Chance southern belle for engineering schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Schools: UVA, UGA, GA Tech, UPenn, Columbia, UChicago, Vanderbilt, Lehigh, UT-Knoxville, UNC-Chapel Hill, and WashU.</p>

<p>Intended major: Biomedical engineering (Chemistry @ UChicago)</p>

<p>From WV, 16 y/o senior (skipped a grade + started early), caucasian, both parents went to UVA, as well as grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents.</p>

<p>STATS
GPA u/w: 3.9
GPA w: 4.7
Class rank: 2/260</p>

<p>AP-Sophomore year
Bio-5, World-4, Stats-4, Human Geo-5
Junior year (predicting)
Chem- 5, USH- 5, Macroecon- 5, Microecon-4, Eng. Language-3 </p>

<p>SAT I's (retook in June, waiting for results)
M-700, CR-760, W-760 = 2240</p>

<p>SAT II's
Bio-800, Chem- 790, USH- 780, Math II-790</p>

<p>PSAT- 221
-will be National Merit Scholar for sure (WV's cutoff is about 204)</p>

<p>E/C
-danced for 9 years, numerous dance awards and scholarships (NCSA, ABT, SAB, etc)
- dance/community theatre 30+ hrs/week- leading roles, usually youngest in productions
-voice lessons
-200 hrs of community service at local hospital
-Pres of Young Dems, and Recycling Club
-Secretary of Beta Club
-involved with youth group and missionary work
-numerous academic awards for excellence in chemistry and math</p>

<p>-that's about it. i know my ecs pale in comparison to those of other kids, but i really did pursue what i was passionate about (dance/theatre) and didnt bother to try and boost my resume. colleges say they want to see passion in one or two areas, so i hope that doesnt come back to haunt me.</p>

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<p>You’re a girl with great stats applying to engineering school. You’ll do great.</p>

<p>BTW you know that UNC doesn’t have engineering, right?</p>

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<p>I think you’d have a shot (good enough to apply) at some of the very top schools. Have you considered schools like Princeton, Stanford, and MIT?</p>

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<p>Yes, I am aware that UNC doesn’t have engineering, but they do have a BME concentration in the applied science department. I am about 90% that I want to major in engineering, but maybe 10% uncertain, or thinking double majoring in chemistry and neuroscience/cognitive science. Most of the schools on here have engineering, but I fell in love with UChicago and UNC typically gives good aid to kids from my high school, so I plan to apply to those schools as well. </p>

<p>I’ve thought about applying to higher caliber schools, ie HYP, MIT, CalTech, etc. But, I honestly don’t want the HYP atmosphere, and I feel that MIT and CalTech would be too oppressively competitive. I worked my ass off in high school, and I know I want to go on to med school, so for undergrad I would like to go to a good school, however one where I would be able to have fun and enjoy college as well. </p>

<p>*Forgot to put this in original post, but I will be attending a highly competitive paid summer internship at a major cancer research hospital (Roswell Park).</p>

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<p>You’ll easily get into Georgia Tech and have a good shot at the PSP full scholarship. It’s the #2 biomed school (joint program with Emory Medical) and higher ranked for engineering than any of the other schools listed. </p>

<p>You might want to add Hopkins and take off UGA (not a real engineering program and you’ll be at a major disadvantage looking for grad school / a job coming out of the weaker school in the state).</p>

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<p>I visited JHU and really didn’t like it. UGA is probably my weakest choice on this list, I might drop it. I’m also considering CMU and Pitt, but I am reserving judgment on those until I visit them in a few weeks.</p>

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<p>What about Stanford and Rice? Those don’t have much of the HYP atmosphere, and will obviously be difficult and competitive (as will pre-med and engineering at many top places), but probably not to the point of Caltech and MIT. </p>

<p>And I don’t want to be much of a downer, but engineering will be hard pretty much no matter where you go. It may not be the best decision to engineer, because you will have to fulfill the pre-med requirements at the same time as general requirements and engineering requirements. At the same time, you will really have to concentrate on getting a high GPA. Of course I don’t know exactly what it is like to be a pre-med engineer, so maybe ask in the engineering forum what it is like, if you haven’t already. </p>

<p>And another consideration is money. You seem to be well off, is that correct?</p>

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<p>JW is 204 national merit commended scholar, semifinalist, or finalist in WV?</p>

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<p>I’m still on the fence about Stanford, Rice, and Duke…They all are supposed to have good engineering (Duke in particular in BME), but I don’t know…still undecided. </p>

<p>And yes, I know that engineering and pre-med will be difficult anywhere, but I feel like the atmosphere at least, if not the actual work load, will be more bearable in an environment like UVA, as opposed to MIT. I don’t mind a competitive atmosphere, but I would like to avoid the cutthroat competitiveness that exemplifies many pre-med fields at top schools. I would like to feel like I would be able to help out fellow classmates, and receive help, without being worried about “helping the competition” or such.</p>

<p>Yes, I am fairly well off. My parents make a little over 200k, so I am not expecting much (if any) financial aid. That is one of the reason I’m looking at schools that are less competitive but offer merit aid. Things have also been rocky with my parents in the past, so I am not sure if I can count on them to pay for college.</p>

<p>Typically 200-205 is the cutoff for semifinalist, and 210-215 is the cutoff for finalist <em>I think</em>. That’s what my counselor told me at least. West Virginia is not particularly known for its outstanding academic achievements…case in point WVU.</p>

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<p>^Of Rice, Duke, and Stanford, I’m inclined to say that Rice will be the most collaberative. They also give out merit aid (I think about half the tuition). I was on the fence about Rice as well, and almost didn’t apply, but I’m glad I did. It really became clear the more I looked into it that Rice offered the best undergrad atmosphere, IMO, of any of the schools I was looking at.</p>

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<p>10char bump</p>

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<p>oh, also considering USC since they have good engineering (minus the whole ranking scandal) and give automatic 1/2 tuition to NMS.</p>

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<p>Rice woooo!</p>

<p>But yeah, Rice does seem like a good fit for what you want as far as atmosphere goes, and we’re no slouch in the BME area. Some pretty cool nanotechnology work goes on there, and when I visited for Owl Days, there was an exhibition of a lot of student projects going on, most of em about nanotubes and other things with really long names.</p>

<p>As for the other schools, you’ve got a good shot, and a good set of schools. I’ve heard lots of great things about GaTech.</p>

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<p>I feel like I would really like Rice, but I am not going to get a chance to visit.I have to go by their website and other people’s opinions, which makes me nervous.</p>

<p>I plan to go on to med school and do something in genetics or neurology. I feel like I would have a good shot at getting into med school from any of these schools, and that BME would be an excellent foundation. However, I think it will come down to what kind of scholarships I get, because I don’t want to graduate from med school with 300k in debt.</p>

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<p>any other opinions?</p>

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<p>***SAT scores changed
CR-800
M-740
W-760</p>

<p>~ 1540/2300</p>

<p>I am not going to retake, but i feel that 740 is low for engineering. Do you think I could I make up for it by pwning the Math II subject test?</p>

<p>Also, I’ve somewhat changed my college list. It now reads:
UVA, GA Tech, UPenn, Columbia, Vanderbilt, Lehigh, UT-Knoxville, UNC-Chapel Hill, WashU, Rice and USC.</p>

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<p>oh just to clarify, by “pwning the Math II Subject test” I mean getting an 800. I have a 790, but Im thinking of retaking because I got 800s on my practice tests…</p>

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<p>@katya. I don’t think 10 points is worth it. They aren’t going to deny you over 10 points. Chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/735611-chances-getting-into-these-school.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/735611-chances-getting-into-these-school.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>You probably will get into all these schools as they’re all good matches… like others have said I would look into some reach schools; why not apply to some Ivies or Stanford. UVA seems like a safety for you.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/735819-i-cant-believe-im-actually-doing-but.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/735819-i-cant-believe-im-actually-doing-but.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Excellent stats so you’re probably in at most of these schools. Penn and Columbia are low reaches. You should add some more schools like that to your list…aim higher!</p>