Hello, I am currently a rising senior and have never done well in school. I have good public speaking skills and great extracurricular activities. Currently, I have a 2.77 GPA, my SAT score is 1200, and my ACT score is a 27. All of my scores are below average. I plan to pursue Architecture, more specifically, green design. Some colleges that I really want to get in are Rutgers, Drexel, Virginia Tech, Chapel Hill, and TCNJ. Please let me know which colleges I can make it into. Please help me find more colleges that are in the tri-state area that I could make it into.
Your test scores are not below average, although it may seem so on CC. A 27 ACT is in the 86th percentile.
…that said, UNC-CH is extra challenging as they have a hard cap of 18% OOS. VaTech also has an OOS cap, and your GPA is probably deal-breakingly low (though your ACT is in range). AFAIK, TCNJ does not offer architecture. Others on CC are more knowledgeable about Drexel & Rutgers than I am, so I hope they weigh in.
What state are you a resident of? Which universities in that state offer your potential major? If your guidance counselor doesn’t think you have much chance of admission at those universities, which of them have formal articulation agreements for your major with a community college that you could start at?
unfortunately, it would seem TCNJ is a reach school depending on major. You may consider ED
UNC-Chapel Hill does not offer an architecture program that I am aware of. NC State (NCSU) in Raleigh does, but that GPA is probably not high enough. It’s a pretty competitive and pretty well-regarded program. You could look at UNC-Charlotte. I believe they offer architecture. Not sure about your stats there. Community college could be worth looking into. In North Carolina the University of North Carolina system (all the public universities in the state) have a Comprehensive Articulation Agreement with the community colleges in NC, so if you do well in CC your CC credits will transfer to a UNC-system school. So you could do something like go to a North Carolina community college and then transfer to NC State. Other states have similar options. I think your test scores are pretty good. You can probably find a good fit school. Just keep looking. Best of luck!
Are you looking for a 5-year NAAB-accredited BArch program?
https://www.naab.org/architecture-programs/school-search/ can help you find them.
Drexel and VT have BArch programs, but Rutgers, TCNJ, and UNC-CH do not. In NJ, NJIT has a BArch program, while in NC, NCSU and UNC-C have BArch programs.
Look at Kent State as well as NJIT. UNC-C is a reachable reach, not NCSU.
Your ACT is quite good. Is your GPA low due to course rigor, a bad freshman year…?