Hey everyone! I’m applying to some UCs (most likely Cal, LA, SD, and Irvine), Harvey Mudd, UIUC (EA), Carnegie Mellon, Cal Poly SLO, Cornell, USC, and SJSU. How’s my college list looking and what are my chances, especially for UIUC and the high reaches on my list?
Basic Info: Asian female in CA, no hooks
Major: probably Electrical Engineering, maybe CS
GPA: 4.0 UW / 4.39 W / 4.27 (capped) UC GPA
SAT: 1550 (750 R/W, 800 M), 800 Math II, 730 Chem
APs: Mostly 5s, a couple 4s in humanities
General ECs (pretty lackluster)
- COSMOS: college-level instruction in math, made research poster
- AcaDeca team captain: help lead the class, assist the teacher, etc.
- Math Club VP: help handle club affairs, participate in math competitions, decent AMC 12 score (if that matters)
- CyberPatriots: Platinum level 2 years in a row
Volunteering:
- at library, hundreds of hours, for a few years
Work experience:
- coding instructor for elementary schoolers
- internship for civil engineering: learned a lot about engineering, might get LOR from mentor
- math instructor job
Awards:
- made it to the national level in a history competition as the team leader (was a big deal for my school)
- 1st place in a fairly prestigious NorCal science/tech-related competition
- NHS and CSF
I have some other ECs too (eg Quiz Bowl, Key Club VP) but don’t have the space for them in my Common App activities list. I know I’m being pretty vague so let me know if I should elaborate on any of these ECs! I’m concerned for UIUC because I have no idea how competitive EE or CS are, whereas for the rest of the schools I have a better idea of if they are reaches/matches/safeties.