<p>I’m currently a junior looking into a couple of Engineering Schools, and I was wondering what some of you guys thought about my resume…</p>
<p>General Background: New Jersey, Male, Indian. School is beginning to suck but it still retains a good reputation among colleges. (We always get a good number of students into Ivy League schools)</p>
<p>Academics: (My School Uses) Weighted GPA- 3.9/4.0 Unweighted is probably a 3.3
Rank - unsure, at least top 25%
I take the hardest classes my school has to offer including
-5 years of sciences (1 of honors chem, bio and earth science, and 2 of physics AP),
-5 years of math (Algebra II, Geometry, Pre Calc Honors, AB Calc, and AP Stat) And I have taken a precalc summer course
2 Years of technology courses including Transportation Technology, Tech and Design, and Robotics
-and also 4 years of history and English both AP. (the only thing I don’t take honors/AP of is Spanish)</p>
<p>SAT Scores- 700 math, 670 in Reading and 680 in Writing
I haven’t taken my Sat II’s or AP tests yet but they will include:
Math II Sat, History Sat, English literacy SAT
AP tests will be: AP English, AP US History, AP Calc, AP Stat, AP Econ Macro/Micro, AP Physics,</p>
<p>Extra Curricular:
Track (Sprint Varsity) - 8 years (through high school) with numerous awards. Summer of 9th Grade I qualified for Nationals (AAU) after passing the county, state, and regional level. Time commitment- Every day (including weekends not sunday) during the spring time.
5 years of band playing percussion
Part of the Debate team (Forensics) for 4 years (Varsity). Awards won in local and national level tournaments. Currently Treasurer of the Team as well as Novice Trainer. Time commitment- 3 days a week all year not including tournaments on the weekends and during breaks. Approximately 30 tournaments attended including First Place in the National Debate Forum.
Model United Nations- once a week, (not very big for me)
Interact (community service) Approximately 100 hours + doing various community service activities
Summer Job at my father’s hydraulic business (doing paperwork)
Co-founder of a magazine in school based on international events taking place (editor and writer).
Fed Challenge (Economic “Game”)
Nominated from my School to attend Governor’s School of International Studies</p>
<p>From some excellent physics/math teachers</p>
<p>So tell me what you think btw I intend to interview there too</p>
<p>Its not a numbers game at all, I’m not sure what BMSRFan is talking about.</p>
<p>CMU admissions will be happy to tell you how many 800s/1600s/2400s/32s/etc they denied so that they could let in people with things better than standardized test scores.</p>
<p>Ya I’m planning on taking the SAT again, hopefully raising my math score. I also intend to take a couple of SAT II’s including math II. That + some recommendations from my math/physics teacher and an interview there will hopefully help me out</p>
<p>That’s good. You might want to find some way to stand out, though…I got into SCS with a 3.27 unweighted GPA but I’m female, which gives me a huge advantage. Best of luck!</p>
<p>ap:
bio: 5
english lit: 4
u.s. gov: 4
calc bc: 5
stats: 5</p>
<p>finishing up calc iii right now, i’ve take ap bio, ap chem, physics, honors whenever possible
i had decent ECs - travel abroad work experience, did academic & sports teams, played an instrument, volunteered a good 150 hours
some top state placings in math/computer science
my recs: 1 amazing, 1 good</p>
<p>decision:
school of comp. sci - waitlisted
tepper school of business - waitlisted</p>
<p>it IS a numbers game - UW GPA is where its at</p>
<p>it is a numbers game at cmu along with demonstrated interest. metalflower possibly applied ed, so those numbers are different (talk about demonstrated interest of ed!). quantize applied ece. ece numbers are higher! Ayer, your unweighted is low. But you do have good chances. definitely do on campus interview (not with alumni). don’t apply in ece or scs. pick the right major based on your stats, and make it your first preference (only preference will boost your chances).</p>
<p>No, I disagree with several of these posts. It is very much a numbers game, particularly for ECE or SCS, you need high numbers. BUT, it’s not just numbers, and sometimes high numbers isn’t enough. If they don’t like your essay, interview, recommendations or whatever, top numbers may not do it.If you are female, particularly for some of CMU’s colleges, you will get a distinct numbers break. That may also go for underrepresented minorities, but I don’t know (and I’m not talking Asian or Indian here).</p>
<p>Applying ED may not help you at all, especially for ECE or SCS, but you can apply early for one of the colleges and RD for the rest. Apply for AS MANY COLLEGES as you think you can show interest in (I believe they limit you to 5). Each college considers you separately. If you only apply to one or two of the toughest colleges to get into and you’re not female and your numbers aren’t high, it could be tough. It is all about strategy. My son got turned down ED for ECE, turned down for SCS and MCS in RD, but accepted for H&SS and IS. If this is your very top choice for sure, let them know it and apply for everything-but have a really good explanation of why you are interested in so many possible majors. We know people with better stats that didn’t get accepted because they only applied to CIT or SCS. You can transfer later into engineering (though it could be tough for ECE).</p>
<p>If you are truly interested, why not retake the SAT? It can only help you. And you might want to refigure what your GPA is not including your freshman year-they supposedly don’t consider that.</p>
<p>Ya I do intend to retake my SAT, none of what I have posted is final. Actually, my unweighted GPA is a 3.5. And I should also note that I am interested in mechanical engineering</p>
<p>I would think, based on the multitudes of posts I’ve read here-that if your essays, recs, numbers all stay good or improve, that you have a good shot at mech eng. But I can’t emphasize enough that if CMU is a strong choice for you, to also request the other colleges (MCS, H&SS, IS-at least) consider you too, as a backup. Why hang everything on just one chance when you can have 5.</p>
<p>True, but if I do get into one of the other schools, is it possible to transfer? Also, I am just not interested in Humanities so getting into CMU for that would probably not constitute me going (even with the name)</p>
<p>Hopefully by the time you apply, you will have enough information on how easy it is to transfer if you need to. Note this link addresses the “rare” situation where someone is denied a transfer (due to low grades or no spots). And you will probably have a good feeling for if you think you can do well there and is it worth it to take a chance in the event you aren’t initially accepted into CIT. I suppose it depends upon how much you end up liking CMU. If you do poorly in your classes, worst case scenario, you can always transfer to another school. I’m sure anything CMU has will transfer. And though humanities sounds painful, for a technical guy-the logic and computation degree looks very interesting. You can focus on computer science, robotics, there are many choices. CMU humanities looks alot different than other schools, and you can always double major-no acceptance into CIT required. Good luck, I’m sure you will get all the information you need if you keep reading and posting here.</p>