<p>I am interested in Engineering. I have not decided on the major as yet. I have looked at Engineering schools like MIT, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, Lehigh, Georgia Tech etc. I was wondering if I should even apply to Harvard. Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>That would be another major reach. Have you selected any safeties?</p>
<p>Agree with erin’s dad - can you give us some of your stats and/or which of these schools you think would be reaches/matches/safeties?</p>
<p>Consider Rose-Hulman and Purdue as well.</p>
<p>My SAT scores(highest) are as under-
CR-790
M-790
W-740 Total-2320
SAT Bio-M-800
Math-II-770.
I am appearing for Physics and US History on Saturday.
I have done AP World History(5) in my Sophomore year
Appeared for APUSH & AP Physics B in May 2009.
Doing AP Calculus -BC, AP Physics-C, AP English & AP Gov in my senior year.</p>
<p>Could Harvard be a good choice for me since I am inclined to go for Engineering. Could Harvard be considered as an Engineering school?</p>
<p>Nice test scores! I believe the Ivy best known for engineering would be Dartmouth, though you certainly can’t sneeze at any major at Harvard. Any Ivy League school is going to be a reach despite your GPA/test scores (unless, I suppose, your family has a building named for them on one of the campuses 
). In all seriousness, though, have you considered things like financial safeties (if needed) or schools in your home state?</p>
<p>No the best IVY for engineering is Cornell, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard in that order.</p>
<p>cogito10, engineering reputation is different from normal rankings and prestige. For instance, Harvard, Dartmouth and Yale are not traditionally schools that valedictorians looking to go into engineering apply to. In other words, I would advise you not to go to Harvard for engineering.</p>
<p>The schools that have are considered to have the best engineering programs in the country are:
- MIT
- UC-Berkeley
- Stanford
- Georgia Tech
- Caltech
- Rose-Hulman
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Harvey Mudd
- Cornell
- Carnegie Mellon
- Purdue</p>
<p>From your syntax I would guess you are international? Do you need aid?</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your guidance.</p>
<p>By the way, I am an Asian studying in a public school in the US. I don’t think I will be eligible for financial aid.</p>
<p>LOTS of engineering options and ways to approach it. Obviously, the school has to have what you want as a major. While you didn’t state which flavor of engineering you want, some schools are stronger than others in certain areas (or may not even offer one of the minor offshoots, like biomedical or aerospace).</p>
<p>You may want to visit some campuses (not necessarily the ones you’re considering) to get a feel for large vs. small, urban vs. rural, to help narrow the field. Are there particular regions you’re considering or a distance from home you want to be within/outside of? Is a co-op program something you’d like?</p>
<p>Not to be a wet blanket, but if you later decide (or as sometimes happens, have it decided for you) that engineering (AKA prebusiness) is not for you, it’s easier to change majors than to transfer, so a school with broad offerings might be a consideration.</p>
<p>Engineering-centric schools to consider would include MIT (reach), Georgia Tech and Purdue(large), and Rose-Hulman and Harvey Mudd (small).</p>
<p>Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Stanford (plus Northwestern) also might work for you. Cal, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, and Wisconsin are good large publics. Lehigh, Bucknell, and Case Western are smaller options to consider.</p>
<p>Once you determine what’s important to you, you can narrow your list, visit the candidates, and apply to a mix of reach, match, and safety schools where you’d be happy to attend. Best of luck in your search!</p>
<p>GWU would be a good safety, their engineering program isn’t great but they’re trying to build it up so they are throwing tons at money at anyone who applies to it. With your tests scores you could probably get close to a full ride there.</p>
<p>I would look at Cornell as the best ivy for engineering and a school where you would have an excellent chance.</p>
<p>That said, I would not hesitate to study engineering at any ivy. Many top engineering students don’t take traditional engineering jobs after graduating and appreciate a broader education. They often use the engineering degrees for jobs in consulting, venture capital or banking and Harvard or Princeton would be a great overall education for those jobs.</p>
<p>hmom5, I respectfully disagree. Harvard’s engineering program is good but way too limited. Harvard offers courses in bio, electrical and mechanical engineering but what if the OP decides to major in civil or materials? To me, Harvard doesn’t have enough options for an engineering school.</p>
<p>
What if the OP decides to major in political science or history? It certainly happens. Harvard is a great school, engineering included, and one could hardly go wrong there.</p>
<p>hmom had the right of it. Sakky once said something similar:</p>
<p>*You say that you should choose a school with a good program. The problem with that is that, frankly, most people will not end up working in whatever field they majored in. After all, think about it. How many history majors actually become professional historians? How many poli-sci majors actually become political scientists? How many math majors actually become professional mathematicians?</p>
<p>To give you some examples, Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, was a history major. Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, was a math major. Tom Anderson, President and Founder of MySpace, was a Rhetoric and English major and also has a master’s degree in Film Studies. Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, majored in Fine Arts. Numerous other examples exist of people pursuing careers that have nothing to do with their undergrad major. You can even end up being an extremely successful academic in a field that has nothing to do with what you did as an undergrad. Vernon Smith, for example, got his BS in EE from Caltech, then got a PhD in Economics from Harvard. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in behavioral economics. It’s not clear to me what EE has to do with behavioral economics. But that just goes to show you that people can and do successfully switch fields.</p>
<p>The truth is, much of the value of the top schools is in the networking. Look at Steve Ballmer. They are also largely a branding/marketing exercise - a signal that you were good enough to get into that school in the first place. There are also strong socialization benefits to be had by simply surrounding yourself with sharp, motivated people, as that will tend to spur you to become motivated yourself. Contrast that with the situation where lots of surrounding students are lazy and unmotivated, which will tend to make you unmotivated also.</p>
<p>I’ll give you a personal example. I know a guy from Turkey who is getting his doctorate at Harvard. He knows full well that for his particular discipline, Harvard is probably not the best school in his field to get a doctorate, and if his goal was to become an academic in the United States, there are other schools that have better programs. But that’s not really his plan. His plan is to actually go back to Turkey and either work for a ministry or perhaps run for political office, and if he does that, the Harvard brand name will be a huge asset. Regular voters in Turkey don’t know what the top schools are in his particular field. All they know is that Harvard has a famous brand name. So basically, he’s at Harvard just for the branding, and that’s entirely rational because he knows that that branding will help him achieve his goals to become successful in Turkey. I don’t see anything wrong with that. These are the things you do when you want to advance your career.*</p>
<p>that’s very true, but in that case why not look at a school like Stanford or Cornell INSTEAD of Harvard. It seems like the OP is interested in engineering and Harvard may not be the best place to go for that but if the OP goes to Stanford or Cornell or even UC-Berkeley, there are many great options at those schools. IMO the OP should look at Stanford and Cornell over Harvard.</p>