<p>Based upon info from admitted students and admissions officers at a few of those schools I would say that you need to recalibrate your expectations. If your goal is engineering there are tons of other good options. You’ve pick some of the very top schools in the US but you just don’t have the grades or scores to even be in the game.
The good news is that you do have other good choices. I would start by digging a bit deeper. Engineering covers a vast array - what sort of engineering interests you the most? Electrical? Mechanical? Civil? Environmental? Materials science? Aeronautical? Biomedical? Nuclear?
Then I would comb through the various rankings out there on that specific discipline. You’ll likely find a quick handful of schools in interesting places with nifty programs, where getting into the school isn’t as hard as an Ivy, or even UT Austin (which seems enormously tough for Texas kids who aren’t top 10% at their HS). You have decent grades in hard classes, what about Alabama, which has a serious program to give merit aid to very good students from out of state? What about UC Boulder? What about NC State? What about smaller strong engineering schools like the MSOE or Case Western? Spend your energy on strong programs at good, if not exceptional, colleges. You’ll find that your have more choices than you think.
Also, check out collegedata.com - you can put in your numbers and see scattergrams of where you fit with actual accepted students from the past several years.</p>