Hi,
I am looking for some advice.
I am a student at a top 50 STEM high school according to US News, and am interested in majoring in chemical engineering with a concentration in biomedical engineering.
My issue regards the amount of grade inflation at my school and my individual science GPA. I have read in the past that combining one’s weighted GPA with one’s unweighted provides a more accurate detail for colleges of how one performed with respect to the difficulty of one’s classes. With that said, my combined science GPA is a 3.6. Weighted it is a low 4.0, according to my school. All my science courses are honors-level, and I have taken one science AP (Physics 1).
Therefore, my concern regards the fact that my GPA (as adcoms would see it) is much lower than what my school reports. In addition, while my uninflated science GPA freshman and sophomore year was a 3.9, it has since decreased to a 3.6. I have had mid-B’s throughout AP Physics 1. Thus, I am concerned about the downward trend.
Conclusively, I know this might be difficult to say, but how do you think engineering adcoms will view my science GPA? Its decrease is the result of one class (AP Physics 1), which to me is important as 1. it is my only science course junior year and 2. it is far less challenging than the physics I will encounter in engineering. Otherwise, my school reports a 4.0, despite the fact that this is obviously not the case from my transcript. Should I be concerned over how my science GPA and my school’s grade inflation will affect my capability of being admitted to high-ranking engineering schools?
Yes, you should be concerned. But it is not the end of the world concern.
Which schools are you applying to?
You will without a doubt get into a great school - maybe not a Stanford nor Harvard nor MIT, but several highly ranked schools will love to have you.
Are there reasons for the decline - is the material too tough for you? Lots of people drop out of engineering in college - it is not for everyone, though more people every year feel compelled to try because they read that is where the JOBS are.
Thank you for your reply.
My top choices are Cornell University, Macaulay Honors at City College, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University and Wesleyan University. I am also applying to Drexel University, Binghamton University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Stony Brook University and NYU Poly.
In terms of the decline, I wouldn’t say the material is too difficult for me. My AP Physics 1 teacher is well-known for dropping typically-good students to C averages. I’m thankful it hasn’t happened to me; but still, it did drop my GPA a significant enough amount for me to be concerned.
Does your school use Naviance? Highly competitive well known schools could very well give their students a boost in admissions. Check with your GC.
My school does use Naviance, and we do have considerable numbers of students accepted to the colleges I am applying to each year. In fact, my overall GPA is higher than my school’s accepted averages for all the schools I am applying to, aside from Wesleyan. My overall GPA is decent, in my opinion (4.3 weighted, 3.9 unweighted). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel that engineering adcoms give more care to the science and math GPA’s.
I’m sorry, but I accidentally posted my reply as a comment (new to the forum). 8-}
It is not necessarily true that a college will only look at science and math if you are going into STEM. As is the case in just about everything in life, it depends.
The schools that OP is aiming for (those in his/her first sentence: Cornell University, Macaulay Honors at City College, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University ) are very competitive for engineering and Cornell is more competitive than Harvard is. There are other factors that may be more influential than the grade in physics. One is the extent to which the OP has significant achievements outside of class and where the achievement either shows him/her to be among the top tier of those interested in STEM or where the achievement is so unusual that he/she can’t really be compared to anyone else. By this I mean things like winning Olympiads (at a National or International level) or high scores or qualifying for AIME/Putnum or developing popular or meaningful Apps (Android or iOS), producing something that has helped someone, wining Intel or similar, publishing a paper in a peer reviewed outlet, etc. Another factor would be evidence of strength in math-both classes and beyond. Evidence of strength in math is probably more important than one physics grade. While evidence of strength in sTEM topics is not all that will be evaluated it is the minimal criteria. After all, engineering (in general) is probably the most rigorous college curriculum. Making it through is not a given. So colleges will look for evidence of strength in these areas. I’d say these factors are probably more important than one physics grade. Given the student is in a strong STEM school, adcons will probably look for evidence that the OP took advantage of all that was available to him/her.