<p>I'm a Junior this year with only 1 honors class and 0 AP's to date. This is because my school does not offer AP's until Junior Year.</p>
<p>My intended major is Chemical Engineering with a possibility of Computer Science.</p>
<p>Stats:
1230/1850 SAT (Superscore) 620 M 620 W 610 R
3.64 UW GPA (Upward trend w/ 4.0 Junior Year)
Taking Math and Chemistry Subject Tests in the Fall
Will also retake SAT and try ACT in the Fall</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Ted Ed Club (Dedicated to servicing and studying our environment/community)
EHTC (Volunteer Club)</p>
<p>Jobs:
Umpired Baseball
Caddy
Tutor
Work at local ShopRite</p>
<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP Chemistry
AP Computer Science
H Physics
H Spanish IV
H English
H Western Civ
H Pre-Calculus
Physical Education</p>
<p>Other:
Gender - Male
Hook - URM (African-American)
Single Parent Home (Parents divorced)</p>
<p>I plan on applying to the following schools (all for engineering programs):
Virginia Tech
NC State University
Drexel University
Rutgers University - New Brunswick (Instate)
Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Stevens Institute of Technology (Instate)
Lehigh Univeristy
Renesselear Polytechnic Institute
New Jersey Institute of Technology (Instate)
Northeastern University
Boston University
Cooper Union</p>
<p>Is my list unreasonable? Am I banking on my ethnicity too much for admissions? Please be as brutally honest with me as possible.</p>
<p>CMU and Cornell are way out of reach with those EC’s. Everything else is reasonable but that would still leave you with 11 schools. You might want to cut one more. </p>
<p>@MegaMetalHead if I raised my SAT/ACT scores to the 2000/30 range (I truely believe I can based on recent practice tests) and joined some math/science EC’s would I have a shot at CMU or Cornell?</p>
<p>Where are you going to excel, OP? which school can give you the kind of support in math that you might need with a 620? You might be able to get into some of your reach schools because of you are URM, but is that the best school for you to attend. You’re going to be in there with kids who have 800 in M and almost all of the ChemEs will have higher GPAs. Cornell and CMU may not have that infrastructure, or they might. What about the other schools on your list? Check this out. Ask about the cooperativeness of the students in ChemE. Ask about tutoring support.</p>
<p>Also consider the issue of money, about which you make no mention. Have you run each school’s net price calculator and talked with your parents about what they can afford in comparison to what the school expects them to pay?</p>
<p>I assume Rutgers is your safety (your family can afford it and you would be happy to attend)? If so then you can have as many reaches as you like.</p>
<p>I think CMU, Cornell, Cooper Union are very much longshopts based on your current stats. I would also look at Manhattan College in Riverdale which has a very fine engineering program and seems to be a good academic fit…</p>
<p>@jkeil911 the 620 isn’t a score that is representative of my math skills/abilites. Since taking the SAT last, I have taken multiple timed practice tests in which I have gotten no lower than a 650 and up to a 700. I have also always excelled in math (All A’s other than Geometry which is a different type of math than Algebra and Calculus). If I do end up needing tutoring than I am fine with that, I don’t believe that tutoring at one college is much better than the tutoring at another, and if it is I wouldn’t know how to find that out anyways.</p>
<p>@happy1 why do you believe that Manhattan College would be an academic fit for me. Average SAT (CR+M) is 1015-1170 and mine is a 1230 with time to improve. I want to go to a college where all of my classmates will be serious about excelling in college (in no way am I saying that Manhattan isn’t a good college I just believe that I can do better). This is especially important for me because I am largely affected by the crowd surrounding me. When I am with kids that aren’t serious about school I become the same way.</p>
<p>^^^Sorry if I offended you. I know for a fact that Manhattan has a very strong engineering program and kids do well out of the school. I thought you could get merit aid if that would be helpful. And they have rolling admissions which means you could hear by December so it would be a strong safety. I was trying to offer a suggestion, but as with any suggestion on CC, feel free to ignore it. Good luck</p>
<p>@happy1 you didn’t offend me at all. Thanks for the info on Manhattan I will look further into it. It does seem like a good option for a safety.</p>
<p>OP, I think the others have been too harsh. As an African-American male, you probably have a shot at all the schools, particularly if you break 2000 on the SAT, which is very doable if you already have an 1850. But are you sure that you would want to do Chem E or Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon or Cornell? Those are brutal schools for those majors, particularly for students who did not go to stellar high schools (I’m guessing yours is not, given that your school does not offer AP’s until junior year).</p>
<p>@austinareadad thanks for the words of encouragement. I do agree though that going to a less competitive high school will put me at a disadvantage. I will look for help if the time comes that I need it.</p>
<p>Yes you have some reachy schools but your EC won’t keep you out, I don’t agree with that comment at all. I think your scores are okay, if there are some reaches fine. I don’t think you will get into some, like CS at CMU, no. There are good schools that just don’t emphasize AP and that is not a problem if the Honors classes are strong. You don’t really say. You are a little behind most of your peer applicants in just now having precalc. How strong were your math class grades? I would make sure your Sr year is strong in your core classes, and if that means dropping AP CS then do that. It’s an elective, focus on the core.</p>
<p>Run the NPC on each so you can eliminate some that may be too expensive and not be ‘meets need’ school so not have the aid to give, because I don’t think you will get merit at some expensive ones. But others, like Cornell may meet need so as long as you can pay your EFC according to their calculations, you would be okay.</p>
<p>@BrownParent Thanks a lot. My math grades (yearly) have been; Algebra 1 - A, Geometry H - C+, Algebra 2 - A. Both Algebra 1 and 2 were a breeze for me. I am sure that Pre-Calclus and Calculus will be much harder, but I believe that Algebra is more comparable to Calculus than Geometry, so I expect to do well. I will run the NPC on each school as soon as my parents and I get the chance to do so. </p>
<p>OK sounds good. The real key is that your safety schools are affordable. Unfortunately parents divorced will not make figuring you aid easy. I think as long as you have rock solid safety and a couple of good likelys for choices, that you are okay to try the reaches that you like as it is really unpredictable in your case, imo. But like someone said upstream, be careful what you wish for. Note programs that have good support systems, are considered cooperative, not weeder as much as you can investigate.</p>
<p>OP, Since you are taking pre-calculus as a senior you might be a little behind the curve in math, which is critical for engineering. You might want to consider University of Maryland Baltimore County. They have a Meyerhoff Scholars program and they have a tremendous track record of teaching kids from underprivileged backgrounds and getting them into excellent PhD programs in engineering and science. 60 Minutes did a very impressive piece on them which you an probably find online. They run a boot camp before freshman year to help close the gaps. If you’re near the top of your class but still have the SATs in the range that you have, I think that you’d be ideal for this program. </p>