<p>@cosmicfish </p>
<p>I’m just finished my first year, but I plan to keep GPA above 3.5 (or fight it as hard as I can). I am attending UC Irvine. </p>
<p>One of my writing TA’s (graduated from St. Louis University) applied to the lower half of the top 30 writing/english departments for literary criticism (something like that) and he got SHAFTED by the Ivies. He had GRE all in the top 99% (including a perfect one a subject test). He worked like none other and Princeton said that “perhaps a letter of rec. from an esteemed professor would be more beneficial then a writing samlpe”. Columbia (flat out) said they failed to evaluate his application. He emailed the schools that rejected him and asked why…and apparently there was some unfair acts going on. He said for his round of applications that ~8 people at Columbia were straight from Harvard. </p>
<p>I get that Irvine is not the same as Cal/LA, but I’m still gonna hope for the best. I plan to get involved with research in the fall and am currently thinking about a Masters in Mechanical/ Aerospace Engineering.</p>