<p>Hey All,
I was hoping for some help choosing between colleges. I am entering my junior year of highschool. I spent my freshman year of highschool in San Diego, California and had a GPA of 3.7uw/3.7w. I then moved to the thriving metropolis of Geismar, Louisiana, and most recently received a 4.0uw/4.8w GPA. I made a 33 on my ACT (31 Eng, 34 Math, 9 Writing) and plan to take it two more times.</p>
<p>I plan to major/minor in an engineering (preferably aerospace)/Music and continue to medical school at UC San Francisco.</p>
<p>Here is my dellimna: </p>
<p>My academics are above average, and I am an all-south and all-louisiana musician as well as drum major for a local high school band. Also considering that the TOPS program in Louisiana gives free admission to louisiana residents meeting certain standards, I am told that I will not only be able to receive a full ride to Louisiana State University but also be given an allowance of the money leftover from additional scholarships.
But, LSU is a mediocre state school and does not offer a major in Aerospace (I would have to settle for Chemical, Biological or Mechanical).</p>
<p>My other option is to attend a UCSD, UCLA, or UCI. All of these schools have exceptional Aerospace programs and campuses that, in my opinion, make LSU look worn and old. I prefer the quality of life in San Diego and the academic standard is much higher. The downside to this is that these schools have a hefty price tag for out of state admissions. My family used to bring in over 200,000 annually. My father lost his job and we lived off of savings for 4 years, which ate away college savings. For the past few months, we have gotten back on our feet and have a household income of around 120,000. Although this is wonderful for our family, it once again makes me ineligible for most need-based financial aid and we don’t have the savings built up that we used to have. </p>
<p>Any opinions or alternative options?</p>
<p>Apply to LSU as a backup. Apply to other schools you think you might want to go to as possible academic/financial reaches.</p>
<p>Engineering (other than chemical or biomedical) + pre-med is likely to be hard to fit into your four year schedule. Adding music (with time consuming performance courses) would make it even harder.</p>
<p>Aerospace employers do hire plenty of mechanical engineers.</p>
<p>Medical school is expensive. It would be a good idea to go to a low cost school like LSU in order to avoid debt and save money for medical school.</p>
<p>If you want to try to raise your test scores, consider the SAT as well, since some students do better on the SAT than the ACT (and vice-versa).</p>
<p>At UCs, you might get a small amount of financial aid grants, but the net price is still likely to be over $50,000 per year.</p>
<p>Either goto top schools like UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UMich, UIUC, MIT, Stanford etc or just settle for LSU.</p>
<p>There is no academic difference whatsoever between Irvine and Louisiana State. Paying 50k for a school like UC-Irvine instead of a full ride would just be a waste.</p>
<p>Boeing, General Electric, United Technologies hire etc. dozens of Mechanical Engineers. In fact AE is only a graduate program at a lot of places. And if you’re so sure about attending medical school, what does it matter anyway. The math preparation for most engineering disciplines is essentially identical. And that’s what the medical school admissions committees will look at, your overall GPA and especially your grades in Math and Science…and of course your MCAT score.</p>
<p>All in all, the best decision is LSU (or even Louisiana Tech, which arguably has a stronger overall engineering curriculum than LSU) over the more expensive California colleges.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses, they were all very helpful.
I will certainly apply to LSU as a safety school, and will have to go through a few more tours before I consider it seriously. Although financially you have convinced me it is the best value, I am concerned about the quality of life.</p>
<p>Are there any opinions here about USC? I saw that on the list of colleges that offered multiple full-ride scholarships to out of state students, since its a private college. I also faintly remember going on a tour of that college in seventh grade - it was beautiful.</p>