Same here. There are several schools my African American son did not apply to for that very reason.
2 Likes
Any good news for you and your son? Mine was quickly accepted at Sac State and weâre still waiting to hear from Chico State (both donât have Aero so Mech E). Applications are still being accepted at some CSUs, mainly NorCal. Iâve been looking at the Cal Poly Pomona Admit stats for Aero and Mech E and I think my son will be close and so should get an offer for CPP Choice. Thereâs still a long time to wait for an Admit (this week should be active for that) or CPP Choice so itâs great to have that Yes from Sac State. I hope you are finding something that will work out. I think a CSU transfer to Aero may work better and possibly quicker than a VC transfer. I looked at that and classes âacrossâ CSU engineering programs line up pretty good.
5 Likes
Hi There! Thanks so much for checking in! He got accepted at UCSB (but as undeclared, even though he applied there for CS), waitlisted for Aero as SDSU. Still no word from Cal Poly SLO. Good point on the CSU transfer, I hadnât thought of that much to be honest!
Once CP puts us out of our misery⊠oh, I mean gives us an answer, we plan on sitting down and figuring out the best option forward from here!
4 Likes
Hello! Congrats on UCSB and perhaps on SDSU but unfortunately the stats arenât so great on that. I went to UCSB (Class of '90) and loved it, but unfortuntely wasnât able to get accepted to Mech E myself after going in as Undeclared. I could tell you all about it, but I would simply say your son has to kick butt in some of the hardest pre-major courses to work his way in, usually not until junior year. I ended up as a Bus Econ major and then my career was in Civil Engineering so that is one of my biggest regretsâŠthat I didnât get a degree in Engineering. It really affected my ability to get a promotion later on.
Our story is misery on misery. My sonâs CSU A-G GPA is unfortunately (hard to say this with a straight face) 3.71 despite a 1440 SAT (which doesnât count for anything). Took every honors and AP course available to him. Has 4 or 5 AP scores of 4 or 5. Has worked 15 hours a week for the last year. Nonetheless there was âno loveâ shown by California public schools that have Aero which is his lifelong dream. He can tell you any plane that flies over his head and where itâs going and also every detail of how we land on the moon.
Bottom line is he went âCalifornia In-State 0 fo 6â in Aerospace (Mech E alternate where offered) at UCSD, SLO, UCD, UCI, SDSU, and now today at CPP. Pretty much the same for his friend group. His CPP Index is 4160 so now we have the arduous task of trying an appeal to get a CPP Choice offer which weâd gladly accept because CPP would be a god-send and make us very happy. A 4160 should have gotten him a CPP Choice offer IMO as last year that was a super score. His denial said CSU eligible for Redirect which is incorrect because last week we scrambled to get him into Sac State for Mech E and just today we found out he also got into Chico State for Mech E.
WEâRE BOTH PRETTY BUMMED. NO AERO ADMITS.
But thanks to many posters to these forums (Thank you! Thank you, all!) weâre working feverishly on applications to U of U Mech E, UNR Mech E, and NMSU Aero. We spoke to the engineering departments at each of these schools today and they were already sending âlove our wayâ. Some of them will consider his SAT of 1440 so thatâs a big plus.
Now weâre just dealing with the myriad complexity of âdecision treesâ deadlines and logistics to make these options viable. Then financial aid will be super important bc cost is a big factor. And hopefully, all these complexities wonât impact our plans to get a freshman dorm for him whenever we figure out how this will go.
Sorry all for the long story but I have certainly lost a lot of sleep these last two-weeks. Iâve been busy covering all the bases, so again âthanks to youâ and all the others for all your great suggestions.
I do really have to say the âbipolar nature and impactionâ of California public university admissions is a huge disappointment. It also might be time for California to reduce the amount of transfer admissions, increasing first-time freshmen. Reason being that now days a transfer puts student on a â5-year Planâ because at CPP most of sophomore year is Aero classes that form âpre-reqsâ for junior year. I really wish the SAT was back in-vogue prior to all this bad news.
Weâll get there. Heâll be an aerospace (aeronautics) engineer some day. We have a friend who is Burt Rutanâs step-daughter and weâre lucky for that in the future. Scaled Composites would be a fantastic place for him to get a job one day.
I will certainly say that the 3 out-of-state options which we still have time available have given my son a much better outlook. As we are budget conscious, with WUE they are âcost comparableâ. Perhaps your son would be interested in those? The journey goes onâŠ
9 Likes
Schools with ME may have AE courses that ME majors can take even if they do not have AE majors.
UC Merced has three AE courses and some ME courses applicable to aerospace. If your student applied to UCs and gets no UC admissions, and has ELC, he may get a UC Merced admission.
CSU Northridge has some aerospace courses that ME majors can take.
CSU Sacramento has some aerospace courses in ME (274, 275, 278, 296M), although they are at least nominally graduate level.
CSU Chico does not appear to have much in the way of aerospace in its ME department.
No application to CSU Long Beach, which has an AE major?
We didnât apply to CSULB which is partially my fault. I wrongly thought weâd have something with his six top programs. Then a couple weeks ago he said two of his friends got in to CSULB. Bummer. His GPA was weaker than I thought bc he got one D in a photography class for not completing a final project. Heâs retaking that class now and ironically has an A. I think 10th & 11th grade he had 12 Aâs, 4 Bâs, 1 C, and that D. All AP, but limited by UC Capped GPA. He didnât get ELC. He goes to a STEM school and his class rank is only?! 20th percentile. He had three AP teachers that said âthey donât give Aâsâ. Now I know that was cruel. One of them was his AP US History teacher (gave him a âBâ despite a great record in that class) and he got one of the few scores of 5 at his school on that AP exam. Iâm kinda down on his HS right now. I donât know its stature as a difficult or easier with grades (Iâd like to know where to look). Foothill Technology High School in Ventura.
I really appreciate your suggestions. We donât want a gap year and CSUN is closed to Fall 2024 admissions.
Weâre glad for the 3 more OOS options we found about in this forum. Iâm not too sure of the rankings of UofU, UNR, and NMSU but at this point weâre pretty âdown and outâ on California. Neither of us it too excited about a junior year Aero transfer bc it sucks socially/internship-wise/losing and paying for another year.
1 Like
Part of the issue is that a 3.71 weighted capped GPA does make all 6 of UCD, UCI, UCSD, CPSLO, CPP, SDSU reaches for AE or ME, so you had no non-reaches among UCs and CSUs.
3 Likes
Another OOS option you might consider is U. Hawaii at Manoa. They offer WUE and ME and have an Aerospace concentration that is expected to be ABET accredited. Their deadline is April 1.
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/aeroeng/
We are in almost the same boat that you are. S24âs UC capped weighted GPA is 3.95. He was rejected from UCLA, UCSB, CSULB, and waitlisted for ME at SDSU. Heâs still waiting on CP-SLO, but not optimistic at this stage. Fortunately, we got the CSULB rejection fairly early (2/12) and since that was the âsafetyâ we knew we needed to apply to more schools. In hindsight, CPP would have been a good choice but it was too late. We added SFSU and Hawaii and were accepted at both in ME. He wasnât interested in UC Merced, Chico, or Sac State. I have not been able to get him interested in Utah or other non-coastal schools like UNR. I toured UNR with S21 and liked the look of the campus and the ME program.
At the moment, S24âs thinking Hawaii looks like the best option absent getting off the waitlist at SDSU.
Good Luck!
1 Like
Did you look at Cal Poly Humboldt? Applications are still open till 3/31.
https://engineering.humboldt.edu/programs/mechanical-engineering
1 Like
S24 also applied to Aero Eng and got 1440 SAT. He got accepted to U of Arizona Aero Eng program, COA after merit is close to CSU in state. Maybe you want to check out, I believe they are still admitting. Good Luck.
1 Like
There is also a statewide top 9% guarantee that may provide access to a UC if there is space. One path is the top 9% in the school (ELC) but the other path is the top 9% in the state (Statewide Guarentee). Do you know if your student is in this group, and if there would be space in the type of program they wish to study at another UC? Such as UC Merced Engineering, for example. Iâm not sure how it works. Also, once a class is retaken would the new grade of A then apply?
Also, is there a program like this for the CSU campuses?
For the CSUâs they have redirection so if you are not admitted into your choice CSUâs due to impaction your application will be considered for redirection.
When does redirection happen?
Redirection occurs after all campuses have finalized admission decisions for a given semester. You will receive an email offering an opportunity to redirect your application in mid-April for fall and mid-November for spring.
How does redirection work?
If you are identified as eligible for redirection, you will receive an email with instructions. You will update your Cal State Applyapplication with either a first- and second-choice CSU campus or opt-out of redirection.
Once you identify your first and second choices, your application will be redirected to your first-choice CSU campus unless that campus has run out of capacity. To ensure your application is redirected to your first-choice campus, update your Cal State Apply application as quickly as possible.
After your application is redirected, the redirect CSU campus will email you with next steps in the process.
Sounds like a good possibility, perhaps the student can still be considered for aerospace engineering at another CSU campus! Sounds like a great option.
OP already noted that he isnât top 9%, because heâs at a particularly competitive magnet-type school.
1 Like
Yes, they stated they are not ELC (top 9% at the school) but there is another pathway to admission which is top 9% of the state of California. I linked to the eligibility criteria in my post. It seems to me a student who took lots of AP courses could be top 9% statewide.
Hmm, wow, incredibly tricky to calculate statewide GPA percentiles. But yeah, maybe? Merced MechE with the small collection of aero electives theyâre adding could be a decent option of possible. How would the timing work if he didnât clear the GPA threshold until after this academic year ended?
@CAparent2
If the student was ELC statewide, it would be listed on the UC application.
How to find ELC on UC application:
If you go to the UC application and log inâŠthen go to the link that says âView how your application is viewedâ it should show if they are ELC. The UC application does not distinguish between the 2 ELCâs.
2 Likes
Admissions index instructions | UC Admissions indicates that with a 3.71 weighted-capped GPA, 70 semesters of a-g courses are needed over 9th-12th grades. This is 17.5 per year, or 8.75 courses each semester, a rather unlikely number of courses.
With a more realistic 6 a-g courses per semester, that would mean 48 total, which would need a 4.00 weighted-capped GPA to be in the âstatewide top 9%â.
2 Likes
Ah, bummer, thanks for clarifying.
I also wonder, since they are retaking the course with the lowest grade, if that will be helpful.
Starting in 2024, Merced is adding an aerospace engineering emphasis in its mechanical engineering major. Maybe that would work?
I still think itâd be worth taking a few minutes to try the ASU scholarship estimator.
1 Like