<p>Hi I'm a high school senior living on Guam, born and raised. I applied to Carnegie Mellon Architecture via ED but was rejected along with everyone from my school who applied through ED. I'm beginning to doubt if I can get into college at all. sigh.
Anways Recently, I've looked into Purdue and I became very interested in applying. I heard that it was "fairly" easy to get into Purdue. But I have doubts as I know Purdue is one of the most respected engineering and business colleges around. So getting in is probably harder than what most people and collegeboard (it lists purdue of accepting 85% of its applicants, thats nuts!) say. In any case here are my stats.</p>
<p>Race: Korean</p>
<p>High School: Most competitive school on Island. IB World School.</p>
<p>G.P.A: 87% (School doesn't use the 4.0 scale)</p>
<p>Rank: 3rd decile. (around 7th or 8th. there are 27 people in our grade)</p>
<p>SAT: 2070... M: 760 W: 740 CR: 560</p>
<p>SAT II: MIIc: 770 Chem: 650 WH: 620</p>
<p>Extra Curricular: Our school requires us to do atleast 100 hrs of ECs so I have a good amount. For example:
Outrigger Canoeing: Starting Six
HS Varsity Soccer
HS Varsity Volleyball
Guam Judo Team- former member, had to drop out b/c of school.
Yearbook - 2 years
High School Orchestra- Guitar, Piano- 2 years</p>
<p>Job Experience:
University of Guam Research Assistant
Construction Laborer
Tutor
Japanese/Korean Tour Guide</p>
<p>Major: Civil Engineering, History</p>
<p>Recommendations: Very Good. One from history teacher and one from math mentor.</p>
<p>I asked my college counselor about purdue and found out that no one from Guam applied to Purdue for at least 10 years (lol). He encouraged me to consider it.</p>
<p>Will being from Guam become an advantage for me? How hard is it to be admitted into the Engineering Program and History program?</p>
<p>So what do you guys think? do I have a chance? Thank You.</p>
<p>You have a great chance, especially with your SAT and ECs.. its 85% at Purdue, but just watch out... I heard engineering has all weed out classes.</p>
<p>oh yeah, it should be to your best interest to send your application now, for Purdue's on rolling...
As for coming from Guam, I doubt it will do anything.</p>
<p>I think you have a good chance...As for their acceptance, yes, they aren't all that hard to get into for a university with a rep as good as theirs (which is cool), but from what I've heard it's designed to be a college that is very difficult...So you may get in, but then you have to prove through the years you can make it.</p>
<p>The weed out classes are required for students with majors besides engineering, including chem, bio, biochem, etc. If you are worth your salt at calculus and inorganic chem you will survive the two most well-known weed outs. I think three years ago the chemistry department was put on probation (or at least soundly reprimanded) for making CHM 115/116 so difficult that the majority of grades were very poor. I'm not sure what their status is at this time. MA 165/166 are not bad at all, if you are OK at calc.</p>
<p>The weed out classes are designed to catch students who don't have even the most basic skills required for engineering. They aren't insanely difficult...people just like to perpetuate scary stories :) That whole "They did it to me, so I'm going to do it to someone else!" mentality...</p>
<p>As for Purdue's selectivity, my guess is that this will be the last year of 85% acceptance. Purdue has a worldwide reputation, but for all that, the UMich is much more selective and has much better retention to show for it. Purdue is paying with retention problems due to drop-outs and transfers when poor fits are made. President Cordova has stated that as one of the problem areas she plans to fix in the near future. So, for anyone in the class of '09 and beyond, take advantage of the easier admissions early in the season and apply as soon as possible after the application is available next fall. The other nice side effect of the retention problems is that they see attracting highly qualified students as a remedy, so the aid packages are becoming more and more generous :)</p>
<p>not really...for all that it sounds bad, plenty of people survive it with undamaged GPAs. You just need to understand that sometimes a little work is required to succeed.</p>
<p>hmm i see, but about how selective is purdue's engineering department in accepting applicants? I understand that even though its considered as one of the best, it's 'relatively' easier to get into than other top schools. does anybody have stats on its acceptances?</p>
<p>I can say that one major weed out class is ENGR 126. They teach you MATLAB programming and some vague engineering concepts to scare people off into thinking that Engineering is really that hard! My TA knew a guy who he felt was a good potential engineer but transferred to Philosophy next semester because of ENGR 126! Just survive that class and you are absolutely fine. Oh and watch out for PHYS 172. It is rumored that it is the second hardest freshman class in entire US!</p>
<p>And you have to be off your mind to say that CHM 115 is hard. Everything is pretty much high school chemistry. If you haven't taken it at high school level or are bad at chemistry in general, don't worry! There are plenty of helpful sources around!</p>
<p>Nothing is BAAAAAD in general...except for, of course, aero courses(God bless me! :-p). Its hard if you think it is. Keep in mind that civil requires a lot of math skills from what I have heard. The only guys who drop out of those "weed out" classes are guys who don't do a lot of work and expect things work well for them. They end up either taking a profession that is relatively much easier or perform poorly in those areas as well.</p>