<p>I heard that at some schools, female applicants to Engineering majors has higher chance. My daughter surprised me few days ago that she's thinking of applying to some schools as Computer Engg/Science major. She has the stat and took a lot of math and science classes but no math/engg ECs. She was thinking of going pre-Med when she was a sophomore so she spend a lot of hours volunteering and intern to hospitals and clinics.</p>
<p>I looked at Cornell and their latest data has 30% acceptance rate for female applicants compared to 10% for male.</p>
<p>She's Asian though (although Filipino not the over-represented Asians, does being Filipino and female would help her @ Ivy League?). Her SAT is 2200 (1520 out of 1600), 750 Math. ACT is 34, with 35 Math. She took SAT II Bio (760) and Lit (720). Took Math II few weeks ago.</p>
<p>Science/Math APs: Bio (5), Chem (4), Calc AB (5). Currently taking AP Physics and AP Calc BC.</p>
<p>4.0 UW GPA, 4.56 W GPA, #1/600+</p>
<p>What schools would you recommend? We're California resident so she will apply to most UCs. Is MIT out of reach?</p>
<p>2018dad…your question has me shaking my head. Your daughter’s GPA, and SAT scores would make her a competitive applicant even if she were a guy. There are plenty of engineering programs where she could be accepted.</p>
<p>MIT is not a sure thing for anyone. But she should apply of SHE likes that school…it isn’t for everyone. As a CA resident, you have many choices at your instate public universities. CalPolySLO would be one. Many of the UCs. And you should consider Caltech if she really likes MIT.</p>
<p>But really…did you think she needed a “tip” as a female applicant…really? With those stats?</p>
<p>@Thumper
My concern is that generally at most schools (UCLA and Berkeley for example), the acceptance rate for Engineering is lower than other colleges (e.g. Letters & Sciences). I think at Berkeley acceptance rate for Eng’g is 11% while L&S is about 25%.</p>
<p>Few weeks ago, she’s all set with her college list and she’s applying as Econ/premed major then all of a sudden she blurted it out that she’s considering Computer Eng’g. I’m a Software Engr myself so I have mix feeling, but that’s another thread.</p>
<p>Here scores/GPA are OK but like what I said before, she doesn’t have any awards at all. No Intel/Siemen/Science or Math Olympiad. She wasn’t even a member of her schools Robotic team. Nothing on her EC’s that will show that she has “passion” for Engineering that makes her competitive. And most top Eng’g schools will have applicants with those credential.</p>
<p>If your daughter thinks she can get what she wants from a program like the computer science major in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, she might want to include a program or two of this sort in her list.</p>
<p>^^^^
But if she does apply to Cornell College of Art’s and Sciences then doesn’t she lose the female advantage that is present in the Enginering School’s admission rates?</p>
<p>@Marian
Thank you. I looked at UC Berkeley and they also have Computer Science offered at their L&S college. Although they will enter as Undeclared and then declare CS as their major once they complete certain requirements. I’ll loook at other schools too. </p>
<p>I think she’s mostly interested on software so CS is perfect for her and in case she will change her mind it will be easier for her to change her major. Again, thank you.</p>
<p>Yes, she does. But with her grades and test scores, she’s a very good candidate for Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences (or UC Berkeley) anyway. </p>
<p>And I’m not saying that she shouldn’t apply to engineering programs, too, at other universities. But it might be smart for her to include one or two universities in her list where she could apply as a computer science major in the liberal arts college. She might look more impressive as that sort of applicant than as an engineering applicant.</p>
<p>The vast majority of college applicants do not have Siemens or equivalent awards.</p>
<p>Amazingly…my daughter managed to get a college engineering degree without even taking high school calculus. She was not on a robotics team, or math team, and never entered an engineering competition. Her stats were much lower than your daughter’s.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated with an engineering degree from Santa Clara University which has a fine engineering program.</p>
<p>I think your daughter will have MANY fine options with her stats, and I can’t figure out why you don’t think this will be the case.</p>
<p>Yesterday I was reading on the MIT blog, and the student author said he know only one student at MIT who had significant awards. That makes sense – since the number of such awards is few, and there are thousands of STEM students at the top schools, it simply is not possible for more than a small percentage of students to have such awards.</p>
<p>How about Harvey Mudd? My D2 is a freshman there and loves it. They work insanely hard, but it is also a supportive environment with a lot of help. Her chances will be improved there because she is female. They are a STEM school, so not just straight engineering, so her lack of engineering ECs may be okay.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you’re looking for exactly, but I’d say she’s about as close as possible to guaranteed admission at Michigan (which is fairly prestigious in engineering) if she’s not looking for aid, and still a very good shot if she is. She can do CS in either LSA or CoE. And all the top companies recruit here heavily.</p>
<p>There are many students who have no exposure to engineering or even computer science due to lack of offerings in their high schools. Other students decide late in high school that engineering looks interesting after having focused on other subject areas. Colleges understand that. And engineering schools like having some students who have broader intellectual interests than just science/engineering.
Her great stats and being female will make her a sought after applicant especially at schools with lopsided ratios of males to females (CMU, Case Western, RPI etc.). Furthermore, some of those will offer significant merit aid to encourage her to attend. The ratio isn’t as bad at Ivy League schools.
She certainly is qualified to apply to MIT (and Stanford) if that is what she is interested in, though the odds are low for everyone.
What kind of environment does she want???</p>
<p>Before UC Statfinder went away, it allowed searching admission stats by various categories, including intended major (most recent data from 2008-2009). At Berkeley, engineering applicants with 4.2+ UC-weighted GPA and 2100+ SAT scores had good chances of admission, while those intending L&S majors needed either 4.2+/1800+ or 4.0+/2100+ to have good chances. Assuming that her 4.0 unweighted GPA has enough honors/AP courses to make it 4.2+ UC-weighted GPA, she can probably consider it a match, even for engineering (though be aware that different engineering majors have different selectivity), though Berkeley should not be considered a safety for anyone (since such things as the essay and other holistic factors come into play).</p>
<p>Note that at Berkeley, she can major in CS in L&S or EECS in engineering. L&S is probably slightly easier for frosh admission, but she needs a 3.0 college GPA in prerequisite courses to declare the CS major. For EECS, the frosh admission is probably more difficult, but if admitted, she is in the major already. L&S CS may be easier to do a second major in another L&S subject (e.g. math, physics, economics, history, etc.) if she so desires.</p>
<p>She definitely has the academic stats to be competitive for the super-selectives in that area, but how are her awards and extracurricular achievements? A poster named Data10 went through the Stanford results thread and found that admission matched up with high GPA, high test scores, and a state or national level award or extracurricular achievement.</p>
<p>2018Dad - If she can convey what inspired her to be an (software) engineer, she will be a strong contender with her stats everywhere she applies.</p>
<p>MIT is not out of reach. If she’s interested in CS she should definitely apply to Carnegie Mellon - however they require a physics or chemistry subject test and that may be true of other engineering schools as well.</p>
<p>RPI and WPI are likely to offer her merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Completely agree with this. Many (maybe even most) of my friends at MIT who majored in computer science had no experience with the subject before college. This is probably even more true for other engineering subjects.</p>