@DrGoogle how do I check?
Ask the school counselor. It costs money, it’s not free.
@DrGoogle Oh! Thanks for all the advice. Also, do you know of any scholarship programs, similar to the Robertson Scholarship?
Forget about McCormick at Northwestern, it would be a rather high reach for you.
Tell me why you are asking for scholarship, you can’t afford it?
@billcsho even if I ED?
@DrGoogle I want to apply to show interest that I attempted to get the scholarship… I can afford it but hey, if I get it then I don’t have to pay. I can pay but I don’t want to, so I’m looking at ways to show interest and get some tuition paid for.
I think you got it all wrong by showing interest. It’s a waste effort really. There are many ways to show interest. For example, Michigan is one school that does consider showing interest. All my daughter did is to send free SAT score to it when she was happy with her SAT. Same with USC, even though it doesn’t consider showing interest, but lots of people visit, do tours, have interview with adcoms. My daughter did none of those and she still got in. Again all she did was sending free SAT scores.
Even ED to Northwestern does not help in your case. Your stat is to far below admission average. They are not eager to admit students with around 25th percentile score in ED as they have a ~12% admission rate and have plenty of high stat students to choose from.
Attempt to get scholarship does not really show interest to the school (but the money). However, applying early (which is often required for merit scholarships) is a sign of interest. If the scholarship requires separate application, you likely need to write an essay for it. If your stat is below the 75th percentile, you can save your effort as the chance to get one is low.
@billcsho @DrGoogle thanks for putting things into perspective. Are there any other schools you guys recommend in general? Which Ones should I not even waste my app fee from my list?
- USC- Electrical Engineering: Reach
- UCSD- Electrical and Computer Engineering: Reach (Highly impacted major)
- UC Irvine- Computer Science and Engineering: Match
- UCSB- Electrical Engineering: Match
- Georgia Tech (EA)- Electrical Engineering: Match
- Cornell (ED)- Electrical Engineering: Out of Reach
- WUSTL- Mechanical Engineering: Dont know
- Duke- Electrical Engineering (ED???): Dont know
- Purdue- Electrical Engineering: Low Match
You should try Cal Poly SLO, San Jose State and University of Washington. Those schools have great engineering programs and your stats match perfectly with them 
@spamuser thanks! Where are you applying?
You already commented on my post. Pretty much all those schools excluding UT Austin and I added University of Washington to the list 
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-irvine/1799317-chance-me-uc-engineering-ill-chance-back.html#latest
Some are reaches, like Cornell, I think UCI is a match!
Northwestern is a highly selective college. California is a big state with a very competitive applicant pool. I don think you are disadvantaged applying to Northwestern but you also don’t gave a geographical advantage. Looks like maxed out course rigor but have a lowish GPA and test scores that are good but not great. Some of the schools you’ve mentioned are too much of a stretch but Purdue is a slam dunk. ED is going to be most helpful at colleges where the difference between ED and RD admit rates are greatest and where this can’t be explained solely by athletes or legacy. Sadly, it’s hard for those of us not working directly in admissions how much ED helps. If you are top 10 percent of your class, you aren’t doing too badly. How competitive is your high school?
- USC- Electrical Engineering - high match
- UCSD- Electrical and Computer Engineering - low match
- UC Irvine- Computer Science and Engineering - low match
- UCSB- Electrical Engineering - low match
- Georgia Tech (EA)- Electrical Engineering - low reach
- Cornell (ED)- Electrical Engineering - reach
- WUSTL- Mechanical Engineering - reach
- Duke- Electrical Engineering (ED???) - reach (go ED here instead of Duke because your chances are risen higher)
- Purdue- Electrical Engineering - match