Need to make some critical decisions here...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Northwestern is my #1 choice, Urbana-Champaign's (UIUC) Engineering School being second. Other places I'm hoping for are WashU, Purdue (hopefully with scholarships). Also, if by some miracle I'm able to get into UIC's GPPA program it would take precedence over any of my other choices.</p>

<p>I'm basically looking for schools in the Chicago/Louisville area (close to family) with strong engineering majors (Bio-med engineering is what i'll major in most likely) and have a chance for scholarships.</p>

<p>I'd call my stats above average... Northwestern just might be a fleeting dream with these.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.85 Unweighted
SAT I: 640M, 620W, 600V
No SAT IIs
Will take the ACT upcoming October.
School does not rank.</p>

<p>AP Tests:
AP Chemistry 4 (Junior)
AP Biology 4 (Junior)</p>

<p>Currently in Senior year taking AP Calc AB, AP Physics and AP Gov & Pol.</p>

<p>ECs:
Beta Club (11th - 12th)
National Honors Society (12th)
Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) VP (11th)
Summer Internship at a hospital</p>

<p>Awards/Honors:
AP Test Scores
Science Olympiad District 2nd place Ecology</p>

<p>Work & Exp:
Paid - Webdesign (Portfolio at <a href="http://209.172.44.40/%7Eshak/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://209.172.44.40/~shak/&lt;/a> Will hookup a domain soon)
Community Service</p>

<p>I'm in a bit of a dilemma here... I had my first two years of high school in Saudi Arabia (I am Indian by origin), at a British School that administered the IGCSE program. I received 5s on most of my courses (This is the IBO Scale I believe, course rigor corresponds with that of IB). Now I live in Kentucky with my Uncle and am finishing off my final two years... My school hadn't dealt with a situation like this before, they simply converted my IGCSE classes to Honors classes based of a high school curriculum here and converted most of the 5s/6s to As.</p>

<p>I'm not sure what transcript to send in to the universities I'm applying to, will they request a transcript from the British school, or will the grades translated by the school in Kentucky be able to pass off? (I'd lose my "IGCSE" identity, the courses were much more rigorous but there was no 4.0 scale).</p>

2

<p>So... anyone feel like pitching in some feedback?</p>

3

<p>Given your stats, WashU and Northwestern are big reaches. UIUC and Purdue, on the other hand, look like matches. If you want to be a competitive applicant at either WashU or Northwestern, you're going to need at least a 32 on your ACTs.</p>

<p>Other match level schools with good engineering schools you might want to look at:</p>

<p>Bradley University
St. Louis University
Case Western Reserve
U of Missouri - Rolla</p>

4

<p>So is it the ECs and SAT score that are pulling me down? I honestly don't know what move to take regarding ECs... I havent been much of a fan for staying after school and doing stuff... But if it'll make a good impression on my transcript maybe I can hustle something now.</p>

<p>Also, any ideas regarding the IGCSE transcript?</p>

5

<p>SAT scores. You're GPA is fine, and I wouldn't worry about the ECs. Rather than suddenly taking on a whole raft of new ECs - which would look suspicious to any admissisons officer - just play up the ones you've done and are currently doing. ECs should be stuff you want and like to do, not stuff you do to impress admissions officers at colleges.</p>

<p>As I said in my first post, to improve your chances, you need to do a really good job on the ACTs you plan to take. Pick up a study guide from Kaplan or Princeton Review. Study the material. Do a bunch of practice tests. Studying for these tests and doing practice test does improve scores.</p>

<p>As for the IGCSE transcript, I don't know. Your best bet is to contact the admit offices at the schools you're interested in, explain the situation, and ask them what to do.</p>

6

<p>UIUC is a big reach especially to the engineering program. My dad was talking to some admissions officers about 7 years ago while my brother was going through the admissions process he had a 1320 SAT score, and that was really low, they were saying 1350-1370 range is minimum, so your scores are pulling you down</p>