Looking to be an ME for a car company.(long post)

College Search & Selection
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<p>Ive heard plenty of times that its not something I should set my sights on, but I am planning to go to school for mechanical engineering, hopefully working for a car company in the future. I would love to work for Porsche, Ruf, Honda(I've heard they are fantastic to work for), BMW, the list goes on(but I'm definitely not setting my sights on any particular company at this point).
I have been looking at colleges for a while, trying to find ones that would give me a hands-on approach to learning about physics, calculus, and hopefully a bit of car mechanics or other courses about automobiles. So far, I have liked WPI, RPI(although I found troy awful), Cal Poly SLO, NC State(Raleigh), UNC Charlotte, UCal Davis, and perhaps Northeastern University.
I have heard participating in the FSAE team is a good way to get your feet wet in car design as well.</p>

<p>on the sats, I got a 620 on the math section, and a 610 on both english and writing. I have retaken them last saturday so perhaps those scores will be a bit higher.
I have a 3.74~(weighted) and I am ranked 23rd in a class of about 300. I've taken honors math since freshman year-geometry-alg II-differential calc-and now ap bc. I have always taken college-level english. For science I've taken honors bio, honors chem, ap chem, and this year honors physics.
I dont play sports, but I have worked 25 hours a week since my second week of freshman year. I also play the violin and have performed in various places locally and in Ireland(irish music is what i play). I also took an internship over the summer at a Porsche specialist shop, who builds engines and race cars as well as performing normal maintenance items.
Not to bother you witha full resume, but I figured I should let you know a little bit about me. I know I'm not quite as accomplished as other users, but I feel Ihave a strong resume nonetheless.</p>

<p>I have been trying to decide which California schools I have a chance to get accepted to. Not sure if I want to go out there, but I will apply and if accepted I will then decdie. Do i have a chance at cal poly slo? How is pomona?(ive heard not nearly as good)Cal poly is the only Cali school I have really got to know... what other good schools are there for undergrad engineering witha hands on approach? how is ucal davis?
Also, NC state is ranked very highly for ME. However, UNCC now offers a "motorsports engineering" degree. This would be great, get me some experience, and get me into internships, but which is better... going to a prestigous school or a school that is not hard to get into, but offers programs specializing in what I want to do?
Whatever recommendations you have I would love to hera to help me pick a college that will help me get into the automotive industry. What are my chances at these schools?</p>

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<p>The average gpa in state for SlO engineering is about 3.9, but that student would not be 23/300 at most CA public schools. It's worth a try. You have a good story with your focus, get that across in your application. Davis oos would probably be hard.</p>

<p>However, given OOS cost and lack of aid for oos students, and the fact that if you are good at what you want to do it probably won't matter where you went, I'd stay in state if the program was good and the college would give you a good social life too.</p>

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<p>and what about going to a prestigous engineering school veruss one that will teach me more about what i want to do in the future? like the UNCC program?</p>

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<p>You should take a look at the forum for engineering majors, folks over there seem to keep saying that prestige is just not that important for engineering majors compared to experience. If you are really looking more for practical hands-on experience, the UNCC program sounds perfect for you, and Northeastern has the best reputation for co-ops.</p>