Ideal MechE College?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey, CCers. I’m a Asian male incoming junior who’s planning on a Bachelors in engineering, preferably mechanical, in college. I go to high school in North Illinois, somewhat close to the border of Wisconsin. The Top 4 schools I’m looking at are U of I, Purdue, Georgia Tech, and UMichigan(though, will probably be too expensive and unlikely to be admitted).

My parents seem very indeterminate on how much they are willing to spend, and how much I will be responsible for, but I should be able to expect about 25k-35k a year from my parents. Though, I have sometime to buckle down and search for scholarships online and in school, so I am a little lenient for COA if a college is truly a good fit for me.

I prefer a school in a suburban-urban area with 5,000+ students, the bigger the better. Distance from home is not important whatsoever. I am really into cars and racing, so schools with a racing team or a Formula SAE team is VERY appealing to me,. My major concern when looking for colleges is the people around me. I want a school where most kids are smarter than me and are social enough to have the willingness to join social activities and start businesses.

Here’s my stats so far

Unweighted Cumulative GPA: 3.67
(One bad semester, GPA will definitely increase in Junior and Senior year to 3.7, possibly 3.8)
Rank: Top 10%

Freshman Year Classes:
Physics H
Geometry H
Health(Required Class)
Business
AP Human Geo
Weights (Fulfills PE req)
Spanish II
English I H

Sophomore Year:
Personal Finance(Req class taken over the summer)
Alg 2 H
AP Econ
AP Euro
Chem H
Spanish III H(1st year of Honors program)
Weights
English II H

Junior Year:
Pre Calc H
AP US History
AP Stats
Biology H
Weights
Spanish IV H
English III H

ECs:
FBLA (9th, 10th, 11th) President for 10th and 11th
Science Olympiad (9th, 10th, (considering 11th due to new robotics team)
Robotics (11th)(Debut year)
NHS (10th, 11th)
Math Team (10th)
Lacrosse (9th, 10th, 11th)
Link Crew (11th) (Freshman mentoring program)

Planning to take SAT, haven’t taken the new test yet, but aiming for a 1400-1500
Looking for potential schools that could be my safeties or matches, because I feel like I keep only finding reaches.

2

UIUC and Purdue are definitely not urban or suburban but they have large enrollments. It sounds like you are probably looking for an [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url] school. Some are smaller than 5,000 undergraduates (like my university, Illinois Tech) but many of them are in urban settings and most of them have the Formula SAE or Hybrid teams.

3

Run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site to see if you meet your parent’s bogie for cost.

4

@xraymancs Large enrollment is what attracts me about those two schools as well, even though they aren’t in urban or suburban areas, the students create that kind of environment. Thanks for the suggestion of AITU schools, seems interesting.

5

<<<
(One bad semester, GPA will definitely increase in Junior and Senior year to 3.7, possibly 3.8)
Rank: Top 10%
<<<

Your grades for senior year won’t matter unless you’re planning on a gap year and applying after you graduate. You’ll be applying before first semester grades are in, so really only grades 9-11 will matter. What will your GPA be after JUNIOR year?

When was the bad semester?

6

@mom2collegekids My bad semester was the 2nd semester of Sophomore year, I had maintained a 3.7 unweighted before that semester. I still think that I can be able to achieve at least a 3.7 by the end of Junior year.

Speaking of a gap year, couldn’t I also apply my senior year like any other student, but once I’ve been admitted, notify my college that I would like to take a gap year before entering college? Or would I have to apply after my gap year?

7

I’ve been strongly considering Carnegie Mellon University. It may be somewhat of a reach for me, but it fits most of my criteria and gives lots of financial aid. Any thoughts on my chances at CMU?

8

<<<
Speaking of a gap year, couldn’t I also apply my senior year like any other student, but once I’ve been admitted, notify my college that I would like to take a gap year before entering college? Or would I have to apply after my gap year?
<<<

Yes, you could do that, but why?

9

I go to high school basically on CMU’s campus. If you were to attend, be prepared for many all-nighters and an extremely rigorous college experience. The kids are definitely the more studious type but it is a great area with multiple universities, including pitt which is huge, right down the street. Also, Pitts engineering school is really good and with a good test score you can get a good scholarship.
*dont pay attention to my username as it only resembles where I live.

10

I’ve also been planning to do some summer research or internships after Junior year, any recommendations of how I could reach out to professors would be helpful.