What can I do to improve my chances at entering a decent college?

Hi Kevin!

As somebody who had average grades in high school, I can help you out. My GPA wasn't stellar, but it wasn't bad it was just ok. I ended up getting into a good amount of decent colleges. My advice would be to look at some schools you are interested in and see if your GPA is good fit. You don't have to look at Harvard or Stanford level schools but look the websites of state-level schools, see if you're a good fit. Also it does increase your chances of getting into a decent school if you have good SAT/ACT scores.(Take both if you can. I was terrible at SAT , but I excelled at ACT.) Also, don't be afraid to retake the ACT or SAT if you aren't happy with your score. I retook the ACT three times and I improved every single time. Just don't give up and study hard and ask for help if you do not understand something.

Now here is my advice on some schools you should look at. I am assuming you live in Fremont, California right? Here are some schools on the west coast that you can look at that are respectable that aren't super hard to get into.

-San Jose State: (Where I go!) I am not an engineer but I love SJSU. They have great programs for a lot of different degrees including Engineering.
-Other CSU schools- most of the CSUs are relatively easy to get in except Cal Poly, CSU LA, San Diego State, CSU Long Beach.
(https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/campuses/campus-match/Pages/campus-match.aspx here is a master list of all the CSU's)
-UC Riverside and UC Merced (There are the easier UC schools to get into, but UCs are still a bit hard to get into, but I would still try to apply!)
-Arizona State
-University of Arizona
-Northern Arizona University.
-Seattle Pacific University
-University of Nevada Las Vegas

Also look at state school in other states (Look at their websites and see if you're a good fit with yourGPA and test score and you can try applying to those.)

Another option you can do is you can go to your community college for 2 years. Try SUPER hard. Get good grades and you have a better chance at getting into a more elite college.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi Kevin,

It's great that you are looking into colleges in your area and that you are already thinking about a future in engineering or aviation. If you are looking to improve your chances of acceptance, I would recommend getting involved in your school or looking for internship opportunities in your field. Are there any clubs or organizations related to engineering at your high school? Different extracurricular activities can help to boost your college application.

In addition, would you be able to set up an informational interview with anyone in the fields of engineering or aviation? Reaching out to someone who is working in the career you are interested in can allow you to get a better feel for not only the positions available, but also the different paths that can be used to achieve your goals. You may be able to contact an admissions counselor, or even your guidance counselor, to see if they could connect you with a student or alumni who is currently working in engineering or aviation. They may be able to tell you more about their experience applying to college and the direction they took to secure employment in their chosen field.

I hope this helps! Wishing you the best of luck in your future endeavors!

Sincerely,

Madeline