Demographic: Male Asian (Chinese); 2nd gen
Family size and Income: 4 (Oldest sibling); Higher middle class (130k+)
In-state
Highschool Academics: Moderately competitive public school
Rank: Top 10% of 700
UW GPA: 3.92
UC/CSU GPA: 4.28
3 AP’s 4 Honors (Ap Chem,USH,Calc AB)
1 College course (Macro-Econ)
No Act/Sat
Intended major: ChemE
Extracurriculars:
Highschool Badminton (JV 9th,10th; Var 11th)
Part-time job as a bubble tea barista (12th)
CSF Life member (9-12th)
Volunteered at a food bank for most of the summer (12th)
UC PIQ’s: My essays aren’t the greatest in my opinion. They are at best a 6-7/10. I had good writing but decent substance.
Schools I applied to:
UCLA
UCSB
UCSD
UCI
UCD
UCSC
UCR
Cal Poly SLO
SDSU
SJSU
You will definitely have a slot at SDSU, UCR, and UCSC. Your GPA is very good but your course schedule wasn’t super rigorous but the APs you took were the harder ones. The UC admissions process is very weird and it is always hard to predict where one will get in. I think you will have a shot at UCSB, SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, UCD, UCI, and UCSD. UCLA and Berkeley are definitely reaches.
SJSU chemical engineering historically has not be that competitive, but it is hard to translate previous year eligibility indices (GPA * 800 + SAT_RW + SAT_M) to its current formula using GPA and subparts of GPA only.
For fall 2019 frosh, admission rates for GPA >= 4.20 were as follows. But note that chemical engineering was probably more selective than the campus as a whole at many UCs:
38% UCB
87% UCD
55% UCI
35% UCLA
97% UCR
71% UCSD
73% UCSB
If you don’t get into UCSD, UCLA, or Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Davis are a great ChemE college. Many corporate companies recruit from there. UCSB has historically had a solid controls engineering specialization within ChemE. I am a ChemE from the UofWashington, myself, and have recruited at Berkeley, Davis, and SB over the last 24 years.
If you don’t have intention of going to med school, patent law, find the right college from your list based on environment and based on their job placement and internship placement successes.