<p>I don’t aim for HPYS, but “just” for UT Austin engineering, Berkeley (out of state), maybe Carnegie Mellon and Caltech. I judged that engineering students as you are would probably know much better on my options that those CCers High schoolers who did not go through the admission process.</p>
<p>Although I know the 75th percentiles SAT for Berkeley/UT are very achieveable (around 2100), I don’t know how more it would help for admission purpose to increase your SAT from, let’s say, a 2150 to a 2250-2300.</p>
<p>The reason is that my classs rank REALLY sucks, meaning I will be significantly disadvantaged compared to other students. I’m trying to make up with my SAT, so I’m probably aiming for as high as possible (around 2250). However, would my time be better spent on things like research, science competitions, and internships rather than SAT, if my ultimate and most reasonable goal lies at UT engineering/Berkeley engineering?</p>
<p>If you were me, what would you do?? What would be the best thing to further in my application?</p>
<p>(Here are my prospective stats)
2100 SAT practice tests, 4.0 GPA, close to no ECs, 4.35 Weighted GPA, top 25%.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading. I am eager to read your opinion!! </p>
<p>I know that UT looks at your Math and CR scores in one sitting. To give you a general idea, my son got into UT Engineering Honors and was offered a $6,000/yr scholarship (3/4 tuition) with a 1510.</p>
<p>We never knew his exact class rank because his school doesn’t rank – except for purposes of applying to state schools they let him know he was in the top 10%. We’re guessing that he was about the top 5%.</p>
<p>wow i always thought berkeley’s average SAT was 1400+…if you are in a competitive high school with many AP classes you should get into UT given you perform as well as you predict on the SAT…you could also get into Georgia Tech and use Texas A&M as a safety</p>
<p>Note that having a higher SAT score does not mean it will make up for low class rank. All consider GPA (or class rank) important.</p>
<p>However, getting a high SAT obviously won’t hurt and could help. Also, when you mention the 75th percentiles, I am guessing you are looking at the college’s middle 50% range that the school publishes for the university as a whole. Be aware that for engineering, a university’s middle 50% range is usually higher, and usually significantly higher, than what you see published for university as a whole. For example, I know UIUC’s middle 50% ACT range is usually 26 to 30 for the university as a whole, but for the engineering college it is 30 to 33. In other words, you may actually need to have a higher SAT score than you thought just to assure you are even in the college’s middle 50% range for engineering.</p>
<p>generally, top state engineering school students have at least 700 on math sat. So if you have above that, you’re good. Great GPA and EC’s help. It’s not only about SAT.</p>
<p>Well, math is not a problem since I usually get 780-800 math on my practice test. English is the problem. I’m a non native english speaker.</p>
<p>Is GPA more valued than class rank for those top schools, or is class rank more valued than GPA?</p>
<p>It’s because the maximum I can get by senior year (provided I get straight As in all APs) is 4.0 UW, and 4.35W, putting me in barely top 20%. My weighted GPA sucks because all my 9th grade courses were not weighted (if they were, I would easily be valedictorian with 4.8+ W GPA)</p>
<p>Whether GPA is important or rank, or both, depends on college. For Texas, rank is important because of the role it plays in admissions generally – Texas has the top 10% rule where you must be admitted, although not necessarily to program of choice, if in the top 10% of your class regardless of your test score. You are thus competing for the about 20% of the seats for the admitted class that does not qualify under the top 10% rule.</p>
<p>With Berkeley, your rank defined by your high school will not be an issue. Your freshman year grades are not considered to determine GPA and estimated rank for admission, only your sophomore and junior year grades are and then only in the UCs required core courses for admission (math, English, lab science, social studies, foreign language, and arts). Nevertheless, to get into engineering there you need a high redone GPA and high test score, particularly if out of state.</p>
<p>Carnegie Melon will consider all years grades as will Caltech but not sure of extent they view rank. Note, for Caltech the middle 50% range is ridiculously high (I believe higher than other college in the nation) for both test score and class rank and having low rank will not likely be made up by a high test score because 90% of everyone who applies there has high rank and high test score.</p>
<p>I am assuming you are applying as undeclared, since you are out of state it is much harder for you than let said a in state student. But if you are gpa and SAT scores are high I think it is very possible you will accepted into cal. Don’t know much about the other schools</p>
<p>4.0 and only top 25%… that’s pretty surprising.</p>
<p>Anyways, in my opinion, you have a (not great but) pretty solid gpa. If you can raise the gpa (and you seem very willing to), you’ll be in pretty good shape.</p>
<p>As for the SATs, it seems like your confident you’ll get over a 2100 and around a 2200. That is also pretty impressive if you can pull it off.</p>
<p>I think your key factor of getting into Berkeley or UT would be the “research, science competitions, and internships” you talked about. What type of research or internships are you talking about? If it is related with what you really want to do in the future or in college, it will give you a huge boost in your recommendation letters + your essays + ECs. Btw, science competitions are always a plus.</p>
<p>In general I think if you improve your gpa a little and get that 2100 + on the SATs with “good” research/internship/science competition experience… You’ll have no problem with UT and good chances with Cal Tech or Berkeley.</p>