Please Help: With my situation, what schools fit me best for Mechanical Engineering?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi guys, I’m in the midst of getting my college applications together, but my list still feels like it could use some changes.
I would REALLY, REALLY appreciate it if you could read through my colleges and suggest what I could do in terms of my situation. :slight_smile:

Asian/Male - NJ

I have a 4.2 W GPA(school doesn’t do class, and doesn’t notify students of unweighted)
34 ACT (35E, 33R, 34M, 35S - 10/12 essay)
1490 SAT(probably using ACT)
SAT II: 790 Math II, 770 Physics, 730 Chemistry
Junior: AP Calc AB(5), AP Physics 1(5), AP Gov&Econ(5), AP Lang(3)
Senior: AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Lit, AP Comp Sci, Advanced Latin Literature(weighted as AP)

ECs:

  • Co-President/Founder of musical ensemble(organization I made that travels to schools and facilities with high school/middle school students to perform music for people of all ages with special disabilities)(Recieved local Mayor’s Arts Award)
  • 300+ Hours - Teacher Advisor at my church(take care of children while their parents are at service)(Gold Volunteer Service Award)(9-12)
  • iGEM Competition Team Website and Outreach Lead - working with team right now, our topic is essentially experiments on Huntington’s Disease
  • President/Founder - School on Wheels - Organization that I made that aims to transport computers and other devices to impoverished communities(in the process right now)
  • Mission Trip to Fresno, California(this past summer) - Brought bible summer camp to local impoverished children of Hmong people who originated as refugees from South-East Asia
  • Basketball - Freshman, JV, and Club Team(9-11)
  • Piano Ensemble Competition Winner(multiple 1st and 2nd places)
  • Secretary of Model UN Club(Won Best Position Paper Award)(Member 9-11)
  • Technology and Computers Club(Member 9-12)
  • UNICEF Club(Member 9-10)
  • Latin Club(Member 9-12)(Won Latin Exam Silver Medal 2x)
  • NHS & SNHS(Science National Honors Society)

Internships:

  • RWJMS(Rutgers Medical School)(this past summer) - Researched data on miRNA expression within Parkinson’s Disease, the prof. just received a new grant to continue this with some research that I provided, name will be on future paper
  • Local Software and Hardware Electrical Engineering company(10th grade) - researched biomimetics, mainly an introduction to engineering for me at the time

BUT…
I think my stats are pretty decent for most schools, but for my reaches, I feel like my resume/GPA/scores don’t reflect someone who should go into MechE, which is why I was considering changing my major for some of my reaches(such as Cornell or GT). But I really fudgin love engineering so its a tough for me to switch :frowning:
-Also: I took an accelerated course for Algebra II & Trig after freshman year, so I could take Honors Precalc as a soph. I didn’t perform so hot(B-) since it was my first exposure to that kind of difficulty(also its known as the hardest math course in my school oof), and I told my Calc teacher and counselor about this, and they are prob going to write about it, and how I worked my way up from there(i.e. A in AP Calc AB last year)

Schools I’m Planning to Apply To:
Reach:

  • Cornell(ED)(considering changing to Environmental Engineering, idk what really fits me more, MechE @ cornell seems like they would reject me w/ my stats so i’m trying to find a different route)(also Cornell loves my high school, they accept more than half of ED applicants every year)
  • Carnegie Mellon(RD)
  • Georgia Tech(EA)(apparently transferring btwn majors is really easy freshman year)(considering switching to Neuroscience, my stats make it tough to get into engineering, like Cornell, but neuroscience fits with my ECs)
  • UMich(EA)
  • UCLA(RD)

Target:

  • Cooper Union(RD)(I know, not really target, but i’ve talked to their admissions officers a lot and on naviance i have the best stats out of anyone else who applied from my school so idk lol)
  • UT-Austin(RD)
  • UCSD(RD)
  • NYU(RD)(is this target or safety?)

Safety:

  • RPI(RD)
  • Northeastern(EA, sister went there idk if that helps)
  • Virginia Tech(EA)
  • Purdue(EA)

I’ve fleshed out a list, but I’m still confused about whether or not I should go head-first into engineering for Cornell and GT, or if I should weigh my options more.

PLEASE: It would really help if you could leave some input on potential colleges I should look at, and what I could do for my reaches, maybe applying to something other than MechE

Thank you very much if you made it this far :slight_smile:

2

What is your price limit? Out of state publics will give you little or no financial aid, and some of the private schools on your list do not have a good reputation for financial aid. Check net price calculators if cost is of any concern.

What about Rutgers, Rowan, NJIT, and TCNJ?

Note that VT and Purdue enroll engineering students in a first year pre-engineering program. Both have a college GPA threshold significantly higher than 2.0 in order to declare an engineering major.

UT Austin is a reach, since most spots are taken by Texas applicants in the top 6% of their classes, and engineering majors are additionally competitive. UT Austin uses rank instead of GPA for admissions.

UCSD is probably a reach, since engineering majors are much more competitive than the school overall. GPA as recalculated at https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ is the biggest factor.

3

I would argue that you don’t have any true safeties. Purdue, VT, and Northeastern are all strong matches but plenty of people with your stats don’t get accepted to these institutions. You have a good chance of being accepted at all of them but I think it’s risky to assume that you would be.

4

No real problem with your reach school. However, I think some of your target schools are more reach than target. For example, Cooper Union has a tiny enrollment and a 13% acceptance rate, so it’s a reach for basically everyone. A true target school for you would be something like University of Rochester or Lehigh. I would also add a couple of safeties - WPI, RIT, Union, and Stevens (if you’re not opposed to staying in NJ) come to mind.

5

I agree that you have no safeties on your list. The out of state publics, especially for engineering majors, are reaches or matches, definitely not safeties.

If your passion is with engineering, apply for engineering. It’s much harder to transfer into engineering than out.

6

Your list and strategy is totally fine, as others have said, your safeties are really more matches, unless your high school naviance data says otherwise, say 99% of students with your profile get in to RPI. It looks like you’re not interested in staying in-state (most if not all NJ residents will have Rutgers as an engr safety), so pick a safety or two out of state if you don’t get into any of your EA colleges. Also you should be able to figure out unweighted GPA on your own, it’s the weighted that’s harder to figure out. Colleges post uw gpa in their student profiles. Good luck!

7

As mentioned above, none of your safeties are safeties; and UT-Austin is not a match for OOS students.

You might also post your query in the engineering forum: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/

8

Stevens is a match, not a safety. Additionally, if V-Tech and Purdue play this game of admitting to “pre-engineering” with the intent of downselecting those whom they accept into an actual engineering major later on, I would avoid them. Go to a school that actually accepts you for an engineering major from day 1. What VT and Purdue are doing IMO is dishonest. They are increasing their tuition revenues by accepting more students into the “pre-engineering” program than they know they can accomodate in their engineering majors, and then make the student reapply competitively knowing that a predetermined portion of those students will not be accepted. You have no assurance of going on into the engineering program at schools that do this. Do all the “pre-engineering” courses count towards the engineering major if you do get accepted? I would look elsewhere. This is a less than honest game those schools play in my opinion.

9

I completely disagree with the above. Purdue is very upfront that their screening for engineering happens during admission to the university. The stats for students transitioning to their major is well above 90%. And it isn’t a pre-engineering program. It is a common first year engineering program and all the engineering classes absolutely count towards the major. Students take calc, physics, engineering, comm/english, and then depending on your intended major your science elective. One of the things that appealed to my daughter about Purdue is jumping into engineering courses right off the bat. There is NOTHING dishonest going on.

10

^ I concur with @momofsenior1 on this.

11

@Engineer80

Purdue has had a first year common curriculum for engineering (not pre-engineering) program since 1934:

12

@lvvcsf @momofsenior1 @theloniusmonk @gandalf78 Thank you so much for the helpful replies! I will agree that my safeties are in fact not guaranteed, however, after meeting with my counselor multiple times, viewing naviance, and looking at their recent student profiles, I think I am in good shape for them, despite their recent selectivity. On Naviance, my marks are well past the schools’ averages, even for Northeastern. Every student that I match up with or am near have all been accepted to Purdue, VT, Stevens, RPI, and Northeastern. There are at least 30 kids who apply to each of them every year, and they all have acceptance rates of at least 44%(even Northeastern, accepting 34 out of 65 applicants last year from my school, or Purdue with 30 out of 38). Take this information however you’d like to, and although I definitely understand where you all are coming from, I may still regard them as safeties/targets based upon my judgements with my counselor, naviance, and my teachers, but I won’t be overly confident of course. Thank you again for replying, I really appreciate it! :slight_smile:

13

But again: Are there any other schools you would suggest me to consider?(I’ve been looking at BU and Stevens)

14

I still consider this to be a gimmick on the part of VT and Purdue. Qualified students who get accepted into engineering majors from day 1 do fine, without this silly “vetting” if that’s what the school considers it to be. The student should have already been vetted by virtue of that used for the initial acceptance.

While they may be up front about it, it is hard to consider this system anything more than revenue enhancement for tuition. They know up front that they are accepting more students than they can accomodate after the first year in engineering, which to me again is dishonest.

1934-35 catalog of Purdue? LOL! All engineering schools have a relatively uniform common curriculim in the first year. That is not the same thing as a “pre-engineering” year in which the student is required to re-apply and be vetted a second time for the engineering major. Purdue may not have done that in 1934.

If one is accepted directly to an engineering major at another school, they “jump in” to the basic science and introductory engineering courses that comprise the non-disciplinary specific part of the curriculum which usually comprises the first two years. Those schools usually don’t refer to it as “pre-engineering” however.

15

I would NOT apply for an alternative major just to get into a “reach” school. It is often much harder to transfer into engineering than just to be accepted from the get go. Looking at your list I would add Case Western as a match and Rutgers as an affordable safety. I would also throw in some higher reaches such as MIT and Harvey Mudd for example.

16

Regarding Purdue, First Year Engineering students need to earn a 3.2 technical and overall GPA to be assured their first choice major. Otherwise, admission to engineering majors is competitive:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/InfoFor/CurrentStudents/enrollment-policy
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M

VT has a 3.0 GPA threshold for guaranteed admission to first choice major after enrolling as General Engineering; otherwise, admission is competitive by GPA:
https://enge.vt.edu/content/dam/enge_vt_edu/undergraduate/com_requirements/COM_GE.pdf

Michigan has a similar program where engineering students enter undeclared, but all majors are open (only a 2.0 GPA and C grades are needed):
https://advising.engin.umich.edu/declaring-or-changing-major/

17

Purdue’s engineering threshold depends on major. It’s not 3.2 across the board.

And again, it’s NOT a pre-engineering program. It’s a first year common curriculum, not that different from schools that direct admit into a major.

They are not taking more students than they have spots for.

IMO, it’s no different than Cornell engineering where you don’t declare even later - between first and second semester sophomore year.

Engineering is TOUGH. Lots of kids change major regardless of what kind of approach a school takes.

Is it any “fairer” to get kids to graduation with a 2.0 and then have no job prospects at the end of 4 years? Or to not realize until 1/2 way through that they aren’t cutting it and then not graduating in four years because they switched majors too late?

18

“But again: Are there any other schools you would suggest me to consider?(I’ve been looking at BU and Stevens”

I can think of plenty of schools. I already mentioned U of R, WPI, Lehigh, Union and RIT. To that you could add Bucknell, Villanova, Lafayette, Pitt, and Tufts. With the exception of Tufts, all of these would be in the match or safety category based on your stats. Also, you have NYU on your list. One thing you should be aware of, NYU engineering is not located on the main campus in Manhattan. It’s in Brooklyn (NYU bought out Brooklyn Poly a few years back).

19

@momofsenior1 - Engineering is tough, no doubt about that. I have a PhD in electrical engineering. I am quite aware of how tough it is to study engineering.

I know people who graduated with a 2.0 average in engineering (not that I recommend doing so, by all means a student should strive for the highest grades he or she can). They all got engineering positions. Two of them started businesses that became very successful. GPA by itself isn’t necessarily an arbiter of success. Perhaps graduates of Purdue or VT with a 2.0 average have difficulty getting jobs.

20

Experience in Biomimicry is somewhat unusual. If you liked that experience, then Tufts may be a good fit. It is a relatively small engineering school that is undergraduate focused and very interdisciplinary in its programs and research. They developed the first softbodied robots (which involves neuromechanics and Biomimetics).
http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/trimmer/

They also have an interdisciplinary minor in Music Engineering which would map to your interests in music and mechanical engineering.
http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu/musicengineering/

Selectivity is similar to Cornell, but admissions tends to be very holistic for an engineering school. Fit, passion, and community service (which you appear to be strong on) are weighted heavily.

Best of Luck.