Hi, I was looking for people rate my chances for admissions at top engineering colleges. I plan to major in mechanical engineering and will be graduating high school next spring.
Stats: 4.0 GPA, 36 ACT - without much test prep
Upon graduation I will have 3 semester of full-time classes at a local college with a (hopefully) 4.0 GPA still, along with advanced math (Calculus 2) and science courses.
EC’s: 3 yrs cross country, 4 golf, 4 in speech, 4 in robotics
-Moderate success in speech, but was unable to compete at state due to scheduling. I will also be senior captain this year.
Volunteering: Food shelf, 50 hrs/yr
My main concern is that besides great test scores and great grades in actual college classes, I dont have much for outstanding achievements that the best colleges look for. I come from a very small town (3k) that has very little to offer for academics and opportunities and I haven’t been able to do things like joining organizations, science research or internships. Where i live, high school teachers/counselors are more concerned with getting kids into college at all than getting anyone into top schools.
Anyway, I’d like some opinions on my admissions chances, taking into account my excellent profile (and my essays are quite good) despite a lack of any amazing achievements
Did you take any APs? Your ECs are slightly on the low side, though. Try to enter a few competitions this coming year. If you win a few, it would definitely help. Also, it looks like Robotics should be your main focus EC, as you want to major in engineering. Try to paint a picture of it in your essays (make it look like a bigger deal than it is) and you should be all set. Your stats are amazing, by the way! Hope this helped!
Stanford, MIT and Princeton are a crapshoot no matter what. You might have a chance at Cornell, though. I got accepted there with an essay on my involvement with my high school robotics club. Planning on majoring in comp sci, though, not engineering.
If you’re looking for top mechanical engineering schools, you can also try Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, UM Ann Arbor or UT Austin. I think you’ll have a pretty good chance at those places, too.
@Top10Squad my school does not have AP classes but i took several college-credit classes there, have been taking math classes two years ahead of schedule, and my last 3 semesters will be full-time in college as I stated.
Also, wtf kind of advice is “try to enter a few competitions and win a few?” Like I said, there is nothing around my area to get involved in even if I had the time
@AL I have looked at schools like Berkeley and UM Ann Arbor but with my family’s income being too high for generous aid, I would not be able to afford the out-of-state tuition
@Person314 Relax, I was just trying to help you. It was just advice, and you aren’t required to take it by any means. There are a few competitions that are entirely online, and I suggested that you enter those. And I didn’t tell you to win a few, I said it would be advantageous. As @17scotts said, “no need to be rude here”.
