Match me: Bay Area student looking for colleges with good ranking/culture/location/academic environment! [3.91 GPA (3.86/4.14/4.29 for UC), 1550 SAT, environmental engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen

  • living in bay area CA

  • public high school

  • rising senior

Cost Constraints / Budget

honestly not looking at price as of now, will decide later

Intended Major(s)

  • most likely environmental engineering, if not then environmental science [my mom wants me to major in cs but that’s a big no from me]

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • unweighted GPA: 3.91

  • weighted: 4.18 (weighted classes based on ap/honors)

  • SAT score: 1550

  • my school doesn’t have class rankings

List your HS coursework
all required credits met other than 1 more year of english and 1 year of civics/economics course that I’ll be taking this senior year

  • english: regular freshman, honors sophomore, AP Lang, AP Lit this year

  • highest math course completed: AP Calc BC

  • science: biology, chemistry, AP Bio, physics, AP Chemistry this year

  • history and social studies: global studies, regular world history, regular US history

  • highest level language: Spanish III, AP Chinese

  • Visual/performing arts: freshman orchestra, symphony orchestra

  • other: AP CS, AP Psychology

  • Major preparation course work: taking AP Environmental Science this year

Awards

First Tech Challenge Robotics 2024: Winning Alliance Award — state

First Tech Challenge Robotics 2023: Motivate Award and 2nd Place Innovate Award — state

Environmental Engineering Camp Final Project Competition: 1st Place — school

Florida Blue Keys Semi-Finalist (Debate Tournament) — state

Ridge Speak Award (Debate Tournament): 2nd place — state

President Volunteer Service Award Gold — national

2022 North California Young Talent music competition: 1st place viola — state

Physics Mousetrap car 2nd place — school

Physics balsa wood bridge 4th place — school

Extracurriculars

  • summer research paper on tidal energy: Researched environmental effects of tidal energy & possible solutions by compiling & analyzing patterns related to tidal energy consequences.
  • Summer Science & Engineering Program (SSEP) at Smith College, Plant Biodiversity course: Explored plant ecological interactions with other organisms, observed plant adaptation, collected/analyzed data to understand threat of biodiversity.
  • Bay Area Leeds Environmental Engineering Summer Academy: Learned about recycling & renewable energy through guest speakers; synthesized ecosystem degradation info & presented results in the form of a PSA
  • high school environmental science club (vice president): Wrote monthly newsletters about global warming phenomena; hosted weekly school gardening; organized beach/trail cleanups & removing invasive species
  • First Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Team (software department): Designed autonomous mode/controller for robot’s accuracy & efficiency in seasonal competitions; programmed robot’s movements; mentored newer members.
  • nonprofit tutoring organization (vice president of coding branch): Taught one-on-one Java lessons; taught Scratch winter/summer camps, led the coding branch of 7+ tutors, wrote lesson plans for all tutors to use.
  • high school speech and debate club (public forum mentor): Competed Varsity for Public Forum; mentored new debaters; learned how to form balanced, valid arguments and how to do proper research without biases.
  • crochet club (secretary): Crocheted/sold items to fund the club; co-lead weekly meetings/events; helped in handmade blanket drive for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit babies.
  • summer internship at water treatment company: ran lab tests for different clients, process sampling data
  • translators club (vice president): recruiting people who can speak foreign language to help translate school documents, reach out to language schools to double check translations, holding translating conference for people to share their experiences

Essays/LORs/Other
in progress, I have a good idea for my common app

I haven’t really looked into schools yet but I want to choose them based on how the student environment/location is. My hobbies are crocheting and sewing, and I would love a college that has a lot of recreational events that promote creativity and culture outside of my major. I also heavily prefer colleges with nice downtowns and thrift stores/vintage markets nearby such as UC Berkeley since I’m into fashion and shopping. My parents want me to ED to Rice University and Vanderbilt, which are in Houston, TX and Nashville TN, and I really don’t want to. I personally don’t prefer white southern type culture like country music or cowboy boots, it’s just not for me. I think I’ll like Southern California’s vibe since it’s similar to the bay area. I prefer colleges in the suburbs that are near a big city, but I’m fine with urban as long as the campus is very separate from the city (unlike NYU) and it’s not in the middle of the city.

As for the student environment, I don’t want a high stress environment where everyone is at each other’s throats. I want a system that promotes cooperation more than competition, although I’m fine with some competition. I also prefer going to colleges with good diversity.

This is probably too nit-picky but I would hope to have colleges where it’s not too hard to interact with professors [aka not huge class sizes]. Also it would be nice if there’s good research/internship opportunities.

Some colleges I’ve heard of that gives “good vibes” for some reason:
Boston University: I visited only one corner of the city with a cute market and it just seems like a relatively safe big city with a lot of cool things to do
UCLA: I just associate LA with thrifting and that excites me…
UC Davis: because I like the bay area and this seems like a target school for me
University of Washington: seattle gives similar vibes to boston and the weather seems nice

Overall, the things I probably care most about for my college is having a good ranking for my major, is in a good location that isn’t isolated and has nice downtown stuff, and a welcoming student environment. Let me know if there’s any other information to provide and thanks for reading this super long post!

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For the UC’s calculate out your UC GPA’s (unweighted, capped weighted and uncapped fully weighted): GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

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Thrift stores are very popular in college towns across the U.S.

The vast majority of the students at Vanderbilt and Rice will not meet this stereotype. Besides the fact that tons or young people in those states love all sorts of music and aren’t wearing cowboy boots, the majority of the students at Rice and Vandy are not coming from TX or Tennessee. So if a school isn’t the right fit, it’s totally okay to eliminate it. But make sure you do research to see what the school is actually like rather than creating generalizations based on stereotypes.

If you make the effort to reach out to your professors (i.e. attend office hours, ask questions, etc), then you will be able to interact and get to know your professors no matter how big your classes are. But, do you prefer small classes or are you just mentioning small classes because that’s how you think you’ll be able to interact with professors?

I’ll think about some possibilities and post more later.

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Talk to your parents about this before you make your application list. You do not want to be one of those students who has a bunch of admissions in April of senior year, all of which are too expensive.

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Thanks for the response! Just to clarify, I wasn’t particularly drawn to Rice or Vanderbilt mainly because of city culture, not because of the student population. One of my siblings went to Vanderbilt and told me that the student population is pretty diverse but there wasn’t really much to do in Nashville near the college other than country bars. I also visited the area and just had a feeling that it wasn’t for me. I did have a feeling that Nashville and Houston have similar city culture, but I will definitely do more research on that. I should have clarified this in my post–sorry for the confusion.

I thought about this for a bit, and while I feel like it would be easier to “stand out” to professors in smaller classes, I realized it’s more of my responsibility to make that happen. I will probably not consider class size in choosing my colleges.

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When building a college list, the most important school(s) are those in your extremely likely bucket. These are schools that are extremely likely to admit you, be affordable, and that you would be happy to attend for at least four years. You need to have at least one (and I generally suggest at least two).

In terms of how you want to balance out your list, think about your own individual makeup. How would you feel if you have 1 or 2 acceptances and then 18 rejections or waitlists? If that would just build a fire under you to show those 18 schools how big their loss was by not accepting you, then you can have a very reach-heavy list. But if getting that many rejections would be damaging and make you question yourself and how incredible you are, then make sure you balance your list in proportion with how affected you would be by waitlists/rejections.

The schools below are sorted by my guesses as to what your chances might be. With a few exceptions, I usually leave the chancing on California publics to @ucbalumnus and @gumbymom, so I generally won’t mention them, but I do think you might want to give some serious consideration to San Diego State.

Most of the schools are in cities or cool college towns. All are ABET-accredited for civil engineering and/or environmental engineering (the latter of which is generally considered a subspecialty of civil). And many professionals suggest getting a degree in civil engineering so as to leave one some wiggle-room depending on what the job market looks like in the future.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Cal State – Chico: About 13k undergrads

  • Colorado State: About 26k undergrads

  • Marquette (WI): About 7500 undergrads

  • Seattle U.: About 4k undergrads

  • SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry (NY): About 1600 undergrads and students can cross-register with neighboring Syracuse

  • U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 29k undergrads

  • U. of Nevada – Reno: About 17k undergrads

  • U. of Portland (OR): About 3400 undergrads

  • U. of Vermont: About 12k undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

  • Santa Clara (CA): About 6100 undergrads

  • Syracuse (NY): About 15k undergrads…likely if you show a lot of demonstrated interest…but if you show none, it’s a likely rejection.

  • U. of Colorado (for engineering): About 30k undergrads

  • U. of Pittsburgh (PA ): About 20k undergrads

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Loyola Marymount (CA): About 7300 undergrads

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • U. of Florida: About 35k undergrads

  • U. of Miami (FL): About 13k undergrads

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Brown (RI): About 7600 undergrads

  • Cornell (NY): About 16k undergrads

  • Duke (NC): About 6600 undergrads

  • U. of Southern California: About 21k undergrads

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Unweighted GPA: 3.86
Weighted and Capped GPA: 4.14
Weighted GPA: 4.29

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Your stats is similar to S24, he got higher GPA and lower SAT. He is also in Bay Area and applied to Areo ENG. He will attend UCD coming off waitlist. FYI, he got accepted to uDub, Ohio State, TAMU, Oregon State, CPP, SDSU, UCR and etc., The key is applying to reach, target and safety schools. He applied to 20 schools and got accepted to 10. He got plenty of schools to pick from at the end. Good Luck.

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My D and I both liked BU a lot when we visited, but if you haven’t visited the college itself be aware it’s very much an urban college rather than a campus. I think it should be a target with your stats. Boston is a great student city.

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You could, in theory, go anywhere - so you do need to talk to your folks about budget now - and not later.

Because BU will be near $400K. Are they willing to spend that when you could go to school for $20K ($80K over four years) and likely have a similar outcome? This is the discussion to have now - what can they pay. Ranking for engineering - heavily overrated short of a few top schools - kids from schools of all stripes work side by side, hired into the same jobs (see ABET below).

You will likely find more opportunity at larger schools - they have so many kids of various interests. And don’t necessarily eliminate schools because of where they are. An Alabama, for example, has more than 1K kids from California and 1500 from Illiniois. They are 60% out of state. I mention because that’s a $20K a year school given your stats. Many schools will discount you heavily given your accomplishments.

As for sewing, I did a google search of college sewing clubs - and I see U Denver, U Arizona, Vanderbilt and I’m sure there is more. You might even do a minor in fashion design - but that might be something to look at. With each school of interest, check out their clubs and see if any work for you.

Here are the ABET accredited environmental engineering schools. For some jobs, I don’t know about environmental, you need to have attended an ABET school to apply.

Good luck.

School Name City State
The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Alabama
Northern Arizona University Flagstaff Arizona
Arizona State University Tempe Arizona
The University of Arizona Tucson Arizona
Cal Poly Humboldt Arcata California
University of California, Davis Davis California
University of California, Irvine Irvine California
University of Southern California Los Angeles California
University of California, Merced Merced California
University of California, Riverside Riverside California
San Diego State University San Diego California
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo California
University of Colorado Boulder Boulder Colorado
Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado
Colorado School of Mines Golden Colorado
University of Connecticut Storrs Connecticut
University of Delaware Newark Delaware
Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton Florida
University of Miami Coral Gables Florida
Florida Gulf Coast University Fort Myers Florida
University of Florida Gainesville Florida
Florida International University Miami Florida
University of Central Florida Orlando Florida
University of Georgia Athens Georgia
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia
Kennesaw State University Kennesaw Georgia
Northwestern University Evanston Illinois
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame Indiana
Purdue University at West Lafayette West Lafayette Indiana
The University of Iowa Iowa City Iowa
Louisiana State University and A&M College Baton Rouge Louisiana
The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Maryland
Northeastern University Boston Massachusetts
Tufts University Medford Massachusetts
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester Massachusetts
University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan
Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan
Michigan Technological University Houghton Michigan
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Minneapolis Minnesota
St. Cloud State University St. Cloud Minnesota
Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla Missouri
Montana State University - Bozeman Bozeman Montana
Montana Technological University Butte Montana
University of Nevada, Reno Reno Nevada
University of New Hampshire Manchester New Hampshire
Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken New Jersey
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick New Jersey
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Socorro New Mexico
State University of New York at Albany Albany New York
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York Buffalo New York
Cornell University Ithaca New York
Columbia University in the City of New York New York New York
City University of New York, City College New York New York
Clarkson University Potsdam New York
Manhattan College Riverdale New York
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse New York
Syracuse University Syracuse New York
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy New York
United States Military Academy West Point New York
Duke University Durham North Carolina
North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh North Carolina
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati Ohio
The Ohio State University Columbus Ohio
The University of Toledo Toledo Ohio
Central State University Wilberforce Ohio
University of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma
Oregon State University Corvallis Oregon
Portland State University Portland Oregon
Lehigh University Bethlehem Pennsylvania
Gannon University Erie Pennsylvania
Bucknell University Lewisburg Pennsylvania
Saint Francis University Loretto Pennsylvania
Drexel University Philadelphia Pennsylvania
Temple University Philadelphia Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania
Wilkes University Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico San Juan Puerto Rico
Brown University Providence Rhode Island
Clemson University Clemson South Carolina
Benedict College Columbia South Carolina
University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas
West Texas A&M University Canyon Texas
Texas A&M University College Station Texas
Southern Methodist University Dallas Texas
Texas A&M University - Kingsville Kingsville Texas
Texas Tech University Lubbock Texas
Tarleton State University Stephenville Texas
Utah State University Logan Utah
University of Vermont Burlington Vermont
University of Washington Seattle Washington
University of Wisconsin - Platteville Platteville Wisconsin
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You’ve got great qualifications, congratulations!

UCLA is a high reach for you (and everyone). I could see UC Berkeley really liking what you’ve done, particularly the translators club, it’s a high reach but possible with the right focus on PIQ’s. Maybe that would satisfy your parent’s desire for a big name school? UC Davis is also a reach but you’ve got good chances.

Good luck!!

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Remind them who is going to school. You will be somewhere, four years, day after day and it matters that you are where you want to be.

Vandy engineering isn’t all that for the cost - it will be more geographically diverse than Rice. But neither has ABET accreditation for environmental, enough reason to remove them from consideration if that’s the definite major. Yea Vandy has Civil but I don’t think that’s what you’re after. Rice has Environmental but it doesn’t appear to be included in the accreditation - just Civil. You might contact Rice to validate.

Frankly, they don’t seem to be schools worth pursuing given your interests and given the importance of accreditation.

Not to mention they don’t interest YOU and that’s what matters most.

Oh and thrifting - my kid thrifts everywhere - it is everywhere - not just LA.

Good luck

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UCLA’s Civil and Environmental Engineering admit rate was 7.7% with an uncapped fully weighted UC GPA admit range of 4.45-4.69.

For UCLA’s Environmental Science which is housed in the College of Letters and Sciences, admission is not by major so the overall admit rate was 11% with an uncapped fully weighted UC GPA admit range of 4.40-4.74.

UCLA will be a Reach school for both majors.

UC Davis had an overall admit rate of 29% for Engineering majors. I have no specific data for Environmental Engineering admission data but UCD would be a Low Reach school.

UC Davis Environmental Sciences had an admit rate of around 39% (College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) does not admit by major. UCD could be a High Target for this major.

Another school not mentioned but has a ABET accredited Environmental Engineering program and a well respected Environmental Science program is Cal Poly SLO. Cal Poly SLO is the exception to the CSU GPA rule and uses 9-11th grades with an 8 semester Honors point cap for eligible courses taken 10-11th grades.

SLO’s projected Environmental Engineering admit rate is around 20%, still a Reach with an SLO GPA admit range of 4.13-4.25.

SLO’s Environmental Science and Management major is around 30% admission rate with an SLO GPA admit range of 3.88-4.23. This major may be more of a High Target for you.

UCR’s Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science majors had a 82% admit rates. UCM’s Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science majors had a 90% admit rates so both schools would be Likely/Safety schools.

UC Irvine’s Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science majors had a 44% admit rates so in the High Target range.

SDSU’s Environmental Engineering had a 50% admit rate and Environmental Science had a 40% admit rate with an overall campus admit GPA of 4.04 (CSU capped weighted) so a Target school.

Unfortunately your excellent SAT will not be used for admissions or scholarship consideration.

Good luck with your college list and you will have several good options from which to choose in the end.

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I saw Pitt mentioned above. Pittsburgh is a great small city and the school is embedded in the city like BU or NYU.

They like high stat kids. Lots of majors. And it’s mid-sized for a public.

Has a real downtown. Has many great neighborhoods with different character. Great museums and art. Warhol, Carnegie, Frick etc. A lot of young people with all the training hospitals and companies like Google and Duolingo.

The honors college has a great dorm (though up a hill) and you can do as much or as little as you want with the honors program

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Rice fits this. My daughter graduated from Rice last year. Our experience was that the school and adults supported the students to run most of the activities and events (except classes), which led to the students’ growth in every aspect of real life and work environments. If you can find some Rice alumni, especially recent graduates, I highly recommend you ask for some firsthand experiences before ruling it out. Your stats fit comfortably among the students I know admitted last year and this year.

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I was going to say the same thing. Rice has a super collaborative culture and there is a reason why they are always on the lists of happiest students. There is a girl on tik tok who is a current Rice student who makes some great videos about the school and the culture. I can track down her name if you’d like.

Like @somethings, my daughter recently graduated from Rice. She was hesitant about applying because it was in Texas and she was unsure about a school so “southern”. When she was admitted we quickly planned a visit since it was one of the only schools she was seriously considering that she had not visited yet. She was surprised by how un-Southern it felt. You really don’t see cowboy boots or hats in Houston and really don’t hear accents either. It just feels like a typical city. It’s very diverse and has amazing food. The campus itself is gorgeous. I would recommend a visit before you rule it out. I would say Houston feels less southern than Nashville does. Probably because of the whole country music thing. It does not have a “bay area vibe” though if that is what you are seeking. For that - I really think you pretty much need to stay in California.

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But while Rice has environmental engineering, it’s not ABET accredited. OP should find out if the Civil accreditation covers Environmental. I put all the ABET accredited Evironmental above. Rice doesn’t list Environmental on their own page as covered (and Vandy doesn’t even offer the major).

More importantly, OP has said they don’t want to attend Rice - so that is reason alone to note apply.

Of course, we see the parental pressures being applied and that makes it tough for a student.

But I wouldn’t allow my child to choose a school that’s not accredited in a major - it will limit job opportunities (for some majors).

But the fact that OP is facing a - ED here, even though they don’t want to apply at all, is a bigger issue.

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I believe the degree at Rice is a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering and according to their website: "Our ABET-accredited BS degree program is designed for students who have an interest in one of the broad and diverse fields of civil and environmental engineering. " They also have a BA degree which I think is not accrediated. But I agree that OP should double check the accrediation issue if they have any interest in Rice. Rice also has an Environmental Science major which was another interest of OP.

The reason I suggested they might want to consider RIce is that it does check a lot of their boxes (collaborative, small size, good research/internship opportunities, diversity, etc.). And their reason for not being interested in Rice seems to be “I personally don’t prefer white southern type culture like country music or cowboy boots” which I don’t think describes Houston at all. I just thought it might be worth a second look/visit. BUT, I completely agree that they should not ED unless absolutely certain.

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Agreed here. Nashville either. Some element in both but not to the level OP implies…

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According to https://cee.rice.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/bs-environmental-engineering , “As a newly introduced program the BSENVE degree is not currently accredited.” A prospective student interested in the major should ask whether it is in the process of seeking ABET accreditation and whether any new students will be covered if it becomes ABET-accredited (new programs cannot be ABET-accredited until the first students have graduated, but the ABET accreditation is retroactive to those students).

However, the BS degree in civil engineering at Rice is ABET-accredited, and has an environmental engineering subarea option. There is also a non-ABET-accredited BA degree in civil and environmental engineering that seems more aimed at pre-med/law/business/finance/etc. students who want some knowledge of engineering, rather than those who want to work as engineers (particularly licensed Professional Engineers as many in civil engineering do).

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