Type of high school (or current college for transfers):N/A
Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.)
N/A
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Intended Major(s)
Electrical Engineering
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.58 (end of junior year)
Weighted HS GPA: 4.07
College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
Class Rank: Unknown
ACT/SAT Scores: Highest so far 1300
(Planning to improve scores in Oct SAT)
List your HS coursework
English: English Honors (9&10 grades), AP Lang, AP Lit
Math: Math Honors (Alg 2, Geometry, Pre-Calc/Trig), AP Calculus AB, AP Statistics
Science: Biology, Chemistry Honors,AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2
History and social studies: US History, AP Euro History, Civics/Economics
Language other than English: Spanish 3
Visual or performing arts: Intro to Art
Other academic courses:Python courses from Coursera, Stanford University
Awards
Coach’s athletic award in JV track
Extracurriculars
ML Research Internship with Stanford
Initiated a community sports camp-4 years
Fundraising and leadership position at a non-profit
Varsity team in Track & Field/Cross-Country-4 years
Working on a ML passion project
Essays/LORs/Other
LOR from internship mentor, Math teacher, and from English teacher
Schools
Please recommend Target schools for Electrical Engineering with good internship/career opportunities, out of state
I’m considering
Texas A&M
University of Washington, Seattle
University of Maryland, College Park
Purdue University
ASU
Clemson University
Ohio State
In-State
Cal Poly Pomona
SJSU
Other UCs and CSU
If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
Purdue and UMD are not targets for engineering for you. I’d consider both reaches.
Take a look at Clarkson. Great for engineering, internships, and career outcomes. But it’s small and out of the way near the Canadian boarder.
For schools more like the big flagships on your list that would be easier admits but still strong in engineering, research Michigan State and Iowa State.
Since you have not posted your UC and CSU GPA’s, here is some admit rates and admitted Freshman GPA ranges or averages to help you better gauge your chances. When it comes to Engineering, if your UC capped weighted GPA is below 4.0, the majority of UC’s will be tough admits.
Campus
Capped weighted UC GPA range
Electrical Eng
UC Berkeley
4.15-4.29
7.6% EECS
UC Davis
4.00-4.26
Estimated <40%
UC Irvine
4.04-4.27
25.2%
UCLA
4.20-4.39
9.9%
UC Merced
3.41-4.04
89%
UC Riverside
3.66-4.15
71.4%
UC San Diego
4.10-4.28
Estimated <25% Capped Major
UC Santa Barbara
4.13-4.29
Estimated 21%
UC Santa Cruz
3.87-4.22
61.7%
Campus
CSU GPA
Electrical Eng
Cal Poly SLO
SLO GPA 4.13-4.25
49%
Cal State Long Beach
Avg 3.99
44%
San Diego State
Avg 4.04
45%
San Jose State
Need a CSU GPA of around 3.7 to meet impaction threshold
Top UCs and top CSU such as SLO will be a reach. But if you really want to attend top Engineering schools in US, you still have a chance in TAMU, uDub, Ohio State and etc., The key is to bring up your SAT score to 1400s. Just keep practice in Khan Academy. S24 did improve from 1300s to 1400s in his last SAT in OCT senior year and he got accepted to some of the OOS Engineering schools you listed. So, it is possible. Good Luck.
First and foremost, financials. What’s your budget? Do you qualify for financial aid? (If so, what would your out-of-pocket be at a UC or CSU?)
Secondly, what are you looking for in a college? The ones you list are all over the place and most are reachy for your stats, for a competitive major like EE. Some are urban, some are rural, and they’re in a variety of regions - what are your preferences? Do you prefer to go out of state vs. staying in California? Have you looked at the schools that have tuition reciprocity through WUE, such as U of Utah, U of Nevada-Reno, and Colorado State?
You mention internship opportunities - do you want a school with a co-op education option, or possibly one where co-op is the norm (like Drexel or U of Cincinnati)?
Any specific career interests within EE? Any particular extracurricular pursuits you hope to do in college?
I would take a look at U. of Cincinnati (OH). There are about 30k undergrads there and there is a strong co-op culture there, as well.
U. of Louisville (KY): This school of about 16k undergrads used Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo as a model for its engineering school which uses the same motto of learn by doing. Lots of hands-on opportunities and co-ops are promoted.
Since your list is primarily composed of bigger state schools, those two schools came to mind first, but if you’re open to small or medium schools with strong co-op cultures, then I’d also take a look at:
Clarkson (NY): About 2700 undergrads in a more remote area of NY
Wentworth Institute of Technology (MA): About 3700 undergrads in Boston
Temple University (PA ): About 24k undergrads in Philadelphia
Milwaukee School of Engineering (WI): About 2600 undergrads
Rochester Institute of Technology (NY): About 14k undergrads
ETA: You posted your preferences at the same time as I posted, so you would probably want to eliminate Clarkson for sure. If a big school is a preference, then WIT and Milwaukee might be eliminated, too. But if you’re looking for small class sizes, you might have an easier time getting those at a smaller school. You can look at the schedule of classes at the schools for the engineering classes to get a feel for the size of classes.
To follow up on what @momofboiler1 wrote above regarding Purdue, you should look at the Purdue Data Digest, here, https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/ , to compare your statistics with those of recently matriculated students. (Specifically the links to “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations” and “New First-Time Beginner Profile”.) That might give you a general idea of your admissions chances at Purdue.
I’m not sure what you consider smaller class sizes, but below is some information for the schools that have been mentioned. I included the California publics that seem as though they may be likelier admits for you than the others. I used this aggregator to get quick class size estimates, but you can also refer to a school’s Common Data Set for more detailed information (i.e. 0-9, 10-19, etc. as well as a 50+) or look at the schedule of classes for the actual classes you’re interested in.
This list is sorted in terms of the percentage of classes with 50+ students (from lowest to highest):
School
% of classes under 20
% of classes 20-49
% of classes 50+
Milwaukee SOE
49%
51%
0%
Wentworth
43%
56%
1%
RIT
48%
48%
5%
Temple
42%
52%
7%
San Jose State
21%
72%
7%
Drexel
55%
37%
8%
Cal State - Long Beach
25%
67%
8%
U. of Louisville
44%
47%
9%
Clarkson
58%
30%
12%
U. of Maryland
47%
37%
17%
Arizona State
40%
44%
17%
Ohio State
40%
42%
18%
Clemson
37%
44%
18%
Purdue
38%
42%
20%
U. of Cincinnati
32%
48%
20%
U. of Washington - Seattle
28%
47%
25%
UC Merced
28%
46%
27%
UC Santa Cruz
27%
46%
27%
Texas A&M
24%
49%
28%
UC Riverside
22%
44%
34%
These are the schools sorted from highest to lowest in terms of the percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students:
Yes, you can apply to Cal Poly Pomona engineering but depending upon your CSU GPA and the CPP Index calculated, you may not meet the major threshold index for admission.
CPP does consider alternate majors if there is room so definitely select a less competitive major for backup.
CPP uses a CPP index to determine admissions for each major. The basic CPP calculation is (CSU GPA x 1000) + 450. There are other factors that can add on points to the index, but CPP does not specifically list those point values.
The CPP index threshold for EE was 4437 so if you calculate the CSU GPA needed to meet the listed threshold, that comes out to 3.99. Again this is the basic formula.
Here are the other attributes they consider but they do not have a point value.
Military Status of Active Duty, National Guard, Reserve or Veteran
First Generation
Parents with: no high school, some high school, high school graduate and 2 year college graduate
Youth Services
Ward of the Court, Foster Youth or Unaccompanied Youth
Campus Partnerships
RISE, Project CAMINOS, The Wonderful Company
Extra-curricular Activities
Student government, Athletics, Leadership, Work Status, Volunteer/Community Service, Clubs, etc.
Educational Programs
AVID, Gear Up, Upward Bound, etc.
Several of the other Engineering majors only require a 2.5 CSU GPA. I have linked the information below. The most competitive Engineering major thresholds are:
Aerospace= 4562
Mechanical= 4672
Computer Eng= 4410 and EE.