My high school senior is applying to the following schools as a mechanical engineering major. Curious where you would put these as far as reach/target/safety? He is applying EA to all. We live in Georgia.
He has a 4.0 unweighted, 11 APs, the rest honors, top 10% of his class, 34 ACT super score, 33 one setting (took twice at beginning of junior year and had no interest in doing again).
Pretty involved but nothing outstanding. AP scholar with distinction, Honor Guard for being top 10% of the class, Student Council, 2 sport athlete, Model UN, fair amount of volunteer work the past two summers, part time job summer and school year. Did mock trial one year and won a best witness award in the regional competition. Plays in the band.
Also if you feel so inclined, please point any holes that he is missing. If he doesn’t get into Georgia Tech in mid December he may add to the list. If there’s a real benefit to applying to any new schools by EA he might consider it although he’s getting pretty burned out at this point. He is applying to the Purdue honors college.
Auburn (admitted)
Alabama (admitted)
Clemson
UGA
Ga Tech
Florida
Purdue
Illinois
Virginia Tech
I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get into Purdue. He’s above the 75th percentile for GPA and ACT. There are other very good schools on his list that he’ll certainly get into. What school(s) does he feel that he needs to add? He’s already in two solid options.
I am pretty confident he’ll get into UGA early. His grades and test scores are at the 75th percentile for EA, and his APs while only 50-60% are pretty much the max available at our school. Theoretically he could have taken 12. Based on who gets in early from our high school and their relationship with UGA would be surprised if he didn’t.
More concerned about Georgia Tech, although they generally take the top 10 kids in the class every year, and he is one of those. However he is male and the admit rate for females is much higher.
His brother, with half the APs but similar stats and much weaker EC‘s got into UGA EA last year and was waitlisted at Tech and then offered a transfer pathway. I feel like that’s probably the worst case scenario for him at Tech as well as he is a legacy so should get the guaranteed pathway.
The first two are safety. You knew b4 you applied. Va Tech and Clemson likely.
UGA Florida Illinois and Purdue a match …discounting Honors. Why just there at Purdue ?
Now because you are a Ga resident, I’d also say Tech is a match.
Why would you add more ? Are you not satisfied with Bama or Auburn ?
When you say that it makes me wonder if they were wasted apps? Or wondering where you would apply satisfactorily.
The first school I thought of was Maryland. But you’d have no shot waiting until December. I imagine it’s the same with many other that have EA.
So if I were to add, I’d do it now.
The real question to me, as a Bama parent, is let’s say you don’t get into Ga Tech and into Illinois - Bama will be $17k a year all in (don’t forget on top of auto merit is another $2500 a year for the ACT) and Illinois more than $40k more x 4 for likely the same career outcome (my son is getting lots of interviews at major companies) from Bama. I think the key is that he worked hard to secure internships, which then helps for full time.
Has he been to these schools? Does he have a favorite ? Not just pedigree but environment, etc. as you have some different environments in there.
I don’t know that he knows, which is why he hasn’t added them😂. I just feel like admissions are getting more unpredictable every year, and want to be sure that he has several good solid choices. He is not interested in applying to the school just to apply and is not wrapped up in prestige, although he is attracted to the engineering powerhouse types because of their facilities.
He’s a UVA legacy and didn’t apply there because engineering was such an afterthought.
I was hoping you would chime in! Both my husband and I have degrees from Alabama, hence the application. He’s been there a lot. I am a firm believer based on my Georgia Tech kid’s internships - worked with Bama interns at two of them and UGA interns at all - in ignoring ranking and prestige. This kid is not wrapped up in that either, but he does really appreciate all the amazing facilities and equipment they have at Georgia Tech. That may not be surprising given his interest in mechanical engineering :-). Honestly I think he might choose Auburn over Alabama just based on size.
As far as honors, he may still do the one for Clemson. He is pretty burned out, it is due November 1 and that’s pretty low on his list. He has till next year I think to do the ones for Alabama and Auburn. UGA is auto admit for honors and if not auto admitted application is due February. There are a couple who decide on honors based on your application – maybe Virginia Tech and Illinois? We do have a close family friend at Purdue so that has moved up because of them, and they encouraged him to do the honors college application.
You have to compare schools by major, and Alabama engineering is actually ranked higher and has been established longer than UGA engineering which is a newer program.
I don’t like to use the words ‘better’ because different kids choose different schools for different reasons. My son chose Bama over Purdue with 10k merit and has interned with kids from most these schools listed and schools like Olin.
Bama has first rate facilities and an ecoCAR team that few have - I think 17 and has a lot going for it. It also had the most NMF students in the country.
When I hear a statement like that, to me it’s coming from a US News or other rank.
On average are UGA students of higher academic achievement ? Yea. But I’m not sure it’s the case in engineering bcuz Bama is buying them in above the normal merit.
But then you have kids like my son’s gf who chose Bama over in-state UGA because she liked the facilities better.
If OP’s son got into UGA and not tech and decided it was the right place, then no issues. It’s right for him.
But I don’t think your statement is necessarily true. Many components go into making that decision.
While my son’s education has been too theoretical…I think most schools are…his ecoCAR experience helped him nab his internship in his desired field.
Good luck to OP’s son. He’s gonna be fine.
But I think it’s an unfair statement to make that you did - IMHO.
UGA engineering is newer but if you are looking at engineering rankings, Alabama & UGA are about the same. They are both good, but in your list I’d go Ga Tech (bias: I’m an alumnus & D22 decided not to go there), UIUC, Purdue before UGA or Alabama.
I agree that every student has different schools that are a better fit for them. When I said better, I didn’t mean ranking. My D22’s class had about 70 acceptances from Alabama and 130 from UGA. So I am intimately familiar with these colleges. BTW the yield for UGA was 3 times that of Alabama at her HS.
Are you metro Atlanta or rural GA? I would say his chances are high if you are outside the metro ATL area. We are rural and I know at least one male who got in with stats not quite that high.
I generally agree with the other categorizations of these schools. The one I might put into a reachier category with Georgia Tech is Virginia Tech. I was really astounded looking at the results threads for Va Tech last year.
I think your son is going to do well wherever he lands. Best of luck to him!
If he gets into Tech he will join his brother there . He has a fair number of schools on his list that he’s never laid eyes on so we may need to do some traveling before he makes a decision other than Tech.
Skip Clemson, then. They give very little in merit or aid. He is in at Auburn and Alabama, so bring on Georgia tech (good chance instate) and he can compare packages. Purdue will come in higher than the rest and will be hard to justify.
