Other possible schools?

College Search & Lists
1

I intend to major in electrical engineering. (I’m not 100% sure on what type of engineering)
I’m applying to:
Reach:
-Princeton (deferred scea)
-Cornell
-Carnegie Mellon (I like how they have traditional carnival. Do a lot of schools have deep rooted traditions like them?)

Target:
-Northeastern
-Lehigh

Safety:
-Rutgers
-RPI

Location: I’m in NJ, and one of my requirements is that the school is in the Northeast. (No farther south than DC preferably) I don’t mind a 6-8 hour car ride, but I would prefer not to have to fly to school.

Race:white
Gender:female

GPA: 3.7642/4 UW 4.7740/5.30 (My grades are mostly A- with 3 B+ in humanities)
SAT Superscore: 1510 (710 R, 800 M)

Subject Tests: 800 Math II, 770 Chem

AP Exams (all 5s): Stats, Calc BC, Chem, Us History

For the most part I’ve taken all H and AP classes except this past year I dropped to A English. I got B+ in History the past two years and in English last year. (The rest were As) I also have 6 credits from PLTW to Rochester Institute of Technology.

Senior Courses: Multi Variate Calc H, AP Physics C, AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Human Geo, AP Spanish Language(I’ve taken Spanish for 4 years), Holocaust and Genocide H, Ceramics 2

I think I’m top 10% of my class of 560.

Clubs-
PEER Leaders (2 years)
Red Cross Club (president this year and Secretary last year) (3 years) (Also a disaster services volunteer)
INTERACT Community Service (4 years Secretary last year and co-president this year)
NHS (1 year- thats all my school offers)
World Language Honor Society-2 years

EC
-Piano-9 years
-Girl Scouts-13 years (bronze and silver awards earned. Working on Gold (focussing on STEM. I’m coding my website for this!))
-Built by Girls- this year- it’s a tech mentorship program I joined to learn more about the tech field.

  • I also babysit

Also, pretty sure my recs are solid and my essays are/ will be solid.

2

Thank you for your help!!

3

Case Western, certainly, though it will be at the far end of the driving range. Truthfully, we looked at many of the same schools, and really thought WPI was really fantastic. It has a very hands-on, project-oriented approach, which may or may not work for you. But great student vibe, beautiful campus in a nice part or Worcester, which is really transforming itself into a nice city. Grads make some of the highest salaries of all schools. It’s more highly ranked than most realize.

Also students really, really love their experience at Virginia Tech.

Good luck!

4

https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan

5

RPI is not a safety. It’s a low match. Lehigh is a low reach/high match. Its acceptance rate is 25%. Northeastern’s acceptance rate is 28%, so it is no sure thing. Have you asked for interviews and shown interest? Lehigh especially is big on interest. You need to add a school or two in the 30-50% acceptance range. I agree with CWRU.

6

I have not been to Lehigh or Northeastern. I did attend a local info session for Lehigh at my school. When I look at scatterplots which compare me to other people from my high school, I am with the students who were accepted and same with RPI. I went to Carnegie Mellon and my interviewer told me I had high chances of acceptance into their engineering department because of my race and taking multivariable calc as a senior.

7

What if I visit Lehigh in February?
Nevermind, it looks like they do not have any more tours.

8

What do you mean? You can visit any time, regardless of a tour being offered. Just be sure to sign in at the admissions office. You showed interest to Lehigh by attending an info session, so that’s good.

9

The office of admissions will be closed when I go. (I’m going the 28) Can I just email my admissions counselor and tell her I was there?

10

Yes, you can look up the admissions counselor who handles your state/region and let her know you were there, maybe by asking a question whose answer is not readily available online. You might see something there that prompts a question. I also suggest getting lunch or dinner wherever it looks like students might hang out.

I’ll add on WPI, our best friend’s have a neighbor who went to an Ivy, didn’t like it, transferred to WPI, and had a great three years. She graduated with a great job in hand.

11

I second looking at WPI. Great engineering school, I actually considered applying there but I lost interest in engineering. It’s very project-based and everyone who graduates with an engineering degree there winds up with a nice paying job.

Case Western is also a good school. I also recommend University of Rochester. With your grades, you should be able to get into both of these schools.

And RPI is 100% a safety for you. In my school, RPI is a guarantee if you have a 1400 and a 4.0 weighted.

12

Case is a great school and worth investigating. In your case, I’d say it’s a match but not a lock. I know of many qualified students who were denied or waitlisted (and never got offered a spot) in the RD round last year. Demonstrated interest is important. CWRU also likes high test scores, which you have.

Good luck!

13

I definitely won’t be able to visit case any time soon.

14

University of Rochester

15

why didn’t you mention NJIT - that school is so hard to get straight A’s in and if you do, well, I’m pretty sure you’ll have a connection with Princeton among other top universities - plus I heard graduates have plenty of job offers - just a suggestion since you are in the area, so wouldn’t that give you local tuition rates as well

16

@OffersTemple Originally, my goal was to get out of NJ all together and be in a different state. I applied to rutgers as a safety and then my dad pressured me into applying to Princeton, so I said what the heck and did it because I didn’t want to commit for early decision. Originally, I was also going to do early decision to carnegie mellon because I loved the school and my interviewer told me that with my stats, I would have a very good chance of being accepted. But then I waffled on early decision and chose not to.

17

Ultimately, I know my unweighted GPA is holding me back. I am in the top 10% of my class of about 560 and I have practically only taken H and AP classes besides elective and english last year. Unlike some of my peers who have better GPAs but chose to drop down into an A class or two. (That’s the level below H–my school has 3 levels of classes with H and AP being equal)

18

I don’t believe your UW GPA is necessarily holding you back as unfortunately you are also both a ORM (a Caucasian Female from the Mid-Atlantic/NE) and your scores, while strong, are still only the midpoint for the top schools you have noted.

19

oh, got it. well, being deferred by princeton and the referral from the CMU interviewer does indicate potential admission to your reach. I’d say you have made good safety schools - you can always consider rochester, wpi, rit, nyit if you want more post-admission options to consider : )

20

@Chembiodad except I’m not an ORM in my field (engineering)