Hi,
I’m currently a junior in high school with a 1530 SAT(800M, 730CR, 20 on essay), and a 3.5 unweighted, although by the end of the school year I think it will be around 3.3 or 3.4. My weighted is going to be around 3.7-3.8, and I live in California in a high ranked public high school nationally.
My classes I’ve taken junior year are:
AP Calculus BC(I may get a C this semester)
AP Computer Science A
AP World History
AP Chemistry
CP English 3
Tennis
For my ECs, I’m getting my Eagle Scout, have played piano for over 11 years, 4 year member of my Technology Student Association club, 3 year member of my Rocketry club, may hold a position in this club next year, 2 year TARC team captain, founder and vice president of the Stock Investment Club. I did get a 1470 on my PSAT. I’ve also played tennis for 3 years for my school team.
I was wondering if my list of schools I’m currently considering is sufficient in terms of safeties/matches/reaches, for mechanical/aerospace engineering. My schools I’m considering are:
Cal Poly SLO - Match
Santa Clara University - Match
Drexel - Safety
Purdue - Match/Reach
USC(2 parents with masters from there) - Reach
UCI - Reach
UCR - Match/Safety
University of Michigan - Reach
University of Washington- Reach
UCSD- Reach
Cal Poly Pomona - Safety
UC Berkeley - Reach
Stanford(yeah right) - Reach
Penn State - Match
UIUC - Reach
Is this a good list of schools? If not, can someone suggest me some that would be good? Thank you!
I’d shorten it eventually. I’d probably take some of your reaches off to do this, and maybe add more match schools.
Intended major?
Have you calculated your UC/CSU GPA yet for a general ball park? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation and the rest of the CSU/UC’s use the 10-11th grades. UCB and UCLA also look at your fully weighted UC GPA while the rest of the UC’s look at the capped/weighted UC/CSU GPA.
Please post all GPA’s if possible.
Have you spoken to your parents about what they’re willing to pay? If so, runthe NPCfir each school to make sure you can afford to attend without taking on too much debt.
As for your list, I think it’s fine, as long as you think you fit at least reasonably well with each school. Drexel and UCR can only be safeties if – aside from being virtually guaranteed admission – you can afford them. Try to keep that GPA up.
If money is an issue, maybe drop some of the OOS apps and add a couple more match schools from the UC/CSU systems. (UCs are particularly concerned with GPA)
@Gumbymom Mechanical/aerospace Engineering. UC GPA will be a ~3.79 to 3.8 capped, uncapped will be ~3.95 or higher.
@prezbucky the maximum we can pay is ~30k. However, I will be earning all the money to pay for the apps, which I know is little compared to tuition.
Check out the out of state COA for UMich, PSU, UIUC, Washington, and other OOS public schools on your list. If you and your parents would have to take out $20k per year in loans, think hard about whether you are prepared to handle ~$80k in debt upon graduating – assuming you finish in four years.
I think there are plenty of quality public options in California. If you do want to do some traveling, one OOS public that’s both pretty awesome in Engineering (and very respected overall) and reasonably priced is Minnesota – COA is around $38k. You could take out the $5500 loan and that would leave just a few grand more, which you could do work-study to earn or maybe a summer job…
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:
UCB: 12%
UCLA: 14%
UCSD: 39%
UCSB: 49%
UCD: 52%
UCI: 57%
UCSC: 83%
UCR: 90%
UCM: 92%
SLO: High Match-Low Reach for Aerospace/ME. Around a 17% acceptance and GPA on the low side.
Average GPA is 4.17 but SAT score above average.
UCR: Low Match/Safety
CPP: Safety
SCU: Match-High Match
UCI: High Match-Low Reach
UCSD: Low Reach-Reach
UCB: Reach
Cannot comment on OOS schools but you have many Reach schools on your list. I would add San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach for Match schools and drop some of the OOS schools especially if costs are an issue.
Can someone tell me if my OOS schools are reasonable?
^^^]
No, your OOS public list has some problems because your parents won’t pay the high OOS costs and most don’t give need based aid. And it sounds like your family may not qualify for aid anyway.
You wouldn’t qualify for much/any merit at most of those schools because of your GPA. And some of those schools don’t give much/any merit anyway.
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and a 3.5 unweighted, although by the end of the school year I think it will be around 3.3 or 3.4. My weighted is going to be around 3.7-3.8, and I live in California in a high ranked public high school nationally.
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Your GPA is an issue.
You do NOT want to have to borrow a lot…and MOST parents will NOT cosign those loan, which would be necessary.
Have your parents run the NPCs on various schools’ websites…and see what they say.
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@Gumbymom Mechanical/aerospace Engineering. UC GPA will be a ~3.79 to 3.8 capped, uncapped will be ~3.95 or higher.
@prezbucky the maximum we can pay is ~30k. However, I will be earning all the money to pay for the apps, which I know is little compared to tuition
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You need to add some OOS schools that will give you enough merit for your stats to get costs down to $30k
What about travel costs? That can easily add another $2k per year.
So you’re saying I should just ignore going OOS?