What are some safety schools for me?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone! I made a pretty similar post about this before but I wanted to narrow down some things. I’m a junior in California interested in engineering. I was having a hard time figuring out which colleges would actually be safeties for me (since generally, engineering is a more selective major than the displayed acceptance rate…)

Here are some things about me:
(Using RogerHub: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Cumulative UW GPA: 3.84
Cumulative W GPA: 4.28
Cumulative and Capped: 4.09

ACT: 35
Math: 36
Science: 34
English: 35
Reading: 33

AP Classes (* are classes in senior year)
AP World (5 on the test)
AP Comp Sci
AP French
AP Lang
AP Chemistry
AP Calc BC
*AP Physics
*AP Statistics
*AP Literature

Extra Curriculars/work experience:
President Robotics Club (lots of time devoted to this one our team qualified for the VEX U.S. Open last season)
VP Girls Who Code Club (this one too, love the gwc fam)
Mathcounts/ Math Olympiad coach for middle schoolers (basically prep 6th-8th graders for the math olympiad tests)
French Honors Society
Private Tutor
Classical Dancer
(I’m waiting on the decisions of whether or not I get into 3 engineering/ computer science related internships for the summer)

Intended major: Mechanical Engineering (or another engineering discipline)

Hopefully some of you could give me some insight on what would be a safety school for me! (preferably in California for proximity reason but OOS is fine too!)

2

It turns out I calculated my GPA incorrectly (haha oops) Heres the more accurate one:
(Using RogerHub: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/)
Cumulative UW GPA: 3.8
Cumulative W GPA: 4.38
Cumulative and Capped: 4.13

3

Basic guidelines and caveats for safeties:

  • The admit rate should be at least 50%
  • Your GPA and test scores should be at or above the 75th percentile
  • Be wary of schools known to be aggressive in yield protection. One way you can tell is if its admit rate for 3.9/35 kids is lower than its admit rate for 3.75/32 kids. That means it views top-stat kids as a threat to its yield. Lehigh, Case Western and Tufts have been discussed as potential examples of this. Of course, these are not safeties for anyone… but there may be less selective schools that practice aggressive yield protection. Because it is not easy to ascertain, my suggestion is to, where/when appropriate, show genuine interest to all of your “safeties”.
  • Also take into account schools that admit by school or major – if the overall admit rate of the college or U is 55% but only 20% for direct admission to the school/major you want, it sn’t a safety.
  • Generally speaking, early admission yields greater chances than the overall admit rate, while RD yields lower chances.
  • And for public schools, in-state applicants should think of it as somewhat easier than admit rate and stats would suggest, while OOS applicants should consider it somewhat more difficult and, in a few cases, downright stifling (looking at you, Texas).
  • If you have a hook or hooks, that helps, but it is very difficult to say exactly how much. So for the purposes of choosing a safety, i think you should approach it as if you did not have the hook, because you may overestimate its impact.

And as it should be with every other school to which you apply, a safety should be a school you like (fits you well…) and can afford (run NPC).

4

Thanks! I’ll definitely keep that in mind. What exactly is a “hook”? And how can you find out if a college admits by major? I think my biggest issue is just finding schools. Most colleges here are either the UC’s and CSU’s or extraordinarily expensive. Finding private schools that are safeties and affordable is kinda hard. Any suggestions?

5

UC Irvine and UC Davis are good safety schools as far as UCs go. You are also very likely to get into UC Santa Barbara, although perhaps a bit less so than the other two.

6

UCI, UCD, UCSB are probably high matches (or low reaches for more competitive majors like engineering majors) for an applicant with a UC weighted-capped GPA of 4.13.

UCR and UCM would be match or likely for admission. Most CSUs would also be likely for admission (but CPSLO, SJSU, CPP, SDSU, and CSULB may be more selective). SFSU is not impacted at the campus level and is not impacted for mechanical engineering, so it should admit at baseline CSU eligibility, which you meet (i.e. safety if affordable).

7

You are wise to be thinking about safeties. Do yourself a favor and identify safeties to LOVE. It’s kind of a bloodbath in college admissions these days.

8

2017 admission rates for UC campuses by UC weighted-capped GPA. Note that engineering majors tend to be more selective, so estimated chance of admission should be assumed to be lower.


Campus  4.20-   3.80-   3.40-   3.00-
        higher  4.19    3.79    3.39
UCB     43%     13%      2%      1%
UCLA    47%     12%      2%      1%
UCSD    84%     39%      7%      1%
UCSB    82%     45%     10%      1%
UCI     94%     52%     11%      3%
UCD     90%     56%     17%      4% 
UCSC    93%     76%     44%     14%
UCR     98%     90%     63%     23%
UCM     98%     96%     89%     57%
9

I don’t agree that Irvine and Davis can be considered safeties; I think they are matches - low matches at best. Merced would definitely be a safety, and Santa Cruz is a low-match/safety.

Are you in NorCal or SoCal? There are good, affordable safeties among the WUE schools, but if you want to be close to home, then it depends which of the adjacent states you are closer to. Portland State, Arizona State, Northern Arizona, U of Arizona, and the U of Nevada campuses (Reno & Las Vegas) would be ones to look at for starters. Colorado State is farther but an excellent engineering school and a great financial deal with WUE so perhaps worth a look.

Oregon State is a great engineering school (and has an honors college) which used to be a WUE school but isn’t anymore; however, they have bumped up OOS merit aid so they could still be worth looking at.

If you’re 100% sure about engineering, you might want to look at Colorado School of Mines. It’s expensive as an OOS public (around $53K total COA) but still considerably cheaper than full-paying for a private U, and it is a comparable experience academically to small private engineering schools like RPI and WPI (not quite as lofty as Caltech and Mudd but not that far off in terms of rigor; and you don’t sound like full-paying for Caltech or Mudd would be a realistic financial option for you even if you could get in). As a woman with your stats I think your admission chances are excellent. It can be an amazing place to go to college if you’re sure about STEM and like beautiful natural environment and a close-knit campus community.

Here is the whole list of non-California WUE schools that offer MechE. All are a great financial deal (most cheaper than UC at 150% of in-state tuition) and there are many excellent engineering programs. Many have excellent honors programs as well.

Alaska University of Alaska Anchorage

Alaska University of Alaska Fairbanks

Arizona Arizona State University / Polytechnic Campus

Arizona Northern Arizona University

Colorado Colorado Mesa University

Colorado Colorado State University

Colorado University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Colorado University of Colorado Denver

Hawaii University of Hawaii at Manoa

Idaho Boise State University

Idaho Idaho State University

Idaho University of Idaho

Montana Montana State University, Bozeman

Montana Montana Tech of the University of Montana

Nevada University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Nevada University of Nevada, Reno

New Mexico New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

New Mexico New Mexico State University

New Mexico Northern New Mexico College

New Mexico University of New Mexico

North Dakota North Dakota State University

North Dakota University of North Dakota

Oregon Oregon Institute of Technology

Oregon Portland State University

South Dakota South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

South Dakota South Dakota State University

Utah University of Utah

Utah Utah State University

Washington Central Washington University

Washington Eastern Washington University

Washington Washington State University

Washington Washington State University Tri-Cities

Wyoming University of Wyoming