Chance me for UMN College of Science of Engineering?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Minnesota
1

Introduction:
Senior with fairly good test scores, fairly poor ECs, decent GPA which should stay stable senior year.

Demographics:
Male, Caucasian, live in Oregon, have French + US citizenship

Intended Major:
Chemical Engineering, alternatively Computer Science

Test Scores
-ACT: Took once, got 35 Composite (36 Science, 36 Reading, 35 English, 32 Math, 20 Writing). Could retake and possibly get a 36, if that makes a big difference.
-SAT: Will take Chemistry, Math 2, and French SAT subject tests, likely 800 in French, not sure about math and chem.

UW/W GPA:
3.828 Unweighted (All classes on 4.0 scale)
4.280 Weighted (IB classes on 5.0 scale, other classes on 4.0 scale)

Class rank:
90th percentile or so by weighted GPA
75th percentile or so by unweighted GPA
(Fairly competitive school, lots of students going to Ivy Leagues etc.)

Coursework:
Taking full IB (7 IB classes senior year, 7 IB classes junior year, 5 IB classes sophomore year) I got a 6 in IB Chem SL and a 7 in IB Math SL. The rest are tests I’m taking May 2017

Extracurriculars:

  • Was part of my school’s engineering / innovation competition in Sophomore year, our team won.
  • Did FTC robotics sophomore year, our team did OK, not great.
  • Volunteered a bit (maybe 35 hrs total) throughout HS at a technology nonprofit working with computer hardware
  • Interned at an accounting/law firm doing IT, clerical and evidence analysis work.

Awards:
National Merit Commended Scholar

Other Info:
Dad went to UMN for Law School, not sure if Legacy has an impact for admission/aid.

Questions:
What are my chances for merit scholarships?
Does admission to a certain major mean I get to decide between any major in that college come Fall 2017?
Should I apply with the Priority Application, or wait for the RD deadline when I will have my SAT subject test scores?
Is there any difference in EA and RD as far as merit aid is concerned?

2

UMN admits to colleges rather than majors. To declare a major within CSE you’d need to make sure you satisfy the particular GPA requirements and prerequisite courses. Some majors may limit the numbers admitted - not sure. Best to check with CSE on that. But in general, yes, you don’t have to worry about declaring a major right away and can change your mind on what you want to study once you’ve had some college experience (many do this).

You should definitely apply by the Nov. 1st priority deadline if you want to be considered for merit aid.

Regarding admission, it’s driven by stats and coursework more than EC’s or legacy. Your ACT is obviously fine for CSE. Your uw GPA also seems fine; however, your uw class rank is a tad low. Nonetheless, CSE is most likely a match given your stats overall and your coursework. Someone on this thread last year got into CSE with the same ACT score but lower class rank so you should be fine. Subject tests not required, though if you submit them they will be considered as secondary admission factors. Don’t wait on these before applying!

Here are the latest admission stats by college:

https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/academics/profile.html

The most common types of merit aid include both university-wide scholarships and college-specific scholarships. For university-wide, the biggest scholarships for OOS historically have been the Gold National (covering 100% of the OOS portion) and National Excellence (covering 50%). However, this year these scholarships are just listed as “Amount Varies” so not sure what’s going on there - could have something to do wth the recently-approved OOS tuition increases, which are markedly more significant than they used to be. Perhaps the scholarships no longer cover as much of the OOS difference as they used to.

Here is the link to scholarship information:

https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/costsaid/scholarships.html

Good luck!