Public schools around the nation [ will chance back promptly ;) ]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I am a white female from California. I attend a regular public school in NoCal and I am looking at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of Maryland at College Park, and University of Washington. I realize that these are considered to be prestigious schools, I'm not looking for prestige, but rather a solid engineering program and a realistic chance of me getting into that school! Any other schools up for suggestion for me? I'd love to hear!</p>

<p>In state schools I'm applying to are UC Davis, UC San Diego, UCLA, Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State, San Diego.</p>

<p>You can see, I want to get out of NoCal. xp</p>

<p>I'm thinking about going into engineering, aerospace engineering specifically.</p>

<p>Rank - 44/312
GPA w/u - 3.91/3.6 I do have an upwards trend.. nearly no A's freshman year to straight A's junior year.. and a mix in sophomore year</p>

<p>My SAT 560 math, 570 writing, 640 reading. My ACTs are a 30, and 30's for all sections. I guess I just like the ACTs better. Any tips regarding improvement in SATs and ACTs?</p>

<p>AP tests - European History (3)
Pending - AP Physics B, APUSH</p>

<p>Concert band 2 years, trumpet.
Varsity Golf, 3 years - team captain upcoming seasion
Key Club - Pres
Red Cross - VP
CSF, NHS, two other clubs - members
Academic decathalon - member 2 years, captain this year and next</p>

<p>I am active in the Red Cross chapter, have attended the Leadership Development Camp, and I have over 350 hours of volunteer from the library and various events since freshman year.</p>

<p>Is there anything else I can do to improve? How am I looking for the schools I want to get into and the major I want to get into. Thanks for your help!</p>

2

<p>I’m pretty sure you’ll get accepted into UIUC. They sure seem to like diverse students, so being from Northern California would be nice. Try to get your SAT scores higher, unless you’re leaning more toward the ACT scores. UCLA on the other hand will be more difficult to be accepted into. Being an in-state student, your chances seemed to have gotten lowered (state debt). Apply anyways, but don’t think of it at all as a safety. I’m sure you’re in UCD though. Did you mean UWash or Wash U St. Louis? They have muuuch different acceptance rates.</p>

3

<p>Michigan could be a good reach for you. Wisconsin would be a great match. Purdue and Virginia Tech would be great safeties.</p>

4

<p>Isn’t Washington University at St. Louis a private school? Thanks for your assessment!</p>

<p>I am going to try to get my SAT I’s to match what my ACTs project. I will be taking intense prep courses over the summer. Also, I will take SAT II’s, will the SAT II’s increase my chances of admission if I do well on them?</p>

<p>And thank you for your suggestions Alexandre, I will definitely look into those schools!</p>

5

<p>I’d also suggest considering the University of Iowa (public) and Case-Western (private).</p>

6

<p>Alarkis, the OP wants only public universities that are strong in Engineering. I don’t think Iowa or Case Western qualify…nor does WUSTL. </p>

<p>I would add Georgia Tech, the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado-Boulder to the list though.</p>

7

<p>The OP never states that she only wants a public college, to wit, while San Diego State and UCSD are public, USanDiego is private. I’m not going to get into an argument about the comparative strengths of different engineering programs beyond saying that in my opinion, Case and Iowa engineering are on a par with some of her listed schools. Additionally, with a 3.6UW- 560 Math/30 ACT Math, some of the schools suggested certainly creep into the reach category.</p>

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<p>vinceh, the OP’s title mentions public universities. A 3.6 UW GPA with a 30 ACT make UIUC, GT and Michigan reaches. The other schools are either matches or safeties.</p>

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<p>University of Washington sounds like a good match for you, don’t know too much about the others though.</p>

10

<p>I am sorry I did not make this clear, but yes I am looking at public schools. However, if you have a private school in mind with a strong engineering program and is in reach for me, I will take that into consideration :smiley: BTW I did not know UofSan Diego was a private.</p>

<p>I am looking at public schools mainly because the scholarship I have received can only be used at only some schools and they just happen to be public universities (although there are a FEW privates on the list). </p>

<p>BTW my 570 math was because I did not bring a calculator to the testing day. If it helps, my PSAT math was a 72. I consider myself quite strong in math. I will retake the SATs and take SAT II’s.</p>

<p>I have no excuse for writing, that was just an utter fail… on my PSATs my lowest writing was a 62.</p>

<p>Also my 640 in reading was a fail… I had a 70 in the PSATs. Darn you PSATs for getting my hopes up.</p>

<p>Lastly, because I am in California, I have a set of GPA that excludes 9th grade (for the UCs) On that scale, my weighted is ~4.2X and my unweighted is around 3.87 with my rank in the 20’s.</p>

<p>Again, thank you guys for your time!</p>

11

<p>Are the scholarships sizable, because paying OOS tuition at public colleges can cost a lot more than going to a private if you qualify for need based aid which most publics don’t give to OOS students.</p>

12

<p>The scholarship is full tuition and tuition only(no books or housing or supplements for living). It is a merit based scholarship, my mother works for an RD company and that made me eligible for their scholarship. I had to go through an application process and an interview and the terms of the scholarship is that I study these certain majors at these certain schools. Upon graduation I will spend time doing research with/for the company or their affiliates. There are some trade offs for this scholarship, but at least my tuition is going to get paid. Enough about that, now, I want to get chanced =D</p>

<p>I’m surprised no one’s given me a link to their own chance threads.</p>