I think you’re getting good advice here. It’s not meant to be discouraging. You have done some amazing stuff, and your passion and interest will serve you well in college. It’s mainly a numbers game with these highly rejective schools… there tens of thousands of candidates that are very qualified and there are only a few thousand slots at these top ranked programs.
I think it’s worth taking a crack at 1 or 2 of your top chocies (as long as it’s affordable), because you might wonder if you didn’t take a shot. However, I think we want to stress 2 things:
don’t fall completely in love with a program and believe it’s your “dream” school. There is no one single path to success for any student.
really spend time finding a safety school you like and can see yourself happy at. Once you have that the rest is gravy
I feel like you are in a unique situation where your experience and GPA/rigor are lopsided. And that’s not a bad thing. You did the work rather than play the admissions game. Once you get to school, no professor will ask you your high school GPA or classes. They will ask you what you’ve already done and see that you know your way around a lab and research. The challenge is to get in. My suggestion is to keep your two safeties and cast a wide net of target schools. As everyone has said, ABET certification is key and school reputation is less important than the department reputation and offerings. At schools in the 30%-90% selectivity range, you will stand out within the department as soon as you get on campus.
S23 had research experience beyond what you would expect a college junior to have. He could have gone to a highly selective school, but chose a large state school that was very well known for his major and had a 90% acceptance rate. He was able to get a paid research position in his first year and will now be supervising grad students in his junior year.
One of the things S23 did was scour the research journals for articles that pertained to the specific research he was interested in to find what programs/centers/professors were publishing it (and it most probably will not all be from the well-known “prestige” schools). It helped him connect to the school with a niche program that was exactly what he was looking for. While the acceptance rate was high, I do think even if it wasn’t, the way he was able to talk about how his goals aligned with this particular program at the school would have made his application stand out. The way he was able to connect his passion to something the school offered definitely helped his honors application stand out.
I know your family wants you nearby, but as I said, cast a wide net. I would seriously consider adding KU, Ohio State, and AUH to your target list. And I always suggest people look at WPI . It is very different than the other places on your list, but in a good way. Once acceptances roll in, you can take geography into consideration.
I just want to say that I think your ECs are amazing and your passion really shines through. You’re going to be a successful person no matter where you land because that kind of dedication and hard work is valuable in the world.
Second, I agree with @dadbodthor that you should shoot your shot at the reaches you really want to go to. Of course you should have a balanced list of targets and safeties, and maybe some of your uneven course decisions might direct you to tech institutes or schools with a clear STEM vibe, but go for it!
If you don’t shoot your shot, you’ll never know. And don’t be discouraged—just have a health dose of pragmatism and be open to a variety of outcomes. The place you go to college doesn’t define you—what you do when you get there is up to you.
It’s worth looking at who does well in sounding rocket competitions. Lots of lesser known schools do well. That means they’re doing a good job training their students to do the stuff they’ll do after graduating.
I just want to add a +1 to the shoot your shot for the reaches chorus - there will be some (but it’s hard to know who in advance)who will look at your STEM rigor and extracurriculars and weigh that in enough to counteract the GPA . (I say this as a parent of someone who got into a reach, unhooked, with GPA below the norm and an ACT that ended up being below the 25th percentile for that year’s intake (it was exactly at the 25th the previous year). Holistic does mean holistic. Just, be sure that you have good targets and safeties - some excellent mentions here for those. Also understand that some schools will be less holistic than others by nature of what they look at - UIUC, for example, doesn’t look at recommendation letters, so it’s probably worth your while to do that level of kicking the tires to decide where to spend your energy on application essays. And apply early action wherever possible. Good luck.
Since Aerospace Eng is a popular major in most Eng schools. You may want to avoid schools with direct admit to major, such as UCs and CSUs. There will be many students with better high school GPA fighting for the limited spots. Instead, you may want to focus on schools with secondary admission for Engineering, such as uDub or TAMU. This way, you have a second chance to build up your GPA. As long as you are admitted to school of Engineering in TAMU and get 3.75 GPA in freshman year, you are guarantee for Aerospace Eng major. Good Luck.
3.75 GPA is typically more difficult in college than high school. Of course, that high a secondary admission threshold increases the competitiveness at the school.
Other secondary admission schools may be significantly less competitive than Texas A&M.