Chances at Engineering programs (CalPoly SLO, UW-Seattle, UMich, Georgia Tech, VA Tech, etc)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

What do you think our student’s chances are of getting accepted to the following Engineering/Mechanical Engineering Programs (he will apply early to as many as he can):

CalPoly SLO
VA Tech
Georgia Tech
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Colorado School of Mines
MIT - not looking to get odds of admission as it is a “pick a name out of a hat” chance
Stanford - not looking to get odds of admission as it is a “pick a name out of a hat” chance

About student:

White, upper-middle class male
Location: Washington State
GPA: 3.97 UW (school doesn’t weight GPAs for any classes)
ACT: 35 superscore, but 34 and 33 separate composites (36 Reading, 36 English, 35 Math, and 33 Science are best subscores)
SAT: will take in fall for National Merit competition if named as a semifinalist (highly likely)
Completing full IB diploma at competitive school, which means no AP courses
IB Courses: Spanish HL, Chem SL, Math SL, Physics HL, English HL, History HL (will have all IB courses junior and senior year in addition to all available Honors courses freshman and sophomore year)
Took Spanish SL and Chemistry SL IB exams this spring (wasn’t sure which one he wanted to continue with and do HL so he took both): Spanish: 7/7, Chemistry: 5/7
SAT 2: Math 2: 750, Chem and Physics not so great (won’t submit them to schools unless he needs to - they were both in the upper 600s)
School does not rank students

Extra-curriculars:
XC all four years, three on varsity, one as captain; qualified for Junior Olympic Nationals in a competitive region as a freshman and sophomore
Track and field two years
Soccer one year
Founding member and elected president of Automotive Club - they put on a car show at the school each year and have built their own gas-powered go-kart from scratch (literally out in our garage using angle grinders to cut the steel beams and then welding in our neighbor’s garage for a few weeks) in addition to weekly meetings
Boy Scouts - will earn Eagle Scout rank this fall, served as SPL, ASPL, Chaplain’s Aide, and more
Community Service: Several hundred hours throughout high school - through Boy Scouts doing lots of trail work, but also volunteered for several years on Saturdays with a group that fixes cars for people that can’t afford a traditional garage and volunteered as a summer camp counselor at a residential summer camp working with kids from ages 6-15
Several 50-mile backpacking trips, including Philmont Scout Ranch and one 80+ mile canoeing adventure
Refurbished his own car, including full removal and reinstall of a new front end (bumper, impact absorber, subframe), the full removal and rebuilding of the headlights and their motors (pop-up headlights), a compete engine overhaul and rebuilding, and clutch replacement
Works full-time in the summer (and will probably do part-time in the school year) as a handyman’s apprentice (60 hours per week)

Essays are still in the works.

2

Wisconsin should be a match to low match. UMich does not superscore why most school do not superscore ACT anyway. Their CoE should be a low reach to reach for you with a chance slightly higher than average OOS applicants.

3

Can you (the parent) afford all of these schools?

Re: Wisconsin

Beware that Wisconsin requires ME students to earn a 3.2 technical and 3.0 overall college GPA to remain in the major: https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/ .

4

^ Agree with @ucbalumnus, Cal Poly SLO is $40K per year.

Your son will not receive any financial aid nor scholarships to attend a public university in California because he is OOS. Engineering is impacted and priority admission goes to California residents.

5

Thank you for the replies!

@ucbalumnus - Yes, we can afford all the schools and have told our son that he may apply anywhere (he loved Stanford, but balked at the cost of attendance and we reassured him we have been saving his whole life so he can go anywhere he would like). It would sure be nice if he got some merit aid somewhere ( for example, at CO School of Mines he automatically qualifies for their highest level of aid with his scores and GPA which would bring his cost down to in state).

@billcsho - isn’t UMich strange in that they say they don’t superscore, yet in the same paragraph, they also say that they are able to look at a student’s subscores and see that you might have a higher subscore on one test in an area and it might not be the test that had the highest composite? They even give the example that you scored a perfect math score on one test, but another test you scored a higher composite and that they can “use test results to make a student as competitive as possible.” So it seems they don’t “technically” superscore, but they do “give credit” for subscores on tests that might not have been your best.

As for the other schools (not including MIT and Stanford),

Georgia Tech - superscores the ACT
CalPoly SLO - superscores the ACT
Colorado School of Mines - no superscore on ACT or SAT
VA Tech - superscores ACT and will even combine ACT and SAT scores to get you the best possible outcome
University of Illinois UC - doesn’t superscore ACT or SAT, but does the same as UMich in which they look at your best subscores on any test date to give you the best shot at being competitive
University of Wisconsin, Madison - same as UIUC and UMich - no superscore on any test, but will look at individual subscores from all test dates to get a holistic view of student’s achievement

6

My son (class of 2017) did not get in early to Ga Tech and had a superstore of 35 on ACT. He just received his IB diploma and has medical research, tons of service hours, patient triaging at a medical clinic, French scholar, AP scholar, et al. We were surprised! His brother is applying early this year (class of 2018) but we are not hopeful. Brother may be NMF so we are wondering if that will help him gain admission. Brother is also an IB student, with a 1460/SI217 on PSAT and 1410 on SAT. We are OOS. Thoughts?

7

I’m interested to hear thoughts on those stats as well, @amyandscott .

I guess it just depends year to year. I think OOS, it is a reach for just about everyone, though, unless you have some national awards in math and/or science. Only 21% of OOS students were admitted early last year (as opposed to 49% in state).

8

@RoonilWazlib99 For CoE, they would look for the highest Math section score and single seat ACT composite.

9

@billcsho - Thanks! That would be a 35 Math and a 34 composite for him, then! Best math and best composite were same sitting.

10

I think Umich would be a good match school, but Umich is ranked up there enough that even a number of applicants with great applications get rejected (so like you said for MIT and Stanford, a bit of “pick a name out of a hat”, but definitely not as extreme as those schools). Umich OOS tuition is very high, and while there is a good chance of getting admission, don’t expect much financial aid offers (especially scholarships and grants) from Umich for a OOS student.

11

I agree that merit scholarship at UMich CoE is not likely due to the number of strong applicants. My D2 with similar stat from instate applying to LSA is not expecting any either. So that has little to do with state residency. Nevertheless, significant amount of grant for OOS is possible as they are now meeting the need of OOS students with family income below $90k. One should really check the NPC.
By the way, match school is not just defined by the GPA and test scores, it actually consider more the admission rate. With chance below 30%, it is still a reach. The average OOS admission rate is near 20%.

12

Most if not all the schools will require recommend two subject tests, math level 2 and a science typically. So you should retake math 2 and your best science and submit. You may not need to if you submit ACT instead of SAT but check that out. You’re a very good applicant but you need a couple more safeties on the list, you have two super reaches, standard reaches if you will (UM, GT) and the rest would be matches.

13

By “meeting the need of OOS students”, loans count too. I was in state and they were unwilling to give me anything throughout my time here, even though I far exceeded their GPA standard for merit (and I’m talking about scholarships and grants for currently enrolled students, based on their Umich performance). As a public university, Umich has no obligation to financially support OOS students.

14

@umcoe16 Of course loan is part of the need based aids. As there is a limit on the loan amount, they will have to give grant money if there is still a need to meet (for all instate and eligible OOS students). UMich has pledged to reduce loan by offering more grant money which is typically near half of the FA package. For the departmental scholarships for sophomore and higher, demonstration of need is part of the requirement. It sounds like you have a high EFC. Also, most of the departmental scholarship is not automatic for above a certain GPA cut off although required. My D just have the opposite experience. Her financial aid package by NFC was around 50% grant and the other 50% loans and work study. She got the Engineering scholarship of honor that offset most of the loan and workstudy each year. Then she got additional departmental scholarship from sophomore year on and she is a senior this year that the amount is bigger. One semester she received one additional scholarship without any application that even offset the EFC by a few hundreds. There are very few public universities as generous as UMich in terms of need based aids due to the large amount of endowment designated for that purpose.

15

For Cal Poly, does he have the 2 semester Visual Performing Arts requirement? Apparently that trips up some out of state students. MechE is one of the most competitive majors there, but his stats look like he’d have a good shot.

16

@youcee - He does have the 2 semesters (orchestra). And thank goodness they were in the same field. I have heard that some kids get tripped up because they take something like Drawing 1, but don’t follow it up with Drawing 2, finishing out the sequence. Instead, they take Drawing 1 and then say, Ceramics 1, but I have heard that the California state schools want you to take your arts credit and finish out a sequence.

We are all good with the cost of colleges and can afford to send him wherever he ends up liking the best, but I do thank you for bringing it up that even if a student hits the cutoffs for merit aid, that doesn’t mean they necessarily will get it. That is good information to have so we are prepared not to expect anything at our OOS schools.

We might have him just apply to Washington State as he is an auto admit there, just to be safe.

He is not going to like the idea of taking even more standardized tests as he will have the SAT to sit for with NMSF status likely. He signed up for the October sitting so we can cancel it if he doesn’t get NMSF, but we’re hoping his 223 SI holds up to the anticipated higher cutoffs this year.

17

now we wait I guess.