Are you a California resident? For out of state students, UCLA is expensive. And it’s hard to get into.
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Problem is that I am getting leadership positions in 4 clubs and they are serious clubs too so would colleges think that I am too spread out. Or could I just show that I am just interested in the innovation and the introduction of new ideas into clubs and so it is less about the subjects, it is more about the interest to be more innovative. The clubs I will have leadership in is chess, computer club, cybersecurity, DECA, and SNHS. So should I voluntarily give up a position then to make the application seem more unified.
If you aren’t a resident of California, UCLA will cost you over $65,000 a year. There is NO need based aid for folks who aren’t residents of CA, and very very little merit aid which is very competitive to get.
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For mechanical engineering, you wants programs that are ABET accredited.
https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=48°reeLevels=B&countries=US
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Forget colleges for a moment. How will you manage your time working as a leader on these clubs?
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I am kind of coming up with ideas already to boost up the club, so as a president or a vice president, if I already have a bunch of ideas, I could introduce them and a plan for them. There is not much else the president does and also they show up for important meetings but that is more once in a while.
With a 3.7 and 1400 SAT, your odds are against both UF and likely FSU.
Lots of great colleges out there - forget a ranking, they’re similar - solid flagships - and many don’t look use ECs in regard to admissions.
Do ECs you love and build a balanced list. And stacking your senior year is likely not going to sway anyone.
UF uses +.5 for Honors and +1 for AP. This is on a 4 point scale so you’d have to add those to each core class grade that got you a 3.7. That’s likely below a 4.4.
Using that, the range of GPAs 25th percentile to 75th is 4.4 to 4.6. The SAT is 1350-1490 so higher would be good but you are in range.
Find the right college for you. Not a rank. Especially in engineering, short of a few schools, it doesn’t matter.
Are you a Florida resident ? A Bama or Ms State are fine substitutes for UF and you’d get big merit. For Physics, Arizona is one of the top public schools even though US News ranks ir near 100.
Look deeper than a university ranking.
There’ll be a lot of opportunity for you - built up ECs or otherwise.
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Yeah I am from Florida.
If you an OOS applicant, UCLA’s admit rate for 2022 was 5.8% with a price tag of around $72K/year. It is a High Reach school. 9.2% admit rate if In-state. Still a super tough admit.
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You have great options in state and in other states, southern and otherwise.
For MechE you’re not going to see better outcomes than a Bama, UTK, Kentucky, etc. All will give you = opportunity.
Are you sure you want a large school ? Do you have a budget ?
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30k per year is closer to my budget but I still haven’t looked for scholarship opportunities, I have been using this website called Bold. org trying to pick out micro scholarships. I started slowly building my profile there for this past year.
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I honestly wouldn’t bother. The easiest money comes from colleges.
A UF can be your reach. A Bama - similar school - nicer campus and engineering facilities -
You’d get $24k auto merit plus $2500 engineering. So $26.5k off $32k tuition. So $20k with room and board.
If your dream is UF, Bama can be your safety. You can apply to two schools and be done - if that’s what you wanted. No ECs needed.
It’s that easy if you wanted it to be.
Finding private scholarships is very difficult is brutally difficult and frankly not worth the effort when the schools themselves will help those in need - if you go to the right schools.
Good luck.
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I agree with other posts that an unweighted GPA of 3.7 is a bigger concern with regard to “top 30” universities than your ECs. However, 3.7uw should be fine for a “top 100” school and you can do very well with a degree in engineering from a “top 100” school that is ABET accredited. There are hundreds of very good colleges and universities in the US.
If you are in the top 10% of your class with a 3.7 unweighted GPA, then your high school grades more harshly than for example the high schools that my daughters attended. This is okay and is not a problem at all. The universities that you apply to will get information from your high school that allows them to evaluate your grades in the context of the school that you are attending.
I also share the concern from another response that you do not want to spread yourself out too thin during your senior year. You will have another task that will take up quite a bit of time and energy. Specifically, applying to universities and visiting universities and deciding where to attend is going to take quite a bit of effort during your senior year.
In terms of ECs, I do not see much to be concerned about. At least from what I understand ECs are how really top schools on the Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford level decide between many, many applicants who have nearly perfect academics. For many other very good universities, just academics and good references and decent test scores can get you into a good school. I also know a few people who went to “not quite top 100” universities for their bachelor’s and then attended Ivy League or equivalent universities for a master’s degree or some other graduate degree.
Also, losing a year or two of ECs due to COVID has hit a lot of students. In applying to universities you will be competing for admissions with a lot of other students who also lost out on ECs due to COVID.
I would recommend that you continue to participate in the ECs that are interesting to you and that you have time for, and do not worry about it. Also, keep your grades up (particularly in math and science for a potential engineering / physics major).
And I like the fact that you were the chess competition captain (the fact that I like this might have something to do with one of my ECs in high school).
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I am also partnering with one of my friends to start a county wide and eventually even a state wide cybersecurity competition around end of this May and hold kind of like a cybersecurity convention and also learn some cybersecurity stuff along the way. We are basically hosting a county wide hackathon end of May and then potentially in the summer a state-wide hackathon but our school doesn’t have the infrastructure so we would have to partner with the local college. Haven’t decided the exact date but sometime before June.
Is this something that helps the narrative of STEM activities?
Because currently my activities just looks kind of like a bunch of awards so adding more actual activities can show further involvement because awards kind of look like a one time thing but maybe some kind of initiative like this could show more long term commitment.
My reasoning was because currently my DECA state award looks kind of out of place considering my course load looks more STEM based, so an activity that ties some kind of leadership to STEM through some of marketing skills I learnt throughout the year can show that I am able to use my business skills to do STEM activities so it won’t feel out of place but will feel like part of the narrative. I am doing this more out of interest because participating in DECA has kind of showed me what innovation is and now I am more interested in using it in other contexts. What do you think about this?
Look at the schools common data set
Your gpa, rigor and sometimes rank and test scores are most important.
ECs matter but don’t come remotely close to over coming an academic shortfall.
Great ECs and less than average (for the school) academics likely won’t help.
But great grades and pedestrian ECs could still work.
Best of luck.
Alright thanks
Ps stop overthinking STEM and DECA. You do things because you enjoy them. You are overthinking the - this will tie into that like business and science.
They want to know you used your time constructively, made an impact. It doesn’t need to be academically related. It can be collecting baseball cards or walking dogs.
UF is your reach. What are your targets and safeties ?
Develop these with your cost concern in mind.
I gave earlier suggestions but tell us what interests you.
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There’s also an 89% chance of NOT getting into UCLA.
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