Which schools should I apply to?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello everyone. I’m currently a junior wanting to apply to mechanical engineering but I’m not sure to what schools I should apply. Here are my stats
GPA: 4.05 weighted, 3.56 unweighted. My freshman year GPA was bad as I was new in the United States and did not know how the system worked so I got a 3.8 weighted. All of my other years were above a 4.1 weighted. Mix of As and Bs, no Cs.
Full IB diploma
Junior year schedule
Chem HL
Physics HL
Math HL
Spanish HL
English SL
History SL
TOK
Senior year
Robotics class
Math SL
Physics Hl
Chem HL
Spanish HL
English SL
History SL
EC
First robotics team, swimming, cycling with a few good places in some races and many high endurance races, triathlon, and karate
I build remote control cars and work on cars as a hobby
I speak 3 languages
SAT should be around 1400

Thanks

2

What’s your predicted IB score?
What state do you live in?
What’s your EFC? Have you talked “college budget” with your parents?

3

Home state?
Colleg Budget? EFC?

4

Hello. Fl

5

Hi, still dont have predicted scores yet, I’m from Florida and as long as it is a very good college my parents are willing to pay.

6

I’m a senior*

7

UCF (perhaps Honors) would be a good match. UAlabama Huntsville. UAlabama (Main campus). Ole Miss. UMaryland-BC. Iowa State. Perhaps UMaryland, Penn State, VTech, Lafayette, Union, Syracuse. Olin?
See with your parents what amount they mean: 25-30k?
Vague reassurances usually result in students ending up with unaffordable choices.

8

University of Florida has a pretty good college of engineering; staying in Florida might be your best bet, if you can get in to UF.

9

4.05 weighted is low for UF - you have a shot at FSU Engineering, UCF is a match (apply for Honors).

10

Ok thx what about purdue

11

You have a shot, but it’d be much, much more expensive than Florida universities. What’s your parents’ budget?
Look into the colleges listed in #4 and run the Net Price Calculator on each to compare with Florida universities.

12

If you are interested in going far from home and your family’s budget would support the high OOS cost, there would be some advantage in applying to U of California schools as they do not count freshman grades. You can calculate your capped/weighted UC GPA here and see how competitive it looks, if that’s an option you want to consider. https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ Will be over $60K/year for out-of-state though.

CO School of Mines is a match for your stats, has great MechE, and there’s amazing biking in the area.

13

Most FL schools will be in play, even UF, though UF is a very selective school. NOTE: I live in Orlando. So consider UF a semi-reach, but all other schools are definitely in play.

How about FL Institute of Technology in Melbourne? It has a program in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and it’s fifty miles from the Kennedy Space Center. FL Tech flies under the radar, but it’s a great tech school. If OOS is an option, the U of AL-Huntsville is another terrific school for engineering, especially aerospace engineering. Clemson and GA Tech are also options, though GA Tech is a pretty tough admit.

14

Ok thank you

15

My parents said that they will pay for college

16

What would be a good safety school?

17

If you like engineering and you like cars, check out Kettering University in Michigan.

18

OP, parents often don’t realize that the 4 year cost of many schools in the US is over a quarter of a million dollars now. And engineers sometimes need 5 years to finish. You need to get clarification from your parents. Maybe ask them to run the Purdue net price calculator on the school website, for example.

19

Hello, thank you for the response, my parents budget is around 60k a year

20

Ok then all schools listed in #4 are in play financially and acadliclly speaking.