Race: Mexican male who lives in California income less than 70k
State: CA
GPA: 3.27 UC/CSU 3.17 UW
SAT 1320 Math 680 Eng 640
AP: Spanish 4, taking APCS A, AP Stats, and AP Environmental Science
EC’s:
Swim Teacher 1 Years ( 15 Hours a week year round)
Volunteered at a library (4 months 6 hours a week)
Volunteered at a church ( 320 Hours)
Food Bank ( 10 Hours)
Worked at AT&T stadium for 2 years ( 12 Hours a week)
In a college-bound program for low-income students ( 10 hours a week) 2 years
Schools:
UCLA - Mechanical Eng
UCSD - Mechanical Eng
UC - Merced Mechanical Eng
UC - Riverside Mechanical Eng
UC Irvine - Comp Eng
UC Santa - Cruz Comp Eng
Santa Clara University - Comp Eng
Loyola Marymount University - Comp Eng
Drexel University - Comp Eng
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html may help you with past UC campus admission rates by high school GPA. However, engineering majors tend to be more selective than the campuses overall. Based on past admission rates for 3.00-3.39 GPA, UCM is probably a match, UCR is probably a high match, and the other UCs are reaches, if your GPA is 3.27.
Which CSUs did you apply to?
Forgot to add but slo, pomona, long beach,chico, san diego, and san jose
Your CSU eligibility index is 3.27 * 800 + 680 + 640 = 3936. For some STEM majors, some campuses use a modified version that emphasizes the math SAT section; yours would be 3956.
Last year, SJSU admitted mechanical engineering frosh applicants at 4000, and computer engineering frosh applicants at 4100, so either major would be a reach for you at SJSU. See the following:
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/
CSULB requires a minimum eligibility index of 3300 for non-local STEM applicants. However, engineering majors are additionally impacted, so the threshold may be higher for those majors, but the campus does not appear to publish past thresholds.
http://www.csulb.edu/admissions/freshmen-admission-eligibility
CSUC has a higher minimum eligibility index for the campus than the CSU baseline of 2950, but does not specify what it historically has been. Engineering majors are not impacted there, so they would not be additionally selective.
http://www.csuchico.edu/admissions/apply/first-time-freshmen/admission-requirements.shtml
CPSLO, CPP, and SDSU are among the more selective campuses (especially CPSLO), but do not appear to have any information about past or current thresholds on their web sites. CPSLO uses additional criteria, adding points to the eligibility index to get an MCA index that it uses.
If you are local to a CSU campus, you may get some admission preference; check the campus’ web site.
Although your SAT score is within range for UC’s on your list, your GPA will hurt your chances. I have taken the UC GPA admit data and broken it out into a table to easily use for comparison.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.00-3.39 (UC Capped Weighted) and not major specific.
UCB/UCLA/UCSD: 1%
UCI/UCSB: 2%
UCD: 4%
UCSC: 18%
UCR: 38%
UCM: 67%
UC Merced looks like your only solid chance at a UC. UC’s and CSU’s do not consider Race/Ethnicity in their admission decisions. It could help for the private schools but again your GPA will impact your chances.
For the CSU’s,
Chico State: Match
SJSU: Reach based the EI thresholds from last year
SDSU: Reach (EI of 4100+ is competitive unless local where a 4000 EI may get you an acceptance).
CSULB: HIgh Match-Low Reach (EI of 3900+ could be competitive)
CPP: High Match (EI of 3800+ can be competitive for non-impacted majors but Engineering will be higher)
SLO: High Reach (Averge CP GPA for Engineering 4.16 and Average SAT score was 1467).
LMU/SCU are going to be tough admits. I suggest you look at University of Redlands as another option.
I see no safety unless you applied to your local CSU??? Cal State Bakersfield is still accepting applications until 3/1/2018 if you want a Safety school.
Is their a reason for your lower GPA vs test scores? If so, was this addressed in your UC essays?
Best of luck and I hope you will have some choices come Spring.
Redlands does not offer engineering natively (it has 3+2 arrangements).
CSU Bakersfield has a general engineering program with options in biosystems and agricultural engineering, engineering management, and petroleum engineering. Perhaps not the best match for computer engineering, although the course work appears to have some overlap with typical mechanical engineering course work.
I was hanging out with the wrong crowd, parents were going through problems and when I wanted to try it was too late for me to do anything besides getting a decent SAT score. I didn’t apply to my local CSU, I thought it would be better if I went to CC rather than my local CSU. I did address my low GPA in one of my essays.