<p>Suppose a diligent student from a competitive private high school wants to major in mechanical engineering--say, 3.5 unweighted gpa, respectable SAT's (maybe 1300-1400 under old system), some advanced coursework, a few athletic awards, limited work experience.</p>
<p>Where would he look?</p>
<p>what exactly are you asking?</p>
<p>A 3.5 UW GPA and a 1350 old SAT should be enough to get you into a 1st Tier Engineering program, perhaps even a top one like Purdue.</p>
<p>Thanks, im_blue--I see you are at Stanford. Do you know of any good undergraduate mechanical engineering programs in California?</p>
<p>Stanford and Berkeley are the obvious CA engineering powerhouses. They're not "2nd tier", though, whatever that means. For undergrad, another good CA choice is Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>Your composite SAT score doesn't matter for engineering so much as your math SAT and your SATIIs in math & science. So if your SATs are in the 1300-1400 range, even split, that's about 670-700 in math - which is on the low side for engin. Likewise, your grades in math and science are probably a little more important than your grades in fine arts and Latin. Flip side: 750 range math SAT and a bunch of As in math/science, balanced out by Bs in foreign language - you're looking pretty good. Yes, some engineering schools will want to see strength across both areas (I can already hear the hair-splitters starting to yelp at this), but, ultimately, your math/science abilities are more important in admission.</p>
<p>If you don't mind posting more specific information, please do so, so we can help you out a bit more. </p>
<p>As for what schools you can get into: Not being an expert on the CA system, I won't speculate. However, if you want to go to a second-tier engineering school, you can still have a good life. You can still get a job after graduation if you do well. That job won't be with google or Microsoft, but it will pay well and be respectable. As long as you go to an ABET school, you'll get a good education. As Sakky pointed out in another thread, salaries are very compressed in engineering - there are very few bonuses given to the top kids - everyone is pretty much paid within the same range. </p>
<p>Just consider what you want out of your engineering degree. A google job - gotta go to the best schools. Engineering as a route to something else - you might be better off at a school that gives you merit aid and where you can really stand out. </p>
<p>My two cents. :)</p>
<p>You could get into the Big-10 schools (such as UIUC, Purdue, Michigan as a reach, Wisconsin, Penn State, etc.) as well as GaTech with those stats.</p>
<p>and all of those schools have top engineering programs. in california, i would also suggest cal poly ( i would look at rose hulman as well. its in indiana, but its a great engineering school with a focus on undergrad)</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is good in Cali. I almost went there.</p>
<p>ariesathena: "Your composite SAT score doesn't matter for engineering so much as your math SAT and your SATIIs in math & science."</p>
<p>any clue if that applies for UC's too?</p>
<p>many of the UC's - berkeley excepted - use a formula for a raw score of the student's stats (gpa, volunteer hours, relative rigor of hs, etc). as a result, for admission into uc itself, the two are weighted equally. to get into impacted engineering majors, however - say, electrical engineering or bioengineering - i'd wager that the math sat score is a deciding factor in departmental acceptance.</p>
<p>thus, at least for the impacted majors, yes.</p>
<p>:)</p>