Hi, currently in 11th grade and I have no idea if what I’m doing is rigorous enough for selective schools like engineering at Rutgers, TCNJ, NJIT, Princeton, etc. I KNOW it’s not the amount and the quality in what I do but we all know colleges look for some amount of quantity in rigor
Last year as a sophomore I took APUSH and got a 5 on the exam. Not gonna send my SAT II US Hist score because it was 660. I took 4 Honors classes last year, 5 freshman year and my GPA right now is weighted 4.0422, my school doesn’t do unweighted.
Recently took PSAT, I think it went fairly well. SAT maybe December for the 1st time.
My current schedule:
AP Language and Composition
AP World History
AP French
Physics A (was in Honors but I dropped - won’t show up on transcript) (dropped because of the workload/difficulty/time)
Pre-Calculus Honors w/ Limits
Electives: Intro to Comp Sci (2nd Sem), Criminal Justice, Vietnam War class
Extracurriculars: Two semesters of Model UN Last year with ~5-6 conferences attended including NHSMUN (the biggest one), Model Congress (attended RMC) in Freshman year, Youth organization Social and Rec co-chairperson last year, French Tournament Club Tech Director last year and co-Creative Director this year. Continuing Asian Club and French Honor Society. Applying for NHS, and other honor societies like English, Math, Social Studies and Art Honor Societies and one more leadership position I'm applying for as PR for International Club. Also part of Yearbook Club (photographer), Key Club and I have close to 50 hours cumulative with my Youth community organization. I also wrote a lot of creative writing pieces for a writing club freshman year that were in the club's magazine as well as a few for another writing club last year.
Please give me some feedback on how I could be doing more! I plan on taking an AP science next year and maybe doubling either with AP Calc AB or BC and with AP Stat. I’m aware of how hard BC is, lol.
I want to major in Civil Engineering, please give me some tips on how to be a strong applicant for it. Specifically for schools in the New Jersey and New York area.
You want to try to take the most rigorous math and science courses available at your school. I also wouldn’t worry about AP stats. Think about AP chem.
Just to clarify, you are still taking a physics class, correct?
I took Biology Honors and Chemistry Honors in my freshman and sophomore years. I’ll take note on taking AP Chem and not AP stats, I was thinking the same thing. And yes, I am in the non-honors Physics class at my school. Will one non rigorous science class hurt me in applying to engineering schools? I also have taken all honors math courses.
If you’re applying to Engineering, taking AP physics would help.
For engineering, having physics is really important - not having Physics would have been a problem but as long as you have it you’re ok.
You can take AP physics mechanics if your able to next year. Having regular physics this year is just fine. Take Calc bc next year if your school allows it. My sons school let’s them choose between Calc AB /BC in their junior and he took multivariate Calc as a senior. Each school is different.
Also schools want to see you participate in things for like 2-4 years. It could be just a few things. Having as much as you do will not impress them. Consistency will. Nothing about your resume screams engineering to me. But this program will http://acementorchicago.org/
There is one in your local I am sure. It might be starting like right now and looks great on an application plus it’s fun and you learn about how to work in groups and its right in your field of interest. I would jump on this chance and drop some other things you are doing. This is a one day a week after school program but very worthwhile. Again it might start very soon for this year.
AP Stat is looked at as a weak AP course to most colleges. It’s pretty easy for most kids. If there is nothing left to take then, great. Schools are looking for rigor. For engineering if there are more rigorous classes then take those. A lot of students like taking stats since they like the logic part of it.
When I look at your current schedule, I see academic rigor, but I don’t see a focus on STEM. You are taking 3 AP classes, but they are all in the humanities field. Next year, make sure you emphasize rigor in science and math if you want to be a strong engineering candidate. If you are sure you want to do Civil Engineering, figure out which science AP is most relevant to the college courses you will take and pick that one for your Senior year.
I apologize. I missed that you are aiming for some high reach institutions. I definitely think you will have to address why both your academic transcript and your extracurricular activities have leant so far so heavily towards the humanities and social sciences when you are applying as an engineering major. Your profile right know has nothing that hints to even the slightest interest in math, science, or engineering.
So far, OP noted Rutgers, TCNJ, and NJIT-- so I think what we need is your safeties.
Why engineering with no experience? And with a username Historynerddd? You dropped back to non-honors physics. Right now, that and precalc honors are your only show of engineering related courses. (I’m assuming your hs makes you take bio and chem.) You present as a humanities major. What’s the back story here? Is there family pressure to go stem?
And if your hs doesn’t calculate unweighted for you, you can still calculate it for us. Adcoms will look at the transcript, see the courses, rigor or not, and grades. That matters much more than how your hs weights honors or AP.