Hi! I’m currently a senior and preparing my application for NC State and would like to know my chances. I am applying to the College of Engineering with a Comp Sci intent with a second choice of Exploratory Studies.
Stats:
In-state female (Wake County)
W GPA: 4.227
UW GPA: 3.77
Not Submitting Test Scores
People are telling me my essays are very strong (wrote all 3 including the optional)
Extracurriculars: Girl Scout (11 years; was planning on earning gold award related to stem but couldn’t because of covid), Theatre (All 4 years of high school; now in the advanced class that competes at NCTC; Head of community Outreach Chair in ITS), Worked with a teacher to re-instate the Environmental Science club after 2 years of it being dormant, Work as a Counselor at a Girl Scout Summer Camp, Served as a Governor’s Page, NHS and Beta club member.
My Senior year classes are:
Theatre Advanced Honors, Civics and Economics Honors, AP European History, AP Calc AB, AP Computer Science, AP Government and Politics, and AP English Lit
I’m also applying to UNC-CH, UNCW, and App State. I’ve already been accepted into ECU and invited to apply to their honors college.
Also I don’t know if this helps but my dad is a software engineer. 
Thanks!
1 Like
Hey!!! First I want to say that your application sounds amazing and you sound like a fantastic person! You’re completely correct to wonder your chances of getting into the COE at NC State because it is the most competitive college in terms of admissions. A computer science intent would be less competitive than aerospace engineering and a few others. This admission process is difficult with covid, so your essays are going to be the most important aspect. As you have mentioned, people have looked over your essays and they sound to be really good (which is great!). I cannot really tell you your chances of getting into the COE, because that will all depend on the group of individuals looking over your application. However, I can reassure you by saying that there are several options that can happen and even if your path into the COE is not direct, you may still end up getting into it
The Options:
A) You get into NC State into the COE (perfect! you can start thinking about the classes you want to take and talking to your counselors).
B) You get into NC State into Exploratory Studies. In this case, several things may happen. You may decide that you want to stay in exploratory studies for a year and then transfer to the College of Engineering. Or, you can actually talk to your counselor and fill out an appeal for the College of Engineering to reconsider you as an applicant. This will not affect your status as an NC State student, and if they reject you, you will just be an exploratory studies student until you transfer in the next year. However, if they do reconsider you, you will enter your freshman year as a COE student. (If you do end up taking a year of exploratory studies, focus on classes that are general education and will be a part of your comp-sci program).
C) This happened to one of my peers. They got waitlisted to NC State for the COE aerospace program, but then in mid-May they were accepted into it. This was a long process and the student had already committed themselves to a different school, but then NC State called and they got taken off of the waitlist after all. In the case of a deferral and/or a waitlist, you want to reaffirm the college of your interest in NC State and specifically why you believe you should be admitted to the COE program through a ‘letter of consideration/appeal.’
D) Finally, you may just end up getting into another school such as UNC CH or the ECU Honors program and they will offer you benefits and financial aid that NC State cannot.
In the long run, the college admissions process is so tedious to both the student and the admissions committee, but often it is extremely correct - the college that will choose you and give you the very best benefits will be an amazing school for you to get an education You seem like a very strong and intelligent person, and I wish you all the best in this process!
(I did want to mention, that if you wanted to consider it, Wake Tech has an Associate in Engineering program that would allow you to transfer to either of the colleges that you are applying to and it would prove to be more cost effective. In addition, you would walk out with an Associate in Engineering (w/ concentration in comp sci) and it would actually qualify you for some jobs. And, it would prove to be a wonderful process for transfer. However, this was just a mention because I know that I wish that some of my friends had gotten an Associate degree and transferred rather than going straight to college in their freshman year (just for financial reasons)).
1 Like
I think it will hurt you to not submit your test scores. Competition for that program is fierce. With a GPA you have not submitting test scores makes me wonder why. If there is no why, then submit them.
@recougar, since your post was from a few months ago, what did you decide to do? Sounds very strong to me!
@ToddinRaleigh @collegedna I was only able to take the SAT once on March 14th and did not get nearly as good of a score as I was hoping for. Both of my parents are high risk, so we ultimately decided it was not worth the risk for me to retake the test which I explained on my application. Hopefully they will be understanding but I was just accepted to Appalachian with the Excellence scholarship so I’ll be okay either way though State is still my top choice.
2 Likes
You do know that App State does not have an Engineering program. Yea grades will be good enough there but remember you are facing fierce competition at NCSU. Two different sets of people applying.
@ToddinRaleigh I know App doesn’t have an engineering program but my intended major is Computer Science so it is still offered.
@sanaicourses @ToddinRaleigh @collegedna Hi just wanted to give a quick update since y’all were super helpful. I was accepted to the COE early action today!
4 Likes