My son is rising senior. He would like to pursue Engineering with minor in foreign language
High School: Nationally recognized magnet school
GPA: 3.6 unweighted
AP Courses: 15+ with (Calc AB/BC 5, Physics/Chemistry 4)
SAT: V: 700, M: 790
SAT Subject: Math 800, Chemistry 770
Class Rank: School does not do rank. He is not in top 10%
Extra-curricular:
1.more than 4 years of experience teaching foreign language to students (400+ hours)
2.Developed iOS application for teach language
3.Active member in school competition
I would like to know what will be his chances for ED in Brown/Cornell/Hopkins?
They are all pretty high reaches due to GPA.
Would colleges like RPI or USC be better options for EArly decision to improve chances ?
90+% of admits at all three are in the top 10% of their class.
I don’t like to ‘chance’ based solely on stats- there is always more to the application. His ECs- as you present them here- are underwhelming relative to the kids that I know who are getting places at these schools. Is there more than meets the eye? is the app on the market & selling or being bought out by a larger company? is ‘active member in school competition’ for a team that competes successfully regionally / nationally? perhaps unfairly, the teaching (without more explanation) is likely to be seen as general ‘community service’ or ‘mentoring’ or ‘tutoring’, which are relatively common.
Obviously, there is no negative to the ECs in themselves! But the profile you present gives solid test scores, a GPA scraping the low end of admitted students, and ECs that don’t jump out at you. That leaves the LoR from the school and the essays to make this student stand out enough from the 30,000 (Brown), 25,000 (JHU), or 42,000 (Cornell) applicants and secure one of the 2,800 (Brown), 3,251 (JHU), or 6,300 (Cornell) offers of admission. (btw, don’t be fooled by Cornell’s higher admit rate- that includes all of their schools and includes their land-grant side).
As long as he understands that it is a genuine long shot (b/c it is for anybody, and his stats are not super strong), and if he has a clear favorite, using the ED shot for one of them is not unreasonable. Hopkins is explicit that they rank GPA as more important than standardized testing, and 86% of admits have a UW GPA of 3.7+, so of the three it seems the least likely admit.
Does being in magnet make a difference because it was highly selective to begin with
3.6 GPA is out of 4. It’s 4.5 out of 5
With that GPA, any super-selective college will be a reach, and probably an unrealistic one.
In any case, ED is only appropriate if the school is a clear no-regrets top choice that is affordable in the net price calculator, and there is no need to compare financial aid offers with those of other schools.
Being in a magnet probably won’t make much of a difference in itself, but how he does relative to his cohort will.
The challenge is that the vast majority of the tens of thousands of applicants more than meet the standard of the university and the adcomms have to rule out ~90% of them. Selective schools prepare their students for college, but a) there are a lot of them and b) there are a lot of very talented students out there, both in and out of selective schools. In some ways, a selective program can seem almost (though not really) a negative: the ad comms know that the student has had above average opportunities for learning.
@cpl_parent
Couple of things:
Engineering is a slightly strange bird. Most engineering schools are at least 10% more challenging (usually because they are smaller.) that the Liberal Arts college at the same U.
That said, Brown just admits to the University not to a specific engineering school or major so that make it “less super hard” but the GPA, as noted is a weakness to be overcome. Whiting (JHU) is probably the “least likely” unless your kid has some really eye-catching “thing.” But the test scores are strong enough there’s always a chance. Cornell, who knows? They are a relatively big school. GPA is on low end but test scores are good enough. If your kid can sell themselves well in the app, one of those three might work out. But can’t be counted on.
USC has no “early” applicaton. Just a “merit consideration” deadline, so no reason not to apply by Dec. 1st there. Those stats are competitive for Viterbi, but it’s still very selective. One hint if SC is really a choice - sign up early for the interview. They shut the door at some point and it helps to get to sit down, in my experience.
RPI is even more possible, but all competitive engineering schools have low acceptance rates and have to decline good students.
Having gone through the engineering app experience with a kid with not quite as high test scores and somewhat higher GPA I’d suggest casting a fairly wide net. There are many good programs out there (and, since ABET is ABET, they are very similar from a curriculum POV.) but the are increasingly competitive and with holistic admissions you just can’t predict. But with those stats your kid will get into a good program. Apply based on fit, vibe, etc. and pick a wide range in terms of selectivity and it will work out.