Any recommendations?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Hey guys I’m going to be a senior this fall 09’ and I want to know what some colleges will think of my resume. I will rely heavily on my ECs but not so much on my grades
GPA 3.3 so far and SAT I 1850, SAT II Bio 650, Math II 660 (I’ll try again this Oct and I hope it’ll go up a bit ). </p>

<p>I always wanted to be Civil/Structural Engineer. I live in California so hopefully I can get in UCSD, UCD & UCI, but I was wondering if you guys could recommend me any other OOS & private colleges that might suit me. I only know of a few good colleges like Illinois Institute of tech, Chase Western, etc. Do you think RPI & Cornell are too hopeful for my grades? </p>

<p>One of my main EC’s that I will emphasize on is an annual science competition sponsored by a few high tech companies in the Silicon Valley. I’ve been competing in this competition for 6 years (will be 7 if I compete in my senior year) with a team of 5 of my friends, lately the numbers have been cut down to just me and another friend of mine. I have won several awards over the years including Best Team Spirit, 1st place in Best Design Methodology and 1st in Best Overall Design and Engineering. Each competition takes about 5-6 months of preparation for design and mechanical improvements on devices that we build from scratch according to the competition’s specifications. </p>

<p>Another EC I might add is playing guitar/bass with my friends/band. I’ve been doing this for 3-4 years. This might not be as academically based as my other EC, but it certainly does show that I am able to work with a team.</p>

<p>I have also helped out in fund raising for my local temple, earning about $400-600 each year for 4 years in a row. </p>

<p>I’ve also taken 4 years of tennis, although I’ve never entered in any competition (which means I have no medals or awards to prove my validation).</p>

<p>Another EC that I can put down is Tae Kwon Do. I’ve only won a few awards for best effort and 3rd place in Sparring.
The last four are not too significant considering the major I am interested in, but I will put them down. I’ve heard a long list of EC’s is the last thing Colleges want on someone’s application, so I’ve picked a few extracurricular activities that I am passionate about and stuck with them for several years.</p>

<p>If you guys could recommend me any OOS or private colleges that might fit my profile I’d really appreciate it.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>You might have a chance at UCD or UCI because your SAT is average there but at UCSD, where the average is 1964, your SAT falls short slightly, especially considering you want to do engineering. This is easy to fix: just do some intense SAT study this summer using the official college board book (helped me improve my score by 200 points). Your GPA is not very strong for UC Schools — you should be applying to UCSD, UCD, and UCI but also look to UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, and Cal Poly SLO/Pomona (the Cal polys have good structural engineering programs) as safeties. If you haven’t done many AP Classes, these schools might be reaches, except maybe UCR.</p>

<p>Don’t worry too much about your EC’s – they are fine. You don’t really have to win awards to validate them unless you are aiming for MIT and Caltech. You have very unique accomplishments relating to your science competitions. You should focus them maybe in a resume or something. </p>

<p>Maybe you should look at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as well, although it is an expensive school and they don’t give out too much merit based aid unless you have a strong gpa. However, they might relax these conditions because of your unique accomplishment. They have a quality program though, probably on par with RPI and Illinois Institute of Technology. I will be going there this fall.</p>

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<p>Washington State has a good civil engineering program.</p>

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<p>I think you’re borderline at RPI and WPI. Cornell seems unlikely though. I’m sure that one of the schools in the UC system will accept you, which will be a good, affordable option unless you’d prefer to go to a private school or wouldn’t want to stay in California. </p>

<p>If you think that you can improve your score, than you should definitely retake the SATs.</p>

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<p>i think u have a really good shot at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which although doesn’t carry the name of some of these other colleges, has an exceptional civil engineering program. Also, look at UIUC, top civil engineering program in the country, just make sure that your math scores are WELL ABOVE average. UIUC would cost about $40,130 year and CPSLO would cost about $20,577 a year.</p>