<p>Ok so I want to be an engineer, but I don't have any like, extra-curriculars that show my interest...I was wondering if it'd be harder to get into the engineering schools than the libarts ones? I am a girl, would that make a difference? Here are the ones I'm applying to...is there any where I can find stats for admittance rates for just the eng school?
-cornell
-vanderbilt
-northwestern
-duke
-harvard
-tufts</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Cornell's admittance rate for women into the College of Engineering was roughly 45% last year, but that's all the help I can give you.</p>
<p>As you can see, this is much higher than the 24% for men, so you have some advantage.</p>
<p>Wow... that's a huge difference.</p>
<p>Most engineering schools have really high admittance rates for girls, as long as they have the grades. However, the schools you listed are an exception and don't let that 45% or other stats fool you. Most females who apply have more than very high GPA's to show in their applications. Those that don't, don't even bother going through all that trouble applying, that's why you see such high rates. My guess is that the majority of the 55% that got rejected from Cornell were probably just as qualified as those that did. Who you know and some luck can be factors into getting in. So hey? You never know, luck might be on your side, apply regardless of stats.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm not going to say that some schools don't give women a nod when they apply, but there's a lot of data out there that girls self-select a lot more than guys do. In talking with my boss about getting more women into engineering, he told me that vastly more of the 4.0 GPA candidates he's seen and hired have been women. He thinks it's because the women are typically just really good at structural engineering, but I really think it might be that women with lower GPAs just don't bother to submit job apps to places like this.</p>
<p>Definitely give it a shot (look at Rice, too!) but I think that if you've got a good reason for pursuing engineering and convey that in your app, and if you've got the coursework (advanced math and science classes) to back up the notion that you can do the work, they'll look at you as being more well-rounded than not-interested-in-engineering. I don't think you'll get <em>that</em> much of a bump for being a woman, though, and certainly don't count on it as a given.</p>
<p>Look at Rose-Hulman they have wonderful success with graduating and retention women in engineering.....around 90%. This is a lot higher than Uof Ill or U of Michigan. My daughter loves it there. PM me if you have questions.</p>
<p>Great retention for Men too.</p>
<p>What kind of extra-curriculars do you have? I didn't have any robotics competitions or things like that on my high school resume, but I did involve myself in things like Math Team, Science Olympiads, and Scholastic Bowl. Do you have any math/science ECs?</p>
<p>No, I didn't do any math or science EC's...I took lots of sciences and advanced math but that's about it.</p>
<p>cadetblue, I live in Boston and Tufts University is highly overrated in terms of its engineering school. It's engineering program is not it's strong point so if you're thinking about applying there, I would look somewhere else such as Rose-Hulman, Harvey Mudd, or Purdue.</p>
<p>Schools that are highly technical such as Rose-Hulman, Harvey Mudd, RPI and Georgia Tech have skewed male/female ratios so they may be looking to recruit more women.</p>
<p>However, the bad thing is that the ratio is unequal. If you are looking for a more balanced campus, consider Illinois, Michigan, Cornell or Purdue where the male/female ratio is about 50/50</p>
<p>Actually, the female-male ratio at Purdue engineering is like 20-80. But the gender ratio at Purdue overall is 50-50.</p>
<p>
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but there's a lot of data out there that girls self-select a lot more than guys do.
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</p>
<p>This is an excellent point. Girls have some barriers to entering male-dominated fields, so those that make it over are naturally a bit better on average, at least in my opinion. Although there are a few schools that outright admit less qualified women (won't name schools but the data is out there), the vast majority do not discriminate.</p>
<p>cadetblue, only one school on that list has a program that I would immediately know as highly visible in engineering. Is there any reason you chose these schools in particular?</p>
<p>Has anyone seen any data on retention of women in engineering schools where a large percentage of instructors are foreign born?</p>