<p>Congrats to your son for his UCSD admittance. My son is anxiously waiting to hear on Sat. as it is his top choice. Yours must have gotten the phone call.</p>
<p>@CADREAMIN:</p>
<p>Regarding being haunted by people telling you that anyone who gets into UCB engineering picks it over Cal Poly …</p>
<p>Two years ago my son had to choose between UCB, UCSD, The Naval Academy and Cal Poly ME. He ended up picking Cal Poly. He did so for a simple reason - he could get his hands dirty right away. The UCs generally don’t even allow an undergrad to touch equipment - that stuff is for grad students. My son learned this himself when he went to Cal Day, saw the different demonstration gadgets in the Mechanical Engineering building and then asked the students about them. He quickly learned he was talking to grad students, most of whom had gotten their bachelors’ at other schools.</p>
<p>This isn’t a “dis” of the UCs - if your student wants to go to MIT for grad work or wants to teach someday then UCB is a <em>great</em> choice (just make sure he is prepared to do as much theoretical math work as a particle physicist would before ever touching a lathe). For my son it wasn’t a fit - he wants to be working in robotics as quickly as he can and is already machining custom parts while writing custom controller software in C. My son has a good friend who had similar choices and chose UCB. His friend is happy there and actually enjoys the heavy math. So I think both these young men made great decisions.</p>
<p>Rejected for political science. Guess this means my chances of getting into a UC are quite slim…,</p>
<p>I realize this is off topic, but this is a good audience to ask this question. My son who was declined admission to Cal Poly (AERO) is awaiting UC decisions now - but he was accpeted to Colorado School of Mines very early on. Do any of you have knowledge of the school and have any opinions of it in terms of offering more of a “hands on” experience compared to UCs?</p>
<p>^^ Not really an answer to your question but…S considered applying to School of the Mines. When we asked his counselor whether or not we should take the time and $$ to visit…she indicated that if one liked Cal Poly, then one would like Mines. I took from this that the schools were very similar in ‘feel’. </p>
<p>He chose not to apply because he is in an all male HS and wanted wanted to be around more women in college ;).</p>
<p>On a completely different note…</p>
<p>S was told he’s accepted to UCSB and we are now waiting to hear if he got his first choice major ME. That said, the presentation given by the UCSB school of Engineering emphasis on undergraduate education. And, because there are relatively few grad students, profs rely on undergrads for assistance with research. S also applied to UCB more as a 'let’s see what happens. I don’t think it would be a good fit for him since it is soooo grad focused.</p>
<p>And now…back to the actual topic at hand…</p>
<p>Thanks for the perspective @TheITCrowd. After all this typical parent over-analyzing of mine, I think it comes down to this. At any of the schools we are discussing, you can get a good engineering education, and so much of what you get out is what you put in, so what it comes down to now is how it feels for him on campus. I told him go where it feels good. So far on our couple trips to CP it has just been really comfortable for him, welcoming and not a frenzy like at some schools and CP may just fit him better. He got into UCLA (haven’t heard about UCB yet) and while he keeps his thoughts pretty close to the vest at this point, he did say he thinks CP is above UCLA on his list. He’ll go through admitted students days at his top 2 or 3, it’s too bad that UCB’s (if he gets in) is the Saturday of CPs. Interesting to me that UCLA doesn’t use major as a criteria for housing, that is a big negative in my book. I like the camaraderie that can be built living and working together. Another + for CP!</p>
<p>congrats on UCSB dietz199! What a beautiful place to go to school and the kids I know there are really happy.</p>
<p>Agree - this is a particularly tough year for applicants given the echo boomer population bubble these kids sit on. These are all fine universities and it is hard to make a bad decision except to end up in an environment that you don’t like.</p>
<p>I wonder if there shouldn’t be two threads. Engineering admissions v. Everybody else.</p>
<p>ChantelOh congrats on your admission.</p>
<p>universityfreak congrats on your son’s admission to UCSD - it’s a world-class research institute in biology and he’ll get an excellent education there.</p>
<p>getatyou123 I hope you get into a school that’s a good fit for you.</p>
<p>dietz199 congrats to your son, I hope he gets into his major as well.</p>
<p>Congratulations Dietz, on your son’s acceptance to UCSB. Our friends that go there are very happy! And it is only a short drive away from SLO where his sister is. :)</p>
<p>A short and gorgeous drive! I sense there could be some cross-jealousy in your household as they both could be at schools the other knows is fab!</p>
<p>D admitted to USD and Virg Tech…wants CP…waitlisting continues!</p>
<p>coquimom, dietz199: Colorado School of Mines is a top engineering school in Colorado with a stellar reputation. I work for a top defense contractor in Colorado and have been working alongside many Mines graduates for years. They are among the best and the brightest in the industry. I agree that their program must practice ‘learn by doing’ similar to Cal Poly since these engineers are productive from Day 1. I work with software and computer engineers, but I know some recent graduates in petroleum and chemical engineering that have landed jobs with 6-figure starting salaries. My daughter was considering the School of Mines, but chose Cal Poly because Mines’ campus was too small (~4,000 undergraduates), didn’t have a biomedical engineering program, and was concerned about the male/female ratio. It is located in beautiful Golden, CO (home of Coors), and its female population is growing - I think the male/female ratio is about 3:2.</p>
<p>My son was rejected over a week ago for General Engineering (despite a 4.2 GPA). We found out on his portal with a short and not so sweet message. Their admission release process needs some fine tuning to say the least. They should not drag it for a period lasting over 3 weeks, and they should at least send an e-mail to all applicants. We got noting. If we did not check the portal, we would still have no clue. A friend of my son had a CSU GPA 4.5 an applied to BME and was also rejected. I just can’t imagine what kind of stats one needs to get in the CP engineering majors.</p>
<p>In contract UC Santa Cruz was very very upfront in their process. They hat send an e-mail days in advance and has posted on the portal exactly at what time and on what day they would post the admission info. They had announce 12:00 am for 12/15/13 and, as announced, it was posted right at midnight (accepted, thank you), followed by an e-mail in the morning.</p>
<p>Thanks COparent… we’ll move Mines up a notch on our list! :)</p>
<p>Sorry S didn’t get in longwait, but if you have applied to several schools you will really see that there is always something with each schools process. CP got their acceptances out much earlier than everyone else, so bravo to them. UCD and UCI came out yesterday and today. From cc UCI some engineering know, others don’t so it may stagger. USC let many people know late January, the others wait. Kids are still waiting on many others, so I am glad CP gets theirs out as fast as they do. Most intial results seem to be through portals. Many privates send beautiful admit envelopes well after the portal update, USC is mailing first then updating portal so people can experience the “mailbox delight.” Just saying every school does their best in keeping their admits happy which is the way it has to be, they are a business. In terms of admits, the GPA is not a strong indicator of selection as has been shown. A 4.5 from one school is not the same as a 4.5 at another as has been mentioned. Has to be looked at as a whole with test scores and math levels/grades for engineering, etc. Having said that I am sure he will have his choices of other great schools! The UCs are rolling out this week and next, exciting time for many!</p>
<p>S got accepted at UCSC and UCI yesterday. Engineering. Looks like UCSD is doing some maintenance/upload right now. That will be my S top choice. Crossing our fingers.</p>
<p>I’m ****ed about this one. Denied.
SAT 2170
GPA 4.3
5 on AP Engish, 4 on AP Bio, 5 on AP US Hist
Currently in AP Calc AB and AP Psych
Multiple Honors courses all 4 years
Green Club
Above the Influence Club
Varsity Baseball
LIFE Emmaus Team (Campus ministry club/youth group)
125 Service Hours
Student Retreat Leader
Student Ambassador
Club Baseball
2 Great teacher recs (they both love me)</p>