Can I get into UIUC or any other state college with these?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

Hi, guys.

So I’ll be a senior in the next school year and I’m really worried about my chances for getting into a good engineering college. When I started my freshman year, I started off really well, but I let my ego get in the way and ended the year with a cumulative GPA of 2.98. I did extremely poor in my first semester of sophomore year, but got good grades 2nd semester (7 Bs, 1 A), so my cumulative GPA from both years is 2.935. Now I’m a junior and my junior year GPA is 3.95 (if I maintain all As in my current classes till the end of the year, which I’m sure I will). I’m working really hard this year to get my GPA up. If I keep this up, my overall GPA will go up to 3.4. I haven’t taken any AP classes and have only taken 2-3 honors classes each year.

This is my schedule for next year:

World Literature
AP Physics 1
AP Government
AP Human Geography
AP Statistics (I’ll be able to drop Stats and take AP Calc. AB instead if I pass the Pre-calc course at the local community college this summer.)
Honors Spanish 3
Guitar 2
Economics

This is my current schedule:

American Literature - 89.25%
Honors US History - 97%
Pre-Calc - 98%
Honors Physics - 92%
PLTW POE - 98%
Honors Spanish 2 - 97% (I dropped regular Spanish 2 before midterms and my teacher let me take Honors Spanish 2 after winter break)
The rest are gym and lunch, and gym doesn’t count towards GPA.

I haven’t taken the ACT or the SAT, but I’m taking the ACT on April 19th and the SAT Math 2 in June.

ECs:
Math Team. I might be the captain next year, but it depends. I’ll be starting community service in a hospital in the summer. Math Team is the only thing I’ve done, and I started participating in it during my sophomore year.

Colleges I’m looking at:
-University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
-University of Illinois Chicago
-Northern Illinois University
-Eastern Illinois University
-University of Maryland, College Park
-Purdue
-University of Minnesota Twin Cities
-University of Michigan Ann Arbor
-Michigan State University
-If possible, UC Berkeley

Like I said, if I do well junior year, my overall GPA will be 3.4, and if I do well in the classes senior year, it’ll go up to at least 4.1 or 4.2. I’m also confident about the ACT and the SAT math 2. So is there still a chance for me to get into a good engineering/physics school? All of the universities listed above have good physics as well as engineering programs. If it helps, I want to major in aerospace engineering and quantum physics/astrophysics.

Sorry about the length.

Thanks!

2

Hi, does your school offer AP Computer Science, Physics C, or BC Calc? If you can, I would strongly recommend taking those courses. Since you’re applying for engineering, you want to take as many STEM - based AP courses as possible.

You should shoot for at least a 32 on your ACT for UIUC engineering. As for your GPA, I think you will have a shot if you can do exceptionally well in the first semester of your senior year. I was accepted to UIUC for Mechanical Engineering and I had a similar situation to yours (I had a low GPA my first two years but eventually brought it up to a 4.2).

One more thing you should consider is getting more engineering related EC’s under your belt and leadership experiences, and joining a sport really helps. It’s not too late to do any of these things either.