Chances: UIUC, Purdue, IIT, MSU

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Applying for (Aerospace)Engineering where available. Early Action where available.
White Male
Location: Illinois</p>

<p>GPA UW: 3.2, W: 3.6
I came from a less than stellar grade school and I was placed in all regulars classes in both 9th and 10th grade, where I got 2 Cs in PE and 1 in English. From Sophomore year to Junior year I went from all regulars classes to all Honors and 1 AP(Microecon-got a 5) and got all As/Bs. </p>

<p>High School: My current high school is VERY competitive, it's a college prep.
Public, Magnet school, 32nd in state(I we're a lot better than that, but Illinois bases it off of one test that nobody in my school tries on.) I likely only got in it because of my location and where I was coming from.(For statistics purposes)</p>

<p>ACT: 29(33E, 26M, 29R, 28S) It's a little low, especially math, I'm retaking this month.
Class rank: Top 30% (My class size is over 1000 kids.)</p>

<p>Senior Courses:
AP Psychology
AP Human Geography
AP Environmental Science
Honors Pre-Calc
Honors English
Honors Forensic Science
Percussion Band</p>

<p>ECs(weak, I was ignorant, too late now)
Band - only Senior year, section leader
Like 60 hours of volunteer
Tutoring at ethnic heritage centers
LOTS of stuff done at my old elementary school(I elaborated on the whole "giving back" thing in my essay. Also, I'm 3rd generation there)</p>

<p>My essays are awesome, I hired a professional to help.
Hook:My really high upward trend from Sophomore->Junior year->Senior year.</p>

<p>UIUC is my top choice. Engineering, I'm sure, is a long shot. Hoping for DGS(undecided college).
Purdue is 2nd, providing I can afford it.
IIT is 3rd, I'm only applying to it because it's in state and would only go there if I didn't get in one of my top 2.(Even though it's a slight reach.)
MSU (I'm hoping) is my OOS safety.
I'm also applying to Bradley University(IL), my in state safety.</p>

<p>Other possibilities include Ohio St and University of Cincinnati.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time, I appreciate it. Feel free to also offer other (Midwest) school recommendations for my stats, as I'm sure you know more than I do.</p>

2

<p>My son’s school has Naviance scattergram data for UIUC, IIT and Purdue. Other students with your weighted GPA and ACT scores got in about 3/4 of the time at these 3 schools. Your weighted GPA is lower than the average – try to get top grades this semester, it could be the determining factor for you.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for the data, it’s definitely reassuring. As for my weighted GPA, it is going to shoot up after this next semester. I had a 4.3 both semesters of my Junior year and my Senior year will be around there with ONLY Bs. Add some As and I will be well above 4.5.
My only concern is raising my unweighted GPA. As you can see, my schedule is pretty rough this year and on my schools grading system(95-100 is an A), As are tough to pull, especially during this time of college essays and applications.</p>

4

<p>Actually, your senior year courses are pretty soft for someone who plans to major in engineering. The AP classes that you are taking are the soft APs – AP Physics, AP Chemistry or AP Statistics would have been better. You should be taking AP Calc this year. I had only looked at your stats before, not the rigor of your class selection.</p>

<p>So while your general stats put you in the ballpark, you have little to show in terms of your ability to handle calculation-intensive work. The standard of acceptance in the engineering colleges will be higher – you would probably be better off saying that you wish to major in liberal arts and then trying to switch later, after you have gotten A’s in a couple of intense math and science classes.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, I had planned to major somewhere in Liberal Arts & Sciences when I chose my classes, which was very early last year(due to the size of my school, I guess they need a ton of time to arrange classes.) And we aren’t allowed to switch classes unless we’re like failing or something. That & the teachers that teach AP Calc and Stats are insane, and most people get Cs and below, with a large amount dropping it, which would not have helped my already suffering GPA.</p>

<p>Also, I read that if I’m denied from Engineering I am automatically considered for acceptance into undecided major. I know it’s true for UIUC but I’m not sure about the others.</p>

6

<p>bump - Will my Senior year classes kill me that much? I will talk to my counselor about switching into AP Physics on Tuesday. I know the teacher, I had her last year for Honors Physics and I got an A so she might let me in.</p>

7

<p>I don’t know if anyone was following this or if anyone even cares, but after more than 5 weeks of school I was allowed to transfer into AP Physics, so if anyone else was thinking about changing schedules while reading this; go for it.</p>

8

<p>OK, now make sure you get an A in that AP Physics class! Get your math score up on the ACT and you should be fine. If you are capable of actually getting through engineering school, you will need to be able to handle all of the relatively-primitive math on the ACT – you might as well start right now, find a calculus whiz to tutor you through tough problems at school if you can.</p>

9

<p>yeah, as an engineering major, admissions people emphasize EXCELLENCE in mathematics. I know UIUC wants to see an ACT in the 30’s and a high math subscore, and many schools require engineering students to have taken calculus.</p>