Hello. I’m currently looking for good engineering colleges that I would be likely to get into, or at least have a chance. My top choices are either Cal Poly SLO or Pomona, but I honestly don’t see myself getting accepted into SLO, though I would love to go to Pomona. Anyways, I am a Californian student entering my senior year, I currently have a 2000 SAT score but I will be trying to get a higher score in October. I have a 3.68 cumulative GPA (didn’t do so hot my first two years), as well as 318 service hours. I am have been an active member of the band program for my entire high school career. I am also an active member in the Link Crew program at our school. I have taken a total of 7 honors/AP classes, and I will be taking 2 AP’s and 2 honors classes this coming year. If I get straight A’s this year, will it affect my GPA? If so, how much? Also, I want to major in Engineering, but I am still choosing between electrical, mechanical, and aeronautical. I would prefer in-state, but anything as long as its a good college. If you have any suggestions as to which colleges would accept me that are good engineering colleges, please let me know! Thank you so much!
You may try Purdue. It would be a very high match to low reach for you but worth a trial.
A big factor is how much your family can afford to pay. Big state flagships like Purdue are excellent engineering schools, but very expensive for OOS students. Can you give an estimate on that?
any ABET acredited program is going to be fine. Your worry shouldn’t be if the college is “good”, it should be what you’re going to do to ensure you succeed in a major that has a dropout rate from 1/3 to 1/2.
This is a simple algebra equation you ought to be able to figure out; if not, then perhaps a math-intensive engineering major is not right for you 
In any event, CA publics are not going to see your senior year grades before they make admission decisions.
Have you computed your UC weighted average? If you haven’t do so. Do your know your rank in class (percentile)? If not ask your high school counselor. If you are in the top 9% you are guaranteed acceptance to at least one of the UCs. Note that the UC weighted average is based solely on sophomore and junior grades. Several UCs offer mechanical and aeronautical engineering. And I expect that all of them offer electrical engineering. Even if you’re not in the top 9% of your class you may still have good chances at one of the UCs. Some of the CSUs offer aeronautical engineering (e.g. Long Beach). You may have a good chance there. It again depends on your weighted UC average.
Being a California resident allows you to pick from so many great universities: Cal states, UC’s and privates. Much will depend upon you UC/ CSU GPA (SLO uses 9th grades in their calculation) if you are you in need of financial aid (EFC and how much you can afford). http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
You need to apply to many CSU’s beyond Cal Poly.
Pomona doesn’t offer engineering - Harvey Mudd does but is out of your range as well .
^^^ I think the OP meant Cal Poly Pomona
@Gilrotic, here’s a list of schools with strong engineering programs for you to consider. The mid 50th percentile SAT ranges (and overall admit rates) are listed for each school to give you a sense for how competitive an applicant you’re likely to be.
https://www.college-kickstart.com/blog/item/colleges-with-strong-engineering-programs
With respect to GPA, your senior year grades aren’t factored in for UC/CSU schools, so straight As won’t me much of an impact. For schools that do consider senior year grades, it really is only fall semester that will count.
How much can you impact your GPA? Probably not too much.
Here’s a ballpark estimate. Assuming your 3.68 GPA is unweighted and cumulative for your first 3 years of high school, if you got straight As fall semester senior year, your GPA would rise to
3 years @ 3.68 + 0.5 years @ 4.00
--------------------------------------- = 3.73
3.5 years
So it won’t have a huge impact, although the schools will see that you’re trending in the right direction which should count for something.
@mdcmom Purdue engineering is around $45k per year.