My daughter is a Junior and she challenged herself this year, by taking 7 courses, mostly honours and AP courses in a very rigorous academic school. However GPA is only 3.5. She is doing extra courses on the side, plus works part time. In addition plays varsity sports, leader of clubs. Already done her graduation in dancing. She has good PSAT and perhaps get decent > 2000 SAT or over 30 ACT. We are worried she will not land in a decent Engineering program. Need some advice and insights on how best to draw attention to the fact she is doing super rigorous course load, hence lower GPA.
3.5 is not a low GPA for the vast majority of schools and over 2000 is more than decent. How do you define “not decent engineering” program? There’s a long time poster on CC (sorry, don’t remember the name) but points out that if a program is ABET accredited then it probably meets the decent requirement.
I can see where the 3.5 GPA would drop class ranking and cause problems for schools that admit pretty much on a combination of test scores and class rank such as pubic universities in Texas but there are still plenty of options.
Be realistic with her college choices. Never wrong to compile a list with some good reaches, but make sure to include at least twice as many solid matches. If there’s a school that she loves that you feel is beyond her grade-wise, try to learn about the opportunites for students to transfer colleges/majors after the first semester/year (I know when my son was accepted to PITT’s college of Science they included specific information on how he could transfer to Engineering.) When you’re visiting schools, in addition to any required admissions interviews, reach out to deans and/or faculty of the Engineering dept and ask for a meeting. Whenever we did this with my son they encouraged his dad and I to sit in on the meeting so we could ask questions…At admissions time my son followed up with the professor, thanked him/her again for sharing such great information about the program and reiterated how excited he was at the prospect of studying there. If your child makes a solid impression on a teacher, they might follow-up with Admissions on his/her behalf and maybe tip the scales a little in your favor. Good luck!!
That is a great advice. Thank you so much for encouragement. My daughter has taken a very rigorous course load and in a highly rigorous academic school. Plus she is taking 7 classes instead of usual 5 or 6 and doing a program with NASA. She is pushing it, but her GPA has dropped in the process.