Chance me please (aspiring aerospace engineer, midwest, middle income, aiming for t20 - t40 schools) [IL resident, 4.0 GPA, 36 ACT]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Guidelines

  • Please check back to answer questions.
  • Please do not share identifying information.
  • Please do not include your race.

Demographics
Male, middle income

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
    US Domestic

  • State/Location of residency: Illinois

  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): suburban public high school (500 students in grade)

  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.)
    First generation

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
They are still thinking about college budgets/plans.

Intended Major(s)
Aerospace engineering or mechanical engineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it)
    4.0/4.0

  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities)
    4.6/5.0? (After 6 semesters)

  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)

  • Class Rank: none

  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT 36

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: honors written and oral comp (f); honors world lit and comp (soph); AP Lang(j); College Comp(sen); College speech (sen)

  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed) Honors Alg 2 (f); honors precalc (soph); AP Calc BC (j); will take College Calc 3/ differential equations senior year

  • Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics) Honors Bio(f); Honors Chem(soph); Honors Physics (j); AP Physics C E&M (sen); AP Physics C Mechanics (sen)

  • History and social studies: APUG (f); APWH (soph); APUSH (j); AP Macro & AP Micro economics (sen)

  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed)
    Honors french 2 (f); honors french 3 (soph); honors french 4 (j); AP French (sen)

  • Visual or performing arts:

  • Other academic courses: College PLTW ESSENTIALS (soph); College PLTW AEROSPACE (j); College PLTW PRINCIPLES (SEN)

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

  1. Sci oly 5x state & regional (1x national qualifier)
  2. (hopefully) National Merit Semifinalist (1480 PSAT)
  3. AP Scholar with Distinction
  4. (hopefully will recieve before nov 1) State Academic Honor
  5. National Honor society/French Honor society

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience) - Order not finalized yet

  1. Science Olympiad Varsity (3yrs) - Robot Tour, Electric Vehicle, Anatomy and Physiology (Learned and taught others about arduino, simple circuits, CAD modeling, and more)
  2. Engineering Internship - Used Bluebeam Revu to create takeoffs for light fixtures, utilized Navisworks to efficiently resolve clashes, modeled the most efficient conduit/homerun system for a floor using Revit/Revu, and designed outlet locations (adhering to electrical code)
  3. Engineering/Manufacturing internship - Tested hundreds of motors for current draws and proper rotation, conducted work on an assembly line, and used a multimeter to check resistances on 150 motor stators
  4. Youth Engineering Workshop (5 weeks) - Organized workshop activities, supervised the rising freshman, aided them with their design challenges, and taught 15+ how to solder for an LED project
  5. Math Team (Highest Junior Team Scorer, 2 yrs) - Guided other members, led junior team to third to division
  6. High Mileage (Racecar building club, 2yrs) - Helped measure, cut, and weld parts; will become designer next year and use Ansys to attempt to enhance aerodynamic design; car won two design awards
  7. MicroBit Workshop at Local Library (Founder) - Worked with local library to order MicroBits for workshops (set for Oct 2025), aided in revitalizing library youth STEM program
  8. Culture Club (Co-President, 3yrs) - Organized monthly meetings, coordinated with different teachers and the principal for certain activities, grew club by 3x, raised $200 through fundraisers
  9. Academic Bowl (JV captain 1yr, Varsity 2yr) - Led a JV team of 20 students, helped organize team rosters, specialize in science/math questions for varsity
  10. Culture Club dance - same organization, danced for multicultural fair in front of hundreds of kids, danced for a larger audience during a district wide fair
  11. Peer Tutor (3 yrs)
  12. Potential Engineering Internship (still not confirmed)
  13. School Community leader - only four meetings per year in front of designated class to discuss school community

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Essays are not complete, still writing drafts. I plan to take my time and ask for advice, so I’m hoping they will be at least 8/10.

LORS:

  1. Alg 2/AP Calc BC teacher - my teacher for two years, was my recommender for another program
  2. AP Lang teacher - I think I would get a good recommendation. I enjoyed the class.

Schools
*(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified) *
Safety: UIC, Lewis University
Target: UIUC (EA), Purdue (EA), UW Madison (EA), Illinois Tech (EA)
Reach: UMich (EA), Georgia Tech (EA), Cornell (RD), Northwestern (RD), MIT (EA)

Thank you!

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OP: In regards to Purdue, you might look at the Purdue Data Digest, here: https://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/; and especially the links to “Applications, Admits, and Matriculations” and “New First-Time Beginner Profile”. You can plug in your stats to some of the interactive links on these sites, and perhaps get an idea where you might fall relative to recently admitted OOS applicants to Purdue.

If your school has Naviance or a similar software program, you should take a look at that for the schools in which you are interested. Also, sit down with your guidance counselor and discuss what schools would be a good match for you; and hopefully your GC should have historical information on admissions from your high school to various colleges and universities.

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If you do become a NMF, and money becomes a priority, you should consider the schools that give big money to NMF like Alabama, Alabama-Huntsville. You might also consider schools in the south known for merit and aerospace like Florida Tech and ERAU as they are on the space coast and have a lot of opportunities for internships and jobs while in school and after.

I think you have a good chance at all of the schools you have listed, but only you (and your parents) know if you can afford them.

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Please make sure you have budget conversations about this with your parents BEFORE you start applying to schools. No need to apply to a school that won’t work financially.

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I talked to my parents, and they said that I shouldn’t have any cost constraints.

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That’s great. It’s just that you mentioned you’re first generation to college and sometimes parents do not understand how expensive college can be. For example, Michigan will run about 80k/year. Cornell/Northwestern/MIT around 90k/year, but perhaps you’d be eligible for financial aid at those private schools.

That’s why it’s advisable to figure out the budget and cost of attendance NOW rather than next spring when admission decisions are done.

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That makes sense. I think my parents mostly want me to focus on my targets because they are cheaper, but my parents also want me to just try to apply to reaches to see what happens.

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Great student / great list.

I think you get into UIUC. I wouldn’t apply to Lewis - as they are not accredited in MechE or Aerospace. Illinois Tech is a safety.

Since you’re willing to go to the SE, I’d check out:

UAH - it’s in Rocket City - and it’s surrounded by aero employers. It’ll be $20K ish.

If you are NMF, I’d consider Alabama over every school on the list - because you’d get 5 years tuition and four years housing plus a yearly stipend. So you’d be near free.

My son chose it over Purdue - and works with Purdue and Michigan kids as well as W Michigan, Akron, Buffalo, etc. In the working world, it doesn’t matter in most cases and some of your schools will be $400K. As an example, he met a Columbia grad in an aero company (like my son), and he earns more - which surprised him.

Best of luck.

Edit - now reading the thread and I see @twoinanddone had similar thoughts.

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Thank you for your words and advice. I was just wondering if you could clarify what you meant by “I think you get into UIUC”? I was just confused. Also your advice makes a lot of sense, and I will take it into consideration while I finalize my college list.

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Meaning if I had to guess and I’m not an Adcom, I suspect (but can’t 100% know) that you’d be admitted.

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Oh okay, thank you. I was just confused because you didn’t mention the other targets. Again, thank you for your advice.

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Sorry - I thought I did. But I guess not.

You could get in everywhere.

If I were to guess and I’m not an adcom, yes to the targets (Illinois Tech a safety). And at least one reach but short of MIT and maybe Cornell, I don’t think they’d have a good ROI vs others.

You’re gonna be fine.

Good luck.

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My daughter went to Florida Tech, not an aerospace engr, but her friends who were loved being on the Space Coast. It’s where the action is, there were astronauts on her campus all the time (including Buzz),and there were trade shows and industry reps on and near campus. I’m sure there are opportunities at all the other schools too, but it is just easy to find them on the Space Coast.

I very much enjoyed going to launches at Canaveral when I visited her.

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St. Louis University is one you should look at and apply to as a likely safety/target. They have a double major in aerospace and mech E (along with Masters and PhD programs in the same disciplines). The Jesuits give solid merit and “love” first gen students.

My family friend graduated mech E there and got a paid job in a lab earning their masters immediately.

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Thank you

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Yeah, I was thinking about applying to Embry Riddle, but I am not sure yet.

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Thank you

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Embry Riddle got on my son’s radar. We visited. How they describe it - in Daytona - was when planes take off (they’re on the airport), everyone looks up.

I thought Florida Tech’s campus was nice and as a bonus - at least our day - the food was outstanding.

My son’s issue - they have a large intl population with a high percentage of smokers - so where most campuses are tobacco free, they weren’t. That might have changed as it’s six years later. It was contained but you still smell as you walk by.

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I’d consider replacing Lewis with Iowa State - a great aero school which would be a safety with your stats and probably pretty affordable with the merit you’d qualify for. Excellent major-related EC’s available: Student Organizations – Department of Aerospace Engineering

CU Boulder punches above its weight in Aerospace as well, and can offer a great student experience, but would be pricier OOS than some of the others (although not nearly as pricey as UMich).

In terms of full-pay private U’s, Rice could also be worth a look. Aero is a concentration within MechE, but there are lots of good opportunities: Aerospace Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Rice University

Good luck; while you might not get into every school on your list, you’re sure to have terrific options!

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Thank you