good question. based on Gumbymom’s table, among 9 UCs, only 5 has well-established aerospace major (UCM new major in Fall 2025). So I probably need to revise our plan.
We apply for ME mainly but still want to keep the option open in case son wants to change major to AE for undergraduate study.
I would choose UCD in this case, but if select among Purdue, UIUC, GT over UCM, UCR, UCSB or UCSC, I will not choose UC schools listed.
It will be nice to have so many options. In reality, last year student from our school with similar stats was waitlisted or rejected from majority UCs and chose OOS school.
If the student is eligible in local context (UC-recalculated GPA exceeds the top 9% UC-recalculated GPA for a recent previous class at the high school), then UCM may offer admission if the student gets shut out of all other UC applications.
But if UCM could be anything other than the last choice UC, better to include it in the UC application.
Have not heard of UCR doing eligibility in local context admissions recently.
In CA, these are the ten ABET accredited Aero schools, 9 of which are public. There’s only 80 in the US (likely less as ABET duplicates some listings). By contrast, there are 425 MechE, some of which will have an aero concentration, etc.
Have you looked at Pomona?
If you want to be close to home, U of Arizona Aero is very strong, well regarded - and it will be low $40s with $20K merit. It’s safe - if distance is an issue - i.e you don’t want to go across the country. It’s also one of the top physics schools in the country - obviously related.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
California State University, Long Beach
San Diego State University
San Jose State University
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of Southern California
AE is usually similar to ME in course work (but check at each school to compare majors), and aerospace companies hire ME (and other engineering) graduates, not just AE graduates. ME students may be able to take aerospace electives within their major (check at each school).
However, ME graduates may get more looks from non-aerospace employers. This could be an issue if the aerospace industry is in a downturn when the AE graduate is seeking employment.
This student would be eligible for the statewide guarantee.
I think what the OP might be referring to is that last year, UC sent out email a bit later in the season, offering to add UCM and UCR for free to students’ UC apps (I think this was sent to students eligible for the guarantee).
This was asked and answered above, the OP has checked the list.
Thanks for the list. We applied ASU not from common app, from ASU website, and it is rolling, and quickly got accepted. I am planning to apply for its honor college before 11/1
son chose to apply to SJSU over Pomona for its location.
For anyone who wants to know what I mean by a popularity contest vs. using actual data such as acceptance rate or salary or % employed, etc, here is the methodology:
Each qualifying school or program was sent two peer assessment surveys.
An average peer assessment score was calculated for each program using a trimmed mean, which removes the two highest and two lowest scores to reduce the impact of outliers. Programs with at least 10 ratings after trimming were then ranked in descending order based on this score.
Programs with an average score below 2.0 (1.5 for computer science) are grouped alphabetically in a ranking range rather than receiving a specific numerical rank. These schools can request their numerical rank by emailing official@usnews.com.
Since your son seems undecided as to his engineering field of study, which is completely normal, I would also choose a school which will allow him to easily transfer within the Engineering School for different majors after their first year.
You can pick apart USNWR and I’m not the biggest fan of them either, but there are several other ranking publications that have these same schools at the top as well. Are they all wrong and misguided, probably not. Also, check out the Times World Rankings. I believe they use some of the best methodology. I think the best return on investment rankings for college, like the Princeton Review, are very valuable as well as they look at graduate outcome and salaries. There are also publication showing what schools have the most graduates employed at the biggest Tech and Engineering firms. I also find these more valuable than USNWR. But, yes none are perfect. But they can be good resources for the OP when picking the best option.
My kid (got her undergrad degree in bioengineering) had absolutely ZERO high school ECs that related to anything related to any kind of STEM major. ECs were swim team ASD a ton of music things both at her school and outside of school.
The OP specifically asked for advice on other schools his kid should apply to based on majors he’s interested in. A post about different schools rankings based on desired field, return on investment, and job placement seems relevant to the question. There are legit publications the OP may not be aware which can help him in deciding which schools may be desirable to. Perhaps I’m wrong. Sorry, if that’s the case.
Are you the student or the parent posting? It sounds like you are the parent, but then you say things like “I need to do” which sounds like the student.