I am from Virginia to be exact northern Virginia where it is a competitive area.
I am Hispanic and moved to the U.S. when I was about 8. I will be first generation studying in the U.S.
Unweighted gpa 3.9
Weighted 4.41
SAT: 1350 M700 CR650
Act superscore: 30
Subject scores:
Math2: 650
Chem: 600
Top 5% (18/443)
AP career
AP world history 3
AP Lang 3
AP spanish 5
AP chem 3
AP calc ab 4
Classes for senior year
AP bio
AP Econ
AP gov
AP Latin
AP calc bc
Most other classes have been honors or de enrollment
Only b+ has been AP Lang and math analysis (SOPHMORE year)
Other than that all As in classes
Outside of school
I’ve been volunteering at a free clinic for the past two years. (Great letter of recommendation. Showing commitment and maturity) over 200 hours
Part time job at a tutoring franchise company for a year (great letter of recommendation showing leadership and hard work)
Clubs
National honor society
Math honor society
Social science honor society
Latin honor society
Spanish honor society
Medical club
Key club
Leadership
None in school
Chance me for biomed engineering: brown, upenn, Columbia, UVA, Vanderbilt, Virginia tech, duke, unc ch, Johns Hopkins, & usc
I’m sorry, but you have no chance of getting into an Ivy League school.
@RoundGenius ‘no chance’?? The only way @Premiumrx14 has no chance is if they don’t apply. Never say never…unless of course you are the admissions officer at all the ivy’s…
Make sure to have some safeties and matches on your list.
Certainly not “no chance” but certainly not “very likely.” They reject the vast majority of their applicants.
Maybe if you can get your SAT I’s and II’s and your ACT scores way higher (I’m talking abut 1490+ and 750+) you’ll have a better chance for Ivies than you do now.
Apply. You are URM, so you never know.
fwiw, any bump from being first gen is for applicants whose parents did not go to college at all- if your parents went to university anywhere in the world, it counts.
Hispanic is typically a bump, BUT: BME is super-competitive, and your SAT subject tests (which are relevant) are very low for those programs. Your low test scores could suggest that your school’s grading system is generous (even if it isn’t).
Your main EC (free clinic) works out to an average of 1 hour/week and your clubs are ones that are not typically terribly demanding- besides your (impressive) GPA, what do you spend your time on outside of class?
As @“aunt bea” says, with URM you never know- and all we have to go on is what you have posted here. Based just on that (not seeing recs, essays, etc) I would work on finding some more likely prospects.
^Also the AP chem score of 3. ACT depends on the sub scores. Agree it’s nearly impossible to get into a highly competitive college for engineering without math-sci activities, some record beyond the clinic. Even if a school wants to say, maybe he’ll switch majors, the scores and the AP 3’s don’t give us an idea of what other strengths there are.
OP might consider the VA Guaranteed Transfer program. That could be the path.
@lookingforward would it just be better to do pre med since that’s another thing I am interested in since most of my EC are relating to med. (applying arts &sciences) Also am a quest prep scholar and planning to do National college match for questbridge. I don’t know if that would change things. & if it were to be engineering my parents want me to start at a uni and not CC bc I’m a girl and they don’t want there to be “the stereotypes” of girls in engineering and having a later start in a competitive field since they saw it with other family members.
Any highly competitive colleges that ask about your possible major will still look for math-sci strengths. See if QB gives you some input about college targets and your approach. Maybe you have other activities you didn’t mention here.
You’re asking about some schools tough for anyone to get into. You need a college environment that really allows you to grow and succeed as an individual first. The GT program in VA is pretty great- it could put you in UVA or VT after a couple of years. At a cc, you wouldn’t be behind in the pre-med coursework. I’m not sure you’d be behind in engineering, considering the initial classes. You would need to maintain a target gpa.
Something else. At many highly competitive colleges, the early pre-med courses are purposely difficult, to weed out kids. If your scores show that maybe (and we don’t know this yet) your hs classes were not as rigorous, it’s another reason to consider colleges where the competition is right for you,where you are empowered, do well. Do you have some safety schools in mind?
You can apply, but you need to cover your options. And that includes running the Net Price Calculators (NPC) on the college web sites, to see what aid you might get.
As others have said, your ACT/SAT and subject tests, (especially the math scores) will be of greatest concern for admission to an elite engineering program. I would retake them. You should aim to bring up your ACT composite to about a 33, with a 33 or higher in math. Your subject tests should be above 700, and 750+ for Math II. Engineers tend to score higher than other applicants.
Your AP test scores do not matter for admission purposes.
Fix that and you have a decent shot at all of the schools you have mentioned. Several of the schools on your list are not well known for engineering or are very focused in one area (JHU for BME). Many engineering students change their minds later. You may consider revising your list a bit, unless there are other considerations (e.g. good FA).
Maybe UNC CH adcoms won’t consider the AP scores as heavily, but you can’t say the others won’t. They’re fiercely competitive and every bit matters.
@mommabear67 @“aunt bea”
Of course we can talk about how there’s always SOME chance if you apply. However, this student’s test scores are far below the 25 percentile for an Ivy and besides being Hispanic, doesn’t have any mentionable hooks or ECs. Now, that doesn’t mean the OP can’t get into a good school. However, I don’t think encouraging the OP to try for schools that are this far out of reach is a good idea due to the fact that applications cost both money and time, and both of those would be better spent on applications to schools where the OP has a better chance of getting accepted. URM status only gives a bit of leeway to those with slightly below average test scores, and still strong ECs. 1350 SAT and 30 superscored ACT are far too low.
@RoundGenius, over the years I have been surprised by the adcoms, so admissions is definitely not static.
I’ve had students, with similar stats to the OP, get into USC. It may not have been easy, but they had something that the college wanted. That’s why I am telling him to apply because he won’t know until he tries.
Each college needs to build a class, and the colleges’ needs might not necessarily be your needs. They know what and who they want.
How many of your students didn’t get into these schools? What good does it do you to tell him to not apply?
I don’t know about the other schools (except Hopkins), but for USC this is what I do know regarding the OP:
His GPA is very good. It’s a strong unweighted GPA and a strong weighted GPA and his tests are within range.
He is a URM at a school that has a boatload of scholarships for a variety of URM’s and USC legacies. The school values diversity and supports it through scholarships.
He has volunteer experience in a Free Clinic (which is hard to do if you are a minor/underage).
Apply OP, you never know unless you try.
But one should try with the best fore knowledge they can muster. An accurate assessment. Not assume.
The clinic is good. I don’t think we can say it and URM will tip a kid into USC with mostly honor societies as ECs, no math sci activities and wanting engineering or pre-med with scores on the low side, including science. OP would have to orient herself to what those colleges want to see that would push her forward. Not just be told to throw her hat into the ring because maybe lightning would strike.
Someone needs to help her see how to put her best foot forward. Hoping QB will do that.
Btw, two threads on this.