ACT Score Good Enough For Engineering Colleges???

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey CC,

 So I have been applying to a lot of top engineering colleges specifically for CS and I was wondering if my ACT score was too low. The only reason it is so low was because of my reading score. No matter how hard I study I kept getting a 27 on reading. The highest I got on a practice test was a 29 for reading. :(  
 However what I lost in reading I made up for in Math and Science which I am hoping the colleges will put more emphasis on.

ACT:
Composite: 32
English: 31
Math: 35
Reading: 27 (will this affect me because I am going for an engineering major??)
Science: 35
Essay: 8
English w/ Writing: 29

Composite: 31
English: 32
Math: 36
Reading: 27
Science: 28
Essay: 6
English with Writing: 27

Colleges I am applying to:
Carnegie Mellon (College of Engineering)
Cornell
Cal Poly SLO
UCSB
UCI
UCD
UCSD
UCLA (Electrical Engineering)
UCB (Letters and Science CS)
University of Washington(Seattle)
UIUC
Georgia Tech
USC (Dream School but need a scholarship, do I have a shot at getting any merit scholarships from them???)

Already got into Purdue for FYE.

GPA:
UW 9-11 : 3.92
UW 10-11: 3.92
W: 9-11: 4.08
W 10-11: 4.17
UC GPA: 4.17

Is it bad that I only took 3 weighted courses in junior year when my school offers like 20??? They don’t allow any weighted courses in 9th or 10th grade. Currently I am taking 4 weighted and most likely my 1st semester senior year gpa will be UW: 3.8 and W: 4.5. My senior year schedule is AP Physics C (both E/M and Mechanics), AP Calculus BC (the only class I am getting a B in), AP Computer Science A, AP Human Geo, Gov/Econ, English 12A.

2

bump

3

Hey I don’t know anything about engineering, but I did get a 36 on the reading, so hopefully I can give you some helpful advice!

  1. Practice speed reading. One of the biggest challenges on the reading section is the time factor.
  2. Read classic literature. Shakespeare, Homer, Jane Austen… If you can handle Shakespeare you can probably ace the act XD
  3. Give yourself 5 minutes less than you actually have in practice.
  4. Take A LOT of practice tests. Can’t stress this enough.
  5. Mark the questions you weren’t sure of and go back and check them, ideally go over every question.
  6. Your gut is generally right (but not always so make sure your not making stupid mistakes)
    Hope this helps!
4

A 32 ACT with your GPA should be fine for all the schools on your list except CMU, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, Cornell, UIUC, and USC. Your scores in STEM areas are really high though.

5

UIUC CS is particularly competitive. The ACT admission average has been over 34.

6

@shakespeare101

Thanks for the advice but I am a senior now so I really cant take the ACT again. :frowning:
I only posted this to see how badly it would hurt me in my reach schools and whether they would take into account that the reason why my ACT score is so low is because of my reading score. I really don’t know why I can never score so high in reading. I took so many practice tests (38 to be exact) and I could never score higher than a 29 on them. I take the sections in the following order: natural science, social science, prose, humanities. I always run out of time for the humanities section and end up guessing on like 5 of them. I tried every possible strategy I can find on the internet.

7

USC is very competitive for scholarships; they’re about $70K per year.

Because you are not National Merit, I don’t see you getting more than ½ the tuition, if that. They don’t have very good aid packages if you are not an athlete or URM with no assets, or National Merit winner.

8

Your composite score is considerably high, and most engineering schools don’t really look at reading. And your scores are good for most of your colleges. Good luck

9

Bump

10

UW has super competitive admission for CS. There are only 40 spots for high school admits and they prefer in state applicants.