<p>You need to remove about half of those schools with your test scores.</p>
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I strongly disagree. You are ranked 2nd out of 180 in your high school and play varsity basketball. These make you a candidate for MIT and Cornell, though your scores aren’t terribly strong. Your scores are acceptable for UVA (not sure for UMich) but still, RETAKE. Try taking the ACT as well.</p>
<p>Practice the SAT a good 8 times and retake it in November. Your score should go up to 2100+ and then you have a real shot at Cornell and maybe even MIT. Don’t let others discourage you (you may regret later on why you didn’t apply to MIT and that perhaps feel later on that if you had applied you may have had a shot). The only way to eliminate your chances is to not apply. That being said, an 1800 is not stroong for MIT.</p>
<p>Other schools to consider:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (improve SAT and excellent chance of great merit aid)
U.Mass/Amherst (best public engineering school in New England - again increase scores for chance of merit aid)
Rochester Institute of Technology (merit aid possible)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (merit aid possible)
Case Western Reserve University (merit aid possible)
Illinois Inst. of Technology (merit aid possble)
University of Rochester
U. of Pennsylvania (solid reach)</p>
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<p>With an SAT score 200 points below average, I wouldn’t put GT in the “match list”. </p>
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<p>It would depend on how you define a “good” engineering program. I’ve known many Villanova grads that were all very good engineers. I would definitely list it as one of the better Northeastern engineering programs. </p>
<p>Now, can it compete with the other major schools in attracting employers? That’s up for debate. It doesn’t have the size factor of a Penn State or a Rutgers and it doesn’t have the brand name of an MIT, or CMU. Before deciding for or against Villanova, I would contact their career services department and ask for statistics on the number of offers / student that graduated the last 3 years, the average reported salaries, the percentage of students employed at graduation, etc. then compare that to other schools on his list.</p>
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<p>Or most of the other ones suggested here. That is an incredibly low score for places like GT, UIUC, Purdue, etc, let alone MIT. I don’t really care if the OP played varsity basketball, it still is too low for some of those places.</p>
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<p>Not meaning to be offensive, but I am just curious whether any of you who are saying OP has no chance were salutatarians of your high schools. By the way, I am sure a lot of you are very smart and are doing well in the schools that OP is considering.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was #2 in a class of 375 with a better ACT/SAT than he has and played varsity football and baseball while holding down a job for 3 years during high school. I didn’t get into MIT either. I turned out just fine, I’d say.</p>
<p>It isn’t me being mean, it is me being realistic. His SAT score in math is not really anything special, which is what a lot of engineering programs look at. Maybe the rest of his transcript will make up for that at some of the really good schools, but MIT isn’t one of them, and the chances are only slightly better at UIUC/GT/etc as mentioned before. Could he get in there? Maybe. It depends on the strength of everything in his application. However, his test scores are still slightly low for the top engineering programs. For example, the middle 50% of engineers at UIUC got between 1920 and 2160 on their SAT.</p>
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Those are quite good stats. My stats weren’t close to yours but alas, I didn’t get into MIT either. I hope to go to a 1st tier grad school though. I guess what you are saying is true - fortunately or unfortunately Math SAT is looked upon closely by engineering schools.</p>
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BU is quite overpriced for most engineering (they do give out a few merit awards -including full scholarships - but these are few and far apart). I was rejected with a 2210 SAT/top10% in HS/reasonable EC’s. My brother got only $2k in loans though he opted UChicago instead (with a better aid package).</p>
<p>I go to WPI and while it is a good school and gave me a good scholarshp, it is really in no way exceptional. I came here because of the “project based” curriculum and thus far, I am finding that there aren’t that many projects here and am having a hard time finding research opportunities here (the faculty don’t have funding and/or are not willing to take you on unless you have taken a course with them).</p>
<p>I feel that a lot of the private schools in the Northeast are somewhat overrated and have mediocre engineering programs. If you look at the UG engineerng rankings, UMass Amherst ranks higher than Northeastern, Tufts, BU, and WPI but is still not exceptionally good. Look to schools outside of NE where they give good merit scholarships. Illinois Inst. of Tech and Drexel good examples.</p>
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<p>I’m not saying that he has “no chance”. A match school means that your statistics fall well within the range of typical admits and you have a high probability for admission. If you’re in the bottom quartile in any area (especially GPA or, as in the OP’s case, SAT), you’re not a match. You’re at least a reach.</p>
<p>Can you still get in? Of course. But I wouldn’t start packing my bags just yet.</p>
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Class rank is not helpful at all, provided that most MIT and Cornell applicants are top 10, if not, top 5%.</p>
<p>Scores still matter in the first place - that is, SAT, or ACT, and SAT.
Remember even in college there is GPA inflation. How can one prove that there is no bias in GPA? Essentially, high school GPA and class rank aren’t something the most impressive that people look at.
It’s certainly great! If I stay in the high school I went to in freshman year I would be top #1 (consider only 85 students only).</p>
<p>Other credentials might help - such as completing in a national competition. Also MIT looks at the essay part heavily, since most of their applicants are so “perfect”.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but a white male with a 620 math score and 1800 SAT has almost no chance at MIT or Cornell for engineering. Sorry but I’m not going to sugarcoat it.</p>
<p>If the OP is looking for merit aid, his best opportunities will come from schools where he is at the very top of the applicant pool, not the middle. Also, financial aid for OOS applicants to public schools is usually reserved for really stellar students. I think FooMonChew’s suggestion to cast a wide net and to include a good number of match/safeties (like Drexel and Buffalo) is a good one. And remember, it’s really only safety if it is a financial safety, too.</p>