My son has taken the SAT once. He wasn’t feeling well and honestly, didn’t prepare but his score is about 1100. He will be taking them again in May with much more focus. He is a junior. I am concerned that his focus is on schools he might not get into if his score doesn’t increase a lot.
His list right now is Drexel, RIT, Univ of Delaware, TCNJ, Rowan(back up), RPI. We have only visited Drexel and RIT as of now. We live 10 minutes from Rowan and he’s done a few programs with hs dealing with their Engineering program.
Another issue in this search is still continuing with music ensembles - so the selection of schools is based with that too.
UCincinnati is another school with a great co-op program, like Drexel’s. Coming from NJ, he would qualify for their $6K National Outreach Award if he can get his score up to a 1240 SAT or 26 ACT. There is excellent music on campus as they have a top-notch conservatory program, but you would need to look into what opportunities for non-music majors are like.
Union in Upstate NY has engineering and is test-optional. No idea about music there, though. If he has a strong transcript, URochester is test-flexible - so if he has strong scores on other types of standardized tests, like AP’s or subject tests, he can submit those in lieu of the SAT. (And there’s probably no better school for a musician engineer.) Did you visit UR when you visited RIT?
Also you might want to have U of Miami on your radar - their engineering could come into range stats-wise, and there are great music opportunities through Frost School of Music. U of Denver is another with not-ridiculously-high-stats engineering and a strong School of Music.
Hopefully he will score higher on his next sitting. It sounds like he is in a rigorous school and will have completed AP Calc BC, AP Physics C and AP Chem, right? Making scores of 4-5 on those tests should set him up for similar SAT scores.
In NJ, NJIT, Rowan, and TCNJ are the non-flagship public universities with engineering (though it looks like NJIT and TCNJ offer only mechanical engineering).
"AP Calc BC, AP Physics C and AP Chem, right? Making scores of 4-5 on those tests should set him up for similar SAT scores. "
None of these are on the SAT. Math covers up through about Algebra 2 topics and there is no science section on the SAT.
Those subjects can lead to SAT Subject Tests, but I don’t think any of the schools listed request them. I don’t see any mention of those courses in the original post so I don’t know if/when they would be taken. Specific scores on an AP exam don’t really get you anything regarding admission, and Senior year AP’s are after all college selection activities are complete.
@RichInPitt yes I’m aware those subjects are not on the SAT. I guess my post wasn’t clear really. It was a kind way of inquiring about the rigor of the OPs current classes. An SAT 1100 doesn’t bode well for success in engineering I wouldn’t think unless this is the occasional kid who is taking and excelling in the classes I listed and just didn’t take the time to review a tiny bit for the SATs since those subjects indeed are not current subjects at school.
If your son is in Calc BC then his SAT seems out of line with his rigor. I would think with practice he could get that score up quite a bit.
Rowan engineering isn’t really a safety school with 1100 and the others on your list would be reaches especially RPI. If he doesn’t get his SAT up or a higher ACT then test optional schools and some others listed above should be considered. I don’t mean to sound discouraging, I have just seen kids this year be rejected by what they thought was a safety and are now in quite a pickle.
@Momof3kidz --yes! That is what I’m trying to say. An 1100 seems…low for an engineering bound student and quite frankly I would have some concerns about success in engineering.
NJIT offers biomedical, civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, computer, and manufacturing engineering in addition to mechanical engineering. NJIT is known in NJ as the engineering safety school for those who cannot gain admission to Stevens, Rutgers, or Princeton in NJ or the other higher ranked institutions in the NY/NJ metro area. Rowan (average SAT 1150) is another safety candidate. NJIT’s average SAT score of accepted students is about 1130, and its acceptance rate is nearly 70%. Please contemplate however that a low math SAT score may portend challenges in studying engineering, and I would encourage you to brush up as best you can on math and physics if those were weak subjects in high school. Of course, hard work and dedication can make up for those, and others before you have done it. Best of luck and wishing you success!
My D was below the 25th percentile for standardized tests of accepted CoE students, but still was directly admitted (2014) to engineering at Ohio State which I attribute to their holistic review. She did have an outstanding gpa with a lot of dual enrollment that included some engineering courses. SAT info for students admitted to CoE on p. 43 of their annual report. https://engineering.osu.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/annual_report_2018.pdf
“The School of Music invites all university students to participate in its ensembles. Some ensembles have open enrollment (no audition required) and…
… you don’t have to be a music major to be involved!” https://music.osu.edu/ensembles
If he checks off enough of the attributes they look for http://undergrad.osu.edu/apply/freshmen-columbus/who-gets-in it might be worth an application. They also have a straight forward path to work your way into the CoE if not directly admitted. He does need to be able to manage his gpa well. tOSU has FYE (First Year Engineering) program that delays declaring the major. Meeting gpa minimums guarantees the ability to declare most majors. BME is the current exception, but they’ve been working hard to build capacity and have broken ground on new facilities.
@Engineer80 Yes, a lot of kids get into NJIT engineering with low stats. But the NJIT engineering program also attracts high stats kids with their honors program. The low stat kids usually get weeded out and are then deposited into an easier major at NJIT. Some may persevere and make it through, though.
Definitely try a practice ACT. Then see if his better scores are in math or the “rest” (pending test). You need really good math skills to handle engineering. ACT math is often more straightforward IMO.