This is my college list. They are all (or mostly) selective schools and was wondering what you guys think I should maybe do to change it (remove or add?)
-Carnegie Mellon
-GIT
-LMU
-NYU
-University of Michigan
-george washington university
Interests:
-Engineering (specifically Mechanical)
-connections for jobs/internships?
-don’t care about public/private
-prefer medium to large school
-Urban
-Politically and socially diverse (BIG one; I enjoy politics)
-Good music program? (not planning to major)
-City life (I’m from LA)
-Coed
Stats:
-4.0 UW GPA
-4.3-4.45 W GPA
-1350 SAT
-100+ hrs of community service (soup kitchen, hospital, dog shelter)
-multi- instrumentalist (violin, bass, piano, guitar), guitar builder,digital audio workstation artist
-participation in STEM events,such as TED X Talks, CA STEM SUMMIT, Barnes and noble, etc. Volunteered to teach day of coding classes
-Sylvan paid intern robotics tutor
-online entrepreneur
-background in hardware and software engineering and 3d printing and design
No particular insight, but you definitely need safety schools. None of those schools are safeties for the vast majority of applicants, and most are reaches with a 1350.
It is past the deadline to apply to UCs and CSUs that have mechanical engineering for next fall. So you current safety by default is to start at a community college and transfer to a UC or CSU as a junior.
Schools with 50%+ acceptance rates, ideally. Use Naviance/US News/Collegeboard to find schools with your major, your ideal size/location, etc. and pick one of the “less selective” options!
Purdue and UW-Madison are not safeties for OOS applicants, and Eng majors are pretty competitive at both. These are probably high matches for you.
For lower matches:
If CSUs are still accepting apps, look there. You might also look into schools like the U of Wyoming, Colorado State, Oregon State, Utah, Washington State. Make sure your desired Eng major is there and is ABET-accredited.
I think your college lists looks really balanced, as long as your family can afford the private school tuition. You might want to consider ASU as a safety; they have a good engineering school (and music), and you might qualify for scholarships.
Id add northwestern to your list. Urban, diverse, very strong engineering, right next to Chicago but is not actually in the city, phenomenal in the arts, medium size. I will say that you might want to get your sat score up to give yourself a good chance. UPenn is another school that seems like a fit. I’m assuming that GIT is GaTech? If not, then tech would be another good fit.
You’re unlikely to get into Northwestern or Penn with that SAT score.
You need some more matches - most of your picks are reaches.
Pittsburgh fits your requirements nicely and would be a match/safety. I believe it has rolling admissions.
Consider: V-Tech, OSU, Purdue, Wisconsin-Madison, TAMU, Arizona State – all have good engineering
(not sure if admissions still open for these - you’ll have to check)
If full pay at Purdue and UW Madison is fine for the family, then apply to both. Deadline has passed at Purdue for Honors and merit, and priority deadline for computer science, but not for engineering. An excellent engineering program, though not an especially vibrant town. UW is now on the Common App, so not too hard to add, still, an OOS applicant must be able to write intelligently about why UW for the supplement. Madison is a very liberal town, great music scene, great restaurant scene (farm-to-table), political (my kid has seen Obama twice, as well as Biden and others this political season) and activist community, though not as diverse as some other regions.
I would look for more matches and safeties, not reaches like U Penn and Northwestern.
Most CSUs’ applications for next fall are closed. A few of the least popular campuses are still open for applications for next fall, but these do not have mechanical engineering. See http://www.csumentor.edu/filing_status/ for which CSU campuses are open for applications.
Seattle University - match/safety with one of best music scenes being in Seattle. Maintains that west coast vibe you are use to, but gets you out of LA for a few years.
Students underestimate just how many kids have a 4.0+ gpa, especially those applying to engineering. On top of that, many have great subject test scores to add to good ACT or SAT scores. So if you are just missing one little thing or are lower in something compared to someone else, boom, they get the spot every time. Not trying to scare you, maybe your essays really rock, but you gotta put some safeties in there.