Better safeties for a HYPMS candidate?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Berkeley and Cornell, at least, admit by division.</p>

<p>For Berkeley, when UC Statfinder was still up, one could see that applicants to Berkeley had a good, but not certain, chance of admission at different thresholds based on which intended major:

  • majors in the College of Letters and Science: 4.2 UC GPA and 1800+ SAT, or 4.0 UC GPA and 2100+ SAT
  • majors in the College of Engineering: 4.2 UC GPA and 2100+ SAT
  • no, I don’t remember what it was for majors in the College of Chemistry
    However, the last data shown before it was taken down was for the 2008-2009 year.</p>
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<p>Where do you live? Depending on the answer, your in-state flagship may be your best bet.</p>

<p>Are you male or female? </p>

<p>I agree with others that many of your matches are actually reaches, especially if you are applying in the regular round. If you are white or Asian and have two US born college educated parents and those mulitple higher leadership positions are at your school, you need to add some real matches to your list. </p>

23

<p>

when you have a GPA of 4.0, what SAT scores would you need to increase your chances of getting into Berkeley engineering then?</p>

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<p>I agree that some of the schools on the OP’s “match” list would better be regarded as “reaches” and with the more general view that schools with under 20% admission rates should not be considered to have probable or even 50-50 admission chances for any applicant, regardless of credentials.</p>

<p>Returning to the OP’s original query, I suggest looking at Villanova.
– Chem E program of good size (49 B.S. awarded last year)
– Middle size (7K UG’s)
– Moderate climate (although not “warm”)
– Suburban with access to a big city
– Competitive but less selective admissions</p>

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<p>I agree that we need to know what state you are from–that will affect whether some of your matches are really reaches or matches.</p>

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<p>I’ll try to post a bit more information about my situation.</p>

<p>-I am an Indian male from New Jersey, and both my parents are college educated but not born here.
-Though I intend to major in chemical engineering, I would like to keep my options open and preferably go to a college that has a liberal arts side to it as well.
-My leadership positions consist of two at my school, and two outside of school.
-By the time I apply, I will have gone through three unpaid, no-cost internships at research facilities.
-I have a legacy at Northwestern and double legacy at Michigan.</p>

<p>Thanks again for all the replies.</p>

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<p>What about Rutgers, then?</p>

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</p>

<p>Back then (2008-2009), Berkeley engineering was a reach (but not impossible to be admitted to) for those with 4.0 UC-weighted GPA even with the highest range of SAT scores, but a match for those with 4.2 UC-weighted GPA with the highest range of SAT scores. However, Berkeley engineering also admits by major, and UC Statfinder did not go down to that level of resolution (it listed by intended major of “engineering”).</p>

<p>UC-weighted GPA tends to be about 0.3 to 0.4 higher than unweighted 10th-11th grade GPA in academic courses for students who take lots of honors and AP courses.</p>

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<p>Rutgers is often thought to be an admission safety for NJ residents aiming for super-selective schools, and has been reported to give full ride merit scholarships for NJ residents, but its engineering division appears to be significantly more selective than other divisions: <a href=“http://admissions.rutgers.edu/academics/admissionsprofile.aspx”>http://admissions.rutgers.edu/academics/admissionsprofile.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Definitely check out UDel for chemical engineering. They are a good all-around school, but the chemical engineering department is topnotch (due to its longtime relationship with duPont), and I believe they make some sizable merit scholarships to tippy-top students. You can apply early and have that one under your belt as you wait on the more selective schools too.</p>

<p>This thread might shed some light: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-delaware/1482534-what-is-the-real-story-about-u-del-chemical-engineering.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-delaware/1482534-what-is-the-real-story-about-u-del-chemical-engineering.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Delaware has a Du Pont scholarship that is a full ride.
<a href=“Undergraduate Admissions | University of Delaware”>Undergraduate Admissions | University of Delaware;

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<p>“But then, the same may well be true for Rice, WashU, Northwestern, or Cornell. If you have those numbers, please share.”</p>

<p>Here’s what I can offer, FWIW, knock yourselves out.</p>

<p>Here is Cornell’s most recently posted freshman entrance stats by college, <a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000003.pdf”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000003.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000176.pdf”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000176.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000177.pdf”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000177.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Regarding Berkeley, I saved these old links, maybe they are relevant, and then again maybe not.:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/795249-berkeley-engineering-admissions-vs-berkeley-l-s-admissions.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/795249-berkeley-engineering-admissions-vs-berkeley-l-s-admissions.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/committees/aepe/hout_report.pdf”>http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/committees/aepe/hout_report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>For Northwestern I saved the following as “2007 Numbers”, I can’t vouch for their source anymore since I don’t remember::
arts 1436, engineering 1427, education 1427, journalism 1403, music 1359, Communictions 1398, weighted average 1423.</p>

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<p>I’ve heard Berkeley’s EECS and Undeclared - Engineering are the most difficult for admittance. I’m not sure how Chemical Engineering admissions stats compare, but chemical engineering has become more popular these days with the crossover of biology and medicine. Most departments, including Berkeley’s, have been renamed to Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to reflect this fact.</p>

<p>As Alexandre correctly mentioned, Berkeley’s chemical engineering program resides in the smaller College of Chemistry. This setup is unique compared to other universities which typically have their chemical engineering departments as part of their Colleges of Engineering.</p>

<p>OP, these are the schools I would apply:
MIT
Stanford
Princeton
Caltech
UC Berkeley
Cornell
Northwestern
Rice
Michigan
Minnesota or Wisconsin
Rutgers</p>

<p>Berkeley could be dropped since you’re OOS - unless you want a west coast school with a great Chem E program that’s easier to get into than the other reaches). If you apply to Berkeley, may as well check off UCSB (great ChemE program) and UCLA since it’s the same application - just additional application fee.</p>