Will these engineering colleges consider me

Colleges im thinking to apply to in mechanical or chemical engineering (im from Ohio)

Uni of Michigan

Purdue

University of Illinois urbana champaign

University of Pitt

Ohio State

Virginia Tech

University of Maryland

My stats:

Gpa: 3.9 Weighted on 5.0 , projected to be 4.1 by end of senior year

ACT: 30

Extracurriculars:

Won at some regional Speech and Debate Tournaments

Model UN

Science Olympiad, also won some regional tournaments

Fbla- won 3rd in both Computer Programming and Job Interview

Cleveland Clinic Volunteering

Volunteered at a Retirement Home

Taught Nepali refugees English

Did track(high jump, 800m) for 2 years(not like its gonna help)

Went to Swagelok Engineering Camp

Worked with a professor in physics at Kent State over the summer

Havent got my teacher recs yet but they will be pretty good.

Everyone should pitch in, give your opinion. Any help would be kindly apreciated.

What’s your UW GPA? What AP courses have you taken? Will you retake the ACT again?

For engineering, your ACT is low for all of these schools.

The state flagships are very competitive for OOS applicants, especially in engineering.

I dont know my unweighted as our school only calculates weighted. AP’s ive taken are, us history,biology, physics, computer science, micro and macro, comparative gov, calc ab. Senior years gonna be seminar, comp sci principles 2d design, human geo, physics 2 or Electricity and magnetism.

Is my act score really that low for all of these schools, even OSU?

The problem is that weighted GPA is computed so differently at different high schools that we have pretty much no idea what your high school grades are. “Gpa: 3.9 Weighted on 5.0” looks like pretty much straight B’s, but I am suspecting that I might be mis-interpreting this.

Can you tell us how many A’s and B’s you have gotten? Also, the same information would be useful for just math and science classes.

So you’d be paying out of state tuition at most of these. Are your parents ready to pay $50K+ per year?

I think your ACT is low for some of these. Maybe not too low for instate OSU, the average Engineering ACT in fall 2017 was 30.8. So you are just a bit under the average. But for the rest. Can you study and retake?

Ive gotten a bunch of B’s but ive taken alot of AP’s all at once which is quite difficult. Because im taking more AP’s next year, im hoping to bring it up to a 4.1. Would colleges care if I tell them that I can bring it up. I can retake the ACT but what should I aim for. My math is consistently 35 and 36 but my reading scores bring it down. Is it really 50K?
Last time I checked, most of these colleges oos is like 40.

Purdue is $44K for out of state. Maryland, if I recall, had a similar COA to Purdue. Michigan is $64K

So are my chances still low considering my EC’s and if I were to bring up my ACT 2 points

  1. You need a stronger ACT (Both ENGLISH and MATH SECTIONs (especially, math) has to be exceptionally strong 33+)
    Also, I would take 2 SAT 2 SUBJECTS (Math 2) and one science, to demonstrate you competency in STEM ( since your major is engineering ).

  2. As others have noted, GPA and grading systems differ school to school, so you have to be more specific. The more B’s that you have on your transcript, I would say that would really make admissions difficult for you. ( I haven’t seen your transcript, so I cannot predict)

  3. Does your transcript demonstrate mastery in rigorous science and math related courses
    (AP Calc AB/BC), (AP Science Courses) 90+ or whatever course curriculum?

  4. Your extracurricular needs improvement to demonstrate your passion in STEM.

The truth is that although your a strong candidate, there are just so many applications, and some people who are applying here, may also qualify for Ivies, so how do you stack against them. It’s not whether you qualify, but really the strength of the applicant pool (Qualitatively and Quantitatively).

  1. I would say broaden your list, and apply to more schools that have your interests including these.

Good Luck!

First none of these are “engineering colleges”.

Engineering acceptance rates:
20% Uni of Michigan
44% Purdue
42% University of Illinois
55% University of Pitt
43% Ohio State
72% Virginia Tech
26% University of Maryland

Engineering colleges confer mostly engineering degrees.

Here is a list:
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-type/bachelors/engineering-schools

Keep in mind that those are the overall acceptance rates…OOS may be more competitive.

^ those numbers are engineering acceptance rates. Not “overall” rates.

@Godsu12 It would be helpful for you to calculate your unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale with A = 4.0, A- = 3.66, B+ = 3.33, B = 3.0 and so on. Then google "university name " Common Data Set and look at section C which should give you a pretty good idea of how you compare to enrolled students at those schools.

For example UPitt https://pre.ir.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2018-19-CDS-Pittsburgh.pdf

ACT Composite 28 - 33 (25th - 75th percentile)

GPA UW 4.0 scale
3.75 or higher 79%
3.50 - 3.74 12%
3.25 - 3.49 5%
3.00 - 3.24 3%

At UPitt, your UW GPA probably hurts your chances more than your ACT

@Greymeer - I wasn’t clear - I know you posted the engineering acceptance rates. I was pointing out that they aren’t breaking out the difference between instate and out of state applicants. For most state schools, the acceptance rates are lower than those averages for OOS applicants (and higher for instate).

^ you are correct.

You could take 25% to 50% off those numbers for OOS.

Will taking summer classes to boost my gpa look bad. My Act for math is quite high(35), and English is like 32. Both my science and reading are low. Im not sure how to convert from a 5.0 scale because of the way our AP courses are weighted.

"Im not sure how to convert from a 5.0 scale because of the way our AP courses are weighted. "

You need to figure out your UNWEIGHTED GPA. That means you IGNORE WEIGHTING and look at the individual grades for each course on your transcript.

Then you assign an unweighted numerical equivalent for each grade where: A = 4.0, A- = 3.66, B+ = 3.33, B = 3.0 and so on.

Then you add up all the numerical equivalent grades and divide by the total number of classes.

For example:

If you had 5 A grades on your transcript 5X4.0 = 20
and 4 B grades on your transcript 5x3.0 = 15
and 5 C+ grades on your transcript 5x2.33 = 11.65

You would have 20 + 15 + 11.65 = 46.65 divided by 15 classes = Unweighted GPA of 3.11 on a 4.0 scale

Sorry all unweighted is without plus or minuses. Michigan uses A=4,B=3 and so on. No +/-.

For Michigan the GPA avg for engineering is 3.93 with OOS 33/34 Act.

Most engineering programs 33 is the key mark with 34 being more competitive. If you can afford a tutor get one and work on the non math /science stuff. My son and many engineering kids are in the exact same situation. Plus better merit at 34.

Look into Iowa State University and North Carolina State and Michigan State.

@Knowsstuff wrote “Sorry all unweighted is without plus or minuses”

Never heard that. Do you have a source you can link to?

This is the way Michigan does it. Call them.