<p>Hi there. I am interested in a career in either petroleum or aerospace engineering. I've applied or am planning on applying to the above schools. What I would like to know is how difficult is it to get in to each of their respective colleges of engineering? For example, I've heard that getting in to Cockrell at UT Austin is very very hard. In addition,I've heard that the petroleum engineering program is even harder to get in to. I'd just like to know what the process is on admission to the engineering programs and the difficulty of getting in. Thanks!</p>
<p>Without knowing whether you are out of state or instate it would be hard to answer. If you have the money to pay full price at out of state publics and have the high test scores and grades that would be typical of these programs (over 30 ACT etc.) and academic scholarships (e.g. National Merit Finalist for Texas A&M) are not likely, then you should add some of the many private schools with great engineering programs to your list.</p>
<p>It has been my observation that it is critical to get that application in early for state engineering programs. The seats fill quickly and once they are full, that’s it, regardless of great stats.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse that certainly seems to be true of Texas A&M observing what happened to my son’s friends last year (so for engineering at A&M that means applying now).</p>
<p>I know two engineering student with top flight stats and resumes who were turned down from their state schools for engineering but were accepted to MIT. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse “I know two engineering student with top flight stats and resumes who were turned down from their state schools for engineering but were accepted to MIT.”</p>
<p>Not surprising. I have heard similar cases. Some state schools don’t have as much flexibility and fill quickly and it also is possible that overworked admissions offices lose information (happened to a few I talked to last year, although turned out ok for them - just barely). There is a similar problem with Honors programs at top public schools - I know some students who never heard back and yet had incredible test scores (presumably those fill early and the criteria are subjective at UT and A&M??). I wonder what would happen these days to to a student applying to UT who was not top 7% (or not top 25% applying to A&M) - could have taken the hardest schedule, done well in AIME and/or USABO, had high test scores, but if UT engineering programs fill early with top 7%ers … Makes me wonder - I took the most AP courses of any at my high school, but there was no bonus (on GPA) for AP courses (all courses had equal grading scale) so presumably these days my class rank would not have been quite high enough for a few state schools.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse I’ve luckily already applied to A&M and Austin, so it shouldn’t hurt me too much there</p>
<p>@2018RiceParent I would be out of state for all of these schools. I think I definitely have competitive credentials. I have a good SAT score and good extracurriculars. My GPA (3.33 unweighted, 3.8 weighted) may slightly hold me back though since I was a moron freshman and sophomore year. I showed big improvement junior year though which I hope may help me and Im taking all AP classes this year. As for National Merit, that is the scholarship based on your PSAT scores, correct?</p>
<p>OP. You must apply early at TAMU not necessarily at UT. Rolling admissions at TAMU. Your GPA may hold you back considerably. Once you subtract the Texas residents who get auto-admission, there are not many spots left for average students from other states. The OOS spots at both schools are highly competitive.</p>
<p>Don’t know enough about the admissions at GaTech and Purdue, but given they are excellent programs and lots of students with better marks will be competing with you, simply applying early may not get it done.</p>
<p>I hope you have some more reasonable safeties selected.</p>
<p>@Torveaux I am definitely worried about my GPA holding me back. I have Texas Tech and ASU as my safeties. My SAT was a 2100, Combined 1440. Also, I have played competitive travel ice hockey since I was little. I play at the highest level and my team travels the country playing against other top teams in the nation. We have also gone to Canada a few times for tournaments. I have done this my entire high school career. I’m hoping that this shows up as a strong extracurricular because I have been doing it for a long time and it is at such a high level. I have also volunteered at the local rink to help little kids learn to skate or set up rink fundraisers. In addition, up until the summer of 2013, I had traveled with a hockey camp and volunteered to help teach others a certain coach’s skating techniques. Did that for 5 years, every summer and somewhat during school years too. I traveled to Canada several times, Russia once (never again), and other parts of the U.S. to help out. A lot of the kids I helped out were from other countries too. I helped Canadians, Swiss, Russians, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Mexicans, and Australians. Not sure it will amount to much but hoping that this international or just general experience might help.</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, your GPA will be a problem for the most selective programs although your test scores seem to be fine. You might consider some of the less selective [url=“<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org”]AITU[/url</a>] schools, some of which will give you some merit aid which will reduce your costs.</p>
<p>Your SAT score would be average for Georgia Tech (see <a href=“http://factbook.gatech.edu/admissions-and-enrollment/sat-scores/”>http://factbook.gatech.edu/admissions-and-enrollment/sat-scores/</a>), and average or slightly above for out of state admits to UT Engineering (see <a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/outofstate”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/outofstate</a> and <a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/scores”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/scores</a>) but class rank is most important according to their published common data set admissions criteria, presumably that could be a problem. See <a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/files/IMA_PUB_CDS_2013_AY.pdf”>http://www.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/files/IMA_PUB_CDS_2013_AY.pdf</a> </p>
<p>Agree with @xraymancs that you also should be looking at schools similar to what he suggested (less selective from among AITU schools - some great choices there) as alternatives, especially since the large out of state publics you picked may cost as much or more even if you get in.</p>
<p>Agree about the competitive admissions at publics. I know top score kids whom were rejected at UVA engineering and wait-listed at VaTech, meaning that they never got in.</p>
<p>As Xraymancs said, consider others among the private schools and include Mechanical Engineering in your consideration;</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve University
Saint Louis University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
U of Portland</p>
<p>For admissions (not necessarily for cost), Texas A&M is likely to be either a safety (if you fall into the top-10%-in-Texas or academic admit categories) or a reach (if you do not and go to the review admit category).</p>
<p><a href=“http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted”>http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted</a></p>
<p>Be aware that Purdue admits to “first year engineering”; students must get a high enough technical and overall GPA in college in order to enter the desired engineering major. See <a href=“School of Engineering Education - School of Engineering Education - Purdue University”>School of Engineering Education - School of Engineering Education - Purdue University; .</p>
<p>If you don’t have competitive GPA after freshman year, what engineering major can you get in? Just curious.</p>
<p>Purdue FYE students whose GPA is too low (the web page is vague on what is “too low”, although 2.75 seems to be high enough for most engineering majors) after four semesters have to switch to a non-engineering major.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus That is very informative, thanks. It appears I would be a review admit candidate. My SAT score easily would qualify me for the academic admit but my class rank is just barely outside of the top 25%. Will that have a large affect on my chances? Also, I sort of like how some schools, like Purdue, make you go in to FYE. I figure that if I personally can’t cut it in FYE than I don’t deserve to go in to engineering anyways. Another question, is it true that Purdue tends to have fairly high admission rates but high drop rates for freshman engineers as they weed people out? That would likely fit me best as all I want is the opportunity to prove myself.</p>
<p>Generally, the lower the admission thresholds the school has, the more the “weeding” occurs, as the weaker students find that they cannot cut it in introductory math and physics and the like and switch to other majors.</p>
<p>Not at UCB, it has high thresholds with weedier courses.</p>
<p>About 80% of Berkeley College of Engineering frosh graduate with engineering degrees, so there is not much weeding going on there, compared to the overall situation.</p>