Business Management is the main problem - it’s a known lightweight academically, unlike ESS it doesn’t even have a science component, and not having History could be seen as an issue. However if you’re applying to top MechE programs, rather than Ivies, this wouldn’t matter since they’ll focus on your 3 HLs.
(Your guidance counselor can describe the Design Tech curriculum to show it’s a rigorous, pre-Engineering course. In the US, it’s more like an elective, which may make it confusing.)
Your EE should relate to sth related to Physics.
Hopefully in 8/9/10th grades you have taken biology and chemistry and history classes.
In the US, Engineering was seen as an applied profession, like nursing or teaching. Old, prestigious universities didn’t have Engineering colleges. This "plebeian"field was left to public universities and when Land Grant universities were established in most states, these universities developed their own prestige around Engineering, Mining, etc. Cornell is an exception because it has had colleges under contract with the State of New York basically since inception and still does.
Of course, this early attitude has changed and Engineering can now be found at Ivy league universities -and is one of the hardest colleges to get into about everywhere.
However, the powerhouses in Engineering would be GeorgiaTech, Purdue… as well as “Ivy+” universities like MIT, Stanford or Northwestern, plus truly elite, small programs like Olin and HarveyMudd.
CalPoly SLO is a top school for engineering you rarely hear about in rankings yet is highly respected and leads to very high paying jobs. If you want to work as a MechE in CA you’re better off graduating from Cal Poly SLO than from Yale. (Yale would likely open more doors for an engineering major who doesn’t want to work in engineering and ofc you can always find a job with an engineering degree.)
If you want to work as an Engineer in the US, all you need is an ABET accredited program.
You can also study Physics at a top college then work and return for a Master’s in Engineering, though this is less direct than a 4-year degree in engineering that directly leads to a job.
Mountainkid is headed to an ivy as a MechE major. He was not an IDP candidate, but attended a high school that allowed students to customize their academic experience from the full range of IB and AP classes.
He got A’s in IB Chem, IB Calc, IB Phys 1 & 2, IB CS 1 & 2. Instead of IB Math HL, he took MVC. Not all of his teachers required non-IDP students to complete IAs, but in the classes where it was required he earned 6s. Aiming for 6 and 7s should make you competitive. I like @clockila’s points breakdown upthread.
Overall, your course load looks fine to me. You have a good variety of classes. Know that there is no “perfect” schedule that will get you into an ivy league college. Just continue challenging yourself in math and science and rounding out your schedule with classes that interest you (the higher the rigor, the better). Get the best grades possible and don’t neglect the other aspects of your application package (extracurriculars, letters of rec, etc) because they matter too. Best of luck to you.
I have a mechanical engineering degree from a reputable non Ivy. In your shoes, I would:
Be explicit about why you want Ivy, because there are many excellent if not better schools if your goal is Mechanical Engineering (Caltech, MIT, Stanford, John Hopkins, Berkeley, UCLA, Georgia Tech, Harvey Mudd etc etc)
Take the SAT (or ACT) as many times as you can to score 1550+
You will get admitted to college on your predicted IB score, not the actual score. Predicted 44-45 is a strong position, 42-43 a good position, 38-41 more wishful
With Predicted 42/Full Pay, make sure your list includes 2 safeties, like UCs/RPI/WPI
I wouldn’t call UCs blanket safeties. Have you seen the acceptance rates? By definition, most of the UCs not only won’t be safeties, but will be reaches.
I would broaden your search. I don’t believe the Ivies have the best programs for ME. Don’t just look at the school name - look at the opportunities for internships, co-ops, etc.
This is not actually true at many colleges. At many moderately selective colleges, engineering majors are not harder to get into than general admission to the colleges, because the difficulty of the majors scares off many students at those colleges.
However, it may seem true in the context of students aiming for “top __” or “top __ for engineering” colleges.
Given that the person might not be a native English speaker, and not familiar with certain idioms and the precise vocabulary - this could possibly be meant as:
“I’m a foreign citizen.”
@luccaw You flagged your topic with “American University”, but it sounds your questions are not about theAmerican University at all, but you are trying to make your topic about American universities, in general?
You might want to disassociate your topic from that particular college to avoid people skipping your thread because they are not familiar with that one college in D.C.
yeah I guess if OP were interested in Slippery Rock U or Youngstown State it’d be an easier major to get into.
OTOH getting into Engineering at any flagship, Land Grant, or other top 40…
Is getting into an engineering major at flagships or land grant schools in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and other states significantly more difficult than general campus admission?
Its a game of luck and how happy the people looking at your application are (just to name 2).
Very interesting, that gap year was a perfect choice to get accepted to the best besides the original deferred ones. The Asian student in Arkansas who only got accepted to URK was interesting as well. Probably many more scenarios like this not on the internet.
So ives are very very rare to get a chance to get into. Thank you for sharing the CC post.
3-4% odds, keeping inind 95% are excellent/superlative students.
For internationals, 1-2%.
It’s like a lottery: being the best in your school buys you a ticket but nothing can guarantee a wib/an admission.
Depending on the country you’re residing in, there may be 50, 80, 100 universities? Of those, the top 25% are considered excellent and open doors, the next 50% are solid.
In the US, there are 3,700 universities. The scale is completely different. Top 150 is terrific -that would be flagships, private universities, top LACs. Graduating from Penn State Engineering, UMD CS, Bates Environmental Science&Geology, Tufts IR?.. would be considered mind blowingly impressive.
Thank you for the reply. I won’t only choose ives; I wanted to see if they listed information about IB for grades or recommended classes. I thought cause they are 8 ives which are world known they would have lots of information for IB but only the IB points. So was wondering if anyone else had more to that.
If you don’t mind, I read some articles about being at a disadvantage for being international, and your reply, why is that the case? I’m also a US citizen but living in the EU. Do you know the reason or a way to counter this?
I misused ‘easy mode’. I wanted to say that it had more access to facilities, funding, connections, and top teachers. I did not want to say that getting an engineering degree will lead to an easy life or easier things also being at an Ivy school, but it will bring jobs or other things with it. But I was wrong, and people have stated that with non-ivy League schools.
I’ll try my best with the things I have going to afford these top schools and won’t use the national merit or financial aid. I will try to pay in full.
I meant the 8 well-known and very very good unies that compete in the sports league known as the ivy league, yes hahaha.
I’m only talking about US colleges, and I’m also a citizen of the US, just living in the EU. I specifically wanted to find out more information about the IB but could not find anything.
As a US citizen, you are in the US pool for admissions&financial aid even though your application will be compared to applicants from your country&from Europe more broadly.
It’s the best position to be in.
You bring cultural&global diversity but are eligible for federal FA. The FA pool for internationals (non US citizens/residents) is much more limited and thus greatly limits admissions.
As a US citizen you’re not expected to be full pay at the universities listed on this thread. Ofc if your parents make 300k a year you will be expected to pay but if they make 125k you won’t. It won’t matter to the Ivy league (need blind/meet need) nor at top flagships (need blind, no FA in most cases, you’d be competing for merit aid if you can’t afford the costs outright).
Run the Net Price calculator on MIT, a flagship of your choice, an ivy of your choice…
Wrt your original question: is it still time for you to swap out Business Management for another social science, preferably History (Geography, Economics, Political science? ESS?) If not, it’s not super important since your HLs are good for what you want to study.
2×7s and 4×6s + TOK, EE, and CAS points would set you well.
Im a US citizen, I will pay full for the top schools.
Thank you for posting the top 20 colleges. Ya makes sense that going to the non-ivy is better, I just tutored a couple and saw what they had and just was in aw of the place. Did not compare to many other factors and other schools. Great way of illustrating it
Was wondering how did you find this for making it limited, do you mean they only take so many people from that FA international pool. Did the colleges list it on there websites or a link…
Thats exactly what I thought with the diversity cause I have a Austrian passport and American. Do you recommend to use the Austrian one then for more diverse?
Ya, I saw another post. Where all they need is HL math, Physics HL and Design tech HL. But BM (business management) is a easy class like the statistics show, do you think it will greaten my chances to get into unies? Cause then Ill take history SL.
Im calculating my net price now, but in the mean time. isn’t it a 13% chance to get all three core points. I wanted to find out more about that, do you have any advice to get all 3 points?
Anything above 40 would be great just lots of studying and time management.
yeah I guess if OP were interested in Slippery Rock U or Youngstown State it’d be an easier major to get into.
