Good Schools to Look Into

College Search & Selection
1

Hey Guys,

Right now after sophomore year finished, I have a 3.6 GPA and practice SAT score of 1490. I am president of Entrepreneurship Club, Vice President of Mechanical for RoboSub Club, Outreach for VEX Robotics Club, member of DECA, member of Empowering Youth to Financial Literacy Club, a Section Leader for Trumpet Section, and an Eagle Scout. After junior year, I’ll probably have 3.8 GPA. What schools should I look more into and/or visit? I’m looking to apply to 2-3 reach schools, 3-4 chance schools, and 2-3 safety schools for Mechanical Engineering.

Thanks,
–tp3208

2

What type of school are you interested? Large public school? Small LAC? Mid-size?

Also how much does money matter to you? How much can you pay for college?

3

What is your home state? What is your budget? Is your GPA weighted or unweighted?

4

@ShoutTurkey I’m not too worried about money. My parents have enough to pay for 2-3 years in-state, or 1-2 years out of state. I’m using scholarships and loans for the rest. The max we’re willing to pay is around 120K. I’m interested in almost any sized public or private schools that aren’t religiously affiliated.

5

@DadTwoGirls My home state is California. My budget isn’t too important as of right now, but the max we’re willing to pay is around 120K. My GPA right now is weighted. BY the end of next year (junior) I should have a 3.75 and the by the end of 1st sem senior, I should have a 3.85. These approximates are the lowest I’ll have. On the high end, I’ll have a 3.95 at the end. All of these are weighted.

6

You budget is important. Many schools cost over $250K for 4 years now. You have half that available. That means that in-state publics or schools with merit are probably where you need to look. Or WUE schools (Google it, those might be good options given your stats and budget).

Your GPA is a limitation, and not sure why you are so convinced it will be better going forward. Unweighted GPA is generally what schools look at.

7

@intparent The number put out was just tuition. That doesn’t include room and board and all other fees. And that was just an approx. With all things included, I’m looking at around 250K(ish).

8

Okay, you didn’t say that. You said the “max you were willing to pay”. To clarify, you mention loans and scholarships. You are saying you have $250K cash to work with, and would borrow above that?

Can you explain your planned upward GPA trend? Specifically, what was your GPA frosh year and soph year separately? Did you get very poor grades first year, then great grades the second? If so, you might make some of the GPA gains you expect. But jr year is a hard year, it is tough to just turn on the jets then. Also, do you know your UW GPA?

9

@intparent Freshman year I did very very poorly: 3.4W/UW.

Sophomore year I got 4.0W/3.8UW. I have a 3.7W/3.6UW in total right now.

Junior year, I’m taking 3 AP’s and one weighted Hon class (out of 8 classes) and all of them are easy except for AP US History, so I expect a 4.37W/3.8UW.

Senior year, I’m taking 3 AP’s and two weighted Hon classes (out of 7 classes) and all of them are very easy, so I expect a 4.7W/4.0UW.

10

AP classes are rarely easy. But I agree that you have had an upward trend.

Can you confirm that the $250K is cash on hand or coming out of parent current earnings in the years you will be in school? Or is merit aid necessary? What kind of loans would you be taking to afford $250K?

11

Have a look at Cal Poly Pomona (in-state tuition, a bit easier to get into than Cal Poly SLO). Also Oregon State.

12

@washugrad Yeah. I’ve been looking at both Cal Poly Pomona and SLO. My PLTW teacher says that they would be good safety schools since I have close to a 75% chance of getting in. I’m still looking for other options that are in a similar tier in regards to education and life, but any school I look at I prefer the admissions rate to be below 50%.

13

Cal poly SLO has around a 17% acceptance rate for ME so not a safety. Cal Poly Pomona would be a solid Match and possibly a safety if your GPA increases.

14

I’m also thinking of maybe doing (N)ROTC, and in that case, the budget will not be a problem at all.

15

@Gumbymom Where did you find the ME acceptance rate? When I look online I can’t find it. So I’ve been going off prep scholar and the main rate. I also thought that SLO would be a good match school but my teacher told me the 3 PLTW engineering classes I’ve taken will almost give a 1.5-2x higher chance of getting in.

16

SLO posts their target Freshman admits each year. For this year they targeted an ME class of 180. The rough formula is they accept 3 times as many applicants as seats since not all admitted students attend. The # of expected applicants is 3433. Again these are projections but ME acceptance rates have been in this range for the last few years.

https://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/ir/1/images/2018-2019%20Enrollment%20Targets%20and%20Projections.pdf

17

I’m still looking for 1-2 more safeties other than CalPoly Ponoma, 2-3 more match schools other than CalPoly SLO and 2-3 more reach schools. Would Northwestern University be a good reach school? Also should I count all the UC’s as one school (probably match or maybe even reach) since there’s only 1 application?

18

@Gumbymom Okay cool thanks. Will the same formula work for other schools too (using the target class and then multiply by 3)?

19

You cannot treat all UC’s the same. Here is the admit rates based on capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific. Expect Engineering admits rates to be lower.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79:

UCB: 1.8%
UCLA: 2.2%
UCSD: 7.2%
UCSB: 10.1%
UCI: 11.1%
UCD: 16.6%
UCSC: 43.8%
UCR: 63.3%
UCM: 88.7%

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1
UCM: 96.1%

20

“I’m using scholarships and loans for the rest.”

Scholarships are definitely not guaranteed until you have the letter in hand. The best scholarships usually come from the university that you attend. As such, where you attend will have a huge impact on what scholarships you are likely to receive.

By the way, one daughter has a merit based scholarship that requires that she maintain a 3.5 GPA in university to keep the scholarship. While she is doing so with some to spare, this would certainly not be a guarantee for many students if they needed the scholarship to afford the school. Some merit scholarships require the student to maintain a GPA which is not quite this high.

Loans are not free money. They have to be repaid with interest. Having significant student loans will significantly impact where you can work. For example some students end up having to live with their parents after graduation in order to save money to pay off loans. This has a huge impact on where a new graduate can find a job. However, finding an appropriate job can be quite challenging right after graduation, even for students with pragmatic sensible majors such as engineering.

My daughter who graduated about two months ago was thinking about taking loans before she went to university. I however pretty much forbade her to take loans. Now she is very glad that she has no debt upon graduation. Her first job is enough to pay the bills, but living on her own (in an apartment shared with a friend) would be very tight or not possible if she also had loans to repay.

“…good safety schools since I have close to a 75% chance of getting in”

If you have a 75% chance of getting into a very good university, then it is a very sensible place to apply, and a very likely place for you to attend. However, it is not a safety. It is a match (and IMHO two very good ones in this case).

“any school I look at I prefer the admissions rate to be below 50%.”

With a 3.6 weighted aiming for an engineering major?

One piece of good news is that California has very good in-state options.

To be fair, I do expect you to get into good in-state options where you can do very well. You also have a very sensible major which should lead to a good job after graduation. I am just being a bit picky with regard to how you might want to think about where to apply.