@DadTwoGirls When I talked to my parents, they said the max loan they would allow me to take is 30K, but they recommend none and that’s what I’m aiming for.
What should I consider a safety school if 75% is a match? My counselor was telling me that 70%+ should be a safety and below 30% should be a reach, with inbetween being match schools.
The 50% is just a preference but I’m open to almost anything.
My 3.7W/3.6UW GPA is after sophomore year. The lowest I will end with is a 3.8W/3.7UW, but I expect a 4.0W/3.8UW as my final GPA.
From what I understand, if I go a school that offers ROTC, I won’t have to worry about tuition, but still have to pay for room & board, fees, etc. Is that correct?
What would these schools be considered (safety, match, reach):
Purdue
Penn State
Harvey Mudd
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly SLO
Northwestern
UC Berkeley/LA (Tier 1 UC’s)
UC SB/SD/Irvine/Davis (Tier 2 UC’s)
UC SC/River (Tier 3 UC’s)
UC Merced (Tier 4 UC)
Boston
UT Austin
USC (SoCal)
UI Urbana Champaign
If you’re open to the idea of NROTC, you might also consider Cal Maritime. https://www.csum.edu/web/academics/schools/me If you are comfortable with the whole “corps” aspect - uniforms, training cruises, and etc. - that would be part of the NROTC experience, this is a non-military option that would give you a great MechE education and small-school experience within the CSU system. https://www.csum.edu/web/about/explore
Without a test score it’s tough to figure out reaches and matches but I’d say UCB, UCLA, Harvey Mudd, Northwestern and UT_Austin are reaches. UCR, UCSC, UC Merced, maybe Irvine are safeties, the rest matches. There’s a lot of variation in the matches though, depending on how competitive MechE is at those schools. e.g. for comp sci, Purdue, UIUC would be reaches. MechE is typically a popular engineering major, at least when I was applying, only electrical/computer was more popular. Now it’s possible BiomedE or ChemE maybe. Good luck!
“What should I consider a safety school if 75% is a match”
It depends upon what the 75% refers to.
If the overall acceptance rate is 75%, then you should compare your GPA and SAT with the range of published students for that school (and for the ME major if you can find it) and if you are above the average for both it is probably a safety.
If your chances at getting in are estimated at 75%, then it is probably a match for you.
I think that @Gumbymom would be better than I at estimating your chances for the California schools. However, I think that @theloniusmonk is pretty close in post #24.
“the max loan they would allow me to take is 30K, but they recommend none and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
This makes a lot of sense. You should run the NPC on all of the out of state schools, and the in-state private schools.
Money really is an important factor for most families.
You and your parents ought to run the online Net Price Calculators on Northwestern or any other schools that interest you. If you use the College Board site, it will save your data for re-use on other colleges.
Try running the NPCs on a variety of schools, including selective private schools (like Northwestern) and in-state public schools. Then you can begin to see a more or less representative range of net prices to expect.
Until you have an SAT score and have completed Junior year so you can calculate your CSU/UC Capped weighted GPA, it is difficult to determine your chances at any of the California schools. ME is highly competitive and having below a UC/CSU GPA of 4.0, will make it a very difficult admit for most of the UC’s and SLO. SLO is also the CSU exception school, since they include 9-11th grades for the a-g courses instead of 10-11th grades and still cap at 8 semesters of extra honors points.
I think that CPP/UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz are potential Match schools. UC Merced is a Safety. The rest of the UC’s, USC, Harvey Mudd, UT Austin and SLO would fall in the Low Reach to High Reach range.
You should consider San Diego State and CSU Long Beach for Match schools and your local Cal State as a Safety. Other posters have given you suggestions for some OOS schools as potential Matches.
You do not need a “big name/prestigious” school for a quality ME program. Check the ABET accredited school list and you will find a wide range of schools that will meet your requirements.
@Gumbymom Forgot that UC’s only use 10th and 11th grade for calculating GPA. Except for SLO (high 3.X), my CSU/UC GPA will probably be in the low 4.X. Right now on Elite, Princeton Review, Barrons, and Khan Academy, I’m getting high 14XX to low 15XX (1450-1550).
I’ve been looking at San Diego State more, and it looks like a good experience. Thanks for the idea. I’ll definitely compare the ABET list with some college search tools to narrow down my options.
I highly recommend applying to the Weber’s Honor College at SDSU. SDSU accepts High Stat applicants early in December along with the Honors College invite so something to consider if accepted. Plenty of ME opportunities in the SD area due to the Naval companies and the Tech companies in Sorrento Valley. And if you are interested in ROTC, SDSU is the perfect place.
Getting into a school is one thing. Paying for it is something entirely different. Out of state tuition is triple the cost of in-state. Unless your parents are paying for that tuition, you can’afford it.
Oklahoma State & Nebraska would both probably give you scholarships that would bring your room, board , & tuition down to the neighborhood of a little over $20,000 per year.
Also shop around for schools that are generous with giving credit for AP exams. Being able to take a lighter course load than normal will help you get through some tough semesters.
Go to the college’s web site & look for a section called “AP Credit.” There will usually be a chart that tells you what credits they give for each score. The amounts vary widey from college to college. Like this:
Just to give you an idea of how widely the credits vary from college to college, a score of 5 on the AP Spanish language test will get you 6 credits at U of Nebraska at Lincoln. Meanwhile, 60 miles away, at the U of Nebraska at Omaha, a score of 4 on that same test will get you 16 credits.