Chance Me: Aspiring NASA Engineer [OR resident, 3.6 UW, 1510 SAT, for engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hello, I am a soon-to-be senior planning to pursue a career in astrodynamics and robotic spacecraft communications. My passion is robotic space exploration and astrodynamics!

I want to eventually pursue a PhD in astrodynamics and work at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I will optimize trajectories, design spacecraft antennas (DSN), and conduct astrodynamics research for both Caltech and NASA.

I understand that the engineering field is extremely competitive, and I was curious if anyone would be willing to match or chance me with my college list? My stats are ok (certainly not the best), but my ECs are something to talk about.

Current GPA: 3.6uw, 3.89

SAT: 1510

(No ACT)

(FYI, I am assuming the worst grade outcomes for my junior year second semester)

Senior (projected):

  • Photography
  • Discrete mathematics
  • AP physics C mechanics
  • AP Chemistry
  • AP Macroeconomics
  • English IV
  • World religions

Junior year (Current):

  • Linear algebra: B, B
  • Multivariable/vector calculus: A, A-
  • AP US History: B, B+
  • English III: A-, A
  • Biology honors: B, B+
  • AP PHysics C E&M: B, B
  • Christian ethics: A, A

Sophomore year:

  • AP Calculus BC: B+, B
  • Hebrew Scriptures: A, A
  • English II: A, A
  • Chemistry honors: A, A-
  • Health: A, A
  • Chinese II: A, A-
  • Art I: A, A

Freshman Year:

  • Calculus (Summer class): A-
  • Faith formation: A, B
  • Precalculus honors: B, B
  • Physics honors: B+, A
  • English I: A, A
  • Chinese I: A, A
  • World History: A, A
  • PE: A, A

My ECs:

  • Internship at local college aerospace program
  • Conduct astrodynamics research and modeling for the program’s CubeSat in orbit (launched August 16th on the SpaceX transporter 11)
  • Leading a suborbital rocket reaction control system team (technology demonstrator) consisting of graduate and undergraduate students, I was considered for a $10,000 grant for the project by the school (although I did not receive it). The project was slated to launch in the summer or fall of 2025. The goal is to publish our findings through AIAA by next fall!
  • Possibly might work on the program’s next CubeSat and its reaction wheels. (It is heading to the ISS in 2026-2027)

Independent (astrodynamics) Research

  • Exploring the feasibility of space-based solar power (SBSP) as a method for lunar south pole power generation
  • Mainly focusing on the application of a mathematical transformation to optimize low-thrust translunar injection maneuvers to insert an SBSP CubeSat from LEO to a lunar NRHO
  • A (big) stretch, but I hope to publish a paper sharing my findings through the AIAA on behalf of my university group

Did FRC robotics in both my freshman and sophomore years

  • Won our team the Excellence in Engineering award (though not individually recognized)
  • Served as design and integration director in sophomore year
  • Logged over 800 hours (at both home and at school)

School’s rocketry team co-captain

  • Engineering advisor
  • Design and build PCBs and model rocket trajectories.
  • 3D print and fabricate the mechanical majority of components for rockets.

Part of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Lunar Surface Consortium

School List (and schools I’m thinking about):

  • Purdue
  • CU Boulder
  • OSU (State school)
  • University of Maryland
  • University of Arizona
  • Santa Clara
  • Iowa State University
  • Wisconsin Madison
  • Universit of Illinois Urbana-Champagne
  • Texas A&M
  • Georgia Tech
  • University of Michigan
  • Caltech (impossible, but why not?)
  • MIT (impossible, but why not?)
  • USC
  • UCB (legacy, but doesn’t matter w/ UC)
  • UCSD
  • UCLA
  • UC Davis

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to review this. Any feedback is much appreciated!

1 Like
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Very impressive -

Just guesses -

Purdue - no

CU - yes, but not engineering but you can transfer in.

OSU - posssible

UMD - no

U Arizona - yes - and it’s excellent

SCU - yes, but why?

Iowa State - would you rather go there than Arizona?

WIsconsin - no

UIUC - no

Texas A&M - no

Ga Tech - no

U MIch - no

Cal Tech - no

MIT - no

USC - no

UCB - no

UCSD - no

UCLA - no

UCD

no

So your profile, academic and ECs, is excellent so I could be wrong.

Given your interests, I’d love to see a smaller list but UAH which is surrounded by space/defense companies - Huntsville is Rocket City…NASA’s second city…and Florida Tech…which is very close to NASA in Florida and seems to place well there.

I do think you can shrink this list - too many reaches and if you’d choose, say, Arizona over Iowa State, then no need to apply to the latter.

Do you have any cost issues?

Note - some schools - Purdue, Texas A&M - have secondary admission - so you are in engineering but you don’t know which…you’ll apply after you are there.

Good luck to you.

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State of residency and cost constraints?

Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio?

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Oregon.

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This is a bit of a punch to the gut and has made me readjust my expectations, but thank you for your feedback. I thought I had a chance at UIUC, UMD, A&M, and purdue because my friends thought it would be a good fit for my academics. Are my academics my main limiting factor, even with the rigorous course load?

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Sorry - that’s a yes.

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I am not admissions. It’s a guess.

But let’s be honest.

My son, as an example, turned down Purdue with merit for Alabama. I thought he was nuts. He told me I was nuts - that companies don’t care. Rank is to sell magazines and get patents riled up. He cared more that he got his own dorm room.

He interned and lived with two kids from a top school in your list. He went back a second summer. They were not invited back.

He had 5 offers by Xmas - works for an aero company that hires from Purdue and Michigan but schools like Utah, W Michigan, Buffalo. They all make the same - they are all ABET accredited.

So don’t worry about where. Just know you’ll have a great education and opprtunity whether OSU, Arizona or MIT. I do think UAH would be a home run for you and under $20k. It’s loaded with aero companies in the surrounding community.

You’ll be fine but your most important schools are safeties, not reaches. Focus on them.

Best of luck

Ps - Purdue, A&M and more are not direct admit so that might be a concern too.

I rated you as I did because your gpa is low and for some so is the SAT.

But again - less concern with the name - all you listed - top rank to not - will set you up nicely.

And I’m not admissions. It’s simply my guess. Besides there are things like essays, LOR etc. that impact too and we don’t know about those.

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Your rigor is a little lopsided. I understand you are going for engineering, but colleges like to see well-rounded. Your math and science rigor is excellent, but you seem to have only one or two AP/hons outside of those, and you seem to have only two years of language other than English? (Did I miss something?) You can get into plenty colleges with what you have, but I do think this combination makes it harder to get into the reaches.

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My primary concern are your grades in math and physics. I think that it is better to go a bit slower in math and physics, and learn each step very, very well.

As one example, if you are calculating trajectories, then you will need to be very comfortable with multivariate calculus. I am also guessing that linear algebra will show up somewhere in the work that you are considering (although I will admit that I did not really fully get linear algebra until I needed to use it, a few years after I had taken the class). I am pleased to see your grades in multivariate calculus to be stronger than in earlier calculus related classes.

Given your intended likely majors, a B in a history class does not concern me at all.

How were your SAT math score versus English score?

You have a long list of schools to apply to. I might be tempted to just drop Caltech, MIT and UC Berkeley from your list. Again this is based on the various B’s in math and physics classes. These three schools are full of students who aced pretty much every math and physics class that they ever had in high school, but who still find whichever of these three universities they attend to be very challenging.

I also am not admissions, and am only guessing.

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I’m assuming that some of your courses are honors and you just didn’t mark them up that way?

Our son got into Caltech. The main thing about Caltech is that their students are “well rounded”, well-liked, kind, and known by the students and staff at their high schools because Caltech is a small, small school.

It is a research institution so it’s assumed that you’ll be able to handle the immense workload. One math problem can take you 6-8 hours.

They want to make sure that their students get along well, are kind, and have various interests that go outside of their academics. The honor system there is crucial. With schools like Caltech, you hit the ground running.

You need to be strong in every subject and not just your major. Most have had every AP course available, at their high schools, with perfect grades.

These are 200 freshmen students that have had and won every national award in the US. The students who are STEM-based, are not only strong in the math and the sciences, but they can play instruments exceptionally well, are strong in the classics, and the arts, and can cite philosophers without hesitation in 20-minute essays.

A number of them have played varsity sports. When I met some of my son’s hall mates, I was floored at how well-spoken they were and that they knew every subject and every language. A good number of them knew Latin without having taken formal coursework.

That’s your competition. You can send in an application, because you can’t get in if you don’t apply, but I think the posters here are trying to tell you that students who get into schools like Caltech, MIT, and Berkeley rarely get B’s.

You need to shorten your list and ask your parents about a budget because You’re going to have to spend a lot of money on application fees. You’ll be spending so much time filling out applications and essays that your academics may be affected.

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Are the college ECs you are doing at Oregon State? I do think it’s highly likely you get in to OSU and that’s an excellent option for AE. Does your HS use Naviance or Scoir? If so, how does the scattergram look for OSU? Your HS counselor will be the best person to categorize all your schools.

One reason why not to apply to these schools is because doing college applications is hard. The essays take time, senior year classes are difficult, and students often get fatigued with their apps. I’m not saying to not apply to any reaches, but these two, along with Ga Tech and UCB are out of reach because of the number of Bs you have in science and math.

Apply to OSU as soon as the app opens this summer. ASU and Iowa State (Iowa State is every bit as good as ASU and OSU in AE) are also highly likely for you…also get those apps in this summer as soon as they open. Assuming affordability, these schools are likely to be options for you. SCU probably is a target school. I would say the rest of your schools are probably reaches, some to a lesser degree than others. You might add some targets, but if you would be happy at OSU, ASU or Iowa State your list is ok. Confirm all that with your counselor. Good luck.

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I don’t want to pile on but the most important factor for college admission is GPA. ECs are not going to make up for a lower GPA. And just a note to say that the OOS publics you mentioned (UIUC, UMD, TAMU and Purdue) give preference to their instate applicants and they admit to engineering which is much more competitive than their overall acceptance rates suggest.

I can speak more to Purdue but their College of Engineering specifically wants to see high rigor across the board, not just in math and sciences. And they want to see As in those subjects. Purdue also would require an application in early action (where they fill the majority of their class) and with a downward projected trend junior year, admission would be very unlikely. (Your intended major is one of the most competitive at Purdue).

My advice is to make sure you really focus on your grades from here on out. It’s not too late to turn things around. While some of the schools on your list require applications in early action to be competitive, in your case, if you can show a strong upward trend in grades, that could help you.

Is you senior year schedule already locked in stone? If not, take another year of foreign language.

I’d also encourage you to take the SAT again. 1510 is a great score depending on the breakout, but isn’t enough for some of the schools on your list.

The most important thing to remember is that you can reach your professional goals no matter where you land for college. Build your list around your weakest link (GPA) to make sure you have strong safeties you’d be happy to attend and solid matches. RPI might be a school to explore as a match.

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Do you have up to level 3 in some foreign language?

And do you have four social studies classes?

Do you have a college budget from your parents? For example, the CA publics you have listed are in the $75,000 a year range, and it’s unlikely you will receive any aid as an out of state resident.

Does your family qualify for need based aid? Are you hoping for merit aid? Or is your family able to pay the costs for you to attend any of these colleges should you be accepted.

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Congrats, you have a very impressive resume and you absolutely will get into some very good programs. It’s impossible to tell which ones, but as others have noted - some of those programs are highly rejective, and you shouldn’t feel bad if they do reject you. Your limiting factor will be your GPA… It’s good, but these schools are getting tons of applicants.

Get your budget, and start thinking about a good safety school. Spend some time really thinking about it, b/c once you have that and can see yourself happy going there, the rest becomes gravy.

If budget isn’t a concern, I’ll suggest Virginia Tech on the list. Your GPA is a little below average for students in their engineering program, but your SAT is higher, and you have good EC’s… they don’t give much financial aid, so it will be expensive, but if affordable, might be a target for you.

Also, look at some of those schools pre-enrollment requirement. Some of them will require 3 years of a language, so you might need to take Chinese 3 next year.

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Congratulations on some outstanding EC’s but your GPA and performance in the major related courses can be an issue.

I will only address the UC’s.

  1. The UC’s are currently test blind to your SAT will not be considered for admissions or scholarship consideration, only course placement.

  2. As an OOS applicant, only your AP classes and any UC transferable DE classes are weighted in the UC GPA calculation that have been taken 10-11th grades only. Are the Multivariable Calc and Linear algebra classes Dual enrollment?

  3. UC’s consider 3 UC GPA’s when reviewing applicants: Unweighted, Capped weighted and Weighted uncapped using only 10-11th UC a-g courses (core courses). You get an extra Honors point for each semester of an AP or DE classes taken from 10-11th grades. Here is the UC GPA calculator so if you can calculate your 3 UC GPA’s, it be helpful to see where you stand.

Your Religion courses are not considered a-g courses so they will not be included in the GPA calculation.

You should drop Photography Senior year and take another year of your Chinese language.

Here is some admit rate information for the UC’s listed as an Aerospace Engineering major or UC Engineering in General.

UCLA:
Admit Rate: 3.3% Aerospace
UC Weighted Uncapped GPA range: 4.54-4.89
UC Capped weighted: 4.25-4.33
UC Unweighted: 3.95-4.00 (Campus wide)

UC Berkeley:
Admit rate: 5% Aerospace
UC Weighted Uncapped: 4.30-4.79
UC Capped weighted: 4.20-4.30 (College of Engineering)
UC Unweighted: 3.89-4.00

UC Davis:
Admit rate: Approximately 30% Aerospace
UC Weighted Uncapped: Not disclosed
UC Capped weighted: 4.09-4.29 (College of Engineering)
UC Unweighted: 3.80-4.00 (Campus wide)

Best of luck but you need to rethink your list and remove the UC’s if affordability is an issue.

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I would add Penn State as well. Both Virginia Tech and Penn State have excellent engineering programs and are somewhat friendly to OOS applicants. In fact, Virginia Tech is one of the rare schools with higher OOS acceptance rates than for in-state applicants.

That said, as mentioned earlier, I would look seriously at University of Arizona. You are guaranteed admission with your stats, and if your core GPA as calculated by Arizona is above a 3.5, you will get merit aid. You would also be an auto admit to Iowa State. I believe both schools open applications in June, and Iowa State will give you an almost instantaneous decision. Iowa State also gives a lot of merit aid on top of already low tuition.

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Good call on UofArizona… I would suggest Arizona State as well. OP is likely to get merit aid, and their aerospace engineering program is quite good. My son is a sophomore aerospace engineering major at Virginia Tech and he’s going to do some summer research with ASU’s aerospace department on a NASA grant.

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The good thing is that if you like and can afford Iowa State, you have your safety, they open up applications over the summer, you apply online and since you meet the auto admit RAI, you will have one in the bag before your senior year even begins. ASU is a safety with rolling admissions as well. I’m just not sure how early you will hear.

I actually think CU is likely/low reach due to your ECs. They are test optional, but you should submit yours. I’d also try to make any connections you can with OAs and people within the department.

Some less reachy programs to consider:
KU has a cubestat program.
Alabama has an astrodynamics lab.
UA Huntsville has NASA contacts.
Have you considered Michigan Tech as another likely? The location is “rough”, but if you can handle the travel and the weather, it should work for you.
WPI - you can easily double major, add a minor and drive your senior year research toward your goals.

Cal Poly may be a fit due to the value they place on applied research and hands on learning. @eyemgh - any insight on this?

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I would add Missouri S&T (nephew & his SO graduated 2 years ago; one’s at NASA, the other’s at a space startup) and not sure what your budget looks like, but maybe look at Embry Riddle. As others have said, add UAH.

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  • Linear algebra: B, B
  • Multivariable/vector calculus: A, A-
  • AP US History: B, B+
  • English III: A-, A
  • Biology honors: B, B+
  • AP PHysics C E&M: B, B
  • Christian ethics: A, A

Sophomore year:

  • AP Calculus BC: B+, B

You’ve got some red flags here for some of the schools on your list.

What does your guidance counselor think about your list? Start there. That’s someone who understands your HS- we do not. But at most HS’s, “honors biology” is a lot of memorization and not terribly complex analytically; B’s in AP Physics would be a concern, etc.

Your passion for your chosen field is fantastic. But many of the colleges on your list are looking for students who excel across the board-- you aren’t applying for a doctoral program. Take a look at MIT’s HASS requirements for example- if the notion of so many required humanities courses is a turn-off for you, then take it off the list. You cannot waive out of HASS. And they are hard- like at any other top university. These are not the humanities equivalents of “rocks for jocks”… tons of reading, essay writing, research papers, etc.

Any college would be lucky to have you, but I think you need a reset of your list based on some of your grades. Good luck!

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