the real thing.
You didn’t list budget but it’s obviously low. So I agree with others that you’ll need to stay in state.
Secondly, 50% of engineers don’t finish in engineering. If you struggle with math, that’s a concern up front. So you may want to get tutoring, re study and re learn because it’s going to get exponentially harder and harder.
In the end, you have a monetary issue - so you likely need to start at a community college or a four year that you can commute.
There is not better. Best is what you can afford.
In NJ, the following are accredited for MechE so all are good.
NJIT
TCNJ
Rowan
Rutgers
You might also talk to your counselor about a state funded low income program.
You can’t afford and I don’t see you getting into your likelies or down and not even your extremely likely.
Can you explain how Rutgers is assured? Is there a school ranking entry or something else?
Please do not post sensitive, private, or identifying information as we do NOT delete or edit posts on College Confidential! 