<p>I have been in a psychedelic state where I am currently deciding on which path I shall take for my higher education. To explain my current "state" I wanted to expand more on me first, I had originally moved from NYC this past May during my junior year to Washington State. That being said, yes, I had moved during the middle of my junior year but my credits had transitioned smoothly. My family income is very low (well below average, my father was the only worker in my family). Here are some stats that can be beneficial for answering my question</p>
<p>Old HS GPA (Up till first semester of junior year) - 91.29 UW
New HS GPA (No +'s, or -'s, only A, B, C) - 3.24 UW (This is getting fixed)
ACT 20 (Took December of 2011, just retook it again this month)</p>
<p>At my old HS, I had taken AP courses starting my freshman year, including Computer Science, European History, English Language, US History, Biology and Calculus AB. At my new HS there are no AP courses whatsoever, and instead the highest courses available are called "AICE". </p>
<p>I have interned with NASA, NYC Department of Transportation, and currently doing a year-long internship with Boeing. I have held leadership role in FIRST Robotics (And actually started up four brand new teams in my district!) and held leadership role in my schools Science-Math team (at my previous school). I have participated in sports such as Baseball and Golf (both varsity) and done tremendous hours of community service.
So my situation I am solid on majoring in Mechanical Engineering, where my internships and leadership in Robotics has grown my interest to make it as my career path. But my concern is because of my recent move; my family wants me to remain local and do not favor me applying out state. The only schools I have applied to include University of Washington Seattle and Seattle University. Would it make sense for me to stay local in your opinion? Do you think I would be possibly granted admission to both of those mentioned schools? For a major like Mechanical Engineering, would it make sense to apply elsewhere? I am stuck, where my family is not rich and in fact am trying to still pay off the moving expenses that had built up, so I do not want to leave them in a burden. How would you possibly handle this situation? I am open to further providing more details if necessary!</p>
<p>You might want to apply to more schools so that you ca n have a choice among financial aid offers. Two schools won’t how you much to choose from. Also, many engineering candidates at the UW must wait for acceptance into the program after freshman year.</p>
<p>Why do your parents want you time stay in state? Travel expenses?</p>
<p>Well, I was originally adding schools like University of Michigan, LeHigh (IBE program), Boston University and another good engineering school. I guess the main reason for this is because they feel we just moved, and that it doesn’t make sense to travel elsewhere for college, especially back to the east coast. I obviously now know that Seattle U. is not very reputable in Engineering…how would I stack up with UW Seattle? I am Indian by the way, first person in my family that would attend college. </p>
<p>Can your parents pay anything at all toward your education? If not, are there Abe engineering programs within commuting distance?</p>
<p>Run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of the universities you are considering. Then go to the financial aid forum and read up on that topic. Your 2011 ACT score is low. You would need at least a score of 30 to get large merit scholarships. If you think that is possible, a gap year to work, save money for college, and re-take the ACT or SAT might make sense.</p>
<p>Apply to WSU - soon. The odds of you getting into UW are not great with your GPA and ACT score. Seattle U is ungodly expensive and not generous with financial aid. Also, consider starting at one of the local CCs then transferring into UW or WSU. The path for pre-engineering at a CC then a BS at UW is well laid out.</p>
<p>Options in the Seattle area for engineering are kind of sparse. Many go to WSU, some are at Oregon Tech and Oregon State, some at Montana State. Those with significant money go to CA or the east coast.</p>
<p>Wait, so no matter how many rigourous internships or extracurrics I have completed, and from a test score that was taken beyond a year ago these are my sudden choices? A 91, which is seen as a 3.7 in most conversion charts is suddenly low? I am very confused.</p>
<p>A friend with very good ECs, a 3.6 with all honors and APs, and a 29 ACT was denied for engineering at UW. Admission there is very competetive. Your GPA is probably about average. An ACT of 20 is well below the range of admitted students and may be a disqualifier. I hope the score is better for you this time.</p>
<p>You have many great things going for you, but with a large applicant pool and shrinking number of spots available, admissions will be looking for a reason to reject. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Yes, your test score is a significant problem. Hopefully you got it up a lot in this last retake… In general… be aware that some private schools give better financial aid than state universities, and you may get a better deal from some of them. However, most STATE universities don’t give as much aid to students from outside of that state.</p>
<p>How were your friends essays? I know the essay is considered the vital part of the application that determines your decision. Besides, what other schools are good to consider applying for? I was thinking UIllinois urbana</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a good idea to apply to ANY OOS publics since your family is low income. Schools like UMich aren’t going to give you the aid you need. </p>
<p>Until you get new test scores, it’s hard to know. If you got a 20 a year ago, then it’s unlikely you’re going to see some mega-huge increase. If you get an ACT 25, a good sized increase, that will also limit which schools will accept you for engineering and for aid.</p>
<p>You need to apply to all the instate publics that have engineering. Your state does give aid, so that along with fed aid may make a school affordable. If your test scores go up a LOT…28+…then there may be some privates that give excellent aid and have eng’g that may work out for you.</p>
<p>I agree with other posters. A 20 ACT will be a disqualifier at schools like Urbana-Champaign, even if you could pay full price.</p>
<p>If your ACT score does not go up, your best bet may be to get terrific grades for two years at a community college while you are living at home, and then transfer to UW. Once you have a couple of years of college grades on record, your ACT score will not matter. You have an excellent public school right in town, which might be your cheapest option in the long run as well as a very valuable degree. This is the clearest path into that university for you.</p>
<p>This is very interesting still, speaking for the fact that one standardized test can immediately send you to a community college. This senses me to believe my high school years was more of a waste of time - spending 30+ hours working with clubs and doing various internships to build up my resume. Interesting.</p>
<p>Lets take a moment and completely fade the financial situation, what other schools are out there that I can still apply for?</p>
<p>The point is that good grades are a necessary, but not sufficient condition for admission to most good engineering schools. Your GPA isn’t a waste - but by itself, with an ACT of 20, it’s not enough. If you had excellent test scores and lousy grades, it would be the same issue. And no, excellent ECs don’t make up for low grades or low test scores. They simply differentiate you from all the others who have both the grades and the test scores to get in (and there are many of those).</p>
<p>You can figure this out for yourself by googling the Common Data Set for each school you are interested in. Look at the latest year for which numbers are available and go to Section C, in particular, to see how you compare to the admitted student body. Note that you need to be above the lowest 25% to have a reasonable chance of admission since those with grades or test scores in the lowest 25% usually have hooks of some sort.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback, I was originally following the information provided from College Board in terms of GPA, SAT/ACT and so on. Obviously there are many sources for finding these data’s, would College ******* be a good source to rely on? Or should I visit many sources and ideally compare my data? </p>
<p>The Common Data Set is your most objective source of data. But for the ‘feel’ of a campus, there are many places you can go - and checking several should help you validate what you are seeing. Fiske, College P…rowler, and others are all useful.</p>
<p>Did you take any AP tests or SAT Subject tests that might help bolster your application? Why did you wait so long to retake the ACT? Since you took it a full year ago, you had plenty of time (presumably) to study for it and retake it. It seems as though you weren’t getting very good guidance :-(</p>
<p>I had mentioned in my applications - I had worked a part time job at a fast food joint to keep my family financially stable. My parents was laid off and my mom had undergone multiple heart operations and I lived in the slums of NYC. I don’t want to recite the entire momment but I hope you get the picture. It was beyond a struggle to attend school…but hey, I made it! I had to take the ACT this time…otherwise I was toast. I had mentioned this information in my college applications if it can put some sort of “significance” on my application. </p>
<p>What LAC’s did you have in mind? My ACT score is very wierd in fact…Reading 28, Math 21, Writing 13 (I DUNNO.), Essay (7), Science 15. I never studied for the exam and just went in the room unaware of the structure (Seriously). I took this past test seriously enough and tried to fix what was not my strengths. I felt confident. Also, I did not take any SAT 2’s mainly because I had no $$ whatsoever. I wish I had grown up in a better academic life…but you don’t get what you want. Oh and yes, I have taken APs all throughout HS.</p>
<p>Wow, you certainly have had an uphill struggle. Sorry to hear about your problems
This website has a list of test-optional schools, where you will have a better shot, but the bad news is that only one of them is an engineering school:
[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>The one engineering school that is test-optional is WPI. Also, they would appreciate your participation in FIRST robotics as they are a major supporter of that program. They even have special scholarships set aside for FIRST participants -
[Undergraduate</a> Admissions: WPI FIRST Scholarships - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/apply/firstscholarships.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/apply/firstscholarships.html)
WPI was the first school to offer an undergrad degree in Robotics Engineering, and now has MS and PhD degrees in that field as well.
I think it might be worth applying. The obvious downside is that WPI is far from home, and they do not guarantee to meet 100% need for FA. But you never know…
Another point - you said you used your application to explain your circumstances. Did your guidance counselor also explain your circumstances in his/her recommendation letter? If so, that would help bolster your case considerably…That is what they are supposed to do, help the college fairly evaluate your application by providing some context.</p>
<p>The only application that I have submitted so far is University of Washington Seattle. I had included it in the additional comments section and have a recruiter look through it…she actually was tearing a bit. UW Seattle does not want any recs for that reason, but I am of course going to include my situation! And Thank You so much for helping out, I think any advice would have been great :)</p>
And Thank You so much for helping out, I think any advice would have been great :)</p>