<p>I am a sophomore in a very competitive highschool in NJ. My GPA is 2.65 unweighted currently. However, I am taking all honors and 1 AP course and I have been getting B's and C's in most of them. The thing is that I want to do engineering when I grow up but I only just realized how hard it is to get into a good undergrad state college. My SAT scores (based off of 3 practice tests) is around 1500-1750 but I am planning to get a Personal Tutor to help me improve that. What should I do? Is it too late for me to do anything? </p>
<p>P.S. I am going to be in varsty soccer for 3 years, I do Mathletes, Robotics, Chemletes, and I am planning to join Physics-Letes . </p>
<p>My ideal schools are Penn State, Ohio State, UDelaware, WVU, Virginia Tech, uPitt.
I am going to be also taking SAT Subject Test Math Level 1, Level 2, and SAT Chem
I am going to be taking AP tests for AP Psychology, AP Gov, AP Calc AB and BC, AP Chem, AP Physics
I might also take the ACT (maybe)
Teachers also like me!! (letter of recommendations)</p>
<p>my highschool is well known in the US. Every year about 1/4 of the graduating class end up going to Ivy League schools. We have about 500-600 students in total and 120 in my grade. </p>
<p>Go have a nice long chat with your guidance counselor, and find out what that person thinks. Surely your school has records of where students with your profile have ended up in the past. You may have better options than you think.</p>
<p>my only problem is that my counselor isnt very helpful and she is barely at school sometimes, and when she is, she always talks with seniors first. Or else, I wouldn’t have came on to this website </p>
<p>Don’t take honors or AP unless you can score A’s and B’s in them. Yes, usually the GC doesn’t have time for sophomores. You should do your best to get good grades and make that your focus. Don’t join too many clubs if it takes away from time spend on getting better grades. You can take the SAT in a year, so focus on your grades for now.</p>
<p>PERplexD: how much higher were they compared to mine? and which ones did she apply to? and thank you! i started to get tutoring for my classes so that should help me. :)</p>
<p>Do a bunch of research on each of your desired schools. Make yourself a spreadsheet of the minimum GPA and SAT scores an out of state student can get accepted at each school. All the info is on line by googling, for instance “admission profile VA Tech.” VA Tech only accepts 1/3 of its students from out of state so you would need to be highly competitive. The minimum GPA is about 3.5 and SAT 1800 and that mainly applies to in state students. You might find some other less competitive schools you’d like to have as safeties. Also go to the colleges admission portals and find out what high school classes they require for engineering, ex. physics, calculus etc. If you take as many weighted classes as possible and get A’s through the rest of high school your GPA will be in the higher 3’s. If you have any D’s in core classes you might see if you can retake the classes in summer school. Your EC’s are on target but try to get some community service in there. If you want to reach your goal you have no more room for any more C’s. Good luck!</p>
<p>oh yeah! I have about 165 hours of community service (helping disabled kids play sports, and about 125 hours of volunteering and helping out in a chemical lab in Rutgers University Chemical Research Department) Thank you OspreyCV22!! (Your right, VTech seems like a long shot) </p>
<p>I don’t think a single school you listed even considers voluntarism. Focus on your grades first and foremost. Afterwards, and for your own growth, do some voluntarism</p>
<p>Do you have any family members that can assist you in looking over your study habits and organizational habits? Any professional uncles, aunts, cousins, and so forth, who could review the process with you?</p>
<p>@onionrings - daughter applied to on your list Penn State, UofDel, Pitt, and Vtech. Excepted at Drexel, too. Drexel and UDel gave her merit scholarships. Still awaiting to hear if we get anything from the others.</p>
<p>Stats…don’t quote me (LOL) . ACT 30, SAT 1980, and GPA 3.87. I’m not sure if this is weighted or unweighted. </p>
<p>thank you PERplexD!!!
PolarBearVsShark: I have a lot of Ph.D “people( my uncles, grandpas, father)” in my family tree so yes I do. My mom has been helping me out lately and my Dad has been just giving me advice on how to cope with stress. </p>
<p>You have deep resources, theonionrings. Having a somewhat neutral-party PhD (uncle) look at your papers and your work habits over a weekend can be critically useful to you. If you can convince one of your peeps to help you over a summer, it would be a game changer. You also have two summers to make any necessary changes to study methods, or to rework fundamentals – so, plenty of time.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to schedule your classes strategically for the next two years. GPA trumps course rigor for the universities you’re considering, so your plan to take so many AP’s isn’t necessarily the best one.
Rigor only factors in once you’ve reached the GPA/SAT threshold.</p>
<p>Ohio State would want 27-28 and a 3.4 GPA.
Penn State’s bubble chart indicates that to have even a chance at Main Campus (University Park) you’d need 3.4 weighted wwith very high SAT scores (2100). With a 3.4/1750 you’d be offered a branch campus to prove yourself, probably Altoona, Behrend if you manage to raise your GPA. Below 2.8 even branch campus is unlikely.
Below 3.0 unweighted and regardless of SAT score, the best you can hope for is an offer for a branch campus so your first priority should be to increase your GPA.</p>
<p>Don’t take AP or Honors classes if you are likely to get less than a B in them - ie., for all the classes where you’re getting C’s this year, take them at regular level (GPA trumps course rigor for the universities on your list).
Based on your current profile, Calc BC is not recommended - only the tippy top math students take it (those who score 700-750 on the math SAT). But finishing with either an A in Precalculus or a B+ in Calculus AB (or “regular calculus” if your high school has a less-intense-than-AP class) is fine for engineering at both schools.
Your EC’s are good and show focus. Make sure that in addition to participating, you find a way to positively distinguish yourself (win something, organize team, etc.)
You would need almost straight A’s in regular classes and B’s in honors classes now on to ensure you reach the GPA level to have a shot at Penn State, Udel, Pitt, and Ohio State. VTech is out of reach as of now (revisit at the end of junior year if you have straight A’s and 1900 SAT).</p>
<p>Here’s the link to USN’s Best Engineering schools. Given your stats, start on page 4. Why? Because if your ACT composite score is in the range of 27-31 and GPA 3.7 & up, you’ll have a chance at these schools. Anything on page 1-3, ah, you have to have perfect everything.</p>
<p>Most state flagships have excellent engineering programs.
Start by visiting universities around where you live (if you told us what state, it’d allow us to be more precise).</p>
<p>If you want to attend college out of state, either your parents have $45,000 set aside for each year of your education, or you are better off applying to private universities. Unfortunately, there aren’t many private universities within your stats range. You really need to bring that GPA up and work on your SAT.
Do apply to a couple public college in NJ as safeties (make sure they’re affordable, have your intended major, and that you like them enough.)</p>
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