Chances to go to good Engineering Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello! I've been doing college searching and I've started getting a little bit uncertain about just how high I should be reaching on my schools. I'm pretty sure I want to double major with EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). Here is some Stats:</p>

<p>Location: Northern Virginia
School: Competitive Public
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
GPA: 3.5 (upward trend with a large increase this year due to medical reason, I have a 3.8-3.9 this year)
Rank: School does not rank
Grade: Junior
Number of Honors taken(or taking) so far: 5
Number of APs taken(or taking) so far: 4
APs with score (if taken yet - all will be taken)
AP Computer Science A - 3 (taken sophmore year)
AP Computer Science AB
AP US History
AP Language and Composition</p>

<p>Senior Year courses:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics C
AP US & Comparative Government
AP Literature and Composition (I think that's what the next level is called)
(considering AP Psychology, but may take something else)</p>

<p>AP tests completed by end of Senior year: 10-11 (depending on Psychology)</p>

<p>Practice SAT scores: waver between 1900 and 2000.
Last one was 650 Critical Reading, 720 Math, 620 Writing. The practice SATs were from that official SAT book so they were real SAT questions.</p>

<p>ECs:
Treasurer of Habitat for Humanity campus chapter with about 200 volunteer hours by the end of the year</p>

<p>Public Relations of Gay Straight Alliance (odd position, but kind of a mix of secretary and vice president I think).</p>

<p>Contests:
ISEF 2005 - Placed 3rd in Computer Science within the school's competition</p>

<p>Toshiba 2006 - Honorable Mention</p>

<p>Toshiba 2007 - Participant (haven't heard back yet)</p>

<p>Defer:
Don't know if this would be considered in the admissions, but I plan to defer for a year to go into a year long student exchange program in Germany.</p>

<p>Schools I've been considering applying to:
UC-Berkley (darn residency =( if only I was in state)
University of Michigan (though I hear GPA means everything to them)
Cornell
MIT (This one is mostly my dream reach, reach school. I'd love to go but I don't think my GPA is high enough. I'd still rather apply and be told hell no then not apply at all =) Especially after my absolutely amazing prefrosh experience, I absolutely loved the personality there <3)</p>

<p>uhh, other then that I'm at a loss of good schools for this subject. Therefore, any help would be most appreciated if you want to suggest somewhere you feel is more up to par. I mostly feel like I may be shooting too high. I however, am kind of having trouble finding safety schools and such because I keep wanting to shoot for the moon. I'll be happy though, if I hit the stars instead. </p>

<p>Thank You!</p>

2

<p>TBH, I think those 3 schools are all reaches (unless your in state for UMich). I don't know much about Cornell though.</p>

<p>Check out Purdue. I am pretty sure you wouldn't have much difficulty getting in, and its a great engineering school.</p>

3

<p>Yeah, I kind of thought I was reaching high. I will check out Purdue. Thank You =) I may be able to <em>technically</em> apply for in state with Michigan because my parents are planning on renting something like a condo in Michigan by my relatives for when we go up there on visits. I know that to apply for in state tuition, you must be in state for a year. However, I don't know if they would actually consider me "in state" since I've never gone to a Michigan school.</p>

4

<p>rensellaer poly institute, rochester inst. of tech., worcester poly. tech. are some engineering schools you could get into and do well with. a bit higher up are carnegie mellon, tufts, a lot of publics such as uva have good engineering. for a smaller campus check out union or harvey mudd</p>

5

<p>I was under the impression that UVA wasn't very good in their engineering department. I'll have to actually research them then. I was mostly looking out of state because I was under the impression that for engineering, most kids around here end up going to Virginia Tech. So I was looking to see if I could get a better school out of state. Glad I'm getting a lot of suggestions, It's really going to help me a lot ^.^ Thank You!</p>

6

<p>i think uva engineering is probably overshadowed by programs such as law. if you get a chance do a tour of their engineering school. my tour guide was a senior and, in february, had a job lined up as a chem engineer with dow chemical thanks to uva. trust me, a school like uva doesnt have bad programs.</p>

7

<p>Dal:</p>

<p>UCB: Reach (out of state, Engineering)</p>