<p>Hello all! With sophomore year ending in less than 22 hours from now, I want to make some additions to my very new and untested college list. My primary goal is to be able to plan visits more effectively, since leaving Alaska is a pain and needs to be planned well in advance. Some quick stats about me:</p>
<ul>
<li>Finishing sophomore year with one AP (Calc AB), almost certainly 4.0 UW GPA if tomorrow’s finals are a D or better. Hopefully a 5 or 4 on the AP Calc test, which went acceptably well.</li>
<li>Should have 9 APs by graduation</li>
<li>Took SAT last year as a freshman and got a 1410/2090. Disappointing scores; hope to improve.</li>
<li>ECs: Debate w/1st place @ state, some math competitions (hoping to do well on AMC next year), Key Club, volunteering w/Parks & Rec, 3 years of clarinet lessons</li>
</ul>
<p>What I’m looking for (in order of priority):</p>
<li>Strong and challenging academics in math, the sciences, and engineering. I love working on things that interest me and have no problem with a very heavy workload in these areas.</li>
<li>Academically motivated peers. I want to be able to do lots of work and stay within mostly academic areas without becoming a recluse. Schools that encourage study groups, etc. are a plus here.</li>
<li>Lack of a strong drug/alcohol culture. There are few things I despise more than people who need to intoxicate themselves and hinder their thought processes to have a good time.</li>
<li>A community in on-campus housing. I don’t care if 80% of the school commutes provided that the 20% who stay on campus have socialization, etc.</li>
<li>A variety of food/people/stuff near campus. Outdoor activities are a big plus.</li>
<li>Good public transportation is nice. I would prefer not to drive a car.</li>
</ol>
<p>Here’s my current list. Bear in mind that this includes some safety-ish schools because I will ultimately need them come application time.</p>
<p>CalPoly
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western Reserve
Colorado School of Mines
Georgia Tech
Harvey Mudd
MIT
New Mexico Inst. Mining & Tech
Purdue
University of British Columbia
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
Michigan
Minnesota - TC
Pittsburgh
Toronto
Utah
Washington
Waterloo</p>
<p>Here’s what I want to know: what schools am I missing? I really don’t want to overlook something this early in the process and not catch it until too late. The point right now is to cast a wide net, so give me a school even if it doesn’t match all of my requirements perfectly.</p>
<p>you are missing Franklin W. Olin College Of Engineering and Rose-Hulman Institute Of Technology which fits all of your criteria the best</p>
<p>edits to your list
I can’t say anything about Canadian colleges but I would take out the following schools: Colorado School Of Mines, Case Western (not impressed, no socialization in any way),
UC-San Diego (biology school, other majors feel shafted), Utah</p>
<p>replace with: Rose-Hulman, Franklin W. Olin, Northeastern (co-op program), Clemson, NC State, Virginia Tech</p>
<p>I know about Olin, and I think it might replace MIT as my hyper-reach. </p>
<p>I am leaving Mines because the location is great and I have heard very positive things from a trustworthy friend who goes to school there.</p>
<p>I concur with your thoughts on CalPoly and UCSD, especially since the Californian state government is essentially bankrupt.</p>
<p>Case is probably also not optimum. </p>
<p>Utah is my projected out-of-state safety, which is very important since I really don’t want to go to UAF or UAA.</p>
<p>Re RECOMMENDATIONS: I am not thrilled with the idea of going to school in the South. I left this out of my first post because I still want recommendations down there in case there are hidden gems. However, the combination of humidity and culture shock is enough to make me uncomfortable with Southern schools outside of major cities. Clemson is therefore ruled out. Northeastern was once on my list and may go back… we’ll see. Virginia Tech is not appealing to me. I will take a hard look at NC State.</p>
<p>sorry, I just added Rose-Hulman Institute Of Technology to my list (edit)
what do you think of that school, I’d love to transfer there if I can get better grades next year.</p>
<p>also another comment, I was accepted to Pitt for engineering but decided not to go there because it seemed like all the emphasis was put on its biomedical/chemical engineering program and not as much on other fields, just wanted to let you know this</p>
<p>^ I have a friend whose family is located near Rose-Hulman. That school is one reason I added #5 - Terre Haute is about as close to dead as a town can be. I let NM Tech in Socorro survive because I like the Southwest. The same cannot be said for Indiana.</p>
<p>Your thoughts on Pitt are duly noted - I’ll keep it on my list but remember that a year down the road.</p>
<p>btw, I’m really loving the New Mexico Institute Of Mining & Technology pick, great underrated school, I would’ve applied there if I hadn’t been accepted by Purdue in December. They gave me a free application and would’ve offered me a scholarship so I would only have to pay in-state tuition which I assume you will definitely get as well. However, you are right, Socorro is pretty much dead (my dad’s friend works with a observatory there)</p>
<p>Not knowing what type of engineering or public, private & do you need aid, either need-based aid or merit aid? Of course all schools want students from all 50 states, so Alaska is definitely a plus!</p>
<p>I will put these down off the top of my head, they may not have all requirements you desire, but you might want to look around & consider other factors. (like merit aid) </p>
<p>WPI (MA)
RIT (NY)
University of Rochester (NY)
RPI (NY)
Alfred University (NY)(rural)
Clarkson University (NY) (rural)
Tufts (MA)
Cooper Union (NY) Highly selective</p>
<p>I disagree with the following SLUMOM suggested (sorry I just finished high school forever so I have a little bit too much time haha)</p>
<p>WPI: overpriced and not a good value even if you do get some sort of scholarship from them, there are better and cheaper engineering schools</p>
<p>RIT/URochester: not really good for engineering compared to the other schools on your list, especially URochester</p>
<p>RPI: Albany sucks, you need a car to go anywhere </p>
<p>Alfred: unless you’re planning on doing Ceramics/Materials engineering, don’t look at Alfred</p>
<p>Clarkson: 1000 times worse than Terre Haute, in the middle of nowhere upper new york state, students are bored to death and are constantly hassled by campus police when they try to do anything “fun”</p>
<p>Tufts: again same reason as WPI, the engineering program isn’t as good for the value</p>
<p>Cooper Union: barely any campus housing, seems like a lack of community</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am just formulating a list here, not deciding where I will certainly apply/attend. For this reason, I don’t want to cut a school based purely on price. Anyway, here’s my financial position: my family is quite well off, so I can probably afford all but the very most expensive colleges. With that said, money does not grow on trees and we aren’t multimillionaires, so cheap tuition is definitely a plus. For the moment, don’t disqualify a school due to cost. When I’m looking at applications I can be more stringent in this regard. I always love to hear about a bargain though :)</p></li>
<li><p>WPI, RIT, and RPI all scare me a little bit. They aren’t that good compared to some of my other choices, and they all have a reputation for being fairly miserable. I know someone who ended up at RPI and transferred after a year because they found it too depressing and antisocial.</p></li>
<li><p>My dad went to the University of Rochester and the horror stories I’ve heard will forever keep that off my list. Not that strong in applied math and engineering anyway.</p></li>
<li><p>Alfred has average SAT Math scores that are truly abysmal, even below Utah. Sounds undesirable to me.</p></li>
<li><p>Clarkson may end up on my list. It isn’t stellar in any area, but is a bit different from my other choices so far. I’ll have to do some looking to see if pierre0913’s complaints are shared elsewhere.</p></li>
<li><p>I think I’m good for high reaches with Harvey Mudd, MIT, and Olin. Tufts and Cooper Union don’t add anything in my mind.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for those recommendations. Every school I cross of the list helps refine my goals in my mind :)</p>
<p>You scored a 1400/2100 on the SAT as a Freshman? And you took AP Calculus AB your Sophomore year? That’s pretty impressive. You should be able to raise your SAT to 1500-2200. If you can maintain a 3.8+ unweighed GPA and continue taking tough courses, I think you will have a shot at most universities, including the super reaches, like MIT.</p>
<p>Schools I did not see on your list that I would definitely add:</p>
<p>Columbia University
Cornell University
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Texas-Austin
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>I have questions about some of the schools on that list:</p>
<p>UCLA has a reputation (at least where I come from) for being somewhat stuck-up and elitist. Is there any more truth to this than at any other large college?</p>
<p>UT Austin - I swing wildly around the political spectrum depending on the topic, but Texas has always struck me as a borderline-insane state politically (since many Texans move up here with the oil industry I have eyewitnesses). Austin is a bit more moderate, so should I just stop worrying about rabid Texan conservatives?</p>
<p>Columbia, Cornell, and Princeton interest me less than my other very high reaches. Stanford is definitely up there vying with MIT and Mudd for my lottery-ticket admissions splurge. I will add Northwestern to my list. Everything I have read about Wisconsin indicates lots of drinking and hard partying when not in class, which definitely isn’t my type of scene. I’m not big on Madison either.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who replied. I’m off to play my clarinet a little bit and then go to sleep - I’ll be back after the last day of school tomorrow.</p>
<p>UCLA, like most elite universities, will have an element that is unfortunately “stuck-up” and elitist, but at such a large university, will will be able to find your nich and fit in nicely.</p>
<p>UT-Austin is an excellent school and Austin is a moderate, if not liberal, town with a thirving music industry and excellent entertainment opportunities.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is indeed a party school, but again, at such a large university, finding your niche should not take too much effort. And what is wrong with Madison? It is a great college town. </p>
<p>Finally, definitely give Columbia and Cornell a second look.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ve ever visited Cal Poly SLO but if you’re looking for outdoor activities, it is amazing here. I live about 30 minutes away. I took a tour this Spring and was very impressed. Ranked #1 best public schools in the west. Famous for engineering.</p>
<p>Terrance Tao, probably one of the world’s greatest mathematicians teaches at UCLA, so I think that says a little bit about how renowned their department is.</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cal-Poly-from-outback.jpg]File:Cal-Poly-from-outback.jpg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cal-Poly-from-outback.jpg%5DFile:Cal-Poly-from-outback.jpg){kind=link}
