<p>How competitive is it to get into REUs at prestigious mech engr universities? I go to a 60-70th ranked college and my gpa is about a 3.5 and should be closer to 3.7 after my sophomore year, hopefully. How competitive is it to get a REU at a top 10 institution? Also for some of these institutions I've read that they are looking for underrepresented ethnicities (*** that's not a word, what's plural for ethnicity?). Would the prestige of your REU benefit when applying for a top tiered grad school?</p>