Chances for Pratt?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>I am a white male from Billings, MT.
What are my chances for Pratt (probably ECE)</p>

<p>G.P.A.- 3.7 UW***(ouch!)
Class Rank- Top 15% (ouch!)</p>

<p>ACT
Composite: 34
Reading: 34
Math: 33
Language: 34
Science: 33
Writing Subscore: 09
Combined English/Writing: 32</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
Math I: 730
Math II:740
Physics: 650 (ouch!)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities
Freshman: School Musical, Youth Group
Sophomore: Academic Team, Youth Group
Junior: Academic Team, Debate, youth group
Senior: Academic Team, Debate, Intramural Tennis, Academic WorldQuest Team, national honors society, youth group</p>

<p>Community Service
100+ hours for National Honors Society/Youth Group
yardwork/caring for elderly
care packages for needy
clothing giveaway
food bank
family service center
community cleanup
etc.</p>

<p>Distinctions:
MCTM math contest regional and state superior award (4-time)
presidential award for academic excellence (4 time)
lettered in debate and academics
placed in top 8 of every debate tournament of entire career
one of the leaders of the best academic team in montana (multiple school, regional, state, and national competitions, successful in most of them)
best newcomer-debate 2007-08</p>

<p>5 years of work experience for Yellowstone Polaris & Recreation, Inc.</p>

<p>Hooks: Geographical Location, rigor?</p>

<p>***I started high school with a 2.7 due to an administrative confusion causing classes i took at the high school in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (math and science) to count on my high school transcript, and they are refusing to take it off
(i tried to explain this scenario in my app)
I finished all of high school math in my sophomore year, then earned a few credits in college</p>

<p>Essays: solid
Letters of Rec: Solid
Most rigorous courseload available for my school
school size:1550
puts very few into elite schools</p>

<p>i am hoping they will overlook my less than stellar gpa/ec's!
what do you guys think?</p>

2

<p>you should get in - slight reach. billings helps.</p>

3

<p>That’s what I’m hoping for!
Duke is quickly becoming my top choice.</p>

4

<p>bump…</p>

5

<p>sorry i feel really dumb what’s so special about billings?</p>

6

<p>It looks good to me, and you’re above Duke’s average for SAT scores, so I don’t know why you’d type “ouch” beside that 650. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>billings is special because the entire state of montana and the region it is in are underrepresented in top universities</p>

<p>and top universities love diversity of all kinds.</p>

8

<p>Hmm, Pratt is very selective though, I have to say. But I have met several ppl here who applied to Trinity and then took Pratt classes in the first semester here. Most of them are transferring to Pratt next year. I would say that if you are not very confident with your stats, try applying to Trinity because they have lower cutoffs than Pratt and it would be much easier for you to get in. Once you are in the school, then you can decide where to go from there. In fact, it is easier for students to transfer to Pratt from Trinity than the other way around. I don’t know if it is too late, but see what you can do. Hope that helps.</p>

9

<p>I find your post very interesting. My son is a junior in Pratt and he has mentioned that quite a few of his classmates over the years have transfered out of Pratt because of the rigorous courseload into Trinity and not the other way around. I was under the assumption that it was harder to get into Trinity because the volume of applicants was greater. I think the OP has a great chance at Pratt. Be careful because if you are truly interested in engineering than you don’t want to mess your course load up by going to Trinity and being behind in the engineering requirements. My son had lower stats than you have and he made it into Pratt and is doing awesome. Good luck!</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>I am a junior in Pratt right now and could not agree more with BlessedMom. If I had to guess, I would say the ratio between transferring out to into Pratt is at least 10 to 1 and possibly approaching 20 to 1. The reason that BlessedMom explained is definitely true in that a lot of people find the Pratt courses to be very rigorous and choose a different major within Trinity instead; however, I believe the main reason there are more applicants going out is the necessary graduation requirements for Pratt. Unlike Trinity majors who are able to delay a semester or even a year sometimes in deciding a major, Pratt students are basically locked in very quickly (EGR53 needs to be taken the first year or it makes it extremely difficult to catch up)</p>

<p>That being said I would apply to Pratt. The only thing that I see that will hurt is the GPA/rank, but I think you have a fair to good chance if you show you want to do engineering and distinguish yourself in your app.</p>

11

<p>Pratt has a higher acceptance rate, but it is more self-selective than Trinity, meaning the average Pratt applicant has a bit better, but not much better, stats</p>