Chance me for Stanford (REA) and Duke (ED), CA resident, 3.98 UW, 1560 SAT, Mechanical Eng major [4.0/4.21/4.53 GPA for UC]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic/US citizen (race and gender demography: south asian male)
  • State/Location of residency: California
  • Type of high school: Independent private HS in SF area
  • Other special factors: n/a

Cost Constraints / Budget - n/a

Intended Major(s) - Mechanical engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.98
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.16 (highest GPA in last few years has been 4.23)
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants) n/a
  • Class Rank: Top 10%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1560 SAT (790-Math, 770-English)

List your HS coursework - AP courses below with scores

  • English: AP English Lang (5), AP English Lit (in progress)
  • Math: * AP Calc BC (5)
  • Science: AP Physics1 (4), AP Physics C (in progress)
  • History and social studies: AP US History (5), AP Pscyh (in progress)
  • Language other than English: AP Spanish Lang (5), AP Spanish Lit (in progress)
  • Visual or performing arts:
  • Other academic courses: AP Comp Sc (5), AP Econ (Micro-5 & Macro-5)

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work:

Awards National merit commended scholar

Extracurriculars
(1) Lead tutor for recognized non-profit for underprivileged kids (2) leader of school computer science club (3) started school engineering club (4) varsity tennis player (5) ongoing unpaid research assistant for 3-6 months with mechanical engineering professor at local state university - research will likely be published (6) UPenn engineering summer program with credit (7) Cornell credit course (8) Engineering summer at Brown

Essays/LORs/Other
Strong to very strong LOR from Math and English and similar by school counselor, Assume average to above average quality of essays

Schools
Stanford-REA or Duke-ED or Penn-ED
Other schools applying: Berkeley, UCLA, Princeton, Rice, Northwestern, GaTech, Michigan, Virginia, UCSD, Washington, Purdue, Maryland, Colorado

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):
  • Extremely Likely: Purdue, Colorado, Maryland
  • Likely: Washington, UCSD, Virginia
  • Toss-up: Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan
  • Lower Probability:
  • Low Probability:
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I can’t speak for all of the schools but some of the big publics on your list are much more competitive for OOS engineering majors. I don’t see any likely/safety on this list.

My D’s HS val with perfect scores, highest GPA, tons of rigor, awards, activities was waitlisted from Michigan and that was 6 cycles ago. It’s only gotten more competitive.

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These are definitely NOT toss-ups. At best, lower probability, more likely low probability. What is your school’s track record for admissions to these two schools? That will determine whether low or lower probability. Although for MechEng, I lean towards low probability regardless.

For the UCs, the PIQs can really be make or break. You want yours to be excellent to have a shot.

Have you calculated your UC GPAs? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

Will you get top 9% ELC? This can help with the UCs.

Obviously your excellent SAT score will not be seen by the UCs, nor do they accept letters of recommendation (with the exception of Cal, and that is by invitation only).

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As just a general observation, there are a lot of great colleges for engineering, and of course most of those are great for mechanical engineering specifically. Then within that group, you start to get some with more focus on various mechanical engineering concentrations.

I think it is fine if you mostly want to apply to just really good mechanical engineering colleges, with the plan of refining your interests in college. But particularly as you think about your Likelies and maybe some Targets, it might be worth thinking about whether there are any concentration areas of particular interest at least for now, which can help make certain Likelies or Targets stand out more.

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We do not know whether or not you will get accepted to UC Berkeley. However, let’s suppose that you do. Given that you are in-state in California, and given how excellent UC Berkeley is for engineering, is it really worth being full pay and flying cross-country for the University of Pennsylvania compared to being in-state at UC Berkeley? While I have not specifically looked at ratings right now, my guess is that UC Berkeley is probably higher ranked for engineering compared to Penn.

Okay, I looked it up. UC Berkeley is indeed higher ranked than Penn for engineering. UC Berkeley is also higher ranked than Duke. Stanford is pretty close to UCB in ranking (#1 versus #3, in a field where whatever is #100 is still excellent).

I do not understand the attraction to Ivy League schools at likely full pay for an engineering major. This is particularly true given how excellent many of your in-state universities are for engineering in general and for mechanical engineering in particular.

I think that you should add more in-state public universities to your list, and probably not apply ED anywhere. Certainly I would add more UC’s, and most likely you should also apply to some CSU’s, several of which are excellent for engineering.

And you definitely need to apply to safeties.

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Appreciate the feedback and here are a few more details, if it helps evaluate better. Our HS record has been fairly strong to Berkeley and UCLA from the last few years I could see - around 30% in aggregate (all majors and all GPAs). The UC GPA calculator shows UW GPA as 4.0, Weighted as 4.43 and Weighted and Capped as 4.29. Also, it will be in top 9% ELC.

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If you are at a school like Harker, they used to have a strong success rate with top schools. That said, I agree with the posters above who said this list is top heavy. I wouldn’t consider Cal a tossup, even for an instate student. More likely to be in the lower probability range.

Have you looked at schools like CO school of Mines or RPI

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Completely agree. Berkeley will be ahead of Duke and Penn IMO, even more so with in-state. Thank you for the validation.

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Those are excellent results and definitely would potentially indicate a higher chance in your case. MechEng is still a tough admit at both UCB and UCLA, so definitely take the PIQs seriously - they are what will set you apart from every other high achieving student applying for the same competitive major.

This is also really good, too. My advice on the PIQs stands.

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Thank you so much - appreciate it a lot. Will try to make sure PIQs are done with utmost sincerity.

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Yes, it’s a school like Harker (similar results but I think only few schools have the same intensity and pressure as H)

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This means “no cost constraints”, or “do not know what the cost constraints are”?

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This implies ‘no cost constraints’

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You’ve probably already done this, but please be sure to talk to your school guidance counselor - they’ll have better insight into your school’s results. You have great stats, but engineering admission rates are lower than overall rates, and (as you know) universities look at more than GPA and rigor.

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Maryland fills most of its slots in EA. If you wait until RD, likelihood of admission becomes much lower.

No other UCs of interest?

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Thanks. Yes, it will be EA for all public colleges (when offered). Certainly applying UCSD, possibly UCSB

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Yes, the list was developed with the school counselor who gave the ok with addition of UC, Boulder as EA in it (also, Purdue will be legacy, if they give any weight to it)

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Consistent with what other posters are suggesting, California has such a great collection of public engineering programs in-state, it may well be you should just choose your favorite among whichever of those programs admit you. Not a very “exciting” strategy, but in a good way–it will efficiently get you where you want to go.

I think to the extent you varied from such a plan, it would be to either get a significantly different sort of option, or just to have some additional Likelies and Targets given how competitive California publics can be for engineering. Odds are you wouldn’t need them, but it is easy enough to add some applications for that contingency.

So one question I have is whether you are at all interested in considering a smaller, more engineering-focused college. You could actually put Caltech in this category, but also Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union, Olin, Rose Hulman, and so on. Maybe you have no interest in such an experience, but these are at least very different the UCs and Cal Polys.

RPI is bigger but I think some people also really like it, and merit is possibility.

In terms of OOS options, I think some people find Purdue and Georgia Tech to be special places for mechanical engineers, and their costs are on the more reasonable side too.

In terms of more likely OOS options, I’d suggest looking at Minnesota, Arizona State, and Michigan State. I am just naming some options that might come in at least somewhat competitive on costs OOS and could be worth considering if things don’t go so well with your California applications.

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The LACs (Harvey, others) were out after few visits as they were too small. Will certainly look at adding Minnesota and MSU

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Yeah, if that is a bug and not a feature then no need to consider them versus your in-state options.

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