Type of high school: Private (small-ish 700+ enrollment)
Other special factors: none
Cost Constraints / Budget Need to narrow this down. My preference is the lower, the better. DH is willing to pay more for a good school and said, “We’ll make it work”.
Intended Major(s) : Electrical Engineering
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.71
Weighted HS GPA Uncapped: 4.13
UC Weighted Capped GPA: 3.96
Class Rank: Top 16%
ACT/SAT Scores: 1420, will do one more retake
List your HS coursework
Rising Senior, class of 2027
English: Hon Eng 1 & 2, IB English L&L 1 & 2
Math: Hon Algebra 1, Geometry (Online BYU Summer), Hon Algebra 2, AP Calc AB, will take AP Calc BC
Science: Hon Bio, Hon Chem, AP Env. Science, will take AP Physics
History and social studies: AP World History, AP US History
Language other than English: 3 yrs of French
Visual or performing arts: Intro to Design PLTW
Other academic courses (all weighted): Principles of Engineering, Digital Electronics, IB Personal & Prof Skills 1&2, will take Engineering Design & Devt, IB Business & Mgt
Awards
AP Scholar with Honors
Recognition award in French (2 yrs), Recognition award in Digital Electronics
Extracurriculars
Scouting America: Life Scout (working on Eagle project), served as Senior Patrol Leader & Asst SPL. Been a Scout since 1st grade.
VEX Robotics club at school (2 years, planning on a 3rd), competed out of state but no significant awards
Essays/LORs/Other Not sure, he hasn’t worked on them yet
Schools
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): Cal Poly Pomona, Univ of Alabama
Extremely Likely: Univ of San Diego, SJSU
Likely: Santa Clara, UCSC, Purdue
Toss-up: Cal Poly SLO, UCSB, UC San Diego
Lower Probability: UC Irvine, UC Davis, USC
Low Probability: Harvey Mudd, UC Berkeley, UCLA
Does this categorization align with his GPA/SAT?
Some other out of state schools that we’re considering include UW Seattle, Georgia Tech, Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Univ of Minnesota.
Are there other schools that he should consider? We’ve visited most of the CA schools, still need to schedule UCLA. Won’t be able to visit UC Davis & Berkeley. He really liked Santa Clara and SLO, and also fell in love with the campus at UC Santa Cruz. Initially he really liked Harvey Mudd and was considering ED, but during other campus visits he realized that it’s a little too close to home for him.
If he loved SLO, I’d consider WPI if East Coast and cold aren’t an issue. I don’t think you can get anymore collaborative than WPI. They also love Eagle Scouts and VEX kids. That being said, I think you can have a similar experience at SLO at instate cost.
RPI would be worth a look for medium sized and collaborative.
Just a note that Purdue is a difficult admit for engineering and is standardized test required so I think it is mis-categorized. Acceptance rate last cycle for engineering was 34% and your child’s UW GPA is slightly below their average. Purdue University
I wouldn’t bother adding Virginia Tech. They have their own unique essays (iirc it’s five short answer questions) so it’s not easy to just add their application, and they are relatively expensive for OOS students with almost no merit aid going to engineers. You’d have a similar or better experience at one of your CA schools for markedly less money.
I’ll echo the poster above re: WPI - super collaborative, fantastic EE and robotics programs, gives strong merit aid. But I’ll also echo the rest of their comment - I think SLO is the same feel, so may not make sense to pay the likely higher tuition + travel costs to go to MA. (FWIW, my older kid went to WPI, both my boys applied to Virginia Tech (we are in state) and I would’ve strongly encouraged older kid to apply to SLO, but he wanted to stay on the East Coast.)
You said you want “medium size” but your list is mainly really big schools except Harvey Mudd? You could also do places like Lehigh, Lafayette, or something..
Assuming 3.96 GPA for CSU, for EE, CPP appears more difficult for admission than you assume (probably more of a toss up), but SJSU is extremely likely. Different majors may be more or less difficult at each school (e.g. computer engineering and computer science are much more competitive at SJSU).
Prior year admission thresholds shown at these pages:
For UCs, 3.96 weighted capped GPA is in the bottom 25% for engineering enrollees except at UCM, UCR, UCSC. The others would be lower to low probability.
How many core non-As and what classes are they in? Any C’s or lower?
Defining the budget is better than leaving it open ended. Have you run NPCs at all the schools on the list? Would your H pay full COA for Santa Clara, to take in example?
I’ll leave CSU and UC categorization to the experts including your S’s HS counselor. Ga Tech is unlikely and will be full price.
I agree with this. I know of students with higher grades and test scores that have been denied for engineering. I would categorize it in the lower probability category.
I will only address information about the CSU’s and UC’s on the list.
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th a-g course grades with the 8 semester Honors point cap not the CSU GPA to calculate their admission GPA so you can use the CSU calculator and include 9-11th grades: https://www.calstate.edu/apply/gpa-calculator
Cal Poly SLO’s projected EE admission rate is around 25% with an SLO GPA admit range (25-75th percentile) of 4.14-4.25 so SLO would be a Lower Probability school.
SJSU can be a Likely depending upon the calculated index.
Cal Poly Pomona I would also consider a tossup.
For the UC’s, here is the general admit rates not major specific based on the Capped weighted UC GPA:
Campus
4.00+
3.70-3.99
Berkeley
17%
3%
Davis
66%
31%
Irvine
46%
17%
Los Angeles
15%
2%
Merced
99%
98%
Riverside
98%
96%
San Diego
45%
9%
Santa Barbara
62%
18%
Santa Cruz
95%
91%
For EE/Engineering specifically, here is some major specific/discipline GPA and admit data for the UC’s. UCSC would go in the toss-up Category while the rest of the UC’s would be in the Lower/Low Probability categories:
Campus
ELECTRICAL Engineering
UC Berkeley
EECS 7.6% ECE No Data UC Capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30. Campus Uncapped weighted 4.30-4.79 Unweighted 3.89-4.00
It sounds like the student might be in the local area for CPP (perhaps OP could clarify) - do you have an idea what kind of bump that might give, or is this already factored into the toss-up assessment?
Local admission area status gives a bump but the number of points for that admission status is not listed on the MFA link that @ucbalumus posted. Being in the local admission for CPP does help but it is still not a guaranteed admission for impacted majors such as EE.
This is what the CPP website states about Local admission area status:
Applicants are considered “local” if they graduated from a high school historically served by Cal Poly Pomona. First-time freshmen applying to impacted majors receive a “Local Preference” with an eligibility index bump based on our local area designation to enhance admission consideration. In addition, CPP grants “Local Preference” to all veterans.
Applicants who apply to non-impacted majors and are from our local area high schools and who meet the minimum CSU eligibility requirements will be admitted. Those applying to impacted majors will receive a “local preference”.
*International Polytechnic High School (i-Poly) located on the Cal Poly Pomona campus
It could be a Likely vs Tossup depending upon the local admission preference points but definitely not assured for the EE major. For non-impacted majors, yes CPP can be an Assured admission.
Not medium-sized but very, very collaborative and supportive is Davis. It’s a healthy campus both green and with lots of activities.
My daughter‘s friends graduated with engineering degrees and have been working since their internships.
My first reaction is that you have many very good in-state public options. Cal Poly Pomona is a very good choice. SJSU is a very good choice. I was pretty close to 100% sure that both are ABET accredited for EE, but I just checked and yes they are. Of course Cal Poly SLO is excellent.
If your son was coming from a normal public university, then 3.71 GPA would be low for Harvey Mudd, UC Berkeley, and UCLA. However, at least in my experience universities are very good at interpreting grades in the context of the specific high school that any particular student is coming from, and this GPA might be fine coming from a small private high school. I am not sure whether UCB and UCLA are similar in this regard to the universities that I am more familiar with.
And a small private high school is likely to have very good guidance counselors who will know how students from the high school tend to do in university admissions.
I do wonder with a 3.71 GPA whether the small number of non-A’s are in math and physics, or somewhere else. I do not think that a small number of B’s somewhere else are going to matter much. EE of course overlaps a lot with math and physics. Similarly I wonder what the breakdown is on the SAT between math and English.
You might want to run the NPC on USC and Harvey Mudd and see what they are likely to cost you. I am not convinced that they are worth the difference in cost compared to your in-state public options unless you qualify for a lot of aid one way or another. Harvey Mudd is a lot of work. UCB and UCLA are very big (and are still a lot of work).
In engineering the ranking of the university that you attend for a bachelor’s degree really does not matter much, if at all. People care about whether your designs work and whether you get your work done on time and whether you are reasonable to work with. For EE they will also care about whether the equipment you design catches on fire. Where you got your bachelor’s degree is way less important, and some (or more likely all) of the CSU’s are very good.
And yes, Stanford graduates and SJSU graduates work together all the time without anyone caring where anyone got their bachelor’s degree (except maybe one Saturday afternoon per year when the two football teams play each other, if that still happens).
Thanks everyone, this is super helpful. He’s my oldest so we’re navigating this process for the first time. Plus, I don’t have the experience of going through this for myself, as I got my undergrad in a country where the college application system is very different. (I don’t think he would qualify as first gen though, since my husband and I both got advanced degrees here.)
Yes, UCs and CSUs are affordable for us. DH would probably pay full COA for Santa Clara, my hope is for some merit aid.
My son has no Cs, but has 10 Bs: Hon English 1 (both semesters), Principles of Engineering (2nd sem), Hon Algebra 2 (2nd sem), IB CP1 PPS (both semesters), IB English L&L (both), AP Us History (both), AP Calc AB (2nd sem).
We are local to Cal Poly Pomona, and reside in one of the districts mentioned.
Those are great grades, a solid “A-” GPA. I would recommend avoid any more “B” grades and definitely no "C"s. I kind of still had the old school mentality that a 3.0 GPA is around the median at most public high schools with the top quarter in the 3.5-4.0 unweighted GPA range usually classified as honors or some type of cum laude, next quarter 3.0-3.49, third quarter 2.5-2.99, and then bottom quarter 2.0-2.49. This is no longer the case with increasing grade inflation. At many public high schools, a 3.5 GPA is around the median with approximately half the class earning 3.5-4.0 GPA. So, depending on the high school, a 3.7 GPA isn’t what it used to be; college admissions are well are of this & will use the percentile rank to better interpret, in your son’s case 84%, so still top quarter of his class.
I would not bother to apply to Harvey Mudd, UCB, or UCLA. That is okay. The rest of the list are all very good universities.
Whatever you spend on your first child is a precedent for what you will be willing to spend for all following children. Budget accordingly.
Given how many excellent in-state public options you have, it is entirely okay to just not be willing to spend more than the cost of your in-state public options.
I’m going to be honest that the Bs in math may be a problem for the reaches on your list, including Purdue. How did the AP Calc exam go? If your child got a 5, that might help offset the Algebra and Calc grades.
I will also say that not being in the top decile of his class may also be a problem unless the HS is a feeder to some of the schools on your list.
What has the guidance counselor said about your child’s list?