What Are My Chances for Top Universities for Engineering?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am currently a junior in California who plans on pursuing an engineering major in college (specifically aerospace/electrical engineering) and would like to get some opinions from other people on my chances to get in the universities I plan on applying to based on my statistics. I go to a school with a rather small population size (around 1200 students). The school is somewhat competitive.

Universities and the Rough Range of the Acceptance Rate for their Schools of Engineering:

In-State (both private and public. Will get to go to public universities for cheaper because I am a CA resident):
-UCLA- 22.9% (specifically for the electrical engineering (the major I will be most likely applying to for UCLA)
-USC- <17% (couldn’t find actual acceptance rate for Viterbi School of Engineering)
-UC Berkeley-9.7%
-UCSD-23.3%
-UCSB-24.1%
-UCI- around 37% (same issue as USC)
-UCR- around 58% (same issue as USC)
-Stanford- 4.8%
-Cal Poly SLO- around 23.0%

Out-of-State (both private and public):
-University of Michigan- Ann Arbor- <28.6% (same issue as USC)
-University of Texas- Austin- around 26.7%
-Georgia Tech- around or <27.7%
-University of Washington- Seattle Campus- <45% (same issue as USC)
-Carnegie Mellon University- around 18.3%
-MIT- 7.9%
-Rice University- 14%
-University of Colorado- Boulder- 33.9%
-Embry Riddle Aerospace University- Daytona Beach- 77.5%
-Embry Riddle Aerospace University- Prescott- 80.1%
-Arizona State University- 72.8%

Grades and Test Scores:

-Weighted Academic GPA- 4.34
-Unweighted Academic GPA- 3.94
-I have only gotten a B in AP Chemistry (both semesters) throughout my high school career so far
-SAT: 1560
Math: 790
Reading + Writing: 770
Essay: 18
-Plan on taking Math II and Physics Subject Tests
-AP Chemistry: 4
-AP Calculus AB: 4
-AP Computer Science A: 3
-I have taken the AP test for AP Lang, AP Calculus BC, and APUSH this year. I believe I got at least 4s on all of them if not 5s (but obviously nothing is guaranteed so I’ll have to just wait and see about that)
I have taken 7 AP classes so far in high school (my sophomore and junior year) and have signed up to take 5 more my senior year
-I have taken 4 honors classes throughout so far during high school (2 of them are weighted classes) and do not plan on taking any more for my high school career

Extracurriculars:

-Revived the Robotics Club on campus. I am President this year (have no board position next year). We went as far as competing at the States level competition (and qualified for Nationals level competition) in our first year
-Completed Certificate of Merit Level 7 with Honors Recognition (took piano lessons and excelled in statewide tests)
-Multiyear member of CSF on campus
-125-150+ hours of community service (have volunteered regularly at one non-profit organization and have also regularly volunteered at the local library)
-Beta tester for a project created by JPL in which my classmates and I built a “prototype” of the Mars Curiosity Rover. I worked for many hours with a JPL engineer to build this rover. I am the unofficial leader of the electrical group section of this project
-Got hired to work over the summer as a paid intern for a “summer camp” in which I help teach elementary and middle schoolers STEM concepts and basic coding principles
-Secretary of the Model United Nations at my school
-Participated in a fundraiser in my freshman year where I raised $300 to help pay for eye surgeries for the needy in India
-A member of the WASC committee at my school (the school was reviewed extremely well)
-Founding member of NHS chapter at my school

My top choice is UCLA and a close second is USC. The question is, as you probably already know, are my stats good enough to get myself admitted into either of these two universities (especially UCLA) or at least give myself a darn good shot at getting admitted into these amazing universities? What are my chances of getting into all of the universities listed above?

Thank you for taking the time to reading and replying to all of this (I know that I am verbose)! Have a nice day!

2

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21182988/#Comment_21182988 lists the admission rates to UC campuses by UC-recalculated-weighted-capped GPA range. However, it does not list engineering divisions or majors, which should generally be assumed to be more difficult for admission than the campus overall.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ can help you with the UC recalculation of your GPA.

Cost constraints?

3

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are good. You should consider strengthening your ECs by doing STEM-related activities this summer that further demonstrate your passion for engineering. Write great essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

4

Thank you so much @ucbalumnus ! My weighted and capped UC GPA is a 4.16. I was playing around with it and it seems like the GPA goes down the more classes you take. Why is this so? How does a UC GPA work?

In terms of cost, I’d prefer something that costs around $35K or less (such as UCLA) but am willing to entertain anything as high as $50K. I believe I’ll really only strongly consider an offer of $45K or less though.

5

Thank you @doorrealthe ! Do you have ideas or recommendations on anything else that I could do that is STEM related besides being a paid intern at a company that helps teach elementary and middle schoolers STEM concepts and somewhat basic code? Thank you for the positivity!!!

6

Your capped GPA will go down with more classes because of the cap. You only get 8 semesters of “credit” for extra weight classes (AP classes in your case). Any class, regardless of whether it is an AP class or not, beyond the 8 semesters is weighted at 4.0 instead of 5.0, so that if you take enough classes, eventually your UC capped GPA will get closer and closer to 4.0. Think of it like a unweighted GPA with the addition that you get some token credit for (up to) 8 semesters of AP classes at the higher weight.

7

Cost is your first consideration. If you can’t afford out of state tuition, you’re not going there. Plus, the tech world doesn’t operate on prestige. If you’re going for EE, you’re better off staying in-state.

8

Build an engine, do research in a lab, start another engineering club on campus, make YouTube videos about engineering, enter in engineering high school contests and events, etc. Anything to make your interest shine through