Those of us in the area value Worcester. Great art museum, some funky restaurants. Great energy at Clark, HC, and WPI. Part of a consortium. But not a sophisticated city. Yet.
I thought the campus was attractive. You’re just a hop from Boston. And frankly, most kids focus on campus activities.
Virginia Tech may be a good safety. They have an amazing engineering program as well as many other great ones.
WPI made my son’s final 3. As I said, he had very similar stats to you and we are from Oregon. You’d be a match there and would probably get good money. They are very actively trying to overcome the gender inequality in STEM.
If money is no object, but you can find everything you want in a less expensive school, it is worth a conversation with your parents on what to do with the difference. Let’s say you save them $100k with your school choice. They could gift you $10k, tax free, per year. If you invested that at historical stock market rates, you’d have around $600k at age 60 AND save them $60k in tuition. Win/Win!
As @lookingforward said, WPI is part of a consortium. As such, you can take classes at the other campuses. There’s a not well known barrier to that though. WPI has VERY unique terms, 7 weeks, three classes. They don’t align with any of the other Consortium schools. That said, you’d find most of what you want at WPI.
Their curriculum is very hands on, with not just a senior capstone, but a junior qualifying project, and, if you choose, a freshman project. Study abroad is also easier for WPI students than is is at any of the schools we visited (and we visited a lot!). It is hard to leave campus and get classes to align with an engineering curriculum. WPI has projects all over the world that they drop students into for 7 week stints.
Very familiar with WPI. They serve the community with pool time and gym space for swimming, robotics and DI. Worked with lots of grads. Current students from Columbia, Penn, WPI, RPI,Tuffts visit our home during breaks.
WPI was an option for son but not daughter. She wanted city immersion, diversity and to be in humanities classes without all engineers. Both wanted undergraduate research and a large enough engineering student body. WPI is project based with good undergraduate teaching not research based.
Do you learn easily within a group and can self teach but thrive in a research lab and will seek out opportunities or do you value undergraduate teaching more?
I would highly recommend WPI. Super cool school that has a really close community of students.
Worcester is definitely a city on its way up. I would still define it as gritty. You won’t find streets lined with nice shops or boutiques (yet). There is a bus that takes students to some nice shopping areas. You will find many great restaurants, beautiful architecture, and as mentioned above, a really impressive art museum. My daughter is a senior at WPI, and we have really enjoyed getting to know the city. Driving in it is a little like Boston; streets in all directions that come together at odd angles (see Kelly Square).
My D has had a great experience there. She has gotten an excellent education on a campus that offers so many opportunities for dIfferent EC’s, research, leadership, etc. It is also a very caring and collaborative community, which she valued. She had some good professors and some not so good professors. Every one of them made themselves available for one-on-one help, which she took full advantage of.
“What I’m looking for in a school is a school that is in a city as I am not into rural environments, a good social life (clubs etc.), school spirit, and a diverse student body.”
Your best bet is to apply Stanford REA or MIT EA, you have strong academics and two juicy hooks for stem - black and female. Typically for engineering, a safety would be your in-state public universities but since it appears you can afford private colleges, any of the colleges mentioned so far - RPI, Case, WPI would be safeties. CMU, JHU Duke, would be matches. Good luck!
@KLSD Thank you for the information and I will look into the overall class size of the major I’m interested in. I am more interested in hands-on programs w/ labs over a classic lecture. And I feel like I learn more easily in a group.
@eyemgh Thank you for the school recommendations. I am not against schools on the West Coast, but I would enjoy a change in scenery by going to the East Coast. I’ve looked into OSU before and I’m thinking of applying there, I also really like Cal Poly Pomona.
@retiredfarmer @VMT @lookingforward @GoBears2023 Thank you all for the info on WPI!
@theloniusmonk Thanks for the chances but I wouldn’t be too sure to label CMU, JHU, and Duke as matches. I feel like they are still reaches, with their very low acceptance rates.
@CaliMex I’m interested in Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.
@collegeready33 , if you have a strong passion for engineering, you also want to investigate what percent of students who enroll in a program actually successfully complete their engineering degree. At Penn State, they tell students that only 1 in 3 students will actually get thru their program. Even kids coming in with 4.0 GPAs and high test scores struggle and end up changing majors. Lots of painful weed out courses!!
I mention this because, if you know 100% you want engineering, you may want to find a top ranked program where you can still be the rockstar and not struggle or risk having to transfer out. Consider looking for those schools where your stats are closer to the 75th percentile. School should also have a strong track record of getting students internships.
Carnegie Mellon sounds like a good fit based on what you want, but I wouldn’t consider that an easy one to get into based on your stats. I’d give the same advice for premed kids in need of a high GPA to get into med school. Why risk going IVY and then lose your dream cause you took too big of a leap?
Finally, biomedical is very narrow in focus. Check BLS stats. Last time I looked, growth in that field may look impressive, but the total number is engineers in that field is a fraction to engineers in broader fields. You could major in a broader field like mechanical or chemical and then minor in biomedical or double major to make sure you are covered.
@sophley thank you for the advice! I’ll look into Carnegie Mellon. And I am considering a minor in biomedical engineering with a major in computer engineering but I am not sure yet.
A minor in BME with a major in Comp E won’t play well together. They are too different to get the classes to align. They really aren’t synergistic either like say ME and BME are. Plus, for engineering, minors are grossly overrated. No one hiring will care about the paper, only whether your classes and experience align with what they are hiring for.
CMU requires a double major or minor for BME students recognizing that the curriculum has lots of breath across fields but not as much depth. Check their BME department website. It was a favorite program for one of my current CBE engineering students but the eclectic tech/artistic student body was not a good fit. They have an excellent approach to BME. Many students realize too late that they do not have enough coursework in one of the core engineering disciplines and do not want to get a BME PHD or go to medical school.
Think about your senior year courses. AP Chemistry and a calculus based physics Physics C are courses engineering schools look for if they are available at your HS.
For example freshman Chem 1 for engineers may have summer requirements ensuring that everyone has completed AP chem coursework.
If you enjoy working in a group, look for an upside down classroom style of teaching where you read the chapter and listen to an online lecture. Classes are generally 1.5 hours long. Students work in groups on problems with the professor and TA circling the room to answer questions. Sometimes students take turns teaching. This is a very engaging and effective way to learn.
Virginia Tech is an amazing engineering school but I wouldn’t call it a safety. Wonderful campus with good food and I believe over 600 clubs for activities. Lots of internship opportunities and many companies come to recruit engineering graduates.