Chance Me for Civil Engineering at Notre Dame, Northwestern, CWRU...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey all, I’m a Hispanic Male from the Midwest. I go to a competitive public school where the average SAT is around 1250 to 1300 and want to study Civil Engineering and maybe minor is Environmental Science or Economics.

STATS:

Hooks: Hispanic, 1st Gen, Low Income (<$30k)

GPA: 3.72/4UW, 4.67/5W w/ decently rigorous schedule (all honors classes+, upward trend 3.4 UW freshman year)

Rank: School does not rank, average UWGPA is around 3.5/4 and there are 500 students in my senior class

AP’s:

Freshman: World History 4
Sophomore: Human Geography 5, Spanish 5
Junior: Language and Composition 4, Physics 3
Senior: Calculus AB, Environmental Science, Macro/Micro Economics

SAT: 1370 Highest, 1380 Superscored (700M, 680RW)

SAT II: No subject tests

Extracurriculars:

  • Mentoring and tutoring underclassmen and middle school students (9, 10, 11, 12), 10 hours a week
  • Business Professionals of America (10, 11)
  • Vice President of Engineering Club (10, 11, 12)
  • After-school Architecture Program (11, 12)
  • Environmental Science/Ecology Club (9, 10, 11, 12)
  • Highly selective summer program (along the lines of MITES, MOSTEC, SAMS, TASP etc...) keeping private for anonymity

Essays:

Common App (8/10): Had many people read it and provide criticism, wrote about major setbacks in my life influencing my dreams of becoming an engineer. Talked a lot about me being from one of the poorest areas in my city and how it has effected my life.

Supplements (7/10): Spoke about my passions, and I did my research for every school I applied to and wrote about why I am interested in their programs. The individuals who read them said they were great essays and were proud of me.

Recommendations:

Computer Science Teacher (6/10): Knows me well, have read some of her writing before and it seems pretty generic.

Precalc Teacher (9/10): Really like me as a student and a person, I went to tutoring and got to know her well. She also wrote my recommendation for my summer program and kept in touch throughout the whole summer.

Mentor from Tutoring Program (10/10): Knows me for my dedication (which is why I was hired), studied communications and English in college and is an amazing writer. Has also seen me develop into the student I am today and knows the situation I come from at home and how I have persevered.

Chance me for:

Notre Dame REA
UIUC EA
Purdue RD
UW Madison RD
CWRU EA
Northeastern EA
Northwestern RD
Lafayette ED2?/RD
Lehigh ED2?/RD

2

I think you have a decent shot at all of these schools. The only problem is northwestern takes a significant portion of their class from the ED round so it is much easier to get in this way especially if you are on the lower end of their SAT range.

3

UIUC and Wisconsin are high reaches because you need a large merit scholarship – their net price calculators give net prices that are probably too high for in-state EFC = $0 students to afford even with federal direct loans and a few thousand dollars of work earnings (and the price will be higher for out-of-state students).

Purdue may be affordable if you are an Indiana resident, according to its net price calculator. Otherwise, it is also a high reach.

Have you run the net price calculator on the web site of each college?

4

There is an offshoot of Civil engineering called Architectural Engineering. You might want to look at the Civil Engineering program at the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department at WPI as it seems to package your interests. When I was a student there many years ago, a structural engineering student took a look at the almost completed civic center which seated 16,000 people and noticed that the architects had designed a dangerous roof, but it met all of the usual guidelines. I still remember the discussion about the need for architects to develop a sounder structural background in a era when aesthetics were garbing the headlines. This student’s observation cost a lot of money to correct as they had to tear apart the recent roof structure to re-design and re-construct.

The average GPA of the last entering class was 3.87, but your upward trend is a very good sign when combined with your “hooks” and geography as this is a largely eastern university. They spend a lot of ink talking about first generation students and their ongoing support efforts with them (see https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/kcchen?page=1. You are admitted to the University and are not restricted to a program or college within the university.

The CE and CEE programs are discussed @ https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/civil-environmental-engineering. The program of study in this university is somewhat unique and is outlined @ https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan

WPI '67