I’ll probably be paying the fees with my internship money from the summer, not my parents money
I’m gonna be working my apps down the list starting from top to bottom (doing my top schools first), if I run out of time, I think I’ll just copy and paste for the remaining colleges so I don’t think my supplements would suffer in quality for my top schools
Honestly, I haven’t had time to do much research on each school so I’ve just been looking at engineering rankings and checking whether each school is good for engineering and a lot of them are pretty decent except for a few like Dartmouth, but I can see myself doing Computer Science as well so I don’t want to purely restrict myself to engineering schools.
Post #9 link is a perfect example of a really baloney strategy with a ridiculous outcome (although Cornell deferred is pretty good considering). I think the guy thought he would get in 5 or 10 dream schools, but got into exactly no dream schools (excluding Cornell).
You are also wasting a lot of time and money chasing all these schools. California resident, you already have good contenders on there. Engineering student, your list is not focused on good engineering schools but rather prestige hunting, which makes only sense if you would rather not be an engineer at all (in which case there are other majors that would be easier to get into at say Berkeley).
Have fun writing all those essays and answering all the supplemental questions. It would take all the remaining days in December to even put any words in all those boxes (these aren’t common app schools) … let alone write a compelling essay or answer say … why Brown ? when you don’t even have time to surf their website to figure out which state that is in…
I would not put your odds that much above 20% so 5 of 25, which is still statistically 4x the average Harvard admit rate. And it could well be Rutgers and Forhamm or equivalent CSU.
@BrownParent I realize 17 is a lot I secretly wanted people to dissuade me what if I cut down to my top 11 (cutting off from duke to dartmouth, maybe taking off brown too.)? Would that be a manageable amount?
@elena3142 Yeah I know, I want to do engineering now, but I didn’t want to limit myself to only engineering, I might switch majors (probably staying in the science field or maybe minoring in business and economics) or do computer science That’s why most of the engineering schools are on the top.
@elena3142 I’m dedicated to engineering right now, applied as engineer for all the UCs But I don’t really know the actual experience yet. I know some people that switched out while they were in college. I just like the option.
Way too many schools for you. I’ve seen people get good results but your attitude may get in your way. Students at schools are your list put as much effort in their college applications as their schoolwork. You obviously know how to apply yourself and produce good work - that’s what you need to do here.
You haven’t bothered to research schools, you aren’t doing much to cull your list and you mention “cut and paste” as the method to apply to rbis oversized list. That’s pretty shoddy work. You can do better than that.
Your stats put you in the ballpark but as you mention in your chance thread, you have a cookie cutter profile so you can just as easily be rejected as accepted. Being lazy now means you are leaning toward rejection.
Set aside a few days, go through the list. Do the research. Keep your top schools and eliminate those you are willing to “cut and paste” essays. The other strategy is to write the Why --? essays first, drop schools where you struggle coming up with a compelling paragraph.
Add some match schools (think 25-35% acceptance rates,)
The other strategy is to write the Why --? essays first, drop schools where you struggle coming up with a compelling paragraph.
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Great idea. If you can’t come up with any bullet points that aren’t about prestige or high rankings, drop them. And look more creatively for alternate schools that offer the programming you seek.
Engineering with the ability to opt out if you don’t like it. This is A Thing.
At Columbia switching out of the college of engineering is not automatic, you basically have to apply as a transfer. They really, really do not want kids to go to SEAS and switch to Columbia College. Also, both schools have the core curriculum, which many students love or hate. Brown - open curriculum, you don’t have any distribution reqs at all. Having Brown and Columbia on the same list is a little odd for that reason. I don’t know enough about the others to say (I know it’s not too hard to switch at Northwestern, we asked), but that is something to take a look at.
Also, though your common app fees are waived, you not only have to figure ACT (and you pay for each sitting if the schools require it they super-score), SAT score send fees (one per school), you will also have Profile CSS send fees after the first 8 schools. $11 each I think.
The UCs for engineering…not sure those are safeties as engineering is an impacted major, tougher to get into than other majors? @ucbalumnus can probably advise on that.
I would advise saving some money by not submitting css profiles to all of those schools until after you are accepted. Also only a couple of schools require both SAT and ACT so save money by submitting one or the other, preferably SAT because you send all scores for one price.
Did you try for a Questbridge match? You didn’t apply anywhere SCEA or EA?
Yes, engineering majors are often harder to be admitted to at UCs.
Brown does have breadth requirements for engineering majors, although the 4 H/SS courses are on the low side (probably just enough to satisfy ABET accreditation).
Johns Hopkins and Rice, and possibly Vanderbilt, are amongst the most credible schools for engineering on that list.
If you are eliminating public schools other than UCs, yes GTech, UIUC, UMich might not appear, but they are ranked way higher than most of the other schools on the list. But there are a lot of other private schools with excellent engineering that probably would give merit to a Questbridge applicant.
Doing the Why essays and actually digging around on the website to discover like what Dartmouth’s engineering program really is like (5 years, etc) vs say UPenn would be a great way to start. If the school website for engineering or other fields of interest sound great, work on that essay, if not, either put it on the bottom of the pile or take it out of the pile.
You have a lot of homework to do to cull this list down and pump out 17 credible essays.
Also be mindful that weather outside of California and say in the Northeast or Midwest is really, really cold not just light jacket cold. Dartmouth for example… does that excite you or scare you. The snowy picture could be a sign you should just say no to Why Dartmouth …
Is the idea that you must get into one of these schools so you will just apply to all and hope it increases your odds ?
I think you should just pick a few that are great for all your options and put your heart and soul into the essays. 17 is way too much and as an engineering major myself theres a lot of schools i think you should consider from this list.
But I don’t really know the actual experience yet. I know some people that switched out while they were in college. I just like the option.