Founder & President, Best Buddies (90+ members — largest chapter in my state; my favorite activity & something I want to continue in college. Big part of why I want to do chemical engineering (pharmaceuticals))
Founder & President, Science Bowl (competed at state level, chem specialty, highest point scorer on team. The other reason I want to do chemical engineering)
VP, Graphic Design Club
VP, Psychology Club
VP, French Honor Society
Library Aide, 2 years
Varsity Track & Field: qualified for regionals at the highest state division for 3 years
9 years of piano
lots and lots of tutoring especially in Chemistry
I have a ridiculous number of volunteer hours from Best Buddies, library aide, tutoring, & Psychology club. Probably totals well over 500+ I haven’t done the math yet
Awards/Honors:
AP Scholar with Distinction
School recognition award from College board
State-based academic athlete team award
Student of the month in chem, activities
NHS
Scholar athlete
mid I know but trust me there are very few opportunities in my area
LOR:
Chemistry teacher/Science Bowl advisor who claims I’m the best student he’s ever had
English teacher I had Freshman, Junior, and Senior year
Either BB advisor or librarian I aide with
Anyway, I’m planning to ED to Cornell and EA to Georgia Tech and UMich. Do I stand a chance? Should I add more schools to the list or take some off? Is Chemical Engineering too competitive for my resume? Please be realistic because nobody around me has gone to a top school or has stats like mine.
Also, I’m choosing not to worry about money right now. I just wanna get an idea of where I stand a chance then look into how their prices stack against what I can afford individually–if that makes sense.
No, I’m applying to my local state school as a safety. There are also some UCs I want to apply to. I’m still working on my regular decision list. Those are just the three schools I would want to apply to early.
An ED application only makes sense if you can afford it. If you can’t, you’re allowed to back out of the binding commitment, but it looks bad for your high school and any future applicants from there to Cornell. Please check the Cornell NPC and make sure your family is more than comfortable with the price tag.
I think you are a competitive applicant but the three schools you listed have very low acceptance rates. GT and UM are more competitive for out of state applicants than their overall numbers suggest. Definitely apply if the NPC is affordable to your family but unless you’d be happy at your state school, definitely increase your list.
Note that some schools that would be more likely to accept you fill the majority of their classes in EA so don’t wait too long to decide on the rest of your list. If you wait until RD, they will no longer be targets or low reaches, they’ll be actual reaches.
Other schools to consider that have great chem e programs but easier for admission in EA rounds - Purdue, UMD, U Del, VT. Again, you’d be out of state for all so be sure they meet your family’s budget.
If you want to try another reach private school that would love all your service hours, look at Notre Dame.
FWIW, retaking a class that you got a B will not move the needle for admission. Top 1 % or valedictorian won’t make a difference, and honestly could look like grade grubbing.
I think that you are a very strong candidate for any number of colleges for chemical engineering. You could get into any one of the 3 that you mention but you could also get rejected from all three. All have very low acceptance rates and reject many, many applicants who look just like the ones they accept.
I think that you need to add more colleges to your list where you have a higher likelihood of acceptances. Almost all engineering schools are accredited by ABET, which essentially prescribes most of the curriculum they are going to follow. So, there isn’t a great deal of variability from one college to another. Engineers from any college are in high demand and are well paid, so there’s little benefit in limiting yourself to the most selective schools.
For example, if you’re going to look in Upstate New York where Cornell is located, why not also consider University of Rochester or SUNY Buffalo which are both also very god schools for chemical engineering. If you’re going to look at midwestern schools like Michigan, why not Purdue or Rose-Hulman? If you’re going to look at a southern school like Georgia Tech, why not Virginia Tech or Alabama?
I think, on paper, you can be competitive. Maybe I missed it but you didn’t tell us your coursework.
Do have 4 years English, math, social science, foreign language ? What’s your highest math ?
Yes, you need a budget. Schools like Delaware, Minnesota, Wisconsin are outstanding for ChemE. And with your gpa and test scores, you can go to an Alabama, as an example, for under $20k due to your stats.
If your rigor is there, I think you’d have a chance (not assured) at all three but if you can’t afford them and Michigan is $80k plus a year, it’d make no sense.
Please update on course work including APs and budget. I know you said highest rigor but that doesn’t tell me the courses and # of years. Thanks
Be aware that when UCs recalculate GPA, only the first C or higher grade in a repeated course is used. However, UCM is that that difficult for admission. But also note the art course requirement.
Highest math is Calc BC with an A, AP test not taken yet. Also A’s in dual enroll pre calc. I just wasn’t fond of memorization so I thought I wasn’t a math person until we got to the problem solving stuff.
4 years math (algebra->calc + stats) 4 years english (2 years of dual enrollment) 4 years social studies (ap human geo, ap world, de us history, de sociology, de psc, de gov) 3 years of french (max school offers and 2 were dual enrollment)
Applying to schools you can’t afford is pointless. Maybe you have no issues ?
So you need the affordable safety. You say Merced but why not UW or WSU. Oregon State. If even Merced is too much, how about Bama where your stats pull major $$. Miss State and UAH too - all excellent. And maybe a few Hail Mary apps ? Can you afford $50k? If not, why apply for Ga Tech - but they have the Stamps - so it’s a Hail Mary - meaning even if you get in you can’t go short of the full ride - so a fraction of 1% odds.
But we don’t know your budget - so we can’t assess.
You need to run NPCs everywhere except if you know - I’ll pay full, $100k a year.
I think you’re doing this a little backward. You need to know budget. And you’ll want to target some safeties like OSA, UMN, and Clarkson to apply to early because they are more likely to give out merit money in the earlier rounds.
No. I have an A in AP Calc BC, got A’s in pre calc, and got A’s in AP Stats.
I didn’t care for Geometry and it put me off math freshman year. Despite my distaste for Geometry, I still got a 33 on the math section of the ACT which is 98th percentile nationally and 99th for my state.
My highest math grades yet are coming out of Calculus . . . lol
Ugh was thinking the student is in Washington. But that was a pre med student yesterday. Thx for the catch.
This one says big city. Let me change - OP, how about your home state public - I’m sure it’s solid - whether Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii or whichever WUE state has a big city, that states flagship is likely very good.