Hi, I’m an incoming senior who’s getting some acceptance anxiety. >_< I’m looking into the mechanical, chemical, or biomedical engineering programs for UT Austin, UCLA, UCB, and UCSD. (Stuck between ChemE and BME) I would be in-state for UT Austin and OSS for the UC schools.
U/W GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 5.62/6.0
UC GPA: 4.54
Class rank: 4/578
1710 SAT
25 ACT
Grades:
Freshman Year:
PreAP World Geography: A- / A
PreAP Geometry: A / A+
PreAP Biology: A / A+
PreAP English 1: A / A+
PreAP Spanish 2: A+ / A+
Soccer: A+ / A+
Health: A+
Speech:A+
Sophomore Year:
AP World Hist.: A+ / A+
PreAP Chemistry: A+ / A+
PreAP English 2: A / A+
PreAP Spanish 3: A+ / A+
PreAP Algebra 2: A+ / A+
Soccer: A+ / A+
Tech Theatre: A+ / A+
Junior Year:
AP Chemistry: A+ / A+
AP English Lang: A+ / A+
APUSH: A+ / A+
AP Physics 1: A+ / A+
PreAP Precalc: A / A+
Soccer: A+
Engineering Design: A / A
Planned Senior Year:
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics C: Mech
Honors English 4 DC
AP Economics
AP American Government
Honors Humanities
Robotics & Programming
Fundamentals of Engineering
CC
Calculus 1 (currently at an A)
ECs:
Key Club (member 3 years, Editor 1 year)
NHS (member 2 years)
Robotics (Founded, VP 2 years, President 2 years)
Math and Science club (Founded, 1 year)
HOSA (member 1 year)
Student Council (member 1 year)
Soccer (3 years)
200+ hours of community service hours
HOBY Ambassador/Alumni
Fundamentals tour at an engineering facility
Church youth group (2 years)
Part time job during a summer
Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica (member 3 years)
Thank you!
First question: Can you afford OOS rates at the UC’s? $55K per year going up each year.
Are you planning to retake those tests?
Your 1710 SAT and 25 ACT scores are not competitive for any of the UC’s you’ve listed. Sorry 
I would assume one of two things here: you either are not good at testing, or your school is not that competitive in terms of academics. It doesn’t matter how high your UC GPA is (I also think you calculated it wrong, please cap your weighted classes), you won’t get into the UCs you listed with test scores that low.
UT you have auto admit, but not necessarily into the degree program that you want (especially hard for eng.). I think you can still make it, but if you get your SAT to the 1900-2000 range that would help a lot
If i get enough scholarships to pay for a good amount of the tuition, then I would attend a UC school. Unfortunately I was sick for both the SAT and ACT but I’m planning on taking the tests again in senior year.
The UC’s do not award scholarships to OOS students- they are expected to be full pay. Right now your test scores are too low for any of those mentioned. Do you have any back-ups besides UT?
Texas A&M and UTD
Are the test scores the only issues?
Yeah, test scores are the only issue. If you can get those up and write good essays and get good letters of rec then your application would be great- maybe even good enough for Ivy League (but your test scores would have to go wayyyy up for that).
@chemnerd4 also, you calculated your UC GPA wrong. It looks like you put your uncapped UC GPA there (which is only applicable and considered for UCB and UCLA). Your real capped UC GPA (assuming that Soccer is not an a-g requirement) is 4.33. That number will be used for all UCs, and will be the main one the UCs take into consideration. Also, remember that you are OOS, so the only classes that get weighted for your uncapped UC GPA are only your AP courses. Also, do you have any scores for the APs you took?
Thank you for clarifying about the UC GPA and for calculating it! I got a 3 for the APWH test but haven’t received the scores for AP tests taken junior year.