My S22 is potentially considering Engineering at NCSU because he is interested in the Computer Science major with a concentration in Game Design. What sort of odds would he have as an out of state student (we are in Tennessee). He is a full IB student (is taking the highest HL math, physics, English, and business), has a 34 on the ACT, a weighted GPA of 4.35, an unweighted GPA of 3.95 (high school does not rank). He is co-caption of his high school robotics team and has had a seasonal job the past two summers. Lastly, he was a winner in the 2021 Apple SWIFT competition for WWDC for high school and college students.
Thanks.
I think that he would be a strong candidate. Section C7 of the Common Data Set indicates that the “very important” admissions factors are rigor of secondary school, academic GPA, and standardized test scores (rank is not applicable to you); and your son does very well in those categories. Also, Section C9 of the CDS indicates that his ACT scores are above the 75th percentile for matriculating students, and his GPA and test scores are good as indicated in Sections C10 and C11 of the CDS. The GPAs and test scores of computer science and engineering students are probably going to be a bit higher than those of the average matriculating student; but I think that your son is in a strong position.
NCSU has a cap of 18% OOS students in the entering freshman class. According to an NCSU admissions officer I spoke with a couple of years ago, the university had never reached that cut-off; I don’t know since then whether the 18% has been reached. (This is more of a problem at UNC-CH.)
I am sending you a PM, also.
Good shot of acceptance, but do not count on much merit or aid for OOS from NCSU. The reason NCSU does not meet the 18% mentioned above is probably due to the lack of merit. They accept many more than that. Most students receive better offers from every other option as far as I have seen. With a little higher stats my daughter received just a little aid there and for overall costs we were looking at just under $200,000. Depending on need for aid and the cost you are looking for there may be some other options further away for CS/engineering with game design. Some smaller schools may end up less with merit with a college experience more tailored to interests - look at WPI (additional merit for robotics), RIT, and similar schools. For Game Design research where the graduates are working and where internships are active and the overall variety of classes offered in the course catalog.
You match my son two years ago. In. No aid. He did get $10k at Purdue and $28k at Alabama, where he attends.
So you have great odds.
Good luck.
1 Like