Please please please reverse chance me

College Search & Selection
1

Demographic:
Middle class white male

Major:
Mechanical engineering

Academics:
4.27 W GPA
3.7-ish UW GPA
27/319 rank, top 10%
3.95 College GPA (explain later)

Testing:
SAT: 1310, 630 RW/680 M, retaking for 1450+
Math II: Not taken, hoping for 700+
Physics: Not taken, hoping for 700+

Rigor:
Former part of a special STEM program in school
Honors Math/Science every year possible
Honors English/History every year but 9th
No AP, but I have Dual Enrollment (this is where I got my college GPA above)

LOR (Expected):
Former counselor who moved to another school, she loves me and thinks I’m practically a model student, it will be a great letter
11th grade English teacher, she mentioned writing my letter and thinks I could be a great writer one day (I know it’s a bit off mech. engineering)
9-10th STEM teacher, me and him are kinda buddy buddy and I showed him a math formula I think I discovered and he was all for it, and he likes me

EC’s (Lacking):
Lead anchor for the morning school news, 11-12
Men’s Volleyball, 10-12, 1-year varsity
Intramural Flag Football, QB of winning team, 10-12
Leader at local church’s Kids Club, 11-12
NHS, 12
DECA, 12 (Told I will likely get to States by a teacher)
Interact, 10 (Had to leave due to time interferences but I loved it)

Honors/Awards:
2-Time National High School Poetry Contest Topical Winner, published also
1st Place in Innovation, local robotics competition at a county college
STEM student, one of 24 students placed into the program per grade
2-Time President’s Honors List at a local county college I do my DE at
Computer Applications award winner at my high school’s award ceremony

Extra (Not included in application):
I may publish a math theorem over the summer because I discovered some math formula. I just need to write the paper
I am expecting to become at least a pre-finalist in the International Youth Math Challenge

I’ll use both those past two to replace weaker honors and awards

So where do you think I got a chance? If you can separate by safeties, competitive, and reaches that would be a great help too

Thanks!

2

Where do you live? Where in the country do you prefer to stay? Public vs private? Small vs large? What can you afford?

3

With somewhat improved testing, the University of Rochester would seem to represent the type of school you could consider as a match.

4

It’s a little hard to “chance” you, as you have some impressive and diverse EC’s and a lot of solid college-level coursework, but your SAT is a bit “soft” for engineering and your GPA is good but not so-breathtaking-it-totally-makes-up-for-the-SAT.

Fit-wise, it really depends what you want. On the one hand, large, prestigious U’s that are strong across the board could be a nice fit, but it’s pretty hard to storm the barricades of Cornell, Columbia, or UMichigan with a 1310 SAT. As @merc81 says, schools like URochester and Case Western Reserve U could be a good fit, but a test score improvement would be a big help. (Rochester is “text flexible” - so if there are tests other than the SAT/ACT that you do well on, they’ll consider those.) U of Miami and Syracuse U could be worth a look. And there are plenty of public U’s that could fit the bill. What is your home state? And what can you afford?

Test-optional schools could be worth thinking about, since your scores are so much weaker than your grades and EC’s:
Union College (NY) - LAC with engineering
GWU (DC)
WPI (MA) - you might like the project-based, entrepreneurial culture there. (And you can take classes at Clark & Holy Cross)
Drexel is “test-flexible” (co-op school)
Wake Forest is also test-optional, though they’re only launching their engineering program this year
^^ Your GPA is above median for all of these, and your EC’s should impress, but “chancing” test-optional applications is tricky, since we don’t get to see how successful the test-optional applicants are in comparison to the ones that supply test scores. Schools can safely assume you’re going test-optional for a reason, so it’s not as if the big picture is really hidden from them; it’s more that they can accept the people they want without hurting their test-score stats.

Quite a few test-optional schools are public U’s that are test-optional only for in-state students, so again it depends where you live.

More LAC’s with engineering (but not test-optional)
Lafayette has a “lively literary culture” https://creativewriting.lafayette.edu/ as well as solid engineering
Lehigh is strong in engineering, business, and liberal arts. https://english.cas2.lehigh.edu/content/creative-writing-program-information
Bucknell - also liberal arts + business + engineering https://www.bucknell.edu/CreativeWriting
^^ These three all have median SAT’s in the high 1300’s, and that’s for the whole school, with engineering scores likely higher. Your GPA is above median, but I guess I’d still call them all low-reaches unless your test scores come up.

Clarkson could be a good low-match/safety, though it’s mostly an engineering + health professions school, not so much of a humanities/social sciences place.

But it’s really hard to identify good targets without more info about your home state, budget (and whether qualify for need-based aid), and the kind of environment you prefer.

Also, you might want to give the ACT a chance and see if you might have more of a knack for that test.

5

Wow! Thanks for the great response. Considering I didn’t study at all for that 1310 SAT, I think it is quite reasonable I could raise my score to at least a 1400 and hopefully a 1450. I’ve already begun studying math for the August SAT and on practice tests I’ve improved 50 points already in math and I’ve only studied math for about 15 hours. Reading will be tougher but it’s doable. Oh, and my GPA is on the rise by a lot (I started HS with a 4.13 annual then 3.94 annual sophomore year, but shot up to 4.77 annual this year). Considering that, that looks better than a steady 4.27, right? I’m also from NJ, and my budget is about 50k, and I’ll be doing student loans. I also heavily prefer a city or urban environment. Anyway, thanks for the amazing answer to my question!

6

I would definitely include Rutgers and NJIT on your list (unless I am missing something about their programs).

I think that it is good that you are working on improving the Math part of your SAT score. This will matter for an engineering major.

I don’t think that I would be too stressed out about ECs. To me they seem most important for the very top schools who are choosing from among many students with perfect stats. For very good in-state public schools I wouldn’t be as concerned.

Volleyball is a lot tougher than it looks, but is a great sport.

7

I was already going to apply to Rutgers. My dad graduated there, and I think it’d be great to keep that line going, but I’m also weighing my other options.

8

Yes, an upward GPA trend is always good! And if you can get the SAT into the 1400’s… that’s still not going to cut it for super-elites, but it’s going to give you plenty of good choices. Also, a 50K budget gives you lots of options, even though it means that full-paying for private U’s in the $70K+ range is off the table. (If you qualify for need-based aid that would bring down the price of full-need-met private U’s to $50K, that’s a different story. If you’re not sure, run the Net Price Calculator on a few like Case Western, Northeastern, and Tulane.)

You’ll have some good public options in NJ - Rutgers, Rowan, TCNJ, NJIT (of which I guess NJIT is the most urban, yes? I’m a west coaster and haven’t visited these). Stevens has great programs and great proximity to NYC, but $$$ unless you can squeeze out some merit. Same goes for the other private urban U’s: Drexel, RIT, Rochester, CWRU, UMiami, Tulane, Syracuse. They all do offer merit; it’s just a question if whether you’ll get to your price-point or not.

Pitt could be a great school to visit - not too far from you (but far enough to be a change of scene), terrific urban school that should be a match if all goes as planned (and a 1450+ SAT would qualify you for Honors) - great engineering and lots to offer in other areas too, for an OOS COA within your budget and the possibility of merit as well.

U of Cincinnati would be a great safety. Their co-op programs are excellent (they claim to have invented co-op education) and you’d get an automatic $6K off the already-reasonable OOS tuition for being from a stated targeted by their National Outreach program, and probably more merit beyond that. It’s urban, and it’s not just a tech school - it has a top music and musical theater conservatory, a highly-ranked Classics department, a terrific Design school (including a track focused on designing vehicles), and there’s a big emphasis on design in MechE as well. https://ceas.uc.edu/current_students/curriculum_information/mechanical_engineering.html

Other great urban public U’s that would be in your price range include Ohio State in Columbus, UMinnesota Twin Cities, U of Utah in Salt Lake City (a great bargain as they’ll let you establish residency after the first year - excellent engineering and an innovative Honors College - also skiing and other amazing outdoor recreation just half an hour from the urban campus). Perhaps also SUNY Buffalo and UWisconsin Madison. (I am deliberately leaving out UCLA, UW-Seattle, and UT Austin - too expensive OOS and super-competitive as well.)

That should be enough to get you started! (And if you run out of research to do on those, you can always check out the Canadian urban U’s - McGill, Toronto, Waterloo, UBC) Good luck with the retest, and maybe think about giving the ACT a chance too.

9

I will. Thank you for the all the info!

10

As a general question, do you think if I got up to about a 1450-1480 I’d have a realistic chance at BU? I’ve been looking at schools for a few months and have wanted to go there, but I’ve felt low on SAT.

11

Google Common Data Set and look at section C.

12

@KennyHorn I think you could have a shot, but need to realize a jump of 100 points is expected, not 140-180. I would continue your search and maybe a list of schools in case you do better on the test such as BU. Do not, however, focus your whole search on the fact of having a 1450.

13

@CatLover20, thanks for the helpful words about this, and I do already have safeties and such picked out. Also, I thought more about a 140-180 point increase because I went to a seminar BU invited me to, and they said their average is about 1470.