<p>Im a high school senior to be, and have very little idea of what college id like to attend. My problem is that I'm indifferent when it comes to narrowing down my college search, big school or small school, private or public, north or south, none of it really matters to me. I plan on majoring in either engineering or business, but am open to just about anything at this point. Any suggestions on ways to help me figure out what I want in a college would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Below is a list of my grades and such, just to give you an idea.</p>
<p>4.0 gpa unweighted
35 composite act</p>
<p>By the way, im from a mid-size public school in Kansas, so I haven't taken any AP courses because they arent offered, but I am in the toughest courses available, mostly dual credit classes through a nearby community college. </p>
<p>I’ll suggest some local schools from my neck of the woods:</p>
<p>Boston University (Supposedly has a very nice engineering program.)
Boston College (Business program is well regarded. I am personally enrolling in the Carroll School of Management this fall.)
Babson College (Small business college, well-regarded.)
Wentworth Institute of Technology (Engineering school, generally only known to locals.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No need to say anything, right? It has both excellent engineering and business programs.)</p>
<p>These are schools in Boston, by the way. Hopefully you would consider these schools.</p>
<p>I really don’t know what you’re specifically looking for in a college but here are the schools that are top 10 according to US News in both Engineering AND Business as a way to start off your search:</p>
<p>Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
University Of California - Berkeley
University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Carnegie Mellon University</p>
<p>Other Top 10 Engineering Colleges:
Stanford University
California Institute Of Technology
Georgia Institute Of Technology
University Of Illinois - Urbana - Champaign
Cornell University
Purdue University - West Lafayette</p>
<p>Other Top 10 Business Colleges:
University of Pennsylvania
New York University
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
University of Texas–Austin
University of Virginia<br>
University of Southern California</p>
<p>Although you’ll likely be able to get into some top colleges, I wouldn’t get tooo wrapped up in which is “top 10.” There are lots of wonderful schools that aren’t top 10 in anything. </p>
<p>The first decision would be if the schools you want to select from must have BOTH engineering and business. Boston College, for example, doesn’t have engineering. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and indeed most of the very top universities don’t have undergrad business programs (they all have economics, but not business per se). And very few liberal arts colleges have engineering or business–though there are notable exceptions, like Bucknell.</p>
<p>Other preliminary decisions that will help narrow the field include how far away from home you want to be, if you have any preferences regarding climate, and how much money you want to spend (and/or how much financial aid you think you’d qualify for), if you care about a big sports scene, and if you’d prefer a school with more females than males, males than females, or about even.</p>
<p>Also, is an extremely liberal, often anti-American, anti-religion atmosphere ok with you?</p>
<p>Answering these questions will narrow the field greatly.</p>
<p>Schmaltz, I have no clue what the OP would like in a college so I just posted that top 10 list as a jumping point to explore schools that are similar to the schools I may have posted. Of course that list is by far not complete.</p>
<p>I am an engineering major and I was accepted to Purdue, a top 10 engineering school, however I chose to attend a school in the top 50 for engineering because I fit in better there.</p>
<p>It also would help narrow down the range of possible schools if you had s general idea of what areas of engineering or business might interest you.</p>
<p>Most engineering schools will offer civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering and chemical engineering would be common, too. If you’re possibly interested in other specialties, e.g., biomedical engineering or petroleum engineering, not every school will offer those.</p>
<p>In business, most school will offer the core specialties of accounting, management, marketing, and finance. If you have a special interest, such as entrepreneurship or international business, not every school will offer these.</p>
<p>Much of the first two years or engineering or business will be common to those majors. Your specialization will come later so you don’t need to narrow it down precisely or decide now, but it would be nice if the school you choose has available the options that might interests you.</p>
<p>You really need to quit being indifferent and start to identify your preferences, maybe starting with some of the criteria Schmaltz suggested. The other consideration as Schmaltz mentioned is the possible sources of financing your education. What you can afford and/or financial aid may narrow your options further. Since you have good grades and test scores, the quality of your school can make a difference in your career options. </p>
<p>That said, no matter where else you apply, you probably, should put your state universities on your list: U Kansas and/or K State.</p>
<p>No problem, Pierre. It’s just that Konfused is obviously quite new to the whole college-choice thing, and therefore he probably hasn’t been innoculated against CollegeConfidential-itis, the disease whose symptoms include acute prestige-whoring and an overreliance on the US News rankings.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice so far. I’ve done some thinking, and what i like about engineering and business is the numerous things you can do with a degree in those areas. Im trying to narrow that down a bit to make things easier, but its not going so well at this point. Some other things I’ve thought about is that I’d like to go to a medium to large size school, going through another 4 years of high school where I know every person I see doesnt really appeal to me. Financial Aid will play a big role in where I decide to attend school, I see little sense in paying thousands of dollars to attend a prestigious school when I could get my undergrad for free at another less well known university. I’d prefer the school to be in or around a larger city, although it isn’t completely necessary. It’d be nice to have plenty of opportunities to do things outside of class. Thanks again for all the help so far.</p>