Not the greatest stats but chance me for Rutgers,Purdue,NYU Stern,etc

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
    US citizen/domestic?
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities)
    New Jersey
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers):
    ~2500 students, pretty competitve
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional):
    Male/Asian/Indian
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):
    First-generation to college
    Intended Major(s)
    Engineering (Rutgers/Purude) or Business (NYU Stern/etc)
    GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
  • Unweighted and Weighted HS GPA:
    hoping to bump up my GPA during mid-senior year when colleges check, for now assume AP Gov - 95, AP Calc - 80, AP Comp Sci - 90, AP Physics - 95, English - 90, Astro - 100. GPA may be UW 88 and W 93?
  • Class Rank:
    School does not do class rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores:
    1480 on current SAT, but taking it 2 more times so assume 1550?

Awards
Usabo Semifinalist, guitar competitions, competitive soccer, Science Olympiad, Robotics, etc.
Extracurriculars
Burger King employee, Robotics, Sci oly, USABO Semifinalist, guitar, soccer, drawing, etc.
Essays/LORs/Other
Essays will hopefully be good, not amazing or anything. LORs will both be great although they are from teachers in my Sophomore year.

Cost Constraints / Budget
No budget as of now

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)
Honestly, I dont know where I stand since I dont have the best GPA for the schools I want, but again I plan to bring it up. Im really hoping for someone to reccomend what I do as I want to go to Rutgers or Purdue for engineering and I dont know when I should apply because again due to my stats. I would really appreciate honest responses and what my target schools should be with my stats and how I should approach colleges.

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I can only answer regarding engineering. I think you have a decent chance at Rutgers but I would also apply to NJIT and Rowan.

You can find the admissions profile for Rutgers at 2021 Admissions Profile.pdf (rutgers.edu)

And why I think that applying to NJIT and Rowan is always a good idea at Side discussion thread for top New Jersey engineering students looking for advice getting merit aid - Financial Aid & Scholarships - College Confidential Forums

Why Purdue? What does “no budget” mean?

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It looks like your GPA is a 3, which is low for Rutgers, your SAT might help, my daughters took it 3 times and couldn’t get it up past 1470 even with a tutor so submitted ACT scores instead.

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Engineering at Purude seems to be really good and the school is good in general. No budget just means I havent discussed it as of yet, but we are in a good place in terms of money so it shouldnt matter too much right now.

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If I were you, I would discuss budget with your parents ASAP. Being in a good place in terms of money does not necessarily mean that your parents can afford to send you out-of-state for 200K over four years, as Purdue would probably cost.

Your cumulative unweighted GPA as of last year was about 84.93/100 or 3.40/4. Ideally you would bring it back above 3.5 by the end of this semester. To improve your SAT score, consider practicing on Khan academy. They offer eight free practice tests, and increasing your score by ten points per practice test is doable in my experience.

Using a GPA calculator converting a 100 scale to a 4.0 scale, a 85 = 3.0. Am I missing something?

@Mjkacmom You have a good point. I simply converted from 100 to 4 by dividing by 25 but depending on the scale a 85 could be a 3.0. Thank you for pointing this out.

@rishim213 What scale does your school use? What do you get for a A/B/C out of 100?

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Look at the user-interactive Purdue Data Digest, here: https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/ under “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations” and also under “New First-Time Beginner Profile”. There may be some useful information for you there that impacts your assessment of chances for admission.

Also, Sections C9-C11 of the Common Data Set for Purdue give information about test scores and GPA for matriculating undergraduate students at Purdue; again, it may give you some insights into your admissions chances (although engineering students at Purdue are probably going to have higher GPAs and test scores than many other freshman applicants there.

Dumb question here: What does the “WP” for the Engineering Principles grade mean? Also, it doesn’t look like you received credit for that class. Do you know why?

On top of the costs, you need to do a little self reflection and think about why you have struggled in certain classes. Then think about what type of environment you might excel in. How are classes structured (large lectures and Recitations? or smaller classes). How is the curriculum set up (hands on learning vs theoretical)…

Look at the programs for Rutgers, TCNJ, Rowan
Check out Drexel, WPI, Manhattan College

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If the OP’s HS uses the standard A = 90-100, etc, the GPA should come out around 3.1-3.2.

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I agree with your counselor - the GPA is just too low.

But you are right it is improved.

You might look at an Pitt, Alabama, Arizona, Ms. State, Arkansas, Missouri Science & Tech, Hofstra, Bradley, etc.

What state are you from?

Still try - UMASS may surprise you but it is a reach for sure.

Also, no need to retake the SAT. You’re fine there. Good luck.

Physics Honors for Junior year is a 94 btw, dont know why it didnt show up

I notice that you included “Mass” in your subject line, which I will interpret as U.Mass Amherst. I agree that it is a reach.

I think that your chances would be better at U.Mass Lowell. U.Mass Lowell is ABET accredited for quite a few engineering majors.

Can you provide context to your GPA? Is this a US high school? Is the 80-89=B, 90+=A grading standard roughly applicable? Is there some uncommon situation where 85, roughly a 3.0, is much higher in relation to the rest of the class than typical? At my D’s high school, this would be below median.

Unless there are unique circumstances, Purdue and VT are significant reaches as T15 engineering schools. My D didn’t apply to the others, but I suspect Rutgers might also be a reach, but closer.

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Yes this is a US high school, grading is normal as you stated. Again regarding the GPA, I did bad Freshman year so I hope colleges notice that and ive done much better since then. My GPA will also bump a bit from mid senior year. My weighted GPA will probably end up being 92-93 and unweighted 88-89 accounting for mid senior year

Since you’re in state for NJ, I advise you to also apply to NJIT. Rutgers is possible, maybe. Highly likely that the OOS engineering schools that will accept you will be close to full pay. Lot of the merit scholarships are based on GPA. So keep that in mind when applying to places like ASU or UofA.

A quick glance at your transcript does show that you are having some challenges in core math and science courses. There is a recent, similar thread that you may want to look at regarding the lower GPA issue. Another earlier post in this thread has also brought up this issue.

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I assumed my SAT score would get some scholarships no? Also im not taking AP physics for my senior year I just want to note that as I noticed it was on my transcript right now. Anyways are you saying im unlikely for Purdue or is it possible?

With a lot of universities being test optional due to Covid, their eligibility for scholarships have changed. You can’t assume anything - you will need to check the website of each university you are interested in and see their eligibility requirements. For example, Univ. of Arizona awards scholarships based exclusively on unweighted GPA .

You can apply to Purdue or anywhere else you want. But I agree with your counselor and the others here that it would be a reach for engineering. Keep in mind that the universities don’t just look at the GPA as a number - they look at the rigor of your courses and see the grades in all your HS math/science courses, as well as possibly English.

The Average GPA of a student admitted to Purdue for Engineering is 3.82 and the Average SAT is 1432. Admission rate for Engineering is 40%. Yes there’s a shot and its a reach. Purdue suggest if you are really interested to apply early action.

I would suggest you stop worrying about individual schools and pull together a list of Reaches/Matches and Safeties. Lots of great suggestions for you in this thread and I’m sure you will find a college that is the right fit

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