Engineering Majors at UC’s - How to be competitive

Applying to College
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Hi! I have a high school freshman daughter that would like to major in engineering. She is currently a 4.0 student and a Jr. Olympic level 8 competitive gymnast. She will not be eligible for recruitment.
After going through the UC application process this year with my older daughter and noticing the very high GPA’s gaining admittance/ rejections we realize we need to be more strategic for this major. Does anyone have advice regarding getting into UC’s for an engineering degree? Any book recommendations or classes suggestions? We are pretty stuck on EC’s since she trains 25 hrs / week and plans on continuing gymnastics throughout HS. We are CA residents.
Thank you for any suggestions.

Edit: target UC’s are UCLA, UCB, UCD, UCSD, UCI & UCSB

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Physics and math are important. She should take physics and math at the most rigorous level available to her in high school.

(Edited to add: I agree with @ucbalumnus below that chemistry is important too, but I think physics is especially important :grin:)

My son was also advised to make sure that at least one of his PIQs supported his interest in engineering and his specific engineering major. I don’t know if that’s necessary, but it’s the advice he received.

I would not personally worry too much about the fact that she isn’t involved in traditional STEM ECs. My son had good admission results at UCs in engineering majors without any STEM ECs. He also did not take computer science or any specialized courses such as robotics or mechatronics in high school. His ECs were music, film making etc.

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Standard recommendation is to take the usual well rounded college prep curriculum in high school, choosing more rigorous options (e.g. honors, AP, college/DE) when available and appropriate.

For engineering, including math through precalculus (minimum) or calculus (if advanced in math to complete precalculus in 11th grade or earlier) and both chemistry and physics in high school is essential to prepare for college. But do not neglect the other subjects like English, history and social studies, foreign language, and arts.

UC Merced is should not be difficult to get into for a student with a 4.0 or close to 4.0 unweighted GPA, and its engineering majors do not appear to be at capacity.

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Does she actually love engineering?

Stats aside, there needs to be a passion for making and doing things that makes or break an application. Doing well in school needs to come naturally, but that alone isn’t enough as you may have read numerous high stat kids getting rejected. Passion and risk taking translates into interesting PIQ essays and better EC sections which probably are just as important.

Straight GPA will not get you into any UC, let alone competitive Engineering Majors. Your most rigorous HS curriculum probably won’t be enough. My kid’s capped UC GPA is less than 4.2 but S24 managed to get into 4/6 UCs he applied to and pretty sure he has a good chance at UCB this week. But his UW is 4.0 and fully weighted is 4.68 – It’s called the dilution effect where he took so many more classes than his peers the denominator dragged down his capped GPA. Still it’s not a problem because he did get into Davis, Irvine and SD for Engineering, the so called UCs that favor capped GPA.

Read the admitted student’s stats. Read between the lines. People do more than they post/share. PIQ essays are very important. Being able to write interesting essays takes passion in what you do. Can’t fake that in the last few months. Preparation for being an engineer helps: work experience, extra relevant classes, certifications, etc.

Something important was imprinted in my head way back when I attended an open house for UCLA Engineering. A dad asked if UCLA was going to teach his son how to program. The speaker looked at him and said “If you son need to be taught, he doesn’t belong here.” Good or bad, that’s the approach I have with my kids, learn to figure things out and do not expect someone to teach it to you.

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Thanks! She has had her mind set on being an Imagineer (@disney) since grade school. She builds and sells houses in Roblox and is passionate about engineering, architecture and design. I’m sure she’ll be able work out the specifics as she matures in high school. I was not as educated about the application process with my older daughter and want to be more intentional my second time around :grin:.

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@cy7878 shared their strategy in the UCLA Class of 2028 thread.

IMO, the difficulty in UC application since the it went test blind is how to distinguish your (as in someone else) UW 4.0 from my UW 4.0.

Our approach since 2020 (basically since 8th grade) is to add 4.0 from community college. 10+ classes with a 4.0 GPA from college, and in S24’s case 15 so far. That adds a new layer to separate my UW 4.0 (HS + College) from your HS only UW 4.0. So far it is working out for S24 very well.

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Are you aware of the Disney College program?

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Start building a portfolio and if possible start a small business (edit: As in register the business and pay IRS taxes and not just some “start-up” type deal) for the build and sell the things she makes. Join online groups and start sharing knowledge and insights. Any creation she makes, she can trademark them (costs $75 or so for the application fee). These are going to be more important than whatever classes she needs to take IMO and will set her apart from other high stat kids who are “boring.”

Even though she won’t be a recruited gymnast, AFSIK places like UCLA does allow walk-ons to work out with the team. The team can always use a helping-hand as long as they don’t have to pay you. If she meets and befriends someone who will be on the team, better for her.

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No. I’ll look into that. Thanks!

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But folks need to read between the lines. That’s only one part of what makes S24 successful. There are more. It’s not just about grades alone.

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A 4.0 or close unweighted GPA in a rigorous course selection should result in admission to UC Merced, where engineering majors are not overloaded, unless the essays are really awful.

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Fine. Stand corrected. Straight up GPA and PIQ that doesn’t suck will get you into Merced, for now.

But I imagine in a few years, that may change.

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I will push back a little bit on the idea that a student needs to have a special strategy and be super different from other applicants in order to be admitted.

My kid didn’t even think he wanted to do engineering until senior year when he was applying. He was a good student, but didn’t take every AP available through his HS. He did take the highest rigor available in math and the sciences. He was committed to the ECs that he did … but they weren’t STEM ECs. He probably wrote good PIQs.

He was admitted in his engineering major at UCSD, UCI, UCD, UCSB, and UCSC, waitlisted and then admitted on the first WL round at UCB (where he now attends), and waitlisted at UCLA (he declined the WL there).

His friends saw varying results in UC admissions, but plenty of good solid kids had good results.

Do what you love, make sure to do math and science at high rigor, make sure your PIQs and EC descriptions are well written … and apply widely, since it’s not all under your control.

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Take the highest physics, math and chem possible at the school, and get as many As as possible. Mine got into multiple top schools for Engineering (ended up at UPenn) and is a dancer (ballet mainly), was also in orchestra(concertmaster), and her dance alone was 18-20hrs per week from middle school through senior year. She has an engineering friend at Penn who is a national level debater. Mine did do engineering-related research /AI things in HS, but neither were large time-consuming ECs. She did not even decide to apply to Eng programs until midway through junior year. Yours could do some stem-related things in HS just to see if she likes STEM etc, but do not worry that an intensive sports/artistic EC limits pursuing STem/Engineering options.

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You are right that there is no magic in this whole process. “Special Strategy” really is nothing more than cultivating an interest that is already there and make time for it. Again, can’t fake something that is not there. In OP’s case, his daughter already has something specific in mind and has something to show for which already makes her more interesting than many people I know.

My advice isn’t meant for everyone. In our case, I openly share what we do/did for the last 5 years with all our friends and family as well as his friends from school and had zero taker. In fact, with my D27, she is following a much different path because she is much too different than her brother.

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I would pursue no special strategy, let your kid do what they like, enjoy high school, and do they ECs they find fulfilling. They don’t get to do it over again. Obviously engineering involves a facility with the application of math, so have them take the most challenging curriculum they can stand in this respect.

I think the most important thing in this process is to keep an open mind, the UC’s are not the be all, end all of engineering education. There are many institutions in this country that will give an engineering education that is at a minimum equivalent to what you will receive at a UC.

For example, next week we are visiting Iowa St., Minnesota, and RPI. On paper, their curricula are as deep and as broad (or exceed) what is offered by most CA institutions in my son’s discipline and they offer it after merit $ for the same or lower overall COA compared to UC’s. I think they will compete pretty hard with his in state options at UCI, UCD, and CalPoly for his attendance, and ultimately it will come down to perceived fit at each place.

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Hope you have a great visit! UMN after merit would have had lower COA than the UC where my son attends, and he liked it a lot! He would have picked it over most of the UCs, and also over the selective privates where he was admitted.

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Thanks for all the great suggestions and feedback! I have a lot to look into!

-Just a mom trying to learn :grin:

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Since she has a few years, I would advise that she spend time learning about all kinds of engineering disciplines and not just the mainstream or popular ones (EE, ME, CSE). She may find that she really likes something a little less popular. Then it’s a win-win to study something she likes and that may have a bit less competition for admittance.

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I have to absolutely agree with this descriptor.

My eldest is an electrical engineer /computer software engineer. She was a double major but she was required to take humanities courses at SUNY buffalo.
She has always been strong in her written language skills.

She decided to take an English course that was extremely difficult, according to the course catalog. (“Didn’t want a boring English class”)

She received approval to take that course which was one that was taken by English majors. She had an A average. She told us that one day, the professor asked her to wait until after class because he wanted to speak to her.

She thought she had failed in a recent analysis of a poet’s work. The professor asked her what her concentration in English was going to be. He said that his colleagues in the English department were impressed with her skill at writing cleverly and with flow, regardless of the topic.

When she told him she wasn’t an English major she said he looked “disappointed”. When he asked her what her major was, she said “engineering/computer software”. He then told her, “your English skills will make you successful in that field”.

My son (computer software engineer) was also was very strong in written language skills. I found out later, through his counselor (my work colleague), that the college “readers” were blown away by how well he could write.
My husband and I were shocked at how much emphasis, these colleges placed, on being able to communicate effectively in an essay, as well as, in person.

As many of the parents here, we are avid and voracious readers. Both of my daughters constantly read Pride and Prejudice, Taming of the Shrew and To Kill a Mockingbird in Middle school. My son read a lot of fantasy books to the point that my brother remarked “your son is always carrying a book in his back pocket.” I said “he loves to read”.

My husband and I read Harry Potter to all of them when they were in elementary school.
They moved onto every genre available to them.
So if you have a STEM kid, it can’t just be about STEM. You have to be an overall consumer of every subject, and then pick and choose later, when something jumps out at you.
I don’t know if it will get your child into the schools that you want but I know that my children did exceptionally well in admissions and on the SATs.

Middle daughter didn’t want to do the “math occupations” so she applied to medical school and got in. FYI. She’s always been a strong writer. Essays for AP classes took her 20 minutes with edits.

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