I am an out-of-state student applying to Purdue with a 3.87UW GPA. I have an SAT score of 1400. AP Classes: World History, Statistics, U.S. History, Calculus AB, Physics C, American and Comparative Gov, and Physics 2. EC: Math Club and school Robotics team for 1 year each and around 100 hours of community service. My essays are decent: not too good and not too bad. Should this be enough to get a direct admit to Purdue CS? Where am I lacking?
Here is a link to the Purdue Data Digest, here, https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/, under the link for “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations”. It is interactive, so you can input the parameters that most apply to you (for example, you would be “Non-Resident” under the “Residency” tab). Based on your input, the Data Digest will generate information and create some graphs/charts from which you may be able to make an estimate of your chances for admission. Also, there should be a table at the bottom which gives the admission rates (and yield) for students matriculating in the Fall semesters of the past 10 years; you will see that the acceptance rates have been broadly trending down for College of Science applicants since 2009. Further, Purdue underestimated its overall yield last year, and had about 500 more admits than it planned for; so there is some speculation that there may be fewer admits for this coming admissions cycle to compensate for that.
You can also look at Purdue’s Common Data Set, here, https://www.purdue.edu/oirae/resources.html. Part C7 tells you what admissions factors Purdue considers to be “very important,” “important,” “considered,” and “not considered”; Part C9 of the CDS gives the median 50% for both SAT and ACT scores, as well as the percentage of the entering first-year class falling within certain ranges of SAT and ACT scores. As you can see from the CDS, Purdue views standardized test scores, GPA, and high school course rigor as “very important” admissions factors, and ECs, personal qualities, LORs, and application essay(s) as “important” admissions factors.
I don’t know whether your high school has Naviance or any similar program that gives information about how students at your high school have done in applying to colleges and universities; if so, you might peruse that data for applicants to Purdue from your school. If you are a senior, I would also try to meet with a guidance counselor at your school – and sooner rather than later – this semester to discuss application strategies for Purdue; if any former students from your school have been admitted to Purdue recently, the guidance counselor may be able to give some insight into how and why such student(s) were successful.
Based on the information that you have provided, in my opinion you are a little weak in your ECs; there’s nothing there that shows longer-term commitment and/or passion, and nothing that shows leadership. Whether this will be an admissions deal-breaker, I don’t know.
The average ACT score last year for Purdue engineering was a 32. Average GPA was a 3.93. Your 1400 SAT converts to a 30. I think you are in the ballpark but it’s not a slam dunk.
I agree with the above comment about your ECs not showing long term commitment.
Purdue also miscalculated yield this past cycle but a good amount so there is speculation that they’ll accept fewer students for this cycle.
Be sure you have safety schools on your list where you know you’ll be happy just in case.