Computer Engineering School

[M4A1]

Go ahead, and try!

Volunteer fireman = shows youre brave/courageous/giving back to the community

volunteer for your community = self explanatory

tech crew = shows your technologically inclined, etc...

You have a chance

 

[aaronkupen]

Yah, definately this year I'm going to try to do something else. Should I bother taking the ACTs?

 

[M4A1]

Meh, you don't have to. SATs should be enough. I believe the majority just take the SATs or ACTs. Though, it wouldn't hurt if you know you can do well on those - it won't hurt for another reason to accept you into the school

I didn't take the ACTs. I was registered for it, but I forgot about it...

 

[aaronkupen]

Meh, I didn't do that that well on the SATs. I got a 1860 i believe combined? My math and critical added up to 1300, so with those do you recommend I take the ACTs?

 

[raross]

Meh, I didn't do that that well on the SATs. I got a 1860 i believe combined? My math and critical added up to 1300, so with those do you recommend I take the ACTs?

Depends what school you want to go to. If you want to go to a top school like Stanford, MIT, Berkley, upenn etc, then you will need between 1500 and 1600. I would not deal with the ACT, if you want to get into one of these schools then simply take a private SAT course or get a private tutor to help you with the SAT. These courses guarantee you to raise your score by 200-300 points. It may seem like it is impossible for you to achieve a score like that, but if you practice and find techniques for the questions, you will do fine. Practice makes perfect, anyone can achieve a high score on the SAT. It just takes long hard hours of studying the test. You will want to also do really good on the MATH section (close to perfect), if you lack in english and that is what pulls your score down, they might still consider you.

For the tier two schools that guy mostly listed, I think your score is right on track. You could try raising it maybe a 100 points and you will be fine.

What also helps for anything, is if you know someone who goes/teaches at one of these schools. You can use them as a reference, or maybe even have them get you into the school (Although, I do not think this happens much at the under grad).

 

[M4A1]

If you do well on the ACTs, it won't hurt. That's how you should look at it, just be sure to kick asome @$$

 

[aaronkupen]

Yah, I went into the SAT's pretty much cold turkey. I didn't do any studying and I really didn't even know what to expect to a certain extent. I think if I take it again I will be able to raise it a hundred points.

 

[raross]

Very well then, you're in good shape. The class I was talking about helps A LOT also. I had friends way back, first time they took it, had like an 1100. Then they took this class that costs around 800 dollars and it guaranteed to raise your SAT 200-300+ points. After the class he took it again and got around a 1400. It is all about learning the questions and techniques to con the right answer out of the question.

I would stick to one test, but it would not hurt to give the ACT a try. It all depends on what college you go to, many discourage the ACT for various reasons. But there are also many that accept it.

What colleges are you thinking about going to?

 

[aaronkupen]

I actually don't have just have a couple in mind. I don't have a good knowledge about colleges, but as of now these are the ones that I think I will look into.

University of Pittsburgh, MIT (I highly doubt I'll get in), RIT, U of Illinois - Urbana C , U of Michigan (Ann Arbor), CMU(Again, highly doubt I'll get in), UCLA, Northwestern U.

 

[raross]

I noticed you had on there University of pittsburgh, you might as well apply to upenn then also. Very good school for computer science and bioinformatics, as you probally know it is an actual Ivy league.