<p>I was wondering if anyone had an idea if I had a decent chance at cmu. I'm interested in engineering (environmental or mechanical), but I may just apply to the arts&sci because I'm not positive. Can students take courses from the institute of technology if they attend the arts&sci school? anyways..</p>
<p>white male from maine,
sats- 1330/1600, 1930/2400 (710m, 620r, 600w) (taking again in jan.)
sat IIs- 730 math I, 630 chem
gpa~ 3.9 (unweighted), 3.9+ this semester with all hard classes, and took all challenging courses except history in jr and soph yrs. classes like ap chem and ap physics arent offered, but i took honors.
rank~ 6/200, 3%
ap tests- 3 lang&comp, taking ap cacl, ap gov, and ap lit this year.</p>
<p>ec's-
varsity tennis 4 yrs
varsity soccer 2 yrs (jv 2yrs)
skiing 4 yrs
science olympiad 4 yrs (and state awards each year)
did a week long camp last spring studying the local marine ecosystem at Bigelow Labs
some volunteering as a swimmer's aid</p>
<p>would apply regular decision
any thoughts?</p>
<p>Your SATs are low for CMUs curves. The white male status won't help anything, but CMU isn't too bad about that when it comes to admissions. </p>
<p>Your GPA, APs, and ECs are nothing spectacular when it comes to the applicant pool you'll be fighting against. Your rank is good though.</p>
<p>Do you have a chance statistically? A small one, I'd say 20-30% depending on which school you apply to, how good your recs are, and how well you can write your essay about what you want to study. (you HAVE to show passion in the field you want to go into)</p>
<p>That could be hard for two reasons. One, you don't seem to be decided on that, and two, you still need to do a good deal of research about CMU. CMU doesn't offer any sort of 'undecided' program unless you count going into a liberal arts major in HSS. You must choose specific college(s) and/or program(s) to apply to on their application.</p>
<p>Moreover, there is no 'school of arts&sciences' (aka a general school) at CMU.</p>
<p>The undergraduate colleges are:
MCS - Mellon College of Science
CIT - Carnegie Institute of Technology (Engineering)
SCS - School of Computer Science
Tepper - Business
HSS - Humanities & Social Sciences
CFA - College of Fine Arts</p>
<p>Here you go: Programs</a> & Majors</p>
<p>I'd then navigate from that page into the section 'For High School Seniors' and start researching if CMU is what you're really looking for. It's a great school, but it requires you to have more of a firm idea about what you want to study instead of being general for two years and then choosing a major. You start working in your degree program the second you walk through the proverbial doors and an internal transfer can be akin to applying all over again.</p>
<p>Yeah, I had just gotten done reading all about their majors/downloading their supplement, so thanks. The reason I'm hesistant on declaing a major is because what I really want to do is alternative energy engineering, but that's not an available major at any college. The closest majors are environmental engineering and mechanical engineering, so I'll tell CIT mechanical, but I'll be sure to explain my ambitions in my essay.<br>
I know my stats make me look a bit boring, any advice how to compensate for this? Thanks!</p>
<p>Write an awesome essay that shows passion for why you want to go into those engineering fields. Don't outright bring up your not-stellar (though not at all bad) scores to try and defend them, just ignore them. (Bringing them up only brings more attention to them) Focus more on why you think you could be a valuable asset to the MechE or EnvE class of 2013, and more importantly later the world.</p>
<p>Also, make sure your recs are stellar.</p>
<p>They look OK to me. But I'm not doing the evaluation. Our son did one major inorder to get to another major. </p>
<p>Show your personality.
and Chill.</p>
<p>ok...
and do you think taking the sats a third time or taking the acts in january would be the most productive?</p>