<p>Hello:
My daughter is in senior year of very competitive HS in San Jose bayarea. She has always pushed herself, took mostly APs in her entire sophomore, junior, and now in senior as well.
Due to that her course load has been very rigorous.
Her current GPA stands at: 3.78 UW, 4.25 W, with SAT at: 2260 [710(Reading), 750(Math), 800(writing)].
She did decent in her subject tests as well:
Chem: 760,US hist: 730,Literature:710,Math: 760
She worked both sophomore, junior summers in start-ups, gained incredible experience.
She got DECA international finalist, plays piano, junior tennis, but not much to elevate her.</p>
<p>Here are my couple of questions:
I think my daughter is in top 30% of high school, considering ONLY UW GPA, does colleges look at student rigor, which is not visible through UW GPAs?</p>
<p>Which colleges is best match for her profile, for engineering. We are open to both private, out of state as well.</p>
<p>Colleges absolutely consider academic rigor. That said, there are many great engineering schools in California, with the state schools being the most inexpensive and having the best engineering departments for their difficulty of admission. </p>
<p>You can try UCLA, Berkeley or USC as low reaches.
UCI, UCD, UCSB, and Cal Poly are good matches. </p>
<p>If she is only in the top 30%, it is probably a waste of money to apply for Caltech, Stanford, or Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>Thank you!!
She is open to midwest as well.
If you have to compare CMU/RICE/NORTH WESTERN, which one would be the best chance of getting through ED, what would be right criteria?</p>
<p>Was her SAT subject test Math1 or 2? S accidentally took Math 1 and was advised to take Math2, which is more precalc and what engineering schools are interested in, not Math1. He did better in Math2 anyway. </p>
<p>USC gives some nice merit awards, if the student applies by Dec 1 and is selected for one. It has a good program and placement assistance for internships and jobs. </p>
<p>If she’s not sure what school she wants, ED is binding and would limit her options and not allow you to compare merit or other offers, so would advise against ED.</p>
<p>Her GPA is a bit low for UMich or UIUC (average 3.9 for engineering). For out of state, she may still try many schools like Purdue, Wisconsin-Madison, and Minnesota. CMU, Rice, and Northwestern would be about the same level in competitiveness.
I still think she should focus on in state schools. Caltech would be too far a reach, but UCB and UCLA would be high match to match for her.</p>