Please Help Suggest Low Reach/High Target/Target list for Engineering Majors
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
Boy, 14 APs by end of 12th grade, 1570 SAT with 4.97 WGPA and 4.0 unweighted from MCPS school. Thinking about Engineering, but might be open to other fields. However, he will have to consider a direct admit situation so I guess will have to lean into engineering just in case as it's probably the limiting factor to get into some schools?
Haven't taken his 11th grade APs obviously, but the 9th and 10th grade APs were all 5's. State level music achievements, rec sports, started a club that he is passionate about, President/VP of some other clubs in school, write for the school newspaper and served as section editor, and some leadership in community projects. Have done some side passion projects that mean a lot to him on a personal level, but nothing where he entered into competitions or won an official award. Works part time in something completely unrelated to his potential career field, mostly because he wants to interact with adults and earn money. Has done trivial shadowing in engineering, but no real tech internship. Frankly, most colleges seem to be a Reach for engineering majors and I cannot seem to distinguish between Low Reach/High Target/Target. I feel like the College Vine numbers are particularly inflated for him because of his stats, and do not consider major or any other school demographics. Also, does being a boy make it more competitive for admissions to engineering? To me, he seems to look like every other high performing kid. Looking for colleges that are not too small, maybe 5000+ undergrads. At the least, the school can be in city or suburban areas but not out in the middle of nowhere. Would appreciate your wisdom and suggestions with categorizing the Low Reach/High Target/Target lists, and whether it's worthwhile to ED. |
Anonymous
| I think that engineering for male students is, unfortunately, a lottery. Even schools like NCSU, with a 40% admit rate, are particularly difficult for OOS engineering (I seem to remember around a 15% OOS Eng admit rate). So ED is great, if you can afford it. Some popular Eng targets/safeties include: RIT, RPI, CU Boulder. Purdue and Virginia Tech are also popular targets. |
Anonymous
|
My DS is similar. In the old days, his reach would be Michigan, his target Purdue, and his safety Lehigh. But who knows? Now, they all feel like reaches, and he should ED to one if he really loves it.
I'd say our son's actual safety is Penn State and maybe VT. Hard to figure out reach and targets because I suspect schools will yield protect kids like ours. But those are big schools. Since you're looking for smaller schools, I'd say take him to tour Lehigh and Johns Hopkins |
Anonymous
| Judging by the length of your initial post, I think you probably already have a pretty good list of schools without input from the peanut gallery |
Anonymous
Delaware too could be a safety, OP. Your child's stats look amazing, BTW. Congratulations! |
Anonymous
| My high stats engineering kid’s safeties were RPI, RIT and WPI. Still waiting to hear back from WPI, but in at the other two with significant merit. |
Anonymous
| Case Western? |
Anonymous
| Clarkson...great safety lots of merit. |
Anonymous
Definately CWRU, but with those stats, he will need to convince them he actually wants to attend. Stats are a bit too high, so they might think he's using them as a target/safety (and he rightfully is). I'd include U Rochester as well. Neither is "direct admit" so you can switch out if desired without any issues getting into the major you want. Also WPI, RPI, and RIT. RIT is definitely a true safety with those stats. I prefer WPI over RPI. My kid refused to even apply to RPI, you have to visit to understand. It is also very male heavy (WPI is trying to change that) and RPI is very nerdy as well. Definately a very different vibe than any of the others. |
Anonymous
|
High Target (only because at your son's level, everyone looks the same):
MIT, CMU, Rice, CalTech, Berkeley Target: Georgia Tech, UVA, Northeastern, Michigan, Purdue, Michigan, UCI Best chance targets (safety unless yield protection/lack of demonstrated interest): Lehigh, WPI, RPI, VA Tech Safeties: Rutgers, UConn, VCU, UMass, Drexel |
Anonymous
|
for a high performing kid like this, assuming he took the very highest rigor available in STEM and gets 5s on those APs, AND that weighted GPA puts him in the top 3-4 kids in his high school, aim high.
We know schools where that GPA is the top and others where it is borderline for T10% rank. You need to find out. Look on Scoir for the high school and see how many GPAs are higher for every T20, cut the duplicate dots. and divide by years shown. Target Engineering schools for our private all boys school as well as the STEM magnet public for a kid with max rigor, all 5s, 1570 and a GPA that puts them near the very top of the class are as follows: Target (25-60% of true top kids admitted) WashU, Michigan, Rice, Vanderbilt if ED, Cornell if ED, Hopkins if ED and not BME, CMU. Reach (less than 25%) all the other ivies with true Engineering (Penn, Princeton, Columbia), Stanford, MIT, Duke, Northwestern, Hopkins if RD, Cornell if RD. But this is only for very top rigor and very high rank. Most seem to have real research and some have Stem awards too. DS is at Penn as is one classmate from the same year. A lot of the local kids do robotics and similar ECs so we know many parents and students as well as details from sharing each other's high school Scoir data. |
Anonymous
| Where does University of Pennsylvania place in terms of college list for a high stat student? |
Anonymous
| OP again. Thank you all for the suggestions. This is helpful. It really is hard to figure out what are actual targets, as when I looked on Naviance, there were so many students with high GPA/SAT from our high school who were outright rejected at schools that I had assumed were targets. |
Anonymous
If the acceptance rate is less than 20%, it is a Reach for everyone. Even high stats kids. Once you realize that, it is easier to find Targets (20-50% acceptance rates and your kid is 50-75%+ in stats) |
Anonymous
WUSTL, Vanderbilt, Emory for reaches GTech, Purdue for high targets Penn State, TAMU for low targets Which other fields is he open to? |