My scores:
UW GPA: about 3.3-3.4 (I don’t know for certain)
SAT I: 1980 (I plan on doing it once more)
SAT II: Biology 710, Doing Math II next month
EC’s:
Volunteer at hospital for 300+ hours (I don’t know exactly how many hours atm)
Hospital Leadership Club raising funds for patients
Los Angeles World Airport Internship
Internship at top Aerospace corporation
Other little awards and volunteering stuff
I’m not a very good judge of what to consider likely as I don’t have insight into what exactly qualifies me or renders me unqualified… Thanks for the help.
Since you are a California resident, you have many good schools in which to choose to apply. You also happen to pick some of the more competitive majors in all schools: Engineering especially ME.
I would target schools where your GPA and SAT are at or above the average since you plan to pursue Engineering.
How many UC approved Honors and AP classes have your taken in 10-11th grades? You get extra points for these classes when calculating your UC/CSU GPA.
Your SAT is competitive for many schools but much will depend upon your UC/CSU GPA.
For the Cal states, once you have your CSU/UC GPA, you can calculate your Eligibility index.
(CSU GPA x800) + (SAT Math+CR)
For California schools, these schools have both Aerospace and ME as majors and may be in your target range depending upon EI and GPA. Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego State, San Jose State, Cal Poly SLO and CSULB.
UCR/UCM/UCSC/CSUN/Sac state/CSU Fresno/CSULA/Chico State will have ME but not Aerospace.
So you can see there are many schools in California that may fit your criteria. I will make recommendations once you post your CSU/UC GPA.
How much can you afford to pay? Will you need FA? Any particular location? Are you interested in any privates or out of state schools?
According to that calculator my UC GPA is 3.44 or 3.67 (I’m not sure if my honors classes are “approved”)
I’m sort of open for all options (instate/out of state public/private) at this point before I narrow them down and I will be needing FA (I think)
My eligibility index is 4100 according to the equation provided…
I think you calculated your EI wrong. What is your SAT Math and Critical Reading scores? To see which Honors courses are UC approved, use this link and type in your HS:
These are the schools in California that I would target for either ME or Aerospace.
SDSU/SJSU/CSULB/Cal Poly Pomona/UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz. You have 6 good schools where you have a good chance at an acceptance.
For a safety, include your local Cal State. For Reaches, you could include Cal Poly SLO and UCI/UCD or UCSB.
If you are interested in OOS schools, take a look at the WICHE schools. You get reduced tuition so many of these schools would be comparable in cost to the in-state schools.
Thanks.
I think I can improve on my SAT scores as well because they are from kinda a while ago.
How should I go about looking at out of state private/public colleges?
My sister has already gone through the whole financial aid stuff for college so I should be decent on that part.
I would first figure out how much you and your family can afford. If your sister is in college, your FA calculations will be different since you will be attending. You cannot go off your sister’s FA. You need to recalculate your EFC.
Once you have your EFC, identify schools in the areas of the US, you be interested in attending. If you want the option of both Aerospace and/or ME, then do a search for schools in that state(s) that would offer both.
Once you have found some OOS schools, run the Net Price calculator to see your costs. If they are affordable, then look at the common datasets for these schools. It will show average SAT scores and GPA of admitted students. If your stats are at or above the average at the schools, they may be good match schools. Acceptance rate/selectivity will be important also.
I personally think that since you are a California resident you have so many great schools in-state, there really is no reason to go OOS. My 2 cents worth but it is your choice. You will also have a better chance for FA by applying to the in-state schools.
You’ve got great list of schools above. I"d focus on UCSC, UCR, CP Pomona, SDSU with SJSU as a fall back. Your stats probably won’t get you significant merit aid at privates like USD, LMU and Santa Clara but, they are worth a shot if you are willing to spend significantly more than a UC