Help Compiling List of Colleges to Apply For!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello, I am a rising senior and I need help compiling a list of schools for me to apply for.
I reside in California and I am looking for Engineering schools (either private or public is fine).
I plan to major in Mechanical Engineering and possibly minor in Computer Science. </p>

<p>What would be good reach, target, and safety schools for me?</p>

<p>My Academic GPA:
4.1071 (Weighted)
3.8214 (UnWeighted)</p>

<p>SAT I Score: 2360
Math: 800
Reading: 760
Writing: 800</p>

<p>SAT II Scores:
Math 2: 800
Chemistry: 770
Physics: 770</p>

<p>AP Tests (Waiting for results)
Chemistry
Physics B
Physics C: Mechanics (self-taught)
Calculus B/C (self-taught to skip from Pre-Calc to Multi-Variable next year)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities: (Weak Section; I don't have much because I have to help my parents with business when they get busy)
Milal Mission Class AGAPE (454 hr) (11, 10, 9)
Aided individuals with disabilities in order to help them integrate smoothly into society by engaging in physical training (such as fine motor control) and social skills (such as going to markets in an attempt to understand the idea of economy)</p>

<p>Clubs:<br>
M3CM:<br>
Math Club focused on Internet Math Olympiad (Founder)
Robotics Club:
Robotics Club focused on First Tech Competition and Urban Mini Challenge Competition (Co-founder)
Mu Alpha Theta:
Math Club focused on Log 1 Contest (Captain)
Math Matters:
Math Club focused on tutoring middle schoolers with competitive mathematics (Captain)
POYT:
Debate club focused on current events (Vice-Captain)</p>

<p>Honors:
87th Place in Online Math Open Contest (11)
10th Place in Alpha Division of Mu Alpha Theta (11)
Questbridge College Prep Scholar (11)
California Scholarship Federation (9,10,11)
Principal’s Honor Roll (9,10,11)
President's Award for Educational Excellence (10)
25th Place in Theta Division of Mu Alpha Theta (10)
87th Place in Harvard-MIT Math Tournament Team Test (10)</p>

<p>Please tell me if you need additional information.
Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Your chances are near certain almost everywhere, and good-to-excellent at the few that aren’t certain. Start at the top: CalTech, MIT, Olin, Harvey Mudd . . . then, Columbia Engineering, Rice, UC Berkeley . . . throw in Vanderbilt and Washington U-St.Louis as matches (they have very good admit rates for high scorers like you), and then take some other UCs or, say, Purdue or RPI, as safeties. Oh, and don’t post too much here, or people will start to really hate you.</p>

3

<p>Are you planning to apply for financial aid/are you continuing with QuestBridge? Your SAT score isn’t too shabby, but you didn’t need a stranger from the internet to tell you that.</p>

<p>Reach schools for you are reach schools for anyone; in no way are you out of the ballpark for the big-name schools with single digit acceptance rates. For reach schools, figure out which seem to be the best fit, and apply to those. If (for example) you realize you love UChicago but can’t stand Penn, don’t apply to Penn even though it has the Ivy name. MIT and Caltech are obvious suggestions. UChi doesn’t have MechE, but its CompSci program is tough to beat. But if you’re looking for straight-up math and science, stay away from UChicago and its very comprehensive Core Curriculum. Columbia is similar, but its engineering majors complete a relaxed version of the core. The schools I mentioned are merely schools that come to mind; others include Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Stanford, Harvey-Mudd and the like.</p>

<p>Match: It can be tough to find match schools for students with high scores because it’s not unreasonable for a school to assume you’re only applying so that you have somewhere to go should your reaches not clamor to accept you. Your best bet is probably UC Berkeley: fantastic EECS, value is tough to beat for CA in-state. Other options include Tufts, Carnegie Mellon (borderline reach, for you and for all), WashU, Georgia Tech, Emory, UCLA, USC, UMich, and so forth.</p>

<p>Safety: Definitely apply to a school that based on stats would automatically admit you, perhaps with generous scholarships and research stipends. University of Alabama comes to mind. Isn’t there also an auto admit program to the three lowest-ranked UCs for California residents who meet certain qualifications? To keep the focus on MechE/the sciences, RPI is a possibility.</p>

<p>Here’s the litmus test I’ve used in my college search as it’s panned out so far: don’t apply to a school if you’re more likely to get into a school you’d be happier at. My parents want me to go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford. I don’t think I’d be happy at any of them—all of them because people tend to go there for the school’s name rather than the school itself, making the college experience more of an immediate transaction than a long term investment—so I don’t plan to apply to any of them. (Then again, my parents are kind of paying for the whole college thing, so they might have a say there.) Point is, first look at how good of a fit you are for the schools and the schools are for you. That’s the most important aspect, hands down.</p>

4

<p>A safety school has to have the following qualifications: 1) your major; 2) your family can absolutely afford it; 3) you would absolutely go there if all else fails; and 4) you can absolutely get in.</p>

<p>There are lots of schools that would give you a full ride and have your major, so the only remaining requirement is that you think you’d really want to go there. Sometimes this can be the hardest school to find because it requires you to visit and actually get to know the school.</p>