Thanks but he’s not my son, he’s anniebananiee’s son 
That makes sense re: Purdue, I don’t think I was looking at the engineering specific data. Unfortunately only a 3 on Calc AB, so it looks like it’s unlikely for him. 
And the info on CPP and SJSU indexes is very helpful as I wasn’t aware of that, thanks @Gumbymom. After diving deep into that rabbit hole, his Cal Poly Pomona index is 4,414 + MFA points. Local threshold for EE was 4465 during 25-26 SY. What category would that be in?
For SJSU, his index is 4636. It looks like the index varied sharply, 4800 for 2025 but 3000 for 2026. So I guess a toss-up on SJSU?
Looks like he needs more Likely and Extremely Likely schools. Yikes!
Does it factor in that it’s a private high school known for its academics? Also, does it help that he’s taken engineering specific classes as part of Project Lead The Way?
Your school’s profile will be provided by your school guidance counselor to colleges. The profiles often includes the average GPA, average test scores, grading scale, ave AP scores, number of AP and IB classes offered, etc…. If you haven’t already seen the profile, you can try doing an internet search (my d’s private HS has it up on their website) or ask the guidance counselor.
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Although PLTW courses do show fit to major, PLTW courses are considered electives and generally seen as relatively low rigor. Students should not take PLTW courses instead of any core courses, and should aim to get four core courses in each of the five core areas. If PLTW courses fit in the schedule…fine, but there are many other ways to show fit to major through rigorous science, math, and activities.
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I just read in the profile that your son’s school is a private school. He’s taken several engineering electives; the first thing I noticed was not seeing anything like computer science, artificial intelligence, or machine learning, signaling he is very interested in straight perhaps hard-core EE. This requires deep mastery of higher-level mathematics & physics.
What is important for college admissions purposes is an accurate & up-to-date high school profile - the one provided by guidance counselors & submitted to college admissions - looking for test data & pass rates, college acceptances over the past 5 years is also informative (for you & the student especially). I’m quite sure that most colleges, especially ones in California, are very familiar with your son’s high school already. There are many types of public schools - both regular & also charter schools that are attempting to emulate a private school environment. For example, the ones I am most familiar with NYC specialized high schools - ones like Stuyvesant, Bronx High School of Science, Staten Island Technical, & Brooklyn Tech. In New Jersey, there are schools like Bergen County Academies & McNair Academic High School. It is common in these types of schools for like 25-35% of the class to achieve 3.9+ unweighted GPAs. A 3.7 GPA student wouldn’t stand a chance at winning Ivy League+ admissions from one of these types of schools.
Colleges are going to assess whether or not your son can be successful in completing introductory engineering, mathematics, & science subjects in their environment. If he is determined to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in four years, he won’t be interested in being unable to complete an introductory sequence (like Calc I, II, III, Diff Eqs, Mechanics, E&M, Optics, etc.) and dropping out of the major by junior year. The colleges want to ensure that he will be at least satisfied and able to accomplish what he is looking to accomplish leading to a completion of a bachelor’s degree. And of course there’s environmental fit; will he fit in & will he still want to be there?
He’s taking AP Calculus BC senior year so he’ll have another chance at AB with the AB subscore. With a “3” in AB currently, he would benefit from a second exposure to AB topics.
You currently have a list of 15 colleges; I don’t believe that you son really wants to go to all equally on this list. I don’t see anything wrong with applying to UC Berkeley and UCLA since those are in-state, but do keep those classified as low probability reaches. Even Purdue, if he is interested in the school as a potential option, I would still apply. I had suggested Rose-Hulman as another option in Indiana, where he could win merit money (more so with a higher SAT score, 1460-1500 on the retake). I would replace Harvey Mudd with Rose-Hulman, if interested, where he stands a realistic chance. Note that the female admit rate (≈ 21%) is three times higher at Harvey Mudd than the male admit rate (≈ 7%). Consider dropping up to 5 others from the list, if not really interested in attending.
He isn’t first gen because you have a 4-year degree, even if from another country, or that is generally the meaning (some schools may define differently here/there)… (Imagine a parent with a degree from Oxford; one wouldn’t consider them needing a leg up getting into Harvard 
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Cal Poly Pomona](Cal Poly Pomona - College Confidential Forums) index is 4,414 + MFA points. Local threshold for EE was 4465 during 25-26 SY. What category would that be in?
His CPP index is close to the 2025-2026 threshold so you can probably conclude CPP is Likely to Extremely Likely if the threshold does not increase for 2027. CPP also considers alternate majors so if there is another Engineering major with a lower threshold he has an interest , he may want to select that major as an alternate and then try to switch if not admitted into the EE major. Changing majors with the College of Engineering would be more straightforward.
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Ok, to be honest I am freaking out a bit about his lower chances with everything on his list. Does this look like a more realistic assessment of his chances, or did I swing too far the other way? I added the schools that were mentioned, and categorized the out of state schools as well. (Claude helped me do some of the research, so let me know if I’m off.)
Assured: (none)
Extremely Likely: University of Alabama
Likely: Cal Poly Pomona, Rose-Hulman, RPI, Colorado School of Mines, University of San Diego
Toss-up: UC Santa Cruz, SJSU, Santa Clara, Bucknell, Lafayette, Stevens, WPI, LMU, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Virginia Tech
Lower Probability: UC Davis, UC Irvine, Purdue, Cal Poly SLO, Lehigh
Low Probability: UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Harvey Mudd, USC, Georgia Tech, UW Seattle, Case Western
Some of the schools that were suggested were already crossed out by him (with admittedly not a lot of research on his end), but I will encourage him to take a second look at anything in the Toss-up or Likely categories to make sure he has a well-rounded list. We previously only had a 3 tier system. Should he look at any additional CSUs?
I know it’s bigger, but if you have UMN etc on there has he considered Pitt as well? nice thing about Pitt is it’s rolling admissions so if he gets his app in early he should know pretty early on as well.
I think UMN might be likelier than a “toss up”, btw, and possibly UCSC too. I would put these as “targets” in a different classification.
There are many non impacted CSUs where EE is not an impacted major, so an applicant who meets minimum CSU requirements should be admitted.
UCSC does have a high admission rate, so it may be more likely than toss-up for an applicant in the middle 50%.
Is the student interested in UCR, which is more likely than UCSC? Also UCM, but check whether EE is in the process of ABET accreditation.
He did still take all his core courses, do you mean he should have doubled up on some eg two science courses, etc? Not that there’s anything he can do about it now, but I also have a rising freshman and would like to know if there’s anything we should do differently for her.
I think Case is “ toss-up” …. I was just there, and they gave us % bands of acceptance rates…
3.6-3.8 was 39% admit (Unweighted, core classes, no adjustment for +/-)
1400-1500 was 52% admitted… (independent charts…)
Note, they do LOVE DI - so do as much as you can..
WPI I think is Likely - it is like 68% EA on last CDS… and it is pretty regional. CA is actually a slight help maybe? (though they may worry about if he will really come do some DI?)..and he has solid stats and good course selection/rigor for there..
I don’t know much about CA schools!
SDSU may be a tough admit but they have a phenomenal engineering internship program.
There are a lot of engineering and computer software companies in the San Diego area.
My husband hires straight out of San Diego State University for his international corporation. He likes their professionalism, knowledge and expertise. He says they’re really good at immediate problem-solving when he presents problems at the interviews.
My daughter likes SDSU grads for her company but they get snapped up by other local companies that have them as interns.
Because she’s an alum of SUNY Buffalo, she receives referrals/resumes from her former professors. If she can’t find a position for them in her company, she forwards their resumes to her colleagues in other engineering firms in San Diego or Orange County.
Have you considered University of New Mexico? This university flies under the radar screen, but might be worth a look for this student. IIRC, he would qualify for the Amigo Scholarship. @WayOutWestMom can verify this….and also talk about the benefits of being an engineering major at University of New Mexico.
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Some additional CSU campus EE data is listed below:
CSU Long Beach EE admit rate for 2025 was 44.1% with an average admitted CSU GPA of 4.00.
SDSU EE admit rate for 2025 was 39% with an average admitted campus CSU GPA of 4.08 but no specific GPA data for EE.
As stated, any of the non-impacted CSU would be good options as Extremely Likely.
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That’s a good idea, we can probably add UCR back onto our list. Honestly, he would be thrilled to go to UCSC because of the campus, his only hesitation (and mine) was that it’s not in as “high a tier” as UCSB, UCI, and the others (I already knew that UCB and UCLA were long shots for him). If that is more of a Likely than a Toss-up, my current stress level will go down since I can totally see him thriving there.
He visited SDSU on a school trip and did not have a good impression of the school, although I do think that had a lot to do with their tour guide. Maybe we should do another visit. Although if it’s a toss-up or low probability, it might not be worth re-adding.
I’m really trying hard not to telegraph my anxiety to him right now by making him go work on his apps right this minute!! I did a quick check in instead and he has two tasks for the week: Start brainstorming ideas and drafts for the PIQs, and narrow down his list with these new tiers and additions. He was supposed to start working on a brag sheet for the Harvey Mudd recommendation letters, but given his very low probability there, we are reprioritizing.
Unfortunately, SDSU and CPSLO are much less transparent than SJSU and CPP with respect to admission competitiveness by major.
Be sure to include math (algebra 1 or higher) taken before high school on the CSU application to ensure getting the CPSLO bonus points for completing more math than the CSU minimum. Same for foreign language.
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Your son may want to check out Cal State - Chico. It’s one of the more residential Cal State campuses, ABET-accredited for electrical engineering, and EE is not an impacted major there, so it would fall into the extremely likely bucket. About 14k undergrads.
He may also want to investigate Sonoma State which also has a more residential campus, is ABET-accredited for electrical engineering, not impacted for electrical engineering, and has about 5300 undergrads.
Are you familiar with WUE schools? It’s a program whereby students in many western states pay no more than 150% of the state residents’ tuition for out-of-state publics. Here’s more info: https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/. At some schools it’s automatically given to students from WUE states while at other schools (like Oregon State) it’s more competitive, offered only to a portion of the accepted students from WUE states. Here’s the list of WUE schools (and the WUE tuition) for schools with electrical engineering.
Since it appears that geographic proximity is a priority for your family. Some of the schools I’d suggest starting with are:
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Oregon State: $19,013 WUE tuition with about 31k undergrads
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U. of Nevada - Reno: $12,983 WUE tuition with about 19k undergrads
And if you’re looking for mid-size, then these options a little further away might appeal:
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U. of Idaho: $10,542 WUE tuition and about 10k undergrads
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U. of Wyoming: $8100 WUE tuition and about 8100 undergrads
There are other WUE schools which would be worthy contenders, but I’m a bit unclear on what kind of college experience your kid is looking for.
A student pays no more than 150% of the in-state tuition of the state where the school is, not their home state’s tuition.
Some schools allow stacking of other scholarship from that school, others do not. Wyoming is a little different as the WUE is part of the Brown and Gold, and that’s auto merit determined by GPA and test scores, and so any OOS student (not just the WUE participating state) can get an amount that pays more than the 150% or less.
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