<p>I know this is weird for me to ask, especially since I still have one more year left till I start applying to colleges, but after seeing my gpa and rank I began to believe that I would not be able to go to the colleges that I want to attend to.</p>
<p>I'm a junior in HS and I want to major in engineering (still not decided what kind of engineering yet). </p>
<p>My unweighted GPA is around a 3.4 and my weighted is a 3.6 ..
I am top 35% of my grade (out of around 330ish students)
For my SAT practice exams I get around 1950-2050 </p>
<p>Writing is around a high 600s
Critical is 650
Math is around high 600s or low 700s.</p>
<p>I really want to go to UIUC or Purdue University
Do I have a chance to get into their engineering programs?</p>
<p>My main goal this year is to really get A's in most of my classes so I can try increasing my gpa as much as I can and I want to practice hard for the SATs to get around a 2100-2200.</p>
<p>I took Bio Sat IIs and I ended up getting a 650 :/
But I will be taking Math IIC and Physics this year.</p>
<p>So are there any chances of getting into those school IF I do fulfill my HS goals?
And also are there any other colleges within my standards that are known for their engineering?</p>
<p>First note that SAT IIs are completely useless for UIUC and Purdue because they are not used for admission (those who make admission decisons won’t even know you took them or your scores even if you send subject test scores). Also note that both determine admission using grades through junior year and do not use first semester senior year and thus you have only this year to improve.</p>
<p>If you can actually score in the 2000s on the SAT you will be in the middle 50% range for UIUC and actually better than that for Purdue. Your already existing weakness is GPA/rank. It is way low for UIUC engineering (its middle 50% range for engineering is top 10% to top 2% class rank) and in the lower 20% for Purdue. If you get all those A’s this year and thus bring that GPA up significantly, your chances for Purdue will likely be better than average and leave UIUC only as somewhat of a reach.</p>
<p>I see… thanks for the information so far. But say that my gpa barely ends up changing; what other options for college would I have? I was thinking of going to Rutgers since I’m in state… also I do not really look forward to transferring since it can be a difficult process and finance can end up being a problem. :/</p>
<p>If finances are an issue, the out-of-state public universities may be too expensive. Some of the less expensive out-of-state public universities include Minnesota, Virginia Tech, and Cal Poly.</p>
<p>Try putting “cost of attendance” and “financial aid estimator” in their web site search boxes.</p>