Chances to these engineering schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Class Rank: 1/40 (not sure on GPA but will update when i find it)
College dual credits from on campus community college classes: Intro to engineering, algebra, trig, pre cal, calc, government 1A, government 1B, English 1A, English 1B, Macro economics.
ACT: 31
Math: 30
English: 31
Science: 33
Reading: 31
Writing 19 yikes!!!
Retaking test in October. I know I can get score up to a 33 because I got a 31 after 3 weeks of practice. (31 was one point in any section from a 32)

Extracurricular activities: Boy Scouts until star scout, Youth Leader at church that led meetings for Sunday night youth nights of 300 kids, A&M Stem camp sophomore summer, football team freshman year, golf team junior and senior year, student council

Volunteering: 280 hours of community service. 1 week mission trip to Moore, OK, 2 week long Vacation bible school programs, Participation in an organization that interacts with kids that have disabilities from freshman year to senior, time spent with Stars on the Rise, a financial need scholarship program.

Work History: Host then promoted to Bus Boy at a Mexican restaurant from when I turned 16 to a year and a month ago when I started my new job. I picked up a lot of Spanish to the point I would consider myself verbally fluent for the most part. My new job is very independent as I am a sales associate at a health store inside of LA Fitness. I work solo shifts and I am in charge of receiving items and closing up store the 4 days a week I work. At both jobs I work 20-25 hours a week.

Letter of recommendation from my principal who loves me. Also a character reference from the head of the Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

I am also hispanic if that makes an impact

Schools applying to for mechanical engineering:

I am a Texas Resident!

UT Austin
A&M
Rice University
UCLA
UC Berkeley
University of Michigan
Cornell

What do y’all think my chances are on these schools?

UT Austin is basically a locked in school for me. Parents willing to pay tuition to texas state schools so A&M and UT are going to pretty much be my definite schools. What do you guys think.

2

So your parents will pay $55K/year for UCLA/UCB with no financial aid for OOS applicants?

You are within range for UCLA and UCB but bumping up your ACT score will be needed to have a better chance at Engineering for these schools. URM will have no impact.

If the UC’s are affordable, the California residents welcome your money.

Good Luck.

3

Parents willing to pay tuition to texas state schools so A&M and UT

They are not willing to pay for oos state tuition. I will not be able to receive financial aid due to parents income. I will apply for merit based scholarships, but I am not relying on them. I am new here. What does URM mean?

BTW i love how active this forum is!

4

UCB/UCLA offer few merit scholarships (usually top 1-2% of applicants) and would not begin to cover the costs. Most of the aid (need based) is for in-state applicants. I would run the Net Price Calculators for your listed schools to make sure you will get enough merit aid. You definitely need to increase your ACT for any merit aid at UCLA/UCB.

5

Thanks for the reply. What do you think on the other schools? Also where can I go about finding merit scholarships? Financial aid is sadly out of the question. I am ecstatic about having the opportunities to go to either UT Austin or A&M, but I have also always wanted to go to a california school or one in the north east? My friend who was pretty bright, valedictorian, extremely athletic (ranked 4th in texas on the breaststroke) and had a ton of volunteer and other extracurricular activities got 3/4 of his tuition to Johns Hopkins paid for with a 32 ACT.

6

Many OOS schools do give good merit aid to top applicants but the UC’s do not. If you are interested in California schools, you should target privates such as USC, Santa Clara, Pomona College, Harvey Mudd.

Also take a look at this link: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

California schools are more my forte, so I defer to other posters for your chances at the other schools on your list. I also note that your friend was a recruited athlete which can make a significant difference in aid available especially for a top athlete which great stats.

7

Thank you for your help gumby. I never realized that the UC’s were so hard for scholarships. I am just starting up the college search as of a week ago. Believe it or not he got that amazing scholarship strictly merit! He declined the athletic scholarship because it only covered about half. I will continue looking into other college choices because as great as California is, I would rather go to texas school for free than have to pay loans. Harvey is a great engineering school, but 1k students is just too small for me.

If anyone has other engineering school ideas I would love to hear. I would love to go to a big name recognizable school, but private schools that aren’t too small are alright too.

8

On what I said about my friend who got the scholarship to Johns Hopkins, I just looked up the name of the scholarship which is named the bloomberg scholarship. I guess thats a financial need scholarship… I guess it just surprises me that his family would qualify when they live in a 600k home.

I am going to apply to the UC’s because who knows! I guess I just want to have more options than just UT and A&M even though they are terrific school. I will keep checking out other schools and fill y’all in when I find more I have questions about.

9

If you want to go out of state, I recommend that you look at the yolasite list that has already been provided where you might be able to get merit scholarships or pay in-state tuition based on your academic record.

For engineering, you might also want to look at some western universities that have relatively low tuition and often offer in-state tuition for good students. Some examples are University of New Mexico, University of Wyoming, and some of the publics in Washington state, minus the flagship. There are many others. Maybe look at Colorado School of Mines? There is merit money available there but I am not sure how competitive it is.

Unfortunately, you won’t be likely to get any merit money from the California public universities. Also at many CA campuses, engineering is an impacted major and is very difficult to get in.

Michigan has some OOS merit, but again, it is super competitive.

There are MANY OOS options that would fit your family’s budget. But you would have to consider some schools that are a notch down in the rankings.

Good luck to you!

10

What is your uwGPA?
Try to bring up your test score, particularly the Math section score. As of now, it is at or below the 25th percentile for UMich CoE.

11

Can you pay the FULL cost of attending a UC? It is very likely that is what you will be doing if you get accepted to a UC as an OOS student.

Oh…and if you think you can easily get instate status in subsequent years…think again!