Chances of acceptance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering if I have any shot at getting into, and if so around how much (if any) merit aid (for non-ivies obviously) would I be eligible for?</p>

<p>Cornell ED
Princeton
UPenn.</p>

<p>CMU
BU
Northeastern</p>

<p>Rutgers.</p>

<p>I plan on doing engineering.</p>

<p>I go to a very competitive private high school in New Jersey. Widowed parent, income around 40k ish, first generation college student.</p>

<p>I guess I'll just list some stuff and you can let me know if you need anything else to tell me my chances.</p>

<p>white male (double damn)</p>

<p>SAT I: 2020 690 CR, 630 Math, 700 Writing
SAT II: Haven't taken any yet but plan on doing Math, Chem, and Eng Lit/US History (not sure)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 something UW I did incredibly poor freshmen year and had to work instensely hard to get my grades up. I don't know if they'll see that but the self-improvement was immense</p>

<p>Rank: top 10</p>

<p>Junior year coursework: Honors English, Honors Chem, Honors Alg2/Trig, Ap US History, Honors Spanish 3, Religion (required)</p>

<p>four quarter grades and then year grade</p>

<p>Honors English- 97 97 99 98 98
Alg2 Trig Honors 95 94 96 95 95
AP USH- 99 99 99 99 99
Chemistry Honors 99 99 98 99 98
Spanish 3 Honors 96 97 97 96 95
Religion- 99 99 99 99 99</p>

<p>Senior year: AP Eng, Honors Physics, Ap Art History, Ap US History, Honors Precalc</p>

<p>My school only offers ap classes in English, Art History, US History, and Calc BC, so I'm taking all I am qualified for. I tried starting a US Gov AP and Euro Hist AP but the head of the department turned me down.</p>

<p>Taken 3 courses at a local community college, intro to philosophy (freshmen year- A-), sociology (sophomore year A), looking into another one now.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Academic Team- Captain</p>

<p>Robotics Team-builder and participant when we won the 2005 and 2006 state championships for FIRST (possible hook? Idk..)</p>

<p>New Jersey Regional Science Fair-participant</p>

<p>Spanish Honor Society- helped fundraise and tutored students</p>

<p>Model United Nations</p>

<p>NJ American Legion Boys State representative</p>

<p>Intermural Basketball League assistant coach/player</p>

<p>Chess team</p>

<p>Intermural Ultimate Frisbee League- Co-Founder, captain of a team, and player</p>

<p>American Cancer Society Relay for Life-helped organize and set up event, three years</p>

<p>Worked at Afterhours Formalwear</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>· The Elmira College Key Award, 2006
· Excellence in Spanish 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Honorable Mention in Eastern Civilization CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· Excellence in United History 1 Advanced Placement, 2005-2006
· Honorable Mention in Spanish 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· New Jersey Regional Science Fair Rutgers Student Award, 2005
· National Spanish Examination Certificate of Achievement and Merit¸ 2004-2005 and 2005-2006</p>

2

<p>CMU can be quite unpredictable and stingy with it's merit aid; my experience is that it's used to recruit underrepresented minorities. As always, with CMU it's impossible to say anything without knowing what major you're applying to.</p>

3

<p>Yea I've heard about the allocation for URMs. I'm applying for engineering, I doubt I'd get any merit aid at CMU (I posted this in the BU and Northeastern forums as well...that's where I thoguth I had a chance of getting merit aid).</p>

<p>First of all, do you think I'd get in?</p>

<p>I believe I'm going to get a good amount of financial aid due to having a widowed parent and only one source of icome, around 40k</p>

4

<p>I think you have a pretty good chance, particularly because of FIRST, but they may not like that you're only in precalc. Note that CMU does not guarantee to meet 100% of demonstrated need.</p>

5

<p>Troteck, your math scores are going to hurt for a prospective engineer. How big is your private school. Top 10 looks excellent if there's 200 or 300 in your class, but if there's only 50 in your class...well it still looks pretty good, but not nearly as good. Your ECs look strong, but your schedule, especially in math and science, doesn't look real strong, which could hurt your chances at a technical school. Taking precalcus senior year and no AP sciences will hurt. For instance, I'm a student at Carnegie Mellon. I took Calc BC junior year, AP chem junior year, and AP physics senior year. That's probably a typical schedule prospective engineers take, especially at technical schools.</p>

<p>By the way, on your post you have AP USH listed for both senior year and junior year. Is that true?</p>

<p>Obviously there are factors that could change these estimates (how you do on the SAT IIs, how big your class is), but given what I do know, I'd say your chances are as follows.</p>

<p>Cornell ED (40/60) Cornell's percentage from ED is pretty nice for an Ivy
Princeton (5/95)
Penn (10/90)
CMU (35/65)
BU (65/35)
Northeastern (80/20)
Rutgers (in)</p>

<p>Keep working hard. Your grades are excellent. If you can improve your SATs, you could increase your status even more. As of now, you have at least a decent chance at everywhere except Princeton and Penn (and hardly anyone gets into those schools)</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

<p>Bachovin: There's roughyl 250 kids in my class, and I'm either #9 or 10 (if it wasn't fro freshmen year I'd be a lot better).</p>

<p>My schedule is in fact the most rigorous my school offers. With the exception of being in precalc honors, as opposed to calc, I am in the highest level of classes I can take at my school. And the only reason for my lapse in math scheduling is because of my freshmen year. I am pretty good at math, just not SAT math and I know that means nothing to admission counselors.</p>

<p>My school only offers honors classes in sciences, except for ap chem (senior year, and no ap physics at all), but only 4 kids signed up for it and they don't think they'll have it.</p>

<p>APUSH is two years since my school breaks it up into 2 years, pre reconstruction and post.</p>

<p>I'm a little confused at your chances part though, care to explain a little simpler?</p>

<p>And I plan on retaking SAT1 in november but that's past the ED date for Cornell so they'll only get the scores I have now, but they will get October SAT 2 scores.</p>

7

<p>BTW, you're a shoo-in for Rutgers. Rutgers has a chart they send out that shows if your GPA is X and your SAT score is Y, then they will give you Z in aid.</p>

8

<p>Trotuck -- </p>

<p>My school had AP US in one year. It's probably better to have it in two years because I definitely felt like we had to cram a lot of material for the AP, though it is worth pointing of that history is not my best subject.</p>

<p>There are ways to prove you are good at math in spite of the SATs. For instance, have you taken the AMCs or done well in any state or local math competitions?</p>

<p>Taking the SAT Is again is probably a good idea. Improving your math score will help your chances. Your critical reading and writing scores are very good (for anywhere else other than Penn or Princeton, where they will be I'm guessing a slight negative)</p>

<p>As far as the chance part, I thought it would be pretty clear, but I guess not. It was (chance of being accepted vs. being rejected) For example, I approximated that you're chances of getting into Cornell ED were 40% and your chances of being rejected, 60%</p>

<p>Top 10 out of 250 will look outstanding. I would raise 5-10 points to the chances I gave you for each school. The reason I asked was because I too went to a private school. It was only 50 students though, so graduating second in the class wasn't nearly as impressive of a feat as if it had been 200 or 300 people in the class. </p>

<p>One other piece of advice I have: be wary of the SAT II Chem. Get an SAT II Chem book and make sure you study a lot for it. SAT II sciences are extremely important for prospective engineers and it was hard for me even after taking AP Chem junior year. I am guessing that your honors class didn't cover things like chemical equilibrium, which are a must-know for the test. </p>

<p>The reason I say this is because initially right after taking AP Chem, I only got a 600 on the test. (Even our AP class didn't cover all we needed though that's probably not a generic trend--I just think our teacher was lazy.) Because of the low score, I took them again last fall. I got a review book over the summer, got help from my dad (he's a chemical engineer) and was able to get a 750. </p>

<p>Taking the SAT IIs twice is unusual though and not really a good idea. (I think my bad original score hurt my chances at least for MIT and Caltech a lot, even with the improved later scores.) I'm hoping that with my advice, you can avoid the same problem I had. </p>

<p>Keep up the hard work. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to ask.</p>

9

<p>Thanks again for all the advice.</p>

<p>I'm taking the sat 2s in october, and am retaking sat 1s but it'll be after the ed deadline for cornell so cornell is going tog et my sat1 scores I have now, but the rd schools will get different ones.</p>

<p>I know the sat 2 chem is going to be tough. Cornell says 2 subject tests, 1 matrh (either level...so level 1 would be acceptable?) and either physics or chem (I haven't had physics so I guess I have no choice here).</p>

<p>I took a chem practice test the other day and got a 590...without reviewing anything from the year...I got a princeton review chem sat 2 book so hopefully if I study it I can get 700+....my dad won't be able to help me though...he unloads trucks haha :)</p>

10

<p>Maybe bachovchin wouldn't mind taking a look at my daughter's stats and commenting:</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA 3.95 - Rank 7/550
Weighted GPA 4.225 - Rank 3/550
SAT's (retaking) 690M, 650CR; 570W
SATII Math 2: 750
SATII Chem: 720
AP Calc Score: 5
Sr. Schedule includes AP Calc BC, AP Chem; Honors Physics; and required english (block scheduling)
EC's include Competitive Marching Band 3yrs;
Competitive dance team 8 yrs;
NHS
Consistent work history 9 - 25 hrs/week ongoing.
Attending Curie Academy at Cornell this summer (1 of 25 accepted to program although I don't know how many applied - still only $450 to spend a week at Cornell exploring Engineering careers)</p>

<p>Would be interested in what you think her chances of acceptance and merit aid are in Engineering (either Biomed or Chem) at:
RPI, BU, CMU, Tufts, WPI, Northeastern</p>

<p>Not expecting anything in the way of need-based aid.</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to read</p>

11

<p>RatedPG: I think your daughter has a good chance of getting into CMU if she raises her SAT I scores.</p>

12

<p>RatedPG: With the present scores-
RPI- safety, good chance of getting merit aid but probably not full-ride
BU- safe match, around 80% chance of getting in, possibly small amount of merit aid
CMU- slight reach, around 30-40% chance, most likely no aid
Tufts- same as CMU
WPI- safety, good chance of getting merit aid- and I've heard they're pretty generous
Northeastern- safety, I would think that merit aid is likely but I didn't look there so I don't know enough about it to say</p>

13

<p>Thanks KrazyKow, that's what I thought as well. Any insight on merit aid?</p>

14

<p>i thought cmu engineering was hardeer than normal cmu</p>

15

<p>Chocolaeluvr88 - thanks for the reply. Where are you? And how much do you think the SAT's need to come up to qualify for good merit aid at the mentioned schools. Also, do you know anything about Syracuse engineering.... that just came up in conversation. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

16

<p>I'm in MD. I'm going to CMU for ECE next year. As for your mentioned schools, I looked at RPI, BU, CMU, and Tufts. One of my best friends goes to WPI and also looked at similar schools. I didn't look at Northeastern or Syracuse. I have also heard that Syracuse has a good engineering program. With 1400+ 2-score, good chance at half-ride at BU. I would say scores would have to be 1500+ to have a good chance at getting merit aid at CMU or Tufts- it's possible with less, just not likely. What about Case Western? They're generous with aid.</p>

17

<p>RatedPG: No merit aid at CMU unless URM, even then I don't know.</p>

18

<p>Thanks again, I've also heard Tufts gives NO merit aid, but I haven't been able to confirm.</p>

19

<p>This is true; Tufts gives no merit aid but will meet 100% of demonstrated need.</p>

20

<p>Rated PG:</p>

<p>Sorry for the delay in response. (It's been a busy 4th of July weekend.)</p>

<p>Your daughter seems to have an outstanding resume. Her rank is truly outstanding. The only weakness on her application I would say would be the writing SAT score. (The math and verbal combined score of 1340 is very respectable.) On a positive note, I do think the writing SAT is the easier section on the SAT to increase your score. It's basically just remembering and applying all the grammar rules that one learned in elementary and middle school.</p>

<p>On a previous forum, I see you asked for a comparison of RPI and CMU. Generally speaking Carnegie Mellon has a stronger engineering program. According to the US News book I have here, CMU has the 9th best while RPI has the 17th best. However RPI will be much cheaper I would guess because of your daughter being an RPI metal winner. Receiving the Rensselaer Medal does NOT ensure admission, but it is my understanding, however, that if one is accepted by RPI, one automatically gets a scholarship that comes with being a Medal winner. For example, I too was an RPI medal winner and I got a scholarship for being one (I think a half-ride), but I did not receive any merit aid from CMU. So that should give you an idea. </p>

<p>I basically agree with what everyone has been saying. Here's what I'd say her odds would be at each school. </p>

<p>School (Chances of being accepted / chances of being rejected)</p>

<p>RPI (80 / 20) definite financial aid if accepted as I explained above
BU (70 / 30) good chance of financial aid
CMU (45 / 55) little chance of financial aid
Tufts (35 / 65) little chance of financial aid
WPI (85/15) very good chance of financial aid
Northeastern (in) very good chance of financial aid</p>

<p>Your daughter is very well qualified and I would also recommend that she apply to more reach schools. (Tufts and CMU are only slight reaches and maybe not even that if she can improve her writing SAT significantly) I would recommend for you and her to take a look at MIT even. They have the best engineering program and it isn't too hard (comparitively) for females to get into because MIT is the strongest affirmative action school. I read somewhere that MIT accepted 29% of females, (compared to 10% of males) so I would say MIT could be a good reach school for her.</p>

<p>I hope my response has been of some help to you, best of luck to you and your daughter in the college process, and feel free to ask any more questions you might have.</p>