<p>Hi i am Hispanic and my older sister (hispanic as well) wants to go to Yale or Columbia Engineering. She has a 5 on AP calc ab, 780 on math 2, 690 on bio, 2100 on her sat, 3.52 Gpa (88 unweighted). She has been in 7 honors classes and is taking Ap physics C and Ap calc BC this year. I wanted to know if this is enough to get in to Yale or maybe Columbia for biomedical engineering. Can someone please explain if she is better off early decision to one of those schools or applying regular with around a 700-720 on physics instead of 690 Bio because she would be taking that in november after the e.d. date. She also participated in clubs and sports, and worked as an teaching assistant at Kumon Learning center and an Sat prep class. She has good recommendations and 1 is from a professor at Columbia. THANKS!!!!</p>
<p>P.S. as far as the bad gpa goes it went down from a 92 to 88 her junior year because of problems with a highly abusive boyfriend that greatly interfered with her school studies. Since then she bounced back after breaking up with the monster boyfreind after seeking help. Her last two semesters of junior year were straight A's and and improved F's & D's she had first 2 semesters. Is there anyway these schools will understand this and how can she inform them?</p>
<p>BME is a very competitive major these days, so her gpa is going to be a problem. Her SAT is foot-in-the-door range, and it would help to have the section breakdown as schools of this caliber will be looking for a CR score that is at least about 700.</p>
<p>She could have her HS GC address her jr year grades. But a word of caution here, IMO whenever it comes to personal issues that are within your realm of control, one has to be careful, I don’t think it serves your sister to be portrayed as a victim or completely defer blame for her grades to a bf. And it seems she needs to show in very concrete terms what she has done to get/keep herself out of this type of situation.</p>
<p>I’m not seeing anything in your sister’s ECs that scream BME, has she participated in any engineering related clubs, gone to any summer programs, etc.?</p>
<p>Y has SCEA, not ED. It is my personal opinion that she is not a good candidate for SCEA at Y, as the competition is very high, including within the URM cohort. Sure the acceptance rate is higher, but they only accept the most outstanding candidates in the EA round. </p>
<p>What is your family’s financial situation, how much are they willing/able to pay? Do they need to compare FA packages? </p>
<p>The LOR from the C prof can only be used as a supplemental, not one of her main teacher LORs; and it will be what they say about your sister, not their affiliation that counts.</p>
<p>I agree with entomom, still needs a 700+ on the Physics SAT Subject Test and 700+ in each sub-section of the SAT. Also, I do not think Nov is too late for the SAT Subject Test.</p>
<p>she is in 8 clubs and 2 sports(soccer and lacrosse) and she did an engineering or some science/math summer course at columbia i am not sure. That is where she received the recommendation and she was close with that professor who is part of the chemistry department. thanks!!!</p>
<p>No it would not help. Yes they will have the high school profile but I do not believe that will help. URM status simply turns the door knob. You still have to have the grades/scores to push open the door and walk through it. </p>
<p>I do not do chance threads but I do believe her gpa would be on the low side for those schools you mentioned. The students in our area who were accepted by Yale had much higher gpas including the URMs admitted by Yale.</p>