What are my chances at NC State engineering school [NC resident, 3.73 GPA, 1470 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
Indian, class of 2024, American citizen, in state, Charlotte, parents have bachelor and masters degree, brother goes to UNC chapel hill, school is very competeive, along the likes of Marvin ridge, weddington, ardrey kell, etc… in charlotte

Intended Major(s)
Engineering, either mechanical, aerospace, or industrial.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.73
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.407 on 4.0 scale
  • College GPA (for transfers): n/a
  • Class Rank: not officially out, assume top 12-13% in class, if not better
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1470, 1480 super score

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

  • 10 AP’s in high school (including ones i am taking this upcoming senior year) 6 APs taken during junior year, and dual enrollment at community college with 6 classes so far.
    AP world history (taken freshman year online school) - grade 89, 2 on exam
    AP comp sci principles - (taken 10th grade) - grade 94, 4 on exam
    APES (taken junior year) - 87 grade, 4 on exam
    AP Lang (taken junior year) - 85 grade, 3 on exam
    AP Micro (taken junior year) - 91 grade, 4 on exam
    AP Macro (junior year) - 90 grade, 4 on exam
    AP Calc AB (junior year) - 81 grade, 5 on exam subscore
    AP Calc BC (junior year) - 78 grade, 5 on exam
    other notable classes include PLTW intro to engineering - 95 grade
    PLTW civil engineering - taking this year
    Calculus 3 - taking currently with a community college
    honors physics (junior year) - 86 grade

Awards
-FBLA 2nd in regionals, top 10 placement at states 3 years in a row

  • AP scholar
    -Boy scouts ranks, Star scout
    -NHS - national honor society

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
-Boy scouts - Star rank, been apart for only about 2 years and at star rank, on track for eagle scout, instructor for whole troop.
-MYEP internship with CATS, in person, many achievements and skills acquired/tested, paied internsip
-Science Olympiad coach volunteering at an elementary school, 20 + hours, teams that I coached places 1st and 2nd in their competitions.
-E2D - work at a company relating to technology, or will start working soon most likely, paid

  • FBLA club officer during junior year, been in FBLA for all 4 years of high school
    -Aviation club officer during junior year
    -Aviation club president this year (senior year)

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
-One outside recommendation, from CATS HR employer or from scoutmaster, both will be quite strong. one teacher rec from Calc AB/BC teacher most likely, not as strong but decent still

  • essays will be quite strong, have a very unique and good ideas for common app prompts and school essays.

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

  • no real budget constarints

Schools
Applying to Nc state, UNC chapel hill for info science, VT, GT, Clemson & UNCC as safeties, and some very reach school because why not. But important to note that main goals are NC State and UNC.

Just been a bit stressed since I have heard NC state engineering school is very difficult, with your knowledge of their admissions, how am i looking? where am i lacking? what is looking good? what can i still do to improve my chances? thanks.

2

Have you looked at the information in Sections C9-C11 in the Common Data Set, to see how you compare to recently matriculated students?

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Also, does your high school have Naviance or something similar? And, have you talked to your high school’s guidance counselor(s) about your admissions chances? (They should have an idea about how your school’s students historical placement at NCSU.

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First off, if you want to be an engineer and you are applying to NC State, VT, G Tech, and UNCC as engineering, why would you apply to UNC at all? Makes no sense.

Major ahead of school - doesn’t matter that your siblings go.

Not sure when you say you have four as your safeties.

You have one safety - UNCC.

Georgia Tech is a reach and unlikely.

NC State is a high reach - your GPA is low and many are in the top 10% - but your SAT helps. It won’t shock me that you’ll get in but if I had to go on the 50/50 line, I might lean deferral and then if they have open seats.

Clemson is a match at best but not a low match - leaning toward higher.- 54% come from the top 10 and the admission rate is last published at just over 40% - and one would surmise engineering is lower. That said, your SAT is strong and I think you get in - but it’s no safety.

Va Tech - I think will be easier than Clemson - but your SAT is your strength and they don’t give importance to it. I suspect you’d get in.

UNCC will happen.

If you have no cost constraints and you want to stay somewhat close, you might add U of SC and WVU.

And if you want a great scholarship and a great school, both Alabama (big money) and UAH for smaller, especially great for aero, given it’s surrounded by defense companies and NASA. And Auburn for smaller merit. Miss State is also strong and also has great merit.

Some Florida schools such as UCF or for Aero, Embry Riddle and Florida Tech, would also be great adds.

U Delaware for closer to home and MechE as well as VCU for another choice.

Please drop UNC - if you want to be an engineer, then please go be an engineer. If UNCC is fine, then you’re ok. But if you feel it’s settling, lots of great schools out there for you.

Good luck to you.

5

Note that NCSU has secondary admission to engineering majors after entering as engineering first year. The process is competitive (based on college grades / GPA), without any pre-set automatic admission criteria.

https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/academics/undergrad/coda/

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thank you, in that case, I will say that I am not hellbent on engineering, it is something that i can see myself doing and thats about it. If I applied to NC state for Information technology, would I have a better chance of getting in since it isn’t part of the engineering school?

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Hi, would my GPA be considered low? it is still well above average for NC state admissions, though yes the engineering school has much higher standards. And do my ecs not make up for the slight sub par level gpa? and wat can i still to do increase my chances?

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I am not very particular about major, my main goal is to go to NC State or UNC for some reasons, which is why if it increases my chances, I will apply to nc state for IT, and UNC for info science.

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If you’re not particular, then two things:

  1. Apply for a liberal art - like English.

  2. You shouldn’t be an engineer anyway. Engineering is very rigorous, math intensive, and just flat out hard. It’s also the major with a 40-60% don’t complete rate. You have to want to be an engineer.

If your grades are lower than the engineering average and you just want the school, than why major in engineering?

On the flipside - why does it have to be one of those two schools? That’s where you’re off. If you have a desired major, you should pursue it.

Then why did you mention the other schools if it has to be just these? You need schools you can be excited about.

If it’s these two or bust, then you can always go to community college. Or we’ve seen kids post on here they went to, for example, UNCW and transferred.

I think your strategy is very dangerous.

ECs matter - but they’ll never make up for academics.

What can you do - write good essays, have good LORs - there’s not much you can do. Your profile is great - so the only thing you can really do is apply (at NC State) for a different major. I’m not sure if UNC admits by major or not.

But it’s a huge mistake - I’ll assume you want to be an engineer or you wouldn’t have chosen that as a major - and UNC is the wrong place for an aero engineer to want to go.

So I’d advise you to - if you know the major - make that your priority.

Good luck.

Edit - this is a chance me. I didn’t say you won’t get into NC State. I’m not an AO. I gave my opinion. Someone else, hopefully, will too.

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I would personally guess that NC State is a toss-up for you. Paging @1dadinNC who just had a kid go through this the past cycle.

I agree that I would want to go to a college where I xan study what I want to study. If I’m interested in engineering, even if I am not definite on engineering, I would want to go to a school where that would be an option for me.

Like @tsbna asked, why are UNC and NC State your main focus? Depending on your interests and budget, the board could provide suggestions of other schools if it’s because of the finances.

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Your score, GPA, etc. are fine. The issue will be your class rank from a highly competitive school in CLT. As things stand, like you, most kids will apply to BOTH UNC and State EA. If I had to bet, I’d say your best shot of getting in might be Industrial Engineering. That assumes you want to go that route. Then there is the CODA process and you can look that up.
So, here is the good part. Unlike UNC, lots of seats open up at NCSU over the summer as many kids choose to attend other schools. My son was deferred, then accepted for spring, and then got an email offering fall admission and the “Big Red envelope.” He is attending a different school.
Another option you may consider is Exploratory Studies at NCSU. It is the only other major that has set aside seats for engineering 101 to the best of my knowledge. Gives you the option to CODA in later if you really want engineering.

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