<p>Major: For these schools, I'll major in engineering; not positive which field. For Cal Poly I'd probably go for mechanical engineering, but honestly would major in just about any engineering field they would accept me in. I'm applying to out of state schools for petroleum engineering, so for the UCs, I was thinking chemical engineering + geology minor might be a decent way to go. Other than that, likely mechanical. Have to read some more on what they offer.</p>
<p>Class selection: By graduation I'll have taken all 5 engineering courses offered at my school and completed the Project Lead the Way engineering program. For math, freshman year I started in Algebra 1; this year (senior year) I'm in AP Calc AB and AP Stats (will likely transfer to Calc BC instead of Stats).</p>
<p>Essays: For one of the UC prompts, I'm writing a strong essay about weightlifting, which I started during the summer between sophomore and junior year. It helped me get far better grades even with a much more rigorous schedule, get more involved and demonstrate leadership, improved confidence, and helped me to become much more social bla bla bla. I basically rose from the ashes of an awful sophomore year to do great junior year and challenge myself even more during senior year. I'm still considering how I'll write the other essay. Unfortunately, I think my essay and extracurriculars have the potential to help a decent amount for the UCs, while Cal Poly is going to be much more concerned with my scores.</p>
<p>Freshman GPA: 4.00
Sophomore GPA: 3.625; 3.75(W)
Junior GPA: 4.0; 4.375(W)
Total: 3.86; 4.04(W)</p>
<p>Class rank: 35/466; 7.51%</p>
<p>SAT:
Critical Reading: 610
Math: 630
Writing: 640
Total: 1880
I'm retaking the SAT next weekend and will hopefully do better on it since I'm more prepared. Really hoping for at least a 1300 (CR+M). I doubt my current scores are anywhere near good enough for SLO and UCSD.</p>
<p>ACT: Took last weekend; scores will hopefully be in soon. Think I did extremely well on the English section, decent on the Math (last 8 questions or so were pretty shaky), and not so great on Reading. From what I've read, Science and Writing aren't looked at by a lot of schools, which is probably to my benefit.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
National Honor Society (10-12)
Engineering Society (9-12)
Engineering Society Build Club Leader (12)
Junior Varsity Volleyball (9)
Varsity Volleyball (11)
People of the Planet Club President (12) (environmental volunteer work)
Key Club (11-12) (volunteer work)
Breaking Down the Walls Team Leader (12)
Stairway to Stardom (2 month long summer "battle of the bands" program; played guitar and wrote my band's songs) (9-10)
Weekly Church Volunteer work (9)
Also in one or two more clubs but honestly they don't seem worth mentioning because they aren't related to my major and don't demonstrate leadership or dedication.</p>
<p>Thanks very much guys.</p>