College list help needed. CA Resident [in 11th grade, 3.5 GPA, 1220 SAT, mechanical engineering / robotics / aerospace]

College Search & Lists
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Hi,

I am currently a junior, CA resident, looking for help in selecting my college list. I will be applying next year, so i have some time but would like to plan ahead. All help is greatly appreciated.

Here is my background:
-I am interested in Robotics/Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering side ,likely a combination.
-I don’t have any non academic (religious etc preference of school)
-I would like to get into Stanford, Caltech, UC Berkeley, UC LA (still building the list)
-My SAT score is at 1220.
-I will have completed 9 AP classes by end of senior year.
-My current GPA is 3.5. Weighted GPA is 4.17
-My parents will pay for full tuition for a public/private university I choose to go to but scholarships will certainly help.
-I have done some science projects, and currently working on prepping for some science fairs.

I am a bit nervous about my chances about making it into a good school because I am hearing couple of my friends who have excellent grades didn’t make it into a good school and ended up having to go to University of Portland which I don’t want to go. I had rather go for community college for 1 year than go to some not-so-good school. I will sincerely appreciate any insights, here. Thank you.

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Want to add that:
-I am open to any college within the US.
-I am still working on my SAT scores and will likely give it 2 more times to get the best one.

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The first thing that you need to understand is that no one knows why some schools select some students over others. The colleges and universities are extremely competitive and will look at your GPA, your test scores, your rigor of your coursework, your rank, and how you have taken advantage of what your school community provides. Also, some schools look at what you do outside of the school community.

First question: what does your counselor say about where the graduates of your school have attended? Have you met with counseling staff to discuss possible schools?

Are you sure about your budget for college? Some of these schools are $90k per year. Is this what your parents are expecting to pay? You cannot rely on scholarships or loans to pay the bill. These are disappearing.

Don’t knock the state schools. You’re lucky that you live in a state that has some great choices. Because of the strength of California schools, students from all over the state and the world (yes WORLD) want to get into the schools you’ve listed.

There are a limited amount of seats at the desired schools, so they are picky and expect high test scores, exceptional grades, and tough classes. The UCs get over 100k in yearly applications from students with stellar, perfect records. Each university is different in price, size, location, climate, and community.

Why did you pick those schools? Each of those is very tough to get into.

University of Portland is Out of State (OOS) in Oregon. It is a public university funded by their state taxpayers. Which means that as a California resident you would pay non resident fees. I have rarely heard of California students having to go to Oregon, because they couldn’t go to a local university.

Additionally, most universities require two years of coursework, at a Community College, before transferring to a university.

You are smart to ask questions now, because you need to learn about what is expected in order to be admitted into some of these schools:

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There are hundreds of good, even great schools out there.

Do you go to a public or private?

With these #s, you’re not getting into Stanford or Cal Tech. Unlikely the top UCs but they don’t look at tests.

U of Portland - why must you go there? They have Mechanical Engineering but not aero.

With your #s - there are any # of schools you can go to. If you want to stay out West, the two Arizona schools (ASU and U of A) are both top notch for engineering, with U of A top notch for aero. If you want a mid size school, UAH is surrounded by aero companies. If you want a focused school, Embry Riddle has campuses in Daytona and Prescott Arizona. A very small school, great presence with NASA, is Florida Tech.

So you do need preferences to name schools.

Large or small?
West Coast, East or in between?
Sports - yes, no, etc.

There might be 100-200 schools where you can find an ABET accredited mechanical and/or aero space degree. That’s what matters - not a UC, etc.

But while you can apply for Stanford or Cal Tech (an entirely different kind of school), your stats are showing more like Colorado State or Kansas - and those are great schools. But there’s many, many more - I really need held in narrowing down what you want - that’s how many schools there are to choose from.

Don’t focus on scholarships - focus on overall costs - that’s what matters most.

Some schools are $90K and with scholarship will be $70K. Others will be $40-50K before scholarships.

You also have access to WUE being a California resident. If you wanted aero. For WUE, you can look at UN Reno - for you, if all qualify, you’d pay $12645 in tuition (plus room and board) or U North Dakota - $13,856. Don’t laugh at UND - arguably the top aviation program in the country so aero engineering is bound to be good. And it’s accredited.

Choose mechanical instead and the list opens - and you can work in aviation with a MechE degree (my kid does) - there’s over 50 whether UNM or Wyoming ,etc.

My biggest concern is 50% of engineers drop the major or drop out - and your SAT is low so that worries me. It’s hard major. So find a school that has something else you’d enjoy just in case.

But need more as noted above - including a desired price.

Don’t be nervous - and there are a zillion good schools. Get your mind off the idea that there’s just a few. My kid went to Alabama and had 5 job offers by Xmas and a 6th from his intern company in the Spring.

As for robotics, today, most or more likely all, will have course work…some even minors. As for ABET accredited schools, only 24 including only Cal State Channel Islands and Cal State Chico is CA. Nope, no UCs or Stanford or Cal Tech…engineering isn’t like you think.

Let’s find the right school for you. Give your budget - $25K-$100K is likely your costs and tell us more about what you want.

Good luck.

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I think you are confusing with Portland State. UOP is a religious school (Catholic) in Portland but is ABET accredited for MechE.

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I think you need to broaden your search. In my opinion, your current GPA, and SAT (where that will be viewed) don’t make you a competitive applicant right now for this list.

There are plenty of “good schools” out there where you will get an excellent education and will be positioned to get a job when you graduate (disclaimer…there is no way to predict the job market 5 or 6 years from now).

As you craft your application list, the very first school(s) you need to identify are your sure things for admission, that you would be happy to attend, and that are affordable. Start there.

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@ka7654 did you mean University of Portland which is a private university?

It’s fine if you don’t want to go to college in Oregon, but the folks attending these colleges are getting a fine college education. A fine college education is not restricted to the top schools on your current list.

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California has an excellent CC-UC option pathway with the ability to guarantee transfer (TAG) into certain UCs (not all, but you can still apply to non TAG UCs like Berkeley and UCLA along with the TAG option). This route is 2 years at CC then transfer into junior year at a UC. You could also consider one of the Cal Polys for a transfer. For California publics you should calculate your UC and CSU GPAs. Once you have done that @Gumbymom has some excellent tables that can help you figure out where your chances for engineering stand.

As mentioned above there are some decent out of state options, including the Arizona colleges that are an easy flight from CA. ASU you are probably guaranteed entrance with your stats and you can use their online merit calculator to figure out what funding you might get /final costs of attendance. UoA has changed their admissions process somewhat but it’s probably still a likely from my understanding. Embry Riddle has been suggested. Boulder is excellent for aerospace in particular which also makes it very competitive to get into for engineering (despite the school’s high overall admit rate),but a pathway many use is to get into “exploratory studies” then use the internal transfer into engineering - there are minimums to meet but someone who can succeed at an engineering degree should be able to meet those. This would likely be at the top end of what you’d pay vs the others mentioned though so there’s that aspect to consider.

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Welcome to College confidential. It is great are you starting to work on your college list. As a California resident, you have many options within the UC and Cal state system and will receive a great education at any number of colleges in-state.

For the UC’s and Cal states, they calculate out their GPA’s for admission using only 10-11th grades for the a-g course requirements. (Exception is Cal Poly SLO which uses 9-11th grades). For each semester of a UC approved Honors course, AP, IB or UC/CSU transferable DE course taken in HS, you are given an extra Honors point weighting in the calculation. The UC’s have 3 UC GPA’s they consider which are Unweighted, Capped weighted (maximum 8 Honors points) and Weighted Uncapped (unlimited Honors points). The Cal states only use the Capped weighted GPA.

I have linked both calculators so at the end of Junior year, you can calculate out the UC and CSU GPA’s to help you gauge your chances better. If you are not sure about your HS’s a-g courses, you can use this link to check: University of California A-G Course List

Another good source to see how your HS performs in the UC admissions is this link which has the average Capped weighted UC GPA and admit information for your CA HS: Admissions by source school | University of California

Below is some statistical data for the admitted GPA ranges for 2025 Freshman and not major specific:

Campus UC GPA’s 25th-75th percentile for admitted freshman Overall Acceptance Rates
UC Berkeley Capped weighted: 4.15-4.29 Unweighted: 3.90-4.00 Weighted Uncapped: 4.32-4.68 11.4%
UC Davis Capped weighted: 4.00-4.26 Unweighted: 3.79-4.00 44.6%
UC Irvine Capped weighted: 4.04-4.27 Unweighted: 3.84-4.00 28.7%
UCLA Capped weighted: 4.20-4.30 Unweighted: 3.95-4.00 9.4%
UC Merced Capped weighted: 3.54-4.15 95.1%
UC Riverside Capped weighted: 3.65-4.16 87.1%
UC San Diego Capped weighted: 4.11-4.28 Unweighted: 3.84-4.00 28.4%
UC Santa Barbara Capped weighted: 4.09-4.28 Average Weighted Uncapped: 4.29 38.2%
UC Santa Cruz Capped weighted: 3.83-4.20 72.7%

Here is 2024 Freshman admit data for Mechanical/Aerospace and Robotics Engineering for the UC’s:

Campus Mechanical Engineering Aerospace
UC Berkeley 4.9% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30. Uncapped weighted 4.30-4.79 Unweighted 3.89-4.00 4.5%
UC Davis Estimated <25% Selective Major UC Capped weighted GPA 4.09-4.29 Unweighted 3.80-4.00 Estimated 34%
UC Irvine 12.5% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.11-4.29 Unweighted 3.83-4.00 18.4%
UCLA 3.8% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.25-4.32. Uncapped weighted 4.55-4.81 Unweighted 3.95-4.00 3.3%
UC Merced 90% UC Capped weighted GPA 3.59-4.15 New Major Fall 2025 No data
UC Riverside 51.5% UC Capped weighted GPA 3.95-4.24 Aerospace Major not available/Robotics major 75%
UC San Diego Estimated 18% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.15-4.30 Unweighted 3.84-4.00 Estimated 18%
UC Santa Barbara Estimated <15% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30 Aerospace Major not available
UC Santa Cruz ME Not available. Robotic Engineering 71% UC Capped weighted GPA 3.87-4.22 Aerospace Major not available

I would also suggest you look into any number of Cal states with Mechanical Engineering/Aerospace majors. Below is a list of the Impacted Cal state admit rates and GPA admit ranges for 2024

Campus Aerospace Mechanical CSU GPA
Cal Poly SLO Projected 11% Projected 15% College of Engineering SLO GPA 4.13-4.25
Cal Poly Pomona CPP Major threshold 4710 so a GPA of 4.26 without other factor points CPP Major threshold of 4536 so a CSU GPA of 4.08 without other factor points See CPP major index thresholds
San Diego State 44% 40% Avg Campus CSU GPA of 4.06
Cal State Long Beach 47% 50% Avg CSU GPA 4.03 overall 4.07 for Non-local applicants
San Jose State Impaction threshold of 4230 Impaction threshold of 4620 Calculate impaction index using threshold numbers

Good luck with your college list but make sure you have at least 2 Safety schools on your list, that are affordable and you are willing to attend no matter what happens.

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The latest CPP indexes on the website are slightly different to these? 4658 for aero and 4587 for mechanical. https://www.cpp.edu/admissions/freshmen/freshmen-student-profile.shtml

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Thank you, The CPP indexes I listed are for 2024 Freshman and I have yet to update my charts since not all 2025 data is available for all the schools. SJSU has also updated their impaction indexes. I am slowly updating as the new data gets posted.

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SAT scores are not a factor for state schools in California they won’t even see your test results. Rather than working to improve your test scores, it is more important that you improve your grades.

You have referred several times to “good” and “not so good” colleges. It’s understandable that you have these impressions, but they’re not accurate.

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For some reason it’s not letting me quote, but @aunt_bea - we know tons of kids at Oregon, Colorado and Arizona schools because they couldn’t get into their desired UC. If CA kids are open to CSUs or less competitive UCs, it’s a different story.

OP, you’ve gotten a lot of good advice about calculating you UC and CSU gpa - that will help a lot in determining if you’re competitive for some of the schools on your list. CalTech and Stanford would be extremely difficult unless there is something in your application that isn’t conveyed from GPA and test scores which are both low for those schools.

You mention the CC to UC path - it can be a great option. Are you interested in staying close to CA? Any other school preferences? Oregon State is one that could be a good fit for you. My friends daughter from CA has had a great experience there in mechanical engineering.

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With a 3.5 HS GPA, Stanford, Caltech, UCB, and UCLA are unrealistic reaches.

UC Merced, UC Riverside, and non-impacted CSUs would be more realistic for admission.

However, if your worse grades were in 9th grade, then your HS GPA as recalculated for UCs and most CSUs could be better, because the recalculation uses grades from 10th and 11th grades courses.

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Even if a school isn’t world-famous, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good school. There are so many colleges in the U.S. where you can get a terrific education, and there are many that would love to have a student like you. Plus, for a field like mechanical engineering, it’s really important to have ABET-accreditation. ABET-accreditation is a rigorous standard, so if a school is ABET-accredited in your fields of interest, you know you will get a solid education.

What is it about these schools that interests you? Apart from having very low admission rates (i.e. very high rejection rates), I don’t see too many similarities, apart from geography.

If you like Caltech because it’s a small school that’s very tech-focused, then you may want to consider a place like New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology. It has about 1200 undergrads, and as an added bonus, it is a WUE school which means you would get a discounted tuition rate as a resident of a western state. Within its Mech E major there are options for robotics, rocketry, airplanes, and other mechanical engineering interests like Baja SAE teams.

If you’re interested in a big state school with big sports, then there are schools like Oregon State or U. of Arizona or Arizona State that some others have mentioned.

If you like the size, architecture, and diversity of programming at Stanford, then Santa Clara could be a more approachable reach school to consider.

If you want a California public that has more of a residential feel, then Cal State - Chico would be a great extremely likely admit, as I don’t believe there are any capacity issues for its majors (except registered nursing, probably), which means you’d have flexibility to explore and change your mind without transferring, even if you choose a popular major like engineering or business.

Anyway, these are some possibilities, but as others have mentioned, we can better help you when you hone in a bit more on what it is you want out of your college experience. Have you visited any colleges yet, even local ones that you may not be thinking about attending? Sharing any impressions and preferences can be helpful to people offering suggestions.

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All UCs and many CSU schools only accept junior transfers.

You may not be aware of ABET which is the accreditation org for engineering degrees. The upshot is that if you go to an approved program no matter what college you’ll be taking roughly the same classes undergrad, and prospective employers know that. Many of these schools may not impress your friends but they aren’t the ones offering jobs. To be sure there are some premier engineering schools such as Caltech, Stanford, MIT but engineering is a tough major anywhere and a student that does well in class and gets a few internships has very good prospects no matter where they go.

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Few schools are ABET certified in all three. The good news is you can major in any one of them and combine your other interests.

Two New England schools that have ABET certification in all three disciplines are University of Hartford and WPI. I’d pick WPI over UHart and WPI is a great school if it’s the right fit. It’s one of the schools that makes it very easy to combine majors and take additional courses due to their trimester calendar.

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