They don’t want you to go that far - well a plane ride is a plane ride but then how are UMD and Ga Tech on your list?
SCU and engineering. Personally I’d lose it. They survey grads, report results and their engineering grads say they’re not ready. It doesn’t have a great name, like the b school.
I think most schools are fine in general but personally I don’t see this as worth the money. Cal Poly yes. SCU - no. My opinion. I don’t see what you are seeing I guess.
I’d not go $70k plus to a UC. That’s me. OSU is much better value.
I don’t think the possibility of taking a higher level of Chinese is realistic. Considering my internship and research throughout the remainder of the year, as well as during the summer, I have no time to do test prep. Also, my RCS project is on a deadline of making the RCS module flight-ready by August, which includes various operational test articles, design revisions, and some mechanical pressure tests. Setting up these tests and getting verification from the university’s engineering faculty takes a large amount of time. Additionally, the CubeSat I do astrodynamics for is projected burn up in the next year, so it is critical I collect as much attitude and altitude data from it as possible to use for my modeling (every month is valuable!).
You are an impressive candidate, and your activities definitely indicate how interested you are in this field. The issue is that the schools on your original list are among the most competitive in the country, either generally or for your intended major. You might be a top student at your high school or in your town but, per Google AI, there are over 19,500 cities and towns in the U.S., plus all of the extremely impressive talent that is applying from abroad. These programs just don’t have the capacity to take all of the strong applicants out there, which is why it becomes extremely competitive and why most think your chances are as low as they are.
That said, however, there are fantastic aerospace programs out there that are not inundated with applicants, so your odds of admission are much greater at those schools, and a number of them are on your revised list.
I definitely think you will have a higher percentage of acceptances on this list than your original one. But is it “better?” It depends on what kind of a college experience you want to have.
Your original list had schools like Cal Tech and MIT on them, small to medium-sized schools that are heavily STEM-focused. On your revised list, there are only big state schools, outside of Santa Clara. There’s no right/wrong answer between big state schools and small tech schools, but it’s definitely a difference in the college experience. Which do you prefer? Or if you’re unsure about which you prefer, then maybe you want to add a couple of smaller tech schools to your list so that you have options to select from come spring of senior year?
Some questions that might help you think about your preferences include:
How do you feel about urban/suburban/college town/remote schools?
What size classes do you learn best in?
What size school do you prefer?
How do you feel about significant enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports?
How do you feel about Greek life (fraternities/sororities)?
Are there any particular interests you want to pursue in college (i.e. an activity, club, something else)?
Are there any other factors (like politics or religion) that influence your preferences?
To clarify, both Vtech and UMD are close to family along the east coast. UAH is pretty far from all of my relatives living in the United States. Sorry for the confusion.
There’s nothing wrong with SCU’s “name” (and I am speaking as someone who actually lives in the Bay Area, and worked in tech here for my entire career). It’s a respected school, with happy students, in a location surrounded by opportunities. My daughter just toured it this month (she wants to study engineering, too).
To offset costs, SCU does offer merit scholarships which may be unlikely, but still possible.
If the OP is interested in this school and wants to apply, I don’t see any reason to discourage them from giving it a try.
FYI, Oregon State does not have Aero Eng major, only minor within Mach Eng.
You may want to add Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) and Ohio State as target. CPP is one hour away from LA, where all the major Aerospace Vendor located. CPP also offer WUE tuition (150% in state price). Ohio State may offer you some merit due to high SAT score.
Good Luck.
It’s a good point that CPP offers WUE, but I’m not sure that CPP would be a target in terms of admissions. From looking at this student profile, it appears that aerospace is the most impacted engineering major. CPP Freshmen Student Profile: Multifactor Admission
Yes, you can back that out. Last admissions cycle required a CSU (a-g) GPA of 4.26 for aerospace. Not sure what OP’s will work out as but they can input it here. Note that non-California honors courses don’t count for extra weighting. GPA Calculator | CSU
It’s the grid in the bottom left on the link I put above. It’s far worse than the other SCU schools. I’d ask the question - why ? I’m surprised but appreciative they are transparent.
My DD was an engineering major at Santa Clara. Her cohort of graduates all found very good jobs in the field…if they pursued jobs. Mine switched gears. Some went on to masters programs either at SCUs well regarded masters programs in engineering too.
The engineering majors grads from SCU are doing just fine.
CubeSat was invented at CalPoly. They have two clubs, one that makes the launchers, maintains the standard and schedules launches. The other does individual projects like yours. As Bill Nye said when choosing the school for LiteSail, “it’s the place for expertise in CubeSat.”
I think your GPA is low for AE, but if the school interests you, apply to General Engineering. The admission is a little easier.
Oregon State was good enough for Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia. They have the best honors program for engineers that we encountered. You’d be admitted for sure.
ASU is probably a better option than Arizona. Their earth and space exploration majors are more hardware oriented and it will be cheaper: merit aid is based on test scores, not purely GPA.
You might find their new system engineering degree to be particularly interesting, I think that system level thinking is rare and valuable.
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned this yet but CU Boulder is incredibly strong in aerospace engineering - their engineering is 17th and 8th in aerospace. Aerospace engineering is seen as being the hardest major in the university (at least by some people on reddit)
Agreed! It’s a beautiful
Campus and well respected in the Bay Area.
On another issue, be careful when reviewing any career outcome self reports. There are well known to potentially have flaws and limitations. Do a deep dive if you are looking at those numbers. Here’s a good read.