<p>CH121S - You have substantial achievements in your high school career that you should be very proud of - top 10 percent; tackling the hardest classes at your school; excellent SAT scores. Bravo! I too grew up in the Keystone state (Delaware County just outside Philly) in a blue collar town with very little money in the house so I can relate a bit to where you are coming from.</p>
<p>Now to advice regarding safeties and matches. Factoring in that you don't have the money to visit your choices, please still consider very strongly going away to college. You will grow and be stretched as a young independent adult when you are away from home with more responsibility to make the decisions that affect you. (Once the acceptances and financial aid packages are factored in later in spring 2006, hopefully you will have excellent choices of colleges/universities to attend and - for sure - visit those potential choices.)</p>
<p>Now possibilities of where to go to colleges/universities with an engineering emphasis. But first, know your SAT scores are strong - 700 Math and 600 verbal on the old scale will open many doors. Factor in your URM status and top 10 percent rank and you are a strong candidate, especially for the private colleges/universities that have more discretion in whom they can admit.</p>
<p>Some close by recommendations (your 1300 SAT old scale puts you right in the running) if you live in central or western Pennsylvania - Lehigh University (match) in Bethlehem (excellent engineering with a large endowment); Drexel University (safety) in Philly (great co-op program to get plenty of practical experience as well) right next to the University of Pennysylvania; Bucknell University (match) for a more rural campus with 3500 or so students and excellent engineering programs. If you are in eastern Pennsylvania, then consider (along with Penn State that was already mentioned) University of Pittsburgh (safety) with well-regarded engineering programs just a stone's throw from Carnegie-Mellon. Pitt is a favorite of mine because the campus is in the cultural heart of Pittsburgh (the Oakland section); relatively safe - compared to Philly - with lots to do. A little further west take a close look at Case-Western Reserve University (match) in Cleveland with excellent engineering programs of all kinds along with set of arts & sciences programs if engineering is not your copy of tea. One more state over from Ohio (and only a few hundred miles from Pittsburgh) is Indiana with the engineering holy land, Purdue University (safety), a state univeristy which has built its reputation on engineering programs. Also superb for undergraduate engineering is Rose-Hulman, similar to a Bucknell in atmosphere with engineering programs even more predominant. </p>
<p>Going north from PA consider Stevens Institutue of Technology (match) with 4000 plus students just across the Hudson River from New York City in Hoboken, New Jersey. A wonderful engineering school in New York state is Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute - RPI (match) in Troy, New York. Carnegie-Mellon (CMU), RPI, and Case used to be the troika below MIT that any engineering student was proud to get into. In recent years CMU has become more difficult to get into than RPI, but RPI remains a worthy competitor in every aspect to CMU and Case. A bit further north in Massachusetts is Worcester Polytechnic Institute (mathc), also strong in many engineering programs.</p>
<p>As you weigh the various engineering program options and consider your various interests, ask yourself whether you really feel that engineering will be the way to go for you. If you even have some thought that other fields may hold appeal (such as business, one of the sciences, etc.) then give greater weight to the colleges/universities that have other majors offered on campus that you might change to rather than having to transfer to another college. The colleges I mentioned with more of these choices are Pitt, Case Western, Lehigh, and possibly Bucknell. More purely engineering are Rose-Hulman, RPI, Stevens, etc. </p>
<p>Going a little bit south, consider Vanderbilt University for its engineering programs (reach). It's a superb university overall in a great city, Nashville. A frequent CCer, Xiggi, is a current student at Vanderbilt (not in engineering though) and loves it. </p>
<p>Don't let the price tags of the private schools scare you off. (As a high school student I did not apply to Northwestern because I talked myself out of it because of my family's very limited financial means. This was a huge mistake on my part. I went to CMU in my freshman year as a liberal arts major and then transferred to a very expensive school, the University of Chicago, but got excellent financial aid that made it affordable.) Apply for financial aid and see what happens. You are a desirable candidate to lots of institutions. You will definitely have very good choices come spring time (whether or not any of them are from the list in my reply). Best of luck! Also, feel free to PM me if I can answer anything else for you.</p>