<p>throughout my years at highschool i took advice from the wrong people. People who claim to know how to do things that theyve never done themselves. Unfortunately this lead me to a path that ended in me taking the wrong courses that were too easy and didnt look good on my transcript or help my GPA, what recourses to use, what to write my essay on etc.</p>
<p>So I do NOT want to make the same mistake when trying to go to grad shool.</p>
<p>Ill be attending UC davis next year. It was not my top pick, but Im ok with it.</p>
<p>I had a weighted GPA of only 4.11 in highsvhool having only taken two weighted my junior year (four my senior year). Junior year wasnt that hard and I didnt feel like my ourses challanged me (except for AP english which was the biggest mistake of my life) which got me thinking I could have taken courses that I was stronger in like honors math and AP computer sci. unfortunately I had no one who could give me good advice and the only people who tried to give me advice told me to take AP english whih was a horrible Idea because it wasted all my time and left me with a B in the class.</p>
<p>So Im undecided at davis right now. I want to declare an electrcial engineering major. It came to a decision between davis and illinois (for mechE as my declared major). Illinois engineering is one of the bust undoubtably. However, the out of state tuition was horrendous and I didnt think it was worth it since grad schools more important. I want to go to a really good graduate school. I dont expect to get into a top 5 again.</p>
<p>From the research Ive been doing on EE grad schools, most have an acceptance rate of 10% and under if they are in the top 15. UCLA's average GPA was 3.8. This seems near impossible for an EE major in college and I dont even know if I could do that. </p>
<p>The grad schools I do want to go to (in order of desire to go)</p>
<ol>
<li>stanford</li>
<li>UC berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>University of illinois</li>
</ol>
<p>stanfords gonna be a reach I know. Same with berkeley I'm sure. </p>
<p>UCLA-Illinois are gonna be hard too as their average accepted students had 3.8s. Again this sounds hard in all EE classes. </p>
<p>I wanted some advice from people who attend top grad schools or have been accepted into them. It would be preferrable to hear from people who went from a school like davis whos engineering reputation wasnt amazing but managed to go to a top 15 grad school.</p>
<p>I want to know what I need to do for the next four years to</p>
<ol>
<li>declare EE as my major</li>
<li>Go to a very good grad school</li>
</ol>
<p>all advice is appreciate.</p>