Thank you! My school is incredibly competitive and the top few students have literally only taken AP classes. It often comes down to the decimal point and my decision to take drama and engineering throughout high school, although they are courses I really enjoyed, brought my GPA down to where I wasn’t competitive for that top 10%. I also didn’t take summer dual enrollment classes in junior and senior year summer, which is how most people boost their GPAs. Instead, I worked a job and studied hard for the SAT my junior year summer and attended SSP my senior year summer. I’m also including the engineering pathway, drama, SSP, and my job in my essays, as they are all things I’m passionate about and proud of, so they make for good writing material. My school’s rank system is super competitive, but it is the way it is, I guess.
FWIW, I think you made good choices with both your classes and the way you spent your summers! I think that will read well to the admissions folks too!
Thank you! High school wouldn’t have been high school without drama/theatre, so I’m glad I did it 
I agree completely. It sounds like you, @studystay, made sensible choices throughout high school, and were a human being in addition to being a strong student. I think that university admissions will like this.
Best wishes.
I disagree. The fact that Cornell or any other school has achieved gender parity or close to it is not evidence that young women are not in demand. The numbers are what they are. The numbers of males majoring in engineering in colleges across the country is 3-4 times the number of females majoring in engineering. So, that means that Cornell or anyone else has a smaller pool of engineering candidates to draw from and that the small number of females are therefore in greater demand.
What the Cornell example does tell us is that colleges want to achieve gender equity. Therefore, when we look at the law of supply and em and, we know 2 things for certain. The supply of females is low and the demand for them is high. Therefore, I stick by my original statement that this applicant, who brings superb credentials to the admissions process will be in high demand.
Wow. Is that ever a bizarre list of top engineering schools. Since when do Emory and Georgetown have engineering programs? And they are presumably better than Purdue or Georgia Tech? Georgia Tech is not even listed although US news ranks them the number 3 engineering school in the country and ranks their aero department number 2? They also graduate the highest number of female engineers of any school in the nation.
Yes, I agree it’s a strange choice to make a list of “the gender makeup of engineering cohorts at the top 25 national universities” (apparently according to USNWR’s national universities list from that year). It is odd that they didn’t use a list of top engineering programs instead.
Yes. They used the US news overall rankings while in the bold large print titled it “Gender Ratios at the Top Engineering Programs”. They then included schools that don’t even offer engineering. Somebody needs to educate the folks at Ivy Coach about engineering schools 
I completely agree, based on several years of observation. At top schools, being a woman in STEM isn’t as much of an advantage as many assume, since they receive plenty of applications from highly qualified women.
Great Resume.
Please do look into the Universities you are interested in and find out how they work their students into their engineering majors. Understand FYE or EFY (First Year Engineering or Engineering First Year) is a common starting point at a lot of the schools, and entering students may not get to choose their major until during/after their first year - and can often be shut out of available slots based on student priority. Lots of kids say they are going to “X” to study Aerospace Engineering, but are actually FYE enrolled and then end up in civil, chemical etc. It’s worth understanding how that works, and what relative risk you may have being shut out based on the competitiveness of the program you are interested in.
Thank you, I’ll keep an eye out for FYE requirements, etc. For Purdue, it seems as long as I maintain a 3.2, I have guaranteed admission into aerospace engineering, so if I end up there, I’ll know to keep my grades up first year.
Emory offers a major in General Engineering within their Physics Dept. Georgetown does not have a program in engineering other than a 3/2.
Georgia Tech overall enrollment = 12,414 male vs 8,178 female (60:40)
Purdue Univ overall enrollment = 26,428 male vs 18,391 female (59:41). In fall, 2024, 27% of all engineering students at Purdue were women.
Even for in-state residents Georgia Tech has a lower acceptance rate at 30% overall (not engineering) than Purdue OOS at well over 40% (obviously OOS GT is in a whole different realm than Purdue at a 9% acceptance rate). When you ad the competitiveness of Aerospace with Georgia Tech being ranked second behind MIT and tied for 3rd overall for engineering those numbers even go down for GT. I would definitely put Purdue as a likely with those stats. I also think this applicants stats put them in a good position at GT due to being in-state. Good luck!
Purdue’s engineering acceptance rate was 34% last cycle. It’s only getting more competitive.
That said I do think OP is a competitive applicant. Just wouldn’t call it a likely/safety.
As a female, your acceptance rate will go up at quite a few schools, including Georgia Tech, where female acceptance rate is one and a half times male acceptance rate. Being below the top 10% at your school may be an issue even in state for Georgia Tech. Taking distance math will help. The Georgia Tech website publishes an admissions snapshot which will tell you where you stand with respect to admitted students from your school Please note that this is a five-year snapshot so last year’s average will be higher in all likelihood than the five-year average HomePage | LITE - Leading Insight Through Empowerment
Typically, in state Georgia students are more likely to get into Purdue than Georgia Tech so I would not classify both of them as likely. Given your class rank I would put Georgia Tech as a tossup, even though you should get a significant boost being female. I would also move UIUC to toss up as it is typically a harder admit than in state Georgia Tech for engineering.
Definitely consider Embry Riddle. We know several kids who graduated from there and have gone on to great jobs and graduate schools. I would also put Auburn on your list. It has a strong engineering school, is about the size of Georgia Tech, and always has some of the happiest college students. Between my two Georgia Tech kids and their multiple internships (we are at 6 now and counting) there always seems to be an Auburn engineering student in their cohort. Definitely apply by early September for the best chance of admission and scholarships.
Thank you! I submitted my application to Auburn already (forgot to put it on the list) and am looking into Embry-Riddle. I really hope GT pulls through, but I know my class rank puts me at a disadvantage. Thank you for the advice, I’ll keep everything in mind!
I agree with you about Auburn. We are in state Georgia as well. My oldest was wait listed at Georgia Tech and was a wireless engineering major at Auburn. His academic profile was not quite as strong as the OP. He was awarded the presidential scholarship as well as some smaller departmental scholarships (they stack), and was in the honors college. He had no problem landing internships and co ops - and yes he was working with students from several other schools including Georgia Tech. His friends in aero and a few of the EEs he knows landed positions at Lockheed, Boeing and at NASA in Huntsville. At least for my kid, I feel that being the big fish in the small pond worked to his advantage.
I will also add that everyone we know that did Georgia Tech distance math and did well (ie an A or B) was ultimately accepted to Georgia Tech. Our private school didn’t offer it,but I have a lot of friends with kids in some of the Uber competitive public schools in both Cobb and Forsyth whose kids did the distance math and were accepted. I have heard claims that the Tech acceptance rate for students in the program is upwards of 80 percent - but you may have more insight into that than I do.
Talk to your school counselor. You are at a competitive HS. The counselor may have some insight into your potential chances at GT based on past experience.
You need the narrow in here. Schools like UIUC are $60k plus. CU, Purdue, $50k plus. Auburn, even with good merit, over $40k whereas Bama and UAH under $20k.
These schools are all great as is ERAU and similarly Florida Tech.
But you have to get a handle on finances. There’s no reason to apply to schools you can’t afford and it doesn’t sound like you know what you can afford. Or at least you need to add a school or two you know you can afford just in case you find out your list is too rich.
You certainly don’t need debt for an aero degree where most schools are substitutional.
The sooner your family can figure out the finances the better. You want to ensure you can potentially attend every school you apply to.
But if you find out you can only spend $30k a year, as an example, then most of your list is wasted.
So please figure that out sooner than later.