3.32 GPA | 2400 SAT: Chances for MechE at UMD, Gtech, UIUC, UMich, and beyond?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I want to do Mechanical Engineering at a large research university with decent facilities and professors. I will be interning through all of college. Good professors and prestige are nice, but I'm aiming for colleges with plenty of research opportunities.
My in-state(UMD) has a great engineering program, but I definitely want to consider other schools with more/better labs and internships.
Other colleges suggestions apart from those listed would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Currently I'm applying to UMD, UMBC, Gtech, UIUC, and maybe UMich and a super high reach. Other suggestions would be very helpful!</p>

<p>Senior/Male/Asian/Maryland at competitive public HS (Top 10 STEM HS in USNews)</p>

<p>GPA 3.32 UW, 4.20 weighted out of 5.
About 3.8 9th grade, flat 3.0 10-11th.
School doesn't rank.</p>

<p>SAT: 2400 superscore, 2 sittings. 800|750|700|:2250 first time, 770|800|800|:2370 second.
Taking SATII MathII and Physics in October and expecting somewhere around 750-800 for both.</p>

<p>AP/Math courseload
9th grade courses: AP Gov (5), Precalculus (B)
10th grade: AP Calc BC (5), AP CompSci (5), AP US Hist (3)
11th grade: AP Stat (5), AP Psych (5), AP Lang (5), AP World (5)
12th grade: MV Calc & Diff Eq. AP Physics C, AP Lit, AP Econ (Self-studying Macro)
Summary: 5 on 7/8 APs through junior year, with 5 more APs senior year (counting double exams) for 13 total.</p>

<p>All math courses (except stat) are renamed, proof-intensive versions that teach beyond AP/Honors depth. My school also offers a number of STEM electives and accelerated core classes.
4yrs(5 credits) of natural sciences excluding AP Physics.
3yrs(3 credits) of computer science
4.5yrs(4 credits) of tech ed/research
Doing 3 semesters of guided research for senior year, studying CAD/CAM and engineering beyond that offered by my school. (no course credit)</p>

<p>ECs/Leadership:
2 years FIRST Robotics FRC, honorary team captain, CAD team manager. Team runs on a $15-30k annual budget, is completely student run, and is very demanding in engineering and time management. Our team specifically isn't especially prestigious.
4 years and captainship of Inventeam, an engineering/making club that participates in small competitions.
4 years of Robotics, participated in Botball. This year I will be leading the club's transition to FTC (Working with FIRST FRC team, expanding budget, teaching new technical skills to other members)
3 years of Science Olympiad, progressed to states every year.
3 years of badminton club
1 year of debate team</p>

<p>Research/other:
Redesigned robotic research platform based on CNC laser cutting, reducing production time and potential human error by several orders of magnitude. Ongoing; I should be able to get a good recommendation from mentor.
I should have an good "maker portfolio" if I were to apply to MIT.
~200 hours of CAD experience</p>

<p>Recommendations won't be amazing for personality, but will probably note outstanding engineering skill or something. Will not be from math teachers, my pure math skills aren't great.</p>

<p>Essays should be good/great, but again probably not amazing.</p>

<p>Misc:
- My school's engineering courses aren't great and I have spent a lot of time studying independently, but I have little to show for it apart from my research and other work. Is it a good idea to emphasize this to colleges (research, CAD, super technical trivia, FRC experience) and would it help explain, at least in part, my low GPA?</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I also lack typical filler ECs like NHS, honor roll, sports; will this hurt me?</p></li>
<li><p>Should I characterize myself as "academically competent with an exclusive focus on engineering that sets me apart, in both good and bad ways" and write my essay as such? If not, any suggestions?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>-I am actually expecting to get high grades this semester as well as more ECs. Semester grades are released around Jan 15th. Would I be able to send in my semester 1 grades if I get rejected/waitlisted from EA or otherwise get some benefit from showing I can still get mostly A's?</p>

<p>-There will be lots of other students with better GPA and lower SAT applying to similar schools, especially Gtech. Few will be focusing on engineering. How much does this affect my chances?
-Dream school was MIT. Is there a nonzero chance that I would actually get in?
-Again, any other big research universities that are worth out-of-state tuition would be greatly appreciated</p>

<p>-I'll chance other people back if requested, but what do I know?
-I can shoot flying insects with a rubber band in addition to having outstanding rubber band engineering skills.
-Hi to others at my school reading CC instead of doing college apps.</p>

2

<p>It is very hard to chance with an extreme situation like this. You did well in test but not at school, presumably due tothe rigorous course load. But one may also interpret as you don’t care much in class and skipped homework, but just very thoroughly prepared for the tests. For schools that value GPA more like UMich, it may hurt your chance.</p>

3

<p>I am not sure of your GPA trend but college don’t want to see that you are a slacker. Also, if you did not make a rudimentary ideal like “honor roll” how do you expect to make a decent college? In any case, you have a chance for UMD since you are in state but places like GTECH and UIUC are getting harder by the minute so you will really have to push it in terms of recs, essays, etc. SAT is one thing but I am not sure if they will suffice. What is your rec situation like? Also, typical filler is not necessary but it will not hurt. Do you have any awards and such individually? How do you stand in your school? Are you better than a lot of the kids in your program and where do you stand? What exactly does “honorary captain” mean? What makes you stand out? As I see it, chances are bleak at the moment.</p>

4

<p>There’s always a chance.
If you do well first semester and send mid year reports for colleges you’re applying via regular decision, there’s a chance they will see improvement. The chances of you getting into prestigious institutions such as MIT is very very small, but for colleges like GTECH, I put you around 20-30%.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

5

<p>I think that with basically a B average, you should consider out-of-state flagships, especially the more illustrious ones, pretty unlikely.</p>

<p>Unless your 3.32 GPA makes you a pretty high achiever in your graduating class, I think you may also have trouble getting into engineering at College Park. And College Park will not get your grades from this fall; they do not ask for a mid-year report. </p>

<p>There’s a pretty serious mismatch between your standardized test scores and your grades. If the incredible difficulty if your high school doesn’t account for that, colleges may assume that you applied yourself when it was test time, but not when it came to the day-to-day grind of doing your school work. And since college will have a lot more day-to-day grind, and a whole lot more opportunities to slack off, they may not trust that you will suddenly and spontaneously turn things around. What can you do to address that? IMO, that is the part of your applications that needs the most work this fall.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

6

<p>UIUC: High match
GA Tech: High match
UMBC: Safety
UMD: Match</p>

<p>But there are schools that emphasize the SAT/ACT more than others because some schools believe grade inflation is so rampant in high school that GPA becomes of little utility. Hence these schools welcoming splitters (i.e. low GPA/high SAT students) once a certain minimum is met. Therefore, if you can afford going to Missouri, UMO is your absolute safety (the safety line at UMO is 1100+ CR+M or 24+ on the ACT).</p>