<p>The most important school on your list is a safety which you are assured of admission, assured of being able to afford, and which has your major and is otherwise academically suitable. Or have you decided that community college followed by transfer to Rutgers or some other school is your safety? If so, then you may not need four year school safeties.</p>
<p>it sounds like for the applicant, Rowan University (NJ state college that has a pretty good engineering program) would be the safety school.</p>
<p>Unfortunately Rowan is not too good of a safety safety because the average SAT’s are about 1350-1400/1600 and the GPA is something around 3.4-3.6. I am also a legacy there, so I would think that I would get in, but I can’t bank on it. I need to find a good safety. Are there any on the list you would consider safeties? Drexel maybe? My school has a partnership with them, making it much easier to get into, and the average SAT is only 1200/1600 (I don’t know what it is for engineering, I think about 1300/1600), and the average (non engineering GPA is 3.4).</p>
<p>Also, I think I could use business as a back up if I were to get rejected from all of the schools I apply to for engineering because most of them will admit you to the college, just keep you out of engineering. I definitely want to engineer, and I can only assume that I would get into at least one of my options, but your right, I do need a safety.</p>
<p>Rowan’s [common</a> data set](<a href=“http://www.rowan.edu/president/ierp/cds/]common”>http://www.rowan.edu/president/ierp/cds/), section C7, indicates that “alumni/ae relation” is “not considered” for freshman admissions.</p>
<p>Drexel does not look like a safety for you, based on its [freshman</a> class profile](<a href=“http://www.drexel.edu/undergrad/about/facts/freshman-class/]freshman”>http://www.drexel.edu/undergrad/about/facts/freshman-class/).</p>
<p>Use the UA schools (Huntsville and Tuscaloosa have your major) for your safeties if you want more sure safeties among four year schools. They are also much less expensive than Drexel, especially if you get the large scholarships.</p>
<p>Remember I am from NJ though. I can justify going 15 hours away by car for a school like GaTech, Purdue or UIUC, but I don’t want a safety that is almost a 1000 miles away. Do you think I could use NC State as a safety or is that too competitive?</p>
<p>Also, do you know if any of these schools ignore freshman year? I will research this more tomorrow but I have to go to sleep. If they do only look at Soph - Senior I have a much better chance. Right now my soph and junior is 3.4 UW and 3.65 W. If I were to include the first semester of senior year (assuming 3.7 UW) my UW would be 3.5 and my W would be 3.85.</p>
<p>not sure where you are getting the SAT numbers from for Rowan. Also remember that you said you go to one of the top high schools in NJ and are taking a tough course load with AP classes (and you are trending upwards) so you should be fine. Does your guidance counselor know what schools typically people of your stats get into from your HS?</p>
<p>Rowan’s Admissions Stats:</p>
<p>SAT:
% Submitting Score: 96%
Critical Reading Middle 50%: 490 - 580
Math Middle 50%: 510 - 610
Writing Middle 50%: 480 - 580
Average High School GPA: 3.46
% with GPA 3.75 of higher: 33.51%
% with GPA 3.50 - 3.74: 19.11%
% with GPA 3.25 - 3.49: 15.38%
% with GPA 3.0 - 3.24: 17.47%
% with GPA 2.5 - 2.99: 12.04%
% with GPA 2.0 - 2.49: 2.49%
Students in Top Tenth of HS Class: 21%
Students in Top Quarter of HS Class: 53%
Students in Top Half of HS Class: 89%</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>NCSU’s common data set indicates that it would not be a safety for you.</p>
<p>With your relatively low GPA, you cannot afford to be that picky when choosing safety schools. Remember that the Alabama schools will be inexpensive enough with their scholarships that you should be able to buy plenty of airline tickets back home with the money saved.</p>
<p>The state universities in California do not include freshman year grades in GPA calculations, but are further away and more expensive than the Alabama schools (and even your sophomore/junior GPA is not going to get into Berkeley or other well known campus, though if chemical engineering does not surge in popularity next year at San Jose State, you are likely to get in there).</p>
<p>I just had another thought. What if I applied in waves. I apply to my top choices as well as a few other schools in September, wait for the results and see where I get in, then go for a safety if I don’t manage to get into any of them.</p>
<p>@pierre - when I visited Rowan they said the stats for engineering were significantly higher and the average engineer is 1350-1400ish/1600. I forget what they said the average GPA was though. Also, I wasn’t exactly “loaded” with AP’s and honors until senior year.<br>
Frosh - Junior = 1 AP (Chem), 4 Honors (English, Chem, Bio, Geom) and 2 Advanced Classes which are less than honors but better than regular college prep classes (Pre-calc & PST).
Senior Year (will be) = 4 AP (Environmental, Stat, Lit, US pol & gov) and 2 Honors (Calc & Physics).</p>
<p>Also, I feel like I should list my math and science grades:
Freshman:
Honors Bio - C
Honors Geom - C</p>
<p>Sophomore:
Adv. PST - C
Honors Chem - B</p>
<p>Junior:
Adv. Pre-calc - A
AP Chem B</p>
<p>How much will my freshman and sophomore grades hurt?
I hope it helps that I don’t go to an easy HS, but I know at the same time it will definitely hurt.<br>
Also, I definitely will talk to my counselor, but the problem is I have unusual stats and I am going for engineering which usually is more difficult to get into than other programs in colleges. I don’t know if my counselor could give me an easy an answer to that, but it is worth a try.</p>
<p>How much will those math and science grades hurt and is there any decent engineering schools that are closer to NJ that I could use as a safety.</p>