ACT: 33 (English:33 Math:33 Reading:33 Science:31)
SAT II: 740 Math 2 720 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA: Don’t exactly have one as I go to school overseas. I am a US citizen though. But from what I have found online, it should be around a 3.8 (lets just say a minimum of 3.7).
IB Predicted: 39/45 (Economics HL: 7 Chemistry HL: 6 Biology HL: 6 Math SL: 6 English LAL SL: 6 Chinese B SL: 6 and then 2 points for TOK & EE with a B in each)
I have a few ECs related to sport, an E-waste project, and an Internship. Most of these were for at least 2 years. (This may have been a weakness)
Essays: I thought they were decent. My common app was about my multi-cultural background and how it has shaped me as a person and my Purdue ones were about some of the things I would like to do on campus.
Teacher Recs: One was from my Math teacher. My counselor said he wrote a solid rec on my character. The other one was from my Econ teacher. He really likes me. I’m definitely his favorite student.
I applied for CS and got denied for that. I knew Purdue CS was competitive so I wasn’t expecting much, but it seems like they offer alternate majors as well. But on the letter it only mentioned about applying again as a transfer student.
And also, by looking at past results from my school, their is around a 60% acceptance rate with an average SAT of around 1850 (Old SAT). My ACT is equivalent to about 2200.
So, to be quite frank, I knew CS was a long shot as I did not really have any demonstrated interest for it, but now that I know that Purdue does offer alternate majors, I am completely dumbfounded as to why I wasn’t considered for one.
If anyone knows why or has had previous experience with this, could you care to enlighten me? I am really worried that there may be a massive weakness in my application that I am not aware of.
I had SAT 2240 and subject tests 790 and 700 (math 2 and physics)
I had internships as well and I wrote research papers and did research with college students et al the whole works.
I even talked to people studying there who assured me that Purdue would be a safety for electrical engineering and I got denied as well.
What I’m told is that sometimes Purdue realises that people are qualified for better schools and in the interest of yield protection they reject the ‘overly qualified’ people who they think won’t attend anyway.
However with your stats you’re sure to attend a great place regardless!
Best of luck!
@Littlebitanxious Wow! I am so sorry to heart that. I take that you got denied this application cycle as well and were not offered an alternate major? You seem like a much better candidate then me with all that research. In that case, you may well have been a victim of yield protection.
But I personally do not see myself as an applicant impressive enough to be considered as such. Regardless, thank you for the kind words. I can only hope you are right.
@as1999610 thank you so much!
Yes I got denied in this cycle without being offered as alternate major as well…
But regardless I’m sure we’ll get in other good places!
This month will be the death of me XD
Best of luck to you too!
Just a guess but Purdue is rolling admission. Meaning they review applications as they come in. Since Purdue is seen as a strong STEM university those majors fill up first. They are also an Indiana public university so in state students are given priority. If you applied late, are OOS and they have already filled their classes for many of the technical majors there may just not have been a place for you. I don’t think it was because you were over or under qualified.
@lvvcsf I was thinking the same thing. But, once again, couldn’t applicants like us be considered for alternate majors?
Maybe I don’t know how Purdue does the alternate major thing, but seeing that quite a number of people have been offered one, I am still a little bewildered.
Anything I say would be speculation and wouldn’t change your situation. My advice would be to let go what you can’t change and focus on enjoying what’s left of HS. I’m sure you have other great options but you’ll have to be patient. I know it’s tough.