Colleges for Engineer with a Lot of B's

Parents Forum
1

<p>I posted this question on another thread, but then I had regrets that I might be hijacking the thread.</p>

<p>My Junior DD has a challenge tyring to find a couple of good colleges as choices for engineering school, probably electrical or mechanical. Her core interest is in robotics.</p>

<p>Her issue is that her grades don't really reflect her abilities. Her test scores are much better. </p>

<p>Weighted GPA of 3.4 (unweighted 2.9), very rigorous courseload, 4 APs this year and 4 more next year, with a 35 on the ACT and 740/720 V/M on the SAT, likely to be a NMSF. DD knows that she wants engineering, preferably a small school, preferably midwest but location is the first thing to be sacrificed in the search for a good school.</p>

<p>She'll re-take the SAT in June and probably her scores will rise significantly from the current ones, which are good anyway. But her grades are an anchor, I think...</p>

<p>So I would like to hear suggestions for engineering colleges where she might fit.</p>

2

<p>Case Western? Purdue?</p>

<br>


<br>

<p>These are excellent scores. I would think it's important for her to figure out how to raise her GPA for the remainder of this year and next.</p>

3

<p>Because you are a midwesterner, UIUC and other nearby Big Ten universities would be a start. Not interested in the big flagship U's look at Rose Hulman or Case.</p>

<p>BTW, why such the big disconnect between gpa and SAT scores? That fact could rule out some good options unless there is some valid reason. And that could make admissions to the likes of UIUC, UM and Case iffy.</p>

4

<p>If robotics is her main interest, WPI would be a good possibility. They have a major in robotics engineering and are active supporters of a local FIRST robotics team (I believe Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST was a graduate?--I know he has a connection to the school). They guarantee merit scholarships to NMFs. It's not the midwest, but I think her grades would not be as much of a problem here, and they definitely like to recruit girls.</p>

5

<p>With a 35 ACT (outstanding!), I'm not sure I see the need to retake the SAT. Unless she's taking SAT Subject exams?</p>

6

<p>They aren't in the midwest, but you might want to check out RPI and WPI. Both emphasize collaborative, hands-on learning. Both are only about 25-30% women, so a woman would probably have an advantage in applying. I agree that the reason(s) for the disconnect between grades and test scores may be more important than the grades themselves.</p>

7

<p>Schools don't just look at the unweighted gpa, they look at the trend in grades (UW will do this). If your D is showing many more A's than B's this year she is more competitive than her cumulative gpa indicates. She may not make it into MIT, but should definitely reach for Illinois and Wisconsin and such ranked schools. Ultimately she will need to decide on a good engineering school that is also an overall good fit. She sounds like a classic underachiever who will do well when she is challenged. Good luck to her. Don't discount the large schools, the engineering school is a school within a school.</p>

8

<p>My perspective is that we handicapped her by homeschooling her for four years, grades 5-8. I won't recap this decision, but she thinks it was a mistake (it was her idea, not mine). Homeschooling worked incredibly well for her older sibling, but was not her cup of tea. Then we moved and we shifted her into an excellent public high school. But we've moved twice more since then, so she's had issues with adapting to the high school rules on homework, changing schools, etc.</p>

<p>Nothing makes me more agitated than to discover that she did a homework assignment correctly and on time, but forgot it and turned it in three days late for a "D."</p>

<p>I think we're mostly past these issues now, but as she improves each year, her classes also get more difficult. I think she'll come in with a 3.2/4.0 UW/W this year, so there is something of an upward trend, but not a dramatic turnaround.</p>

<p>We just moved to the Midwest a few months back and don't really know the schools too well.</p>

<p>Fireflyscout ~ DD wants to take the SAT again to improve her chances of getting NMSF since her writing score was low...also, she has a real chance of scoring an 800 on the math side, which might look good to an engineering school.</p>

9

<p>Son is at USC and as a freshman he was able to get on the USC first robotics team and they are building a submarine this year for the national competition. Tough for underclassmen to get on this team in many bigger schools and many smaller schools don't compete.</p>

<p>GPA might hurt at USC but the test scores are great and my son only submitted his ACT and no SAT or SUbject tests. He had a 32ACT but a 3.98 GPA. It is worth a shot though</p>

10

<p>Check US News list of A+ colleges for B students</p>

<p><a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/aplusrankindex_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/aplusrankindex_brief.php&lt;/a>
(Choose National Universities)</p>

<p>With her test scores, getting into these schools should not be difficult, and many of these have great engineering programs.</p>

<p>(I agree with the person who said Purdue is one of the most well known colleges in the Midwest for Engineering.)</p>

11

<p>reasonabledad:</p>

<p>Keep in mind that some (maybe a lot) of colleges only look at the GPA for the 10/11 years for admissions. Since she's had a rough start but is getting better, make sure you calculate her GPA based on 10/11 and include weighting for APs to get a better idea of her competetiveness. Maybe it's better than you realize.</p>

12

<p>U Missouri at Rolla? exceptional reputation among employers of engineers.</p>

<p>She sounds like a fantastic kid; I think a sympathetic GC could put a positive spin on her talent and work ethic and help put the grades in context.</p>

13

<p>drizzit ~ Ironic, but her sibling is a sophomore at USC right now, Viterbi School of Engineering. So she has a shot there, as she is a double legacy and as USC emphasizes recruiting NMSFs. But an issue for her is defining her own "space" separate from her brother, and also she is looking for a smaller college experience.</p>

<p>But you are right, this is a great school.</p>

<p>These comments are very helpful. Thank you all!</p>

14

<p>I second U Missouri at Rolla - an excellent engineering school, and not very hard to get into. The town leaves much to be desired though...</p>

15

<p>What about Santa Clara University? Her standardized test scores are well within their range of acceptance. I do not know how they view GPA (whether they look at the overall...only 10/11th grade..or whatever). Their engineering program is good. Perhaps applying as an engineering major would work. Are her math and science grades in high school good...or are they a bit up and down also?</p>

16

<p>In 10th/11th a very steady diet of B-, B, B+...trending upwards, but not as strongly as I would have liked.</p>

<p>Oddly, I visited a friend who went to Santa Clara for Law School, but I did not know it was an engineering school too. </p>

<p>This thread is generatig a lot of good ideas.</p>

<p>As we are new to the area, does anyone have an idea of DD's chances at UIUC, or UW?</p>

17

<p>Sounds like a kid that engineering schools see a lot of. Rose Hulman came to mind, great school, sounds perfect for your D. Very, very strong in engineering, my D liked it a lot and would have considered it had the FA been better.</p>

<p>Other schools in the midwest that would be worth looking at and have engineering depts. Would most likely be safety's. Bradley, University of Evansville, Dayton, Ohio Northern, Cincinnati, St. Louis University, Marquette, Illinois Institute of Technology.</p>

<p>Since she is a girl and is interested in electrical or mechanical (both majors that probably see the least number of girls), and her scores are so high, I would try a couple of reaches. I don't know how they would look at Low GPA, High ACT but it is worth a try. I might try schools that look at a more holisitic view of admission rather than pure numbers. I think that state schools might be more numbers driven (ie, Michigan, UIUC, Wisc.) but might still be worth looking at.</p>

18

<p>My son was and my daughter is currently involved with FIRST robotics. We were just in Atlanta at the National Competition, and it seemed like there were twice as many schools with representatives on "scholarship row" as last year. Take a look at the schools offering FIRST scholarships as a starting point. Even if she doesn't get one of them, it is a good list. Scholarship</a> Search</p>

<p>The lower grades may keep her out of some schools (particularly those of the top-25 variety), but I think any girl interested in engineering with high test scores is going to get a second look, so I wouldn't rule anything out.</p>

<p>I can vouch for those mentioned earlier, and think they would be reasonable matches for her stats, though not safeties given the uncertainty of her grades. RPI, WPI, and Rose-Hulman are very techie, and if she is really into the technical part of robotics she would probably have a blast at these. Case (where my son ended up) is less techie overall (they have dance and music as well as engineering), but I'm sold on it bigtime. </p>

<p>CMU, Rice, and Vanderbilt are smaller schools with engineering that are very selective, but for an applicant with a XX chromosome who knows?</p>

<p>Other smaller schools with engineering to investigate (that I know less about):</p>

<p>Kettering, Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, Drexel, Rochester</p>

<p>Once you start including larger state schools in the mix, you have a lot to choose from in the Midwest: UIUC, Purdue, Wisconsin, OSU,.... If she is dead-set on a smaller school, these ain't small!</p>

19

<p>UW is numbers driven and they do publish their numbers. If you look on the Wisconsin admissions web site and click on the "Freshman Admissions Expectations" link, you'll see a nice chart breaking down the likelihood of admissions by test score and unweighted academic GPA.</p>

<p>For a 35 ACT score, you'll need about a 3.1-3.3 unweighted GPA.</p>

20

<p>Unfortunately Rose-Hulman shot her dowm for their summer program, so I think they are out of reach for regular admission, which surely must have a more stringent admission level than the summer program. Too bad, as they were her first choice school. In some sense DD is still looking for a replacement for them.</p>

<p>The chart from UW is very interesting. I don't think I've ever seen a school come right out and give meaningful information on how the grades and test scores relate to chance of acceptance.</p>

<p>Has anyone seen this sort of information from other colleges?</p>