<p>I doubt I will be able to meet their admission req.</p>
<p>You might as well try anyway. You have A’s and B’s. Don’t self-select yourself out of a school.</p>
<p>My kid got into every school that you mentioned in your first posting other than UCD because he did not apply to it (too far from home). He also got into UCSD and others as well. He ultimately chose to go to Cal Poly SLO for many of the reasons mentioned above. He wants a hands on education focused on undergraduate programs. After touring many of the schools, Cal Poly was the clear winner. UCLA was the clear loser – Passwordis123 above says it loud and clear. Too much theory and little focus on educating undergrads.</p>
<p>To answer your question about grades. I hate to be a downer, but you’ve got to focus and pull them up and keep them up. The only program that I feel confident that you will have a chance of getting in is Cal Poly Pomona and possibly UCI. In the end, Cal Poly Pomona was actually our third choice after UCSD. We liked the school a lot because of the hands on focus (like its sister school Cal Poly SLO) and close proximity to home. It almost won us over. So, I would really look at it closely.</p>
<p>The average GPA for all the schools above other than Cal Poly Pomona and UCI was over a 4.00. ACT and SAT scores will be very important and you’ll have to score well there too. Check individual school websites for details.</p>
<p>For comparison, my kid had a 4.5 weighted GPA and graduated as a Valedictory Scholar. He never took AP classes for English, foreign language, or Econ. His ACT and SAT scores averaged in the 97th to 99th percentile. He did no community service because he felt that it would have been a fraud just to get into a good school. He did do an unpaid summer internship as a networking engineer for a Japanese IT consultancy. He also did four years of marching band, concert band, Jazz band and was a roadie for the drumline. He is also bilingual English/Japanese. Among the other students we met on the campus tours, his background seemed quite typical for his entering class at all institutions. What we found as we did our tours was that we kept running into the same families and their kids at each institution. It seems that the schools narrow the field to a small select group of kids and then compete for the same pool of candidates.</p>
<p>With your grades you will have to get stellar ACT and/or SAT scores. I suggest that you do what my kid did and focus on the ACT and SAT2 subject tests. We found the SAT reasoning to be extremely out of whack with how my kid thinks and learns. We all agreed that the ACT was the way to go for engineering types. If you get a 32 or higher on the ACT it will go far in canceling out your lower grades. If possible shoot for a 34 or higher.</p>
<p>Both Cal Poly’s do not care about anything other than classes taken, grades/GPA and test scores. The Cal Poly’s will not ask for SAT2’s or for essays at all. The UC’s care about other factors outside of academics and require essays. The privates care most about you as an individual.</p>
<p>One solution for you is to apply to some privates out of state. Rose-Hulman is ranked as the top undergraduate engineering program in the US and shines in the area of computer engineering. That school has 90% placement rate after graduation. Why do I think that it is a good school for you? Well, they have a 70% acceptance rate and like Cal Poly SLO focuses on undergrad education. Bucknell is also very good. My kid did not apply there because he wanted to stay in California and wanted to go to a public school. He had little personal interest in private institutions – go figure.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s an amazing piece of information. Thank you.
I heard that after taking the SAT 3 times, they start averaging out the scores.
Is there a similar condition for ACT? If so, I would like a number please.</p>
<p>To give you an example on how good both Cal Polys are, they recently ranked 1st (SLO) and 4th (Pomona) in the annual ASCE Concrete Canoe competition. The only UC school that qualified to participate at the nationals was Berkeley and finished 7th. Other engineering powerhouses such as UIllinois at Urbana-Champaign (14th) and UTexas at Austin (T-17th) didn’t place so good either.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.asce.org/uploadedFiles/Student_Organizations/Events,_Activities,_and_Awards/Concrete_Canoe/2011%20NCCC%20Final%20Results.pdf[/url]”>Server Error | ASCE;
<p>That list means close to nothing</p>
<p>I don’t understand why OsakaDad is so against UCLA!!
I don’t see any real evidence that UCLA is so focused on theory that it is somehow detrimental to their engineering graduates. Its just hearsay and anecdotal nonsense.</p>