uconn's school of engineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Connecticut
1

Hello,

I was wondering if it is easier to get into uconn’s school of engineering if you are a girl?
Also will i be able to get in

Gender- Female

GPA - 3.9 uw 4.5 w
SAT - 560 CR, 570 M, 580 W (taking them again)

Classes: i took 3 honor courses my freshman year. I took 4 honor classes and one class at the university of Hartford. I took 3 honor courses and ECE english my junior year. ( ECE is just like AP) . Finally, i take 1 honor course and 2 ECE courses and 1 class at university of Hartford this year. (for now)

My problem is that everyone takes the honor courses in my school (like they don’t have a choice). Would this hurt me since Uconn looks at me in comparative to the people in my own school???

ECs:
-Stage manager for the Fashion/Talent show ( 3 years including this year if all goes well)
-Yearbook (2 years)
-book club (1 year)
-dance (outside of school 3 years)
-volunteered around 70 hours
-Marine science club(1 year)

Awards:
I got the calculus my junior year.
I am being published at the moment. It is still in the process but should be finished by the end of this month or next. However, a lot of other people also got published from my school so i don’t know if this will actually help me.

Recommendations: i have 3 recommendations.

I know the school of engineering have higher requirements to get in but being a girl would i get in? or at least have a tiny advantage? Or would i get into one of the branches?

2

I’m not sure what you’re expecting from users here. No one can give your info to the admissions department and get an off the record opinion. You’ll find your time better spent focusing on school and applying to colleges. If you have any unanswered reasonable questions about admissions evaluations, consider emailing the admissions department.

3

@SaintSaens

The OP is asking for opinions, not an absolute answer. The corollary, unasked question that goes with all of these is “can I do anything to improve my chances”. Students do this all the time on CC. While it might not be the most productive thing to do in some cases (especially with the Ivies and similar schools), in many others it can inform the person that they are completely barking up the wrong tree, what other options they should possibly considering, or to let them know, as I said, how to best highlight their application. So I think that is what the OP is expecting in this case, along with an opinion on a specific question that she asked.

In that regard, @Peoples , I think being female is still an advantage at most engineering schools when it comes to admissions. I haven’t seen any recent data so I can’t swear to it, but I haven’t seen any stories that have said that women are still not under represented in this field either.

I am not familiar with UConn’s average stats for admission to engineering, so I am rather useless for that. Certainly your GPA is strong, but your SAT, especially math, is a bit on the low side for an engineering candidate, generally speaking. Hopefully you can increase those scores, especially the math, a fair amount on the next taking. I would think that would considerably improve your chances. Again, not familiar with the particular ins and outs of UConn and engineering, but if you get into UConn and not engineering, don’t give up.

If you are hell bent on being an engineer you can probably take most of the same courses that a freshman engineer would (you don’t say if you have decided on a particular field within engineering), and if you do very well I would think you would have a strong chance of a departmental transfer into engineering. You might lose a semester that you would have to either take some summer courses or stay a bit longer than 4 years. That is, as SaintSaens says, something you could talk to the school about IF YOU DON’T get into engineering right away. For example, I think they offer a major called engineering physics which is a joint program of engineering and the physics departments, so perhaps you wouldn’t have to get accepted to engineering to pursue that. People with such a degree often then go to a year or two of graduate school **in an engineering specialization **and wind up with essentially the same qualifications as someone with an advanced engineering degree in e.g. materials science or other related fields, as I understand it.

Lots of avenues to pursue that can get you to essentially the same place, or at least in the small neighborhood. See, these threads can produce lots of information besides “Will I get in”.

4

UConn considers the Math and Critical Reading score for admissions and the incoming freshman class average for those two scores was 1233. http://today.uconn.edu/2015/08/uconn-to-welcome-largest-ever-freshman-class/

Engineering has higher standards for admission than the university in general, so the average for engineering admissions is significantly higher than 1233. So, as I stated in my response to this same question you posted under a different title, you really need to bring your scores up. Honestly, until you get your standardized test score up, I don’t see you as a viable candidate for engineering admissions. Being female is not an advantage if you are not in the ball park to begin with.

“My problem is that everyone takes the honor courses in my school (like they don’t have a choice). Would this hurt me since Uconn looks at me in comparative to the people in my own school???”

Yes, UConn does consider rank within your class as far as I can tell since scholarships are awarded to students in top percent of their class. So, it doesn’t matter that everyone takes the honors per se, it only matters how they perform in those classes as compared to how you performed. It also matters what courses you took …how many math/science classes

As for your EC’s, they are good, but I don’t see any interest in engineering related activities. Marine science club is the closest. Is there a physics club, robotics club, chemistry club, or future engineers club?

5

When my son was applying to UCONN 2 years ago (he is now a junior in Mech eng), they told him you need at least a 1300 M + CR for the eng school.

good luck!