Chemical Engineering school suggestions?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Right now I am trying to figure out which colleges to apply to in the fall. I am a white female who goes to a normal public school and I am interested in majoring in chemical engineering. I am interested in knowing which ABET accredited schools I have a shot at. </p>

<p>My school gives gpa as a percentage rather than a number on the 4.0 scale, and my weighted GPA is a 99.01 while my unweighted gpa is about a 95. I slacked off my freshman year and got several B's(but nothing below a B), and my unweighted average of academic classes was about a 91.6 in 4 honors classes and 1 cp. I took 4 honors classes and 1 cp again my sophomore year and got A's in all of them with a 98% unweighted average. My UW average decreased to a 95.8 my junior year with a B and an A-, but the rigor of my classes did increase. I generally get higher grades in math and science classes than in English/social studies classes.</p>

<p>This was my junior year academic schedule:
AP US History- B(89)
AP English Lang and Comp- A-(93)
AP Statistics- A (99)
Honors Precalculus- A(100)
Honors Chem 1- A(99)
Anatomy CP- A(95)</p>

<p>My class rank is 8/287</p>

<p>The academic classes of my senior year will likely include:
AP Chemistry
AP Calc AB(highest level of math offered at my school)
AP Micro/Macro Economics
AP Eng. Lit and Comp
Physics CP(CP is the only level physics is offered at my school)
World History CP</p>

<p>My school offers 14 APs total, so by graduation I will have taken half of what is offered.</p>

<p>I took the SAT once and will probably take it again in the fall. My score was a 2090(700 reading, 700 math, 690 writing)
I haven't taken any subject tests but I might also take them in the fall.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Marching band 9-12(section leader 11th and 12th)
Symphonic band 9-12(first chair 10-12, senior director 12th)
Jazz band 11-12
County Honors band 10-12
Tri-M Music honor society 11-12
NHS 11-12
300+ volunteer hours as a camp counselor at horseback riding summer camps at the barn I ride there. I volunteered there all four summers of high school
Ferguson scholarship for high DCAS scores(state standardized test)</p>

<p>Schools I am interested in:
University of Delaware(in-state, parent went there)
Rutgers(parent went there)
Virginia Tech
Syracuse
Penn State</p>

<p>Out of the list, UDel is the only one I am 100% sure that I am going to apply to. I am interested in knowing what my chances are at these school, specifically for their engineering programs, as well as any suggestions for other schools that might be good safeties(preferably ABET accredited in chemical engineering), matches, and reasonable reaches. I would prefer colleges that are closer to Delaware if possible, but I am open to other suggestions. I would strongly prefer schools with marching bands. </p>

2

<p>You are in at all of them.
Delaware is the best price for you. Good engineering school. Better than Rutgers.</p>

3

<p>UDEL would be my first suggestion for a chemical engineering degree. Since you’re in-state, all the more reason to go there. If you’d like more ideas for schools that are ABET accredited for chemical engineering, here’s the link to their website <a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx”>http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx&lt;/a&gt; . Good luck!</p>

4

<p>I too am applying in the fall for ChemE but in a totally different geographic region (no worries for competition LOL), but try to improve your sat scores. How competitive are the schools you are applying to? (I’m unfamiliar with NE schools)</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the input everyone!
It also seems to me that I have the best chance at getting an affordable education at UD with in-state tuition and the fact that it is only about 45 minutes away from my house. I’ve heard that the chemical engineering program there is significantly more selective than the rest of the majors since it is both highly recognized and a restricted major. Does anyone know how much effect that has on in-state applicants?
Also, does anyone have any suggestions for other specific schools worth applying to?
FutureOilBaron- The schools on the list aren’t incredibly competitive in general, and all of my SAT scores are above the 75th percentile for at least most of them. However, the schools of engineering tend to be more competitive than the rest of the school, and it is really hard to find exact numbers that describe how much more competitive they are. I agree that it would be a good idea to improve my SAT scores, particularly my math score. It shouldn’t be too hard considering that on the test I timed one of the math sections wrong and didn’t have time to even look at four of the problems. I completely guessed on one (and probably got it wrong) and then I left the other three blank. I was really hoping for at least a 700, so I was happy I at least got that. I definitely think I can improve that one though. I’m not too worried about the other two since I’ve heard that the engineering schools tend to have slightly lower reading/writing scores than the rest of the school but higher math scores, but improving them a little certainly can’t hurt. What region are you applying in?</p>

6

<p>@Legomatic As long as the schools you are applying are ABET certified, you should be fine. I live in Texas so I’ll be applying to schools in Texas and GA Tech. My ideal choice is UT Austin but it is highly competitive since they took 173 new freshmen last year. What I would suggest is go to an instate school that’s affordable and ABET certified, and then maybe look at more expensive schools for graduate. What is CP? Does your school only offer 6 periods a day? Feel free to message me if you have more questions! :D</p>

7

<p>CP stands for college prep, which is basically a normal level class(below honors). I guess some schools classify classes into phases where honors is phase 4 and ap is phase 5. CP would be phase 3.
My school offers eight periods in block scheduling as an odd/even day schedule. However, I am heavily involved in the music department with leadership positions at my school so two of my classes this year were marching and symphonic band. I figured that my grades in those classes probably didn’t matter much to college admissions. Next year I’m going to be able to be in the marching band without being in the class but it would be difficult to do that in symphonic band without any after school rehearsals and having to worry about solos. I did the same thing with jazz band this year(and will do the same next year) but I will still only be able to take six academic classes because AP Chem is a double block class that I will have every day instead of every other day.
I do agree that it might be more beneficial to stick to the more inexpensive state school, especially since UDel has just about everything I would want. I also really like the idea of staying in Delaware since there are so many chemical research companies here and research is the area I am most interested in. I recently had the opportunity to tour a DuPont lab and talk to a lot of chemists and chemical engineers about their jobs. It was really a neat experience and gave me some great exposure to the kind of environment I would be interested in interning at or working at some day. I think that if I ever decided chemical engineering was not for me I would become a chemist, but the opportunities for engineers just seem so much broader, especially in this economy. Both of these careers seem to be a pretty big deal in Delaware though.
Good luck applying to UT Austin! I’ve heard that Texas is also a great state for chemical engineering so I’m sure you’ll have plenty of opportunities wherever you go. </p>