<p>can you give my some advice based on my new stats? i think i may have better chances.
GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.2 W
Rank: 20/439 but moving up a couple after this past year
Classes: AP-PhysicsC, CalcBC, Euro, EngLit, Spanish, USGov(5)
honors where available
ACT: 34 (34E,34M,34R,35S)
SAT:1390/2030 (730R,660M,640W)
ECs:Key Club 9-12, Engineering Club 11-12, Newspaper 9-12, community youth advisory board, important church board (does hiring and firing), significant contribution in 2 school levies (designed logo+signs, wrote advertisements for local paper)
Leadership: Sports Editor 10-11, Editor in Chief 12
Summer: Presidential Classroom- Science, Technology & Public Policy, Purdue's Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects
Awards: Williams College Book Award, Scholarship to Presidential Classroom</p>
<p>I want to study aerospace engineering at:
Michigan
UIUC
Purdue
Georgia Tech
Ohio State
...any other suggestions for high matches/low reaches?</p>
<p>Do you only want high matches or low reaches? I was going to suggest that you shoot for one of the Ivies, just for the heck of it-- you have the stats to have reasonably good chances to apply to one of the "lower-tier" Ivies.</p>
<p>Cornell doesn't offer a major in Aerospace, just a minor (someone told me 8 specific Aerospace classes are offered--it's a concentration for a Bachelor's in mechanical). I'm not sure about Masters or PhD programs there.</p>
<p>MIT and CalTech seem to have strong programs from what I've seen in the curriculum. CalTech is nice because it has the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.</p>
<p>University of Maryland--College Park has a good program too I think, with some really nice facilities: a brand new engineering building, neutral buoyancy tank (for space simulation, you get your SCUBA certification too), giant wind tunnel, and they made a cool robot for space.</p>
<p>UMichigan seems to have a high ranking but some of my mentors say it's alot more theoretical and there's less hands-on work.</p>
<p>I think, despite what some people say, those are all great schools and you can't go wrong with any of them as long as you can find research/internships/hands-on work like the SAE program. You have to visit some of these and see which one fits best. Don't have too many schools on a list, it just makes it harder to choose.</p>
<p>I talked to someone in the GATech Aero Program, and it's supposed to be really difficult; it's harder to stay in than to get in, which some people might frown upon (the high acceptance rate)</p>
<p>I'm no expert on admissions, but your grades seem to be up there. If you can demonstrate true passion for what you want to learn, you have a shot at MIT, just like pretty much everyone else on this forum.</p>
<p>But don't just apply to MIT because it's MIT--if you do it's likely you won't get in (it'll show in the essays).</p>
<p>I recommend that you research the schools in-depth online (see what the curiculum is like, what opportunities are offered) and choose around 6 or 7 to apply to. Then visit those colleges and try to decide which ones are the best for you. That's what I did--I found that MIT is my personal favorite due to various reasons. The others are all convoluted in my mind.</p>
<p>RE: SAE. The SAE program is specific to engineering. The more popular one is where a team of students builds a race car (like Formula 1, but smaller and with a motorcycle engine I thinnk) and competes against other universities. There is another one where people build RC Aircraft and compete with those, but it is not as common.</p>
<p>Notre Dame might be harder to get into and might have a private "prestige factor" in certain circles that the public Big Ten schools do not. However, their engineering college is nowhere near the level of the Big Ten schools you are considering. Check out the rankings, research numbers or numbers of National Academy of Engineering members on faculty.</p>
<p>UVA and Cornell, however, would be serious choices for engineering, although I'm uncertain about aerospace specifically.</p>